Surgery Update

We thought you all might like an update on how John Reagan's surgery went.

First, he is doing extremely well. Since Friday we have had a hard time keeping him at bay. He was jumping and running and acting like nothing had ever happened. After a busy weekend, he did get a little sore and is "attempting" rest today.

He did absolutely wonderful! The morning of the surgery, you wouldn't have known he was having anything done. He was having a lot of fun in the hospital coloring, playing, watching everyone in Pre-Op, and visiting with the Child Life Specialist. He was about as relaxed as he could be. Of course after surgery he was in a good bit of pain, but after he slept off the anesthesia and got some food in his tummy he did very well on Thursday.

His right testicle was in his abdomen, still fully formed. The doctor said it was a little smaller than normal. The left one was in his groin and as normal as it could be. Both are in the appropriate place now. John Reagan has 4 incisions and seems to be fascinated by them. Of course being the "picker" that he is he wants to pick at them but hasn't been as bad about that as we thought he would be.

There is no reason to believe he will have any problems having children. The chance of him having problems is slightly higher than someone who didn't have this problem but not enough to worry about. We go back in 2-3 weeks for his follow-up, and we will have this behind us for good. Praise God!

Thank You for all of your prayers! We very much appreciate them. Since I didn't have any pictures for you last time, here is one each of the three.

John Reagan and Daddy were headed to the woods this day!

After church John Reagan and Evie decided they needed to make pallets on the floor and veg out!

And Little Miss Priss resting with her new hat on. Love, love this hat! Check out http://theroseyposey.blogspot.com to see some more of Mrs. Arlene's creations.

I can't believe Averi will be 3 months old in a week! I need things to slow down a bit.

Our house has been in disarray since John Reagan's surgery. EVERYONE has been exhausted and not handling anything well. So needless to say, we all need a day of rest and a break from stress. We are ready for the hustle and bustle of the holidays to be past us.

Please in be prayer for a dear family we know from here, The Wyatt's and The Henderson's. They lost their 29 year old daughter/sister/wife to cancer last night. Many of you have prayed for her in the past in small group. Her name was Autumn!

The Valley

"How long Oh Lord!"

This is what keeps going through my head. "How long Oh Lord will I continue on the same path?" Several years ago we read a letter from Creflo Dollar where he defined insanity as doing the same thing but expecting different results. This has stuck with Greg and me. Needless to say, we are at a point of dissatisfaction. God has been revealing to us how we keep going down the same path, walking the same steps everyday, all while waiting for something different to happen. We have been living in insanity and have been complacent with it. You would think after our move and the struggles we have had as a result of it that we would start doing things differently. We even talked about what we wanted to do differently before we moved (not just spiritually, but even in the daily aspects of life); yet, daily we have failed at the task. Really? How long Oh Lord will we continue on this same path?

The funny part: when I checked our blog last week to see how long it had been since I did a post, the blog started witnessing to me on this matter of "change." This blog has witnessed to me in the past. It is so funny the tools God can and does use to get our attention sometimes. Just before we moved back to Louisiana, I was getting ready to do a blog post and not feeling particularly happy about our situation. When I pulled up the blog I immediately saw the verse Jeremiah 29:11. "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you."

http://thehasleyhousehold.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html

Do you know what the verses prior to Jeremiah 29:11 say? As you have probably guessed I am about to tell you, but first I must lead you into the story. When I started our blog and put the header "The Best is Yet to Be," something about the saying didn't strike me well. It sounded too new age to me or something. So I thought, "Well I will put a verse on here to back that up spiritually." I began to pray about it, and a few weeks later I went to put on a bracelet I have. Of course the bracelet has Jeremiah 29:11 on it. I thought how befitting and couldn't believe I hadn't already thought of the verse. Thus the story of how God led me to put the verse on our blog. I didn't realize then how He would use it to work on us. The whole time we were living with my parents after the move, neither of us were hearing from God nor were we doing our part to hear. As soon as we got settled into our semi-own place we started hearing from God again. He was revealing lots of things to us...some very painful. But we were at the point we were so thankful to be hearing again that we felt we were ready to begin working on changing. One day as I sat to read my bible, God led me to Jeremiah 29. I tried to shrug it off because I knew the great, encouraging verse that was in the chapter. But let me tell you, I didn't know what was before it.

Jeremiah 29:4-10..."The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, sends this message to all the captives he has "exiled" (my emphasis) to Babylon from Jerusalem: 'Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food you produce. Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them, and have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon. Pray to the Lord for that city where you are held captive, for if Babylon has peace, so will you.' The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says, 'Do not let the prophets and mediums who are there in Babylon trick you. Do not listen to their dreams because they prophesy lies in my name. I have not sent them,' says the Lord. 'The truth is that you will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again."

(New Living Translation)

I couldn't believe what I was reading because "exiled" was the perfect word to describe how Greg and I felt. We can't explain why we felt that way, but we did. I just laughed and thought, "Wow, if I would have known all that beforehand, I probably would not have put Jeremiah 29:11 on our blog." I mean really, did I speak something on us that we weren't prepared for? I have to answer no to this question because the only way God could get our attention was to take us out of our comfort zone and put us right into the very thing we had feared. What we humans do to ourselves sometimes is so unnecessary if we would just humble ourselves before the Lord. And I am preaching to myself here. A free leason for everyone comes out of this: read all the verses before you use the one.

Just a note here to let you in on what God has been dealing with us on. Sorry there are no pictures. As usual the Internet was giving me grief. The good news is we will have our very own Internet next week. We will no longer be bumming off the free wi-fi floating around here.

I did want to update on John Reagan...his surgery is scheduled for this coming Wednesday, the 15th. We have started telling him about it and preparing for it. Please be praying for him for everything to go smoothly with no complications and for Greg and me for peace.