Blowing the Dust Off

I decided that a post-quake trip to Haiti was good enough reason to blow the dust off this blog. As you will see, I have not posted in, ahem, quite some time. The other reason I'm writing is because I'm chilling out at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport waiting for someone to show up at the Spirit Airlines counter so I can check the incredibly heavy bag I'm toting with school supplies, kid clothes, candy, baby formula and some clean underwear for myself. It's still 5 hours until take-off. Might as well blog, right (free wifi at FLL helps, too)?

I'm surrounded by a dozen or so strangers all sleeping in the waiting area. Sprawled out on the floor, arriving in Ft. Lauderdale too late to get a hotel before having to turn right around and come back to the airport. It's an interesting homeless-person kinda thing. And the irony is not lost on me of the very real homeless where I am going in Port-au-Prince.

I'm kinda conflicted about this trip. I'm really excited about getting to see Phillip who lost his school and his home (but not his family or his students) in the quake. The school supplies are for him. I'm excited to see Veniel who's guest house collapsed. I'll get to stay there at least a couple nights next week. Probably in a tent. I'm excited to make new friends via Partners Worldwide and the Haitian Education & Leadership Program. There are some really great connections being built between my home and Haiti (Papa Pierre's visit was really quite a thrill - I'll get to catch up with Pierre at the orphanage next week, also). But, to be honest, I'm kinda scared about what all I will see. What it will feel like. I've been living vicariously through other's blogs, through Amy's experience in February. When I got on the plane in Wichita I started wondering - what am I doing? Wouldn't it be much easier, safer, cheaper - to stay home? I mean, I can text message some cash, send a check, etc. Right?

At the same time, I have full confidence that by the time I head back to Kansas on May 7 I will have 1,001 answers to the question on my heart waaaay back in Kansas. I could list many of them now, too. Instead, I'll just be quiet for now. I'll just wait.

And I'll write more later (if I can score more WWW).

a face for radio

Grace was less then pleased to be getting her picture at the hospital. But, it does kinda look like one of those photos you can get while on the roller coaster . . .

Homefront

We're home and everyone is doing well. If I were a good father I would blog more but we'll see. This is where we see the reality of the old adage - with your first kid you fill rooms with the pictures you've taken. With the second there are several boxes. By the time you hit #3 their birth and their graduation are on the same roll of film. . .

Funny story - Isaac was sure he was getting a baby brother. Any time we'd mention otherwise he was sure to let us know we were wrong. Saturday night we asked him what he would do if it were a girl and he said, "I'll be bery angry." But, Grace melted his heart when he met her and he's thrilled to have a tiny baby sister.

We checked in to the hospital a little after midnight on Sunday morning and by 2:23a had a baby. Amazing. No time for an epidural. Five pushes and we had our second daughter. I was really impressed with my wife before. Now it's getting close to hero worship.

It's A Girl

Baby Grace was born Sunday morning, 12/3 at 2:23am. She was 6lbs 15oz and 19in long. More coming later.

Update: Baby news, I gave a talk

Hey. We're doing good here. Don't really have time to get into the details but we're just about a month away from kid number 3. I say Nov. 29 but the wife says Dec. 3. We'll keep you posted.

Also, I gave a talk at the university. Here's the link to download it from iTunesU:

https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/fhsu.edu.1194869154.01194869157.1222329139?i=1454980371

It's called The Long Tail: Implications for Education and Everything Else

If you take the time to watch drop me a line and let me know what you think.

inconsistency is a best bet for sustained readership

right?

i do appreciate the two folks who stop by the blog to check in on us. i'll post some verbiage here and then look for some pixiage to go along with it.

we're good. at the end of the semester i will be 2/3rds finished with my masters in higher education and will have increased my child quotient by an additional 1/3rd. all things happen in 3s the barb has been known to say. i am pretty much liking my classwork. but am really liking my job as a grad assistant. this whole journey started as a leap of faith at the beginning of the summer and it has been really cool to see how that leap has been proven worthwhile. the next phase in the plan - as if having a 3rd child wasn't enough - is i'm beginning the process of finding a doctoral program to enroll in. it might be the hormones but amy is being an amazingly wonderful spouse in all of this! i knew i had a gem from the very start but she keeps surprising me by her graciousness and lengths she will go to to support me.

on to kid number 3. he's already suffering from being the third child. when we were waiting on isaac to join us i started my first blog, fired up the video camera regularly, went to child birth classes, painted a baby room, bought our first digital camera and even made the switch from PC to Mac for the extra home movie making benefits. as we waited for joy we got our first laptop, fired up a whole new blog (which this blog is the ongoing result of), got all kinds of new girly clothes and even created a site just for the video and pics (still available in the links on the right as far as i know). this kid, we don't know if he's a he or if she's a she. if it weren't attached to the wife i'd probably misplace the poor thing. we haven't bought nary a stitch of new clothes and we only have the one picture. poor kid.

so all is well. enjoy the updated pics:

a thousand words