Omaha Visits

We have had so many blessings today! We met with both the pediatric ENT and the infectious disease specialist in Omaha. They both affirmed the diagnosis of atypical mycobacterium. They also said that surgery is the typical treatment for it...BUT in John Andrew's case they would not advise it because of the location.  They both feel confident that with long term medication the node will go away! Just the news we were praying for!

He will be on a combination of antibiotics for at least 3 months and longer if necessary.  So it will be a long wait, but if the medication works he will not need surgery.

We have so much to be thankful for! First, that our local doctors were fast acting and diagnosed JA within 2 weeks! That is of the Lord! Many children go months without a diagnosis.  Even our specialist said he rarely sees this! One reason they are so hopeful the meds will work is because we are treating so quickly. Second, we have AWESOME physicians in Omaha. Chad keeps calling out ENT a stud :) we have such confidence in their plan for John Andrew's treatment. Third, John Andrew did not have to undergo any blood work or other tests today.  The worst part of the day for him was wearing a hospital gown.  He kept saying, "I WANT TO TAKE THIS CURTAIN OFF!" Finally, We have a powerful sovereign God who loves us! What more could we ask for? He has protected our boy, guided our doctors, and granted peace to our hearts!

We cannot thank you all enough for the prayers, calls, and messages! Thanks to the Pesheks for keeping Luke so we could both focus on JA for the day! It is still a waiting game to see if the medications we have will be effective. Pray that they are and that John Andrew's body can tolerate them.  Thank you all for your care!

Blessings

Diagnosis: Atypical TB

We have had a whirlwind of a day! John Andrew was diagnosed with atypical TB today. It is an extremely rare infection in healthy children. He has a lump on the left side of his face near the parotid gland and the facial nerve. This was our first and only indication something might be wrong. After seeing a couple of different doctors here in Hastings, a PPD to confirm TB, and a chest X-Ray to rule out typical TB infection, we have the diagnosis of Atypical TB.  Atypical TB is NOT CONTAGIOUS! We have been told that he probably got it from eating dirt. Most children are just fine eating all the dirt they want, but every now and then one child is not...If you would like to thank us for biting the statistical bullet, thank you cards can be sent to our home address ;) 

The normal treatment for Atypical TB is harsh antibiotics combined with surgical removal of the nodules and affected lymph nodes.  Many cases of atypical TB are resistant even to the strongest antibiotics but we are hoping they will work for John Andrew.  If they do not and surgery is required, there is a risk of facial paralysis because of the location of the nodule.  He also has several affected lymph nodes that we will be watching.  

We have been referred to a pediatric ENT and an Infectious Disease Specialist in Omaha. We will make our first trip there tomorrow and hopefully get some more information.  

We are all trusting in our Savior!  John Andrew is not in any pain at all and is loving all the attention.  I am assuming after tomorrow he may be “over” all the doctors.  Pray that he will not be afraid and that Chad and I will know how to comfort him.  As for Chad and me, our hearts are at peace. We have SO much to be thankful for and we hope to share many blessings with you when we get a chance! God is guiding us! We are sad for John Andrew to have to go through this process, but we believe his Creator loves him more than we do.  Pray for wisdom for us and the doctors.  We will keep you updated!  Finally here is a song that Chad would want to share with you all that expresses our hearts’ cry and faith in our God.

Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right

Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Holy His will abideth.
I will be still whate’er He does,
And follow where He guideth.
He is my God,
Though dark my road.
He holds me that I shall not fall
Wherefore to Him I leave it all

Whate’er my God ordains is right,
He never will deceive me
He leads me by the proper path,
I know He will not leave me
I take, content,
What He hath sent
His hand can turn my griefs away
And patiently I wait His day

Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Though now this cup in drinking
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it all unshrinking
My God is true,
Each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart
And pain and sorrow shall depart

Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken
My Father’s care
Is round me there
He holds me that I shall not fall
And so to Him I leave it all

Confessions of a Resolutionist

Well I confess that here at the Haygood home we are "Resolution Junkies!" Oh how good it makes us fee to list our many inadequacies and our plan to eliminate them. It is as though being aware of our need for growth an knowing what we ought to do makes us instantly better. We hold out hope that when we wake up on January 1st every sinful desire that ever made us act or not act in a certain way will be at bay and easily rebuked in the coming year and our decisiveness to "do it" (and I mean really "do it") will be enough. Of course every year we are humbled and fail.

I have failed at many a resolution: to be more organized, wake up earlier, be more consistent with discipline, do the dishes immediately after each meal (after all it is much easier right away than after the food is dry and crusted on to the dishes), to exercise more, eat less, memorize more Scripture, pray more, to not be angry, not gossip, encourage others, write more letters...Oh the list could go on and on! How flawed I am! How flawed we all are and how inept to change. So this year its going to be different right? Maybe!

Maybe it will be different if I put my hope not in my "gumption" but in the One who has the power to change even this stubborn, proud heart. My plan is to depend, depend on Jesus! My plan is to immerse myself in Him and grow in love for Him and allow the Holy Spirit to conform me into His image. Because my ultimate resolution is to be like Jesus! And that's a good one, because I know from Scripture that the God who created the universe and everything in it wants me to be like Jesus too. And I may not accomplish all of my purposes, but He accomplishes His!

So the theme of the year for the Haygoods will be learning about and loving Jesus though His Word and godly men's books. I am so thankful for the leadership of Chad in this area. He picked out a reading plan and asked me to do the same. I am using For the Love of God by DA Carson. It is a book that gives you a reading assignment each day from the Bible (example Jan 1 is Gen 1, Matt 1, Ezra 1, and Acts 1) and also a single page "commentary" on one of the chapters. At the end of the year you read through the Psalms and NT twice and the Old Testament once. I have already enjoyed it immensely and I love knowing ahead of time what I am going to do in my time with God. Chad also asked me to read through Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion with him. I am intimidated by it but I have a really smart guy who works in my basement, and he doesn't mind for me to ask him questions. :) My final reading goal is to finish the books I have started before reading others. I was in the middle of Kisses from Katie, Loving the Little Years, and The Hiding Place! I finished Kisses from Katie a couple of days ago because I only had 3 chapters left. Read it my friends!!! Hopefully the others will be complete soon!

So I am back here on the trying side of things, the working hard at it side of things, and I know in my own strength I will fail. But when I am weak, He is Strong! My only hope is that God will help me. Since I do believe my resolutions are honoring to Him and will increase my love for Jesus I am going to strive with all my might and depend on Him with all my might!

Here's to a year of learning about and loving Jesus! And to living a life that proclaims to the world how weak I am and how strong He is!

For what is more consonant with faith than to recognize that we are naked of all virtue, in order to be clothed by God? That we are empty of all good, to be filled by him? That we are slaves of sin, to be feed by him? Blind, to be illumined by him? Lame, to be made straight by him? Weak, to be sustained by him? To take away from us all occasion for glorying, that he alone may stand forth gloriously and we glory in him? --Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

Let Your Thanksgiving Be Godward

Something we are thinking about at the Haygood home this Thanksgiving holiday is the direction of our thankfulness. It really should be easy to be thankful. You can look around and see that you have it better than many other people you know. And if you happen to be the most pathetic of all your acquaintances you can always "look" around the world at the misfortune and poverty and say profoundly, "I am thankful to be where I am and have what I have!" But is that true thankfulness? Simply contentment or feeling luckier than this or that person?

As Christian we know that all good gifts come from God. So we must not just be thankful, but we must be thankful TO God. We must not joy in things or people or situations, but we must joy in what he has done, created, and changed. I feel that my thankfulness has been so vague at times that I might as well have been thanking the universe or mother-nature from my blessings, or even other people for being who they are.

John Andrew is just learning to pray. At night he makes a list of all the people he wants to pray for. The list usually consists of family members and anyone he saw that day. Then we say ok lets pray. He folds his hands and says, "Gink you wookey (luke)" and then Daddy stops him and says John Andrew remember you need to address God. We pray to God! So he starts again, "God, gink you wookey, gink you pops, gink you granna, gink you papa, gink you mimi...." And the list is pretty long. We are trying to teach him that just thinking about people you love at the end of the day and saying their names out loud is fruitless. It is when we address the God of the universe and come before Him with praise, adoration, thanksgiving, and requests that there is meaning and fruit.

In the same way I am trying to train my own heart this year to yes be thankful, but to be thankful to the right One. So when I say I am thankful for Chad, what I mean is "Thank you God for creating, saving, and sanctifying him. Thank you for your sovereign, good plan in bringing us together and allowing me to walk though this earthly life with an amazing man after your own heart." When I say I am thankful for John Andrew, I mean, "Thank you God for creating this life and allowing Chad and I to raise him. Thank you for showing me through him a glimpse of how you see Jesus and us. Thank you for sanctify me through being a mom to a crazy, into-everything boy. And thank you for creating this personality that brings so much joy to our house." When I say I am thankful for Luke, I mean "Thank you God for giving us a second child, for increasing our love and our joy in that way. Thank you for the quiet times of kisses and cuddles you give me with him and for that toothless grin that melts my heart!"

I wish I had time to let you know what I mean when I say I am thankful for our parents, and siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, church family, friends past and present. For all these things I am thankful to God, for He created all things and He is to be glorified in all.

So my encouragement to you on this day and every day is to let your thanksgiving be Godward!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Injury

Well, those of you who know me know that I rarely "freak out" when it comes to injury or danger for John Andrew. I'm sure many (ahem grandmas especially) think this is a fault, and there are lots of ways that I could improve my....umm...supervision of my child. But for the most part we stay calm and relaxed. I love for him to try new things and be a BOY!

HOWEVER, even my heart rate can begin to accelerate when my son comes to me with his hands covered in blood and a razor in his mouth. No tears mind you, just curiosity about the red stuff on his hands. I quickly commanded him to open his mouth, took the razor, and began inspecting. No cuts on his tongue...none on his lips...moving on... palms are clean...fingers...there it is. A cut on his thumb about 1 cm long and very shallow. Our little champion bleeder had apparently grabbed daddy's razor off of the sink, cut his thumb, and then decided to chomp on the razor. Thankfully the razor sustained more damage than he did. I had prepared for this moment several months ago when I bought a pack of extra strong camouflage bandaids. We cleaned his cut, dried it off, and covered it with not 1, not 2, but 3 very cool bandaids! We will see how extra strong they are....

Obviously John Andrew remains unaffected!

Family Update

Well it has seemed very busy around the Haygood home. Here's a quick update on the fam.

Chad- Chad has been busy getting into a workout routine. He is training for The Northface Endurance Challenge Marathon in Georgia on October 15th. It is a long ways away and there are many daunting LONG runs ahead of him, but he is committed and ready to put in the work. He also started a new Seminary class (topic-Chruch History). He is spending his evenings reading and listening to lectures. He is excitedly attacking school right now and moving quickly through this class. He is also reading a book on prayer, preparing for weekly sermons and small group meetings, and for our leadership training classes. All of that grouped with playing with John Andrew and spending time with me adds up to a very busy time for him right now. That said, he is still very excited about the warm weather moving in and hoping to add some golf into his schedule.

John Andrew-John Andrew is a ball of energy right now. He is rarely ready for bedtime or naptime. He is becoming very particular and passionate. He wants everything to happen a certain way and if it doesn't...well...watch out! As we try to deal with his sin in these areas and help him to learn flexibility, we are excited to see how God will use his passion and attention to detail for his glory. He is loving social time right now. His best friends are Silas and Jesse. Let him play outside with other kids and he will be a happy (smelly) boy. We are beginning to attend some story times at the library which he enjoys but is still learning how to sit and listen when other children are around. We are working on a Catechism with him right now and he knows the first three answers:

1. Who made you?

GOD

2. What else did God make?

GOD MADE ALL THINGS

3. Why did God make you and all things?

FOR HIS OWN GLORY

He is learning, learning, learning! Everyday he does something or says something I didn't know he knew. We are basically just trying to keep up.

Meredith (and Luke)- That's right, we have picked a name, Luke. We are still working on a middle name but we finally have some front runners to choose from. Well Luke and I are growing. I am 24 weeks along and feeling great. I have random annoyances still like leg cramps, numb shoulder blades, and lots of trips to the bathroom, but thankfully morning sickness seems to be gone for good. I am trying to stay active, although I anticipate moving my cardio to the pool in the near future. I have also been trying to read more lately. Right now I am focusing on Bible Doctrine for our leadership training. I have mostly been busy in project mode. We are painting several rooms in our house right now and redoing the basement. I am happy to be getting a lot organized (this makes Chad happy too). Next project will be John Andrew's big boy room, then potty training, then getting all Luke's things ready. I think that will keep me sufficiently busy over the next few months.

Well that is a pretty basic update. I hope to have some fun outdoor pictures to put up soon. We have a lot happening in the next few months as well. We have the Rexillus family coming to stay next weekend, then a trip to Chicago for the Gospel Coalition Conference with the Reynolds, the Channel family's annual visit, birthing classes, John Andrew's birthday, the Cooper's visit, and then a baby. So Stay Tuned!

What a Happy Birthday

What a Happy Birthday I have had!!

Hanging out with my little man!

My gift from my Love!

Brick oven pizza for lunch. We also had steak and shrimp for dinner (no pic available:)) Now we are off to celebrate with cake and ice cream cake with friends.