Mark my words, this girl is going to be HUGE!

My sister has jumped into the blog world. Everybody, welcome Charysse Hesse. YEAH YEA YA YAHOO.

So no one cares, but if it affects you as much as me, then you would.

Out of sheer curiousity, I typed in “allergy” in google today. The first link was Pollen.com. On the front page it gives that 5 best and worst cities affected by pollen today. Yeah, Orlando, FL was the number one WORST city today. Need I say more? Allergies are KICKING MY BUTT!

I don’t know what’s happening down here in Orlando, but my butt has been kicked by allergies this season. Clariton-D is amazing, but only the 12-hour. 24-hour just isn’t working for me.

A lot has happened over the past month or so. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s happened…

> Kristy and I found out on 30 November that we’re pregnant. However on the 19 December, we were told that our pregnancy was at risk. the long story short, we have what they call a “blighted ovum” or a “early pregnancy failure.” It happens when a fertilized egg implants in the uterus but the resulting embryo either stops developing very early or doesn’t form at all. Of course we were devestated at the news. It was hard to know what to think. Because we had been trying for about three years, there was a huge relief when we found out we were pregnant. I don’t think that anybody expected this kind of outcome. Honestly, it’s still hard to know what to believe for. Medically, the reason for this is that the womans body knows that something is defninetly not right in the chromosonal makeup of the baby so it automatically stops developing. So on one hand, I’m thankful for the ability to recognize and save a baby from the unknown. On the other, I’d love that baby regardless. At this point, the pregnancy isn’t over until it’s “over.” Right now, only an ultrasound is pointing to the failure. Not Kristy’s body. —It’s all a little weird still.

On a similar note, there’s been a lot of people who have been involved in our process. We knew that through it all this would/could be easy or hard. This complication has been hard and thus it leaves most people wondering how to respond. Here is some help. We don’t really want to talk about the details right now. It’s still confusing to us. Our doctor is saying one thing. Kristy’s body is doing another. We are in a waiting game. Although we realize that the chances are slim, we’re still not certain about anything yet. So simply saying “I’m sorry” or “I just don’t know what to say” really is suffice. Pep talks aren’t good. We know that we can get pregnant and aren’t questioning God’s call for us to have a baby or two or ???. I hope this helps. I know that it’ll help us.

> Kristy and I are celebrating Christmas with her family in Nashville this week. It’s been great. Because of other Christmas parties, it seems like this has been a week of Christmas. We’ve had several gift-opening experiences already so the anticipation of 25 December seems a little less than normal.

If I had $20 for everytime we all said or wished my parents were here in Nashville rather than in Texas, we could have bought them tickets. We miss you mom and dad. We all—Keith, Sharry, Tara, Kristy and I—wish you two were here with us. It sucks knowing that you’re without your kids…at least one of them…this year. Let’s not do this again, okay!

Our time with the Kitchell’s is always good. Since we found out on Monday about the baby, it’s was nice to be able to leave and come “home” to people that love you more than you’ll ever know.

> After six years, Kristy and I finally got our own bedroom suite for the master bedroom. Click here to see it.

> At the recent RELEVANT door decorating contest, Kristy and I worked hard on an kick-butt Elf door and won. See it here. Because of the win, we won a 60GB Video iPod. Yeah, I’m a happy man.

> 2006 is going to be a good year. I can feel it already.

It’s been quite awhile since my last posting. Honestly, I’ve questions whether I want to keep this thing alive. I think the intentions of the blog are more real than the actuality. Unfortunately, this isn’t a place to be really honest. Nor is it a safe place to talk about everything that’s on my mind. Because the nature of the written word doesn’t allow you to express feelings and intent…unless you write about them…the words of this page are left to interpretation which is flat-out dangerous and possibly irresponsible by the writer—me. None-the-less, it provides an opportunity to let people see inside the life of those who are “too busy” to reach out to everybody they’d like to say hello to on occassion. So whether I write once or twice over the next six months, it doesn’t really matter. But know that I intend to write something about something, someone, or myself. After all, isn’t this an exercise in being vulnerable, even if it’s somewhat anonymous?

I absolutely adore my wife!

Tonight at 10pm I got a call from my family informing me that they finally talked to the surgeon and she is extremely pleased with outcome of the surgery. She did say that there was more tumor than expected, but she said that it still seems to be non-malignant (non cancerous). Earlier this year, her tumor was upgraded from a grade 2 to a 3 (out of 4) but the doctor said that after looking at it, she didn’t think it was a 3, but only a 2. Overall, it’s a good…no GREAT report. The surgery took an unbelievable 7+ hours. As I write, she’s in intensive care and will be until tomorrow. They expect that she’ll be able to go home to Oregon on Monday or Tuesday. They also expect to get results back from the biopsy around the same time which will confirm that the tumor is or isn’t cancerous.

Thank you SO MUCH for all of your prayers and support today.

Charysse just got called into surgery. It starts at 10:30am EST.
It’s mom’s birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!

Tomorrow morning at 7:30/10:30am EST, my sister is headed into brain surgery to remove the remnants of a brain tumor they discovered almost two years ago. By the time they’re done, the tumor will be gone!

Your prayers are coveted.