Been a Long Time Since I Rock and Rolled

Floor of examination room 8 at Sage Veterinary Hospital, home for 3 weeks.

To put a twist on a classic Robert Plant lyric, I’ve been out of the game for a while. I’ve hopelessly neglected my blog this past fall. I halfway expected it to be gone, somehow lost to the dungeons where all disregarded blogs wind up. But it’s still here and one of my resolutions for the new year is to be more consistent, even when writing is the last thing on my mind. For most of the fall, sitting down and putting a few thoughts together simply seemed to much. The fall started out well enough but turned out to be one of the most trying seasons of my family’s life. In order:

1. My dog developed a severe reaction and infection to something (undetermined) that triggered an auto-immune disease. Fourteen days in the Veterinary ICU, 5 blood transfusions, surgeries, steroids, antibiotics, amputated tail, and a ridiculous amount of treatment and she’s alive and recovering.
2. My son had a few febrile seizures one night after we came home from visiting the dog in the ICU. Rushed him to the ER, overnight and next day at Packard Children’s Hospital, EEG, blood work, and he’s recovering well.
3. My wife and I developed a nasty bronchitis that kept us up most of the night for 10 days. We weren’t sleeping much anyway with my son’s and dog’s issues.

More than anything, we learned to rely on God when we had nothing left. We’re grateful to have our family healthy together at the start of this new year.

At work, our ministry hired a new staff person to oversee Small Groups and Leadership Development. Jacque Becwar was the High School Pastor at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa for 4 years and now joins us at MPPC. Total stud whose made an immediate impact. Blessed to have him on board. If the image above encapsulates my life experience this fall, the pic below will be the enduring image for me from our Fall 2011 Student Ministries staff:

So, all in all, grateful for this past fall, trials and all, and looking forward to a great 2012…and hopefully some more blogging.

Thanks for reading.