Shawn's Blog

Josiah's posts have moved...

2010-10-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for info about Josiah - CLICK HERE - to go to his new Caring Bridge website! All future posts about Josiah will be there - bookmark it for future reference or on the journal page click to receive emails when a new post is up. His surgery is scheduled for Oct 29th - we appreciate your prayers for our family!
Shawn & Dana

Here we go...

2010-09-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

Hello Family and Friends- Dana and I wanted to update you on Josiah because some important things are happening in the next few weeks. His surgery is scheduled for the first week of November, only 8 short weeks away. We recently met again with our doctor to ask all of our questions and have some focused time really understanding what's going on with Josiah's back and what the upcoming surgery will do for him.

Our appointment with Dr. d'Amato, Josiah's doctor at Shriners, was a true gift of time! We got to spend an hour with him and ask all of our questions. He wasn't rushed, he was incredibly present- took us into his office so we could view all of Josiah's pictures (MRI, cat scan, and 3-D images) and talk. The 3-D cat scan image was amazing and we were able to see first hand exactly what Josiah's spine looks like and all the issues facing him. It was crystal clear from the 3-D image that it is a miracle that his back has not already collapsed- God has definitely been protecting him daily. We walked away having a real peace knowing we should have this surgery done to protect Josiah's back & his ability to walk.

Here's a recap of what we learned and what is next:
The surgery is a spinal bone fusion w/out instrumention. They will take bone from the top of his hip and graft it on to the part of his spine and vertebrae that needs to be stabilized- his lower lumbar/sacrum area (below his waist so it will not effect his flexibility- praise God!). The whole goal of this surgery is to stabilize his spine so that he will be able to grow and develop safely and maintain his ability to walk. Currently, his spine is not stable, it regularly shifts around causing pain, muscle spasms and there is risk to his nerve cord if his spine collapsed- he could lose bladder function and his mobility.

This intervention is the first and most important- they can't address anything else in his spine until they get it stable. It is also the most conservative approach - they are not removing any discs. They are packing bone on either side of his spine - kind of like creating two "bone rods"-one on each side to provide strength & stability to his spine so that it will no longer move around causing slippage and pain (he regularly has pain from the movement - this morning he was crying and asking me to "kiss it, make it better" and there was nothing I could do, heart wrenching as a parent). Other methods are much more aggressive and require instrumentation and screws, which at this young age increase the risk of failure and long term complications.

Here's the practical info:
Surgery will be 4-6 hours, he will be in the hospital for 4-6 days, when we come home he will be in a cast from his chest to the top of his knees (pantaloon cast). He will be casted laying down flat which will make him completely immobile & dependent on us to be carried or pushed in his flat-backed wheel chair. He will be in the cast for 3-6 months depending on how he heals. Following the removal of the cast, he will be in full braces for an undetermined amount of time (6-18 months but he will be able to walk in the braces and take them off at bedtime/bath), until the doctor is satisfied that the fusion has been successful and that there is no risk of compromising it. The surgery is planned for the first week of November - they will call us in the next couple weeks with an exact date & time.

At our appointment the doctor also helped us understand Josiah's back/spine issues and what he is facing over his lifetime. At some point they will need to address the deformed part of his spine because in it's current state it will not support an adolescent/adult-sized upper body. There is also the pressure and narrowing of his spinal column right at his lumbar sacriatic joint that will need to be decompressed. He also has the cyst in his upper spine and his spinal cord is tethered. All of these things will need to be dealt with at some point but they don't know when and they cannot address any of them now because to do so would make his back unstable. The doctor said Josiah could be the kind of kid who has 2-3 surgeries over his lifetime or 8-9. It entirely depends on how he develops and how his spine grows. He did say that Josiah's back will never be able to handle any kind of impact sports- only things like swimming & golf (he sure was born in the right family because we have access to both of those things- Dara participates in both already and actually placed 5th in the girls Jr. Golf championship this summer- go Dara!). They will be keeping close tabs on his growth and he will obviously have further tests & scans over the next year post-surgery to confirm the success of the bone graft, observe how his back is developing and see what needs to be addressed next.

I know this is a lot to try and understand -thank you for taking the time to read through all these details. It's a lot for us to take in too. We are now on an 8 week countdown to his surgery and are spending our time preparing for how that is going to change our daily lives for the next year. We have had to grieve what we thought Josiah's life would look like and realize that he is still going to have the best life, full of amazing opportunities and blessings but it's just going to look different than we thought. We are trying to be very present during these weeks before surgery- enjoying watching Josiah run around like a busy 2-1/2 year old- raiding the tupperware drawer, playing trucks and all things automotive (this boy LOVES cars, trucks, monster trucks, school buses, police cars, ambulance, fire trucks, construction vehicles, trains, etc.), playing outside on his playset or going to the park, swimming, and just being together as a family. Dana met with Dara's teacher at school so we can work with her to support & care for Dara during this time as well. Dana also is hoping in the next couple days to talk with another family from Shriner's Hospital who has had a child under five in a pantaloon cast to get some tips & tricks as she cares for Josiah at home.

While this surgery is not exciting news, Dana and I both walked away from our appointment at Shriners with peace and confidence that our doctor has Josiah's best interest in mind and we are thankful for his cautious approach. We would appreciate your continued prayers for safety for Josiah between now and the surgery and for us as a family as we prepare for this time. We truly sense the Lord's love all around us even though this is a tough situation, we feel Him with us each step of the way. He has been SO faithful already in tons of details on this journey with Josiah. I'm so thankful for Jesus and His presence in our family every day! We will post again as soon as we know the exact date of the surgery. Thanks for your continued support and prayers for us, they are GREATLY appreciated!
Love and blessings,
Shawn, Dana, Dara and Josiah.

Time Out!

2010-06-06T22:04:00.001-07:00

Hello Family and Friends,

We titled this post "Time Out" for two reasons 1) Josiah gets time outs about 10 times a day. Yes, he has fully entered the testing two's! And, also 2) because last week we heard from Josiah's doctor at Shriners. He has decided to hold off on doing the surgery for right now and he wants to meet with us, take x-rays of Josiah’s back and examine him again. Our appointment with him will be June 17th in the morning. For now, we are relieved there’s no immediate surgery being scheduled but we still feel the weight of things not being right in Josiah's back yet. He is still at great risk of his back collapsing so Dana keeps close tabs on him and we continue to pray that the Lord would keep him until the time is right to intervene. We have many questions for our doctor and it will be interesting to hear what he’s thinking about Josiah’s situation.

Many of you have been so good to ask how we are doing. First of all, thank you very much for all your concern and prayers. There are certainly days that the reality of what we are facing with Josiah's condition really hits us and we feel overwhelmed with emotion and concern about his future. However, many days we have a peace as we walk through this. Today, in fact, we heard a sermon about God's command to "remember" His works in our lives. So, this evening we spent some time at dinner recounting the ways the Lord has brought answers to prayer in each season of our life. Even Dara chimed in, remembering a time when God healed a burn she got on her finger. The sermon stated that our own testimonies are meant to serve as an encouragement and witness to how God has acted in the past, so we can take courage when we face the giants in our future.

One thing that I call to mind often is that for two and a half years I prayed and asked the Lord for a son. Little did we know then that Dana had a medical condition that was preventing us from getting pregnant. God heard my prayer and after two and a half years God gave us Josiah. One night, I was looking up the meanings of some of the names we were considering for our little guy. This is what I discovered:

Josiah means "God has supported"
Seth means "God has appointed"

When I put those names together, I remember feeling inspired. The two names together captured, in a sense, what I felt like God had done for us. God supported Dana's pregnancy so that Josiah was delivered safely into our arms, and in response to my prayers, God had appointed Josiah's life and had sent him to us for this time. Looking at Josiah's name now, I find new depth of meaning and encouragement as we face these issues in his back. God is supporting our precious boy and He appointed that Josiah should live and be entrusted to our care. These encouragements give us hope in the midst of this trial, remind us of The Lord's faithfulness to us in the past and give us confidence that we will see His hand of faithfulness in our circumstances yet again.

Thank you for all your prayers for Josiah, Dana, Dara and myself and Josiah's doctors. Your faithful support and encouragement has been a blessing to us. We will post again following our appointment on the 17th.

Doctor Called...

2010-04-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,
Tonight we got some heartbreaking news. We have been waiting for the last couple of weeks for our spinal specialist from Shriners and the neurosurgeon at OHSU to connect about Josiah's recent CT Scan and urodynamic study. This evening our Spinal Specialist called and he feels that Josiah's back is at a place where we have no more margin, things have not changed (improved) and he is not comfortable waiting until we have a crisis to address the problems in Josiah's back.

He is planning to meet and discuss an intervention and care plan with our neurosurgeon as well as with two of his other colleagues that specialize in spinal abnormalities. He told us to prepare for a surgery in 3-4 months. The basic plan is to do what's called a "internal fixation" of his lower spine area to correct his sacrum which is not normal (nerve roots exposed, no proper bone coverage there), as well as address the abnormal flexation in his pelvis which could potentially cause his back to collapse and pinch the nerve endings of his spinal cord. This plan is tentative and our doctor is planning multiple consults with other specialists before the care plan is finalized because Josiah's abnormalities are so rare. We will meet with our doctors sometime in the next month once they have determined a course of action.

So... as you can imagine, we feel like we got the wind knocked out of us tonight. It feels like the direction is certain, and yet nothing is completely certain about this. What's uncomfortable about this process is that its not like having your appendix out where the procedure has been done countless times with proven outcomes - these surgeries are more rare and the abnormalities tend to be specific to the child which makes it hard to compare one case to another. On one hand I am glad we know about it and that this isn't being generated by an emergency because of some symptom we are witnessing from Josiah-- on the other hand I look ahead at our summer and the anxiety of waiting and thinking about this for four months and it just sits in my stomach like a rock. I hate it that Josiah has to go through anything like this at all. Its really hard to think about our little guy having any kind of potentially life altering surgery.

We had a family meeting tonight to talk about this and to pray. We all shed some tears together. We are still believing God for a miracle in Josiah's body. Thank you for your continued prayers and support during this time. Our trust is in the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth, and Maker of our precious Josiah. We will post more as we know more.
Shawn & Dana

Josiah's 2 tests this week

2010-03-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

We wanted to ask for prayer as Josiah has two tests this week. Tomorrow, Monday 15th, he has the 3-D CT scan which he will be IV sedated for. The 3-D CT Scan is so the doctors can see every little piece of bone and the exact structure of his spinal abnormality - they want to see in detail the area where the spinal cord is almost being pinched off. They think the ct scan will show them exactly how much room it has (right now they're guessing barely 3mm) and if there is any pressure or pinching happening currently. This 3-D ct scan will also allow them to "digitally play" with Josiah's back (on the computer) and see what would happen in different surgical scenerios - would this part move or that part, would it make it unstable, how thick are his surrounding vertebrae, etc. So they're expecting to get a lot of info from this 3-D CT Scan. Pray Josiah is perfectly still during the whole procedure - he will be sedated but kids still jerk and move while sleeping. Pray for as little movement as possible.

Thursday the 18th he will have his urodynamic study which he will be orally sedated for. This test is so they can get a baseline of his bladder, kidney and bowel sphynctor functions. They want to know if his bladder and kidneys are function properly on all levels - filling up, emptying out, responding to sphynctor control telling it to hold in or let out, etc. Same with his bowels. The oral sedation is a lighter sedation and he will possibly be "awake" but will not remember any of it. They cannot do the deep sedation with this test because then they do not get normal responses from the body which they need during this test in particular. Dana will be back with him during the whole test to reassure him if he opens his eyes - he will feel no pain but will be in and out of being aware of his surroundings but again, will not remember any of it. Some kids sleep through all if it - pray that this is the case for Josiah - it's during his naptime so there's a good possibility that he will.

Thank you for praying for these tests this week. We appreciate it SO much! We will not know anything after these tests since we are not meeting with the doctors right away. The doctors have to get the tests, review them and talk together about what they find. We will then meet with them (no appointment is scheduled yet) and they'll explain what they found from the tests and what they recommend. Pray that the doctors are able to talk soon - it's a miracle to get specialists to talk because their workloads are so huge. We are guessing that it will be 4-6 weeks before we are able to meet with them. We will post as soon as we know about that appointment and for sure after we meet with them to update you on what we find out.

Thank you again for all your prayers and support! Josiah is a gift and a blessing and we know he is held in the palm of God's hand.
Blessings -
Shawn & Dana

Josiah Update January 21st

2010-01-21T20:31:00.001-08:00

Hello Friends and Family,
This is going to be a newsy, long post! So go grab your coffee and get a blanket - make yourself comfy before you nestle in to start reading. First of all before I get to the update on Josiah's doctor's appointments from the last two weeks, I wish to express from Dana and I, our sincere gratitude for all of your prayers - they have made a difference in the times we have spent with our doctors. Let me share a few examples how they have specifically helped...

Last week Josiah had his MRI at OHSU and our consult with his neurosurgeon. When we arrived for the MRI, two pediatric sedations for spinal MRI's had been scheduled at the same time. Normally when this happens, they almost always have to reschedule one of the appointments as it is difficult to pull together a sedation team at the last minute. This was answer to prayer #1. Within 15 minutes, they had pulled together a team for Josiah's sedation (also due to the fact that he had to have a specific anesthesia medicine and needed to be monitored more closely) and we were able to proceed with the MRI - praise the Lord! The MRI went well and we had Dara with us for the day, it was a neat opportunity for her to see what her little brother was going through.

When Josiah woke up from his MRI, Dana was brought in to be with him. He was laying in bed, eyes half open, totally groggy. Dana leaned over to greet him, "Hi Josiah- Hi little man... Mommy loves you." Josiah cracked his eyes open just a bit and looked at Dana and said, "Gump Truck!" For those of you who do not know, Josiah is obsessed with all things automotive, and in particular, dump trucks! It was just what Mommy needed to hear from her little guy. Josiah recovered quickly from the sedation, much more quickly than normal and we left OHSU Hospital to go meet with the neurosurgeon.

Our neurosurgeon reviewed the MRI with us and there was some positive things and some things which were of concern. 5 months ago, they were concerned that there was also a narrowing of the spine at the base of Josiah's head. Based on the most recent MRI, this is no longer a concern, it looks completely normal- Yeah God! The cyst in his spine had also not gotten worse and was generally the same. The concerning part of the MRI was that the base of Josiah's spine had gotten slightly narrower which increased the neurosurgeon's concern for pinching of the nerve roots as they move into the sacrum. The nerve roots he was referring to control Josiah's feet sensation, feet function (ability to walk), and bladder & bowel control. He expressed a desire to consult with our spinal specialist at Shriners to determine the best course of action at this point because any surgery to protect Josiah's spinal cord could endanger his spinal stability and lead to the development of neurological problems that don't currently exist. We had about 10 days to wait until our appointment at Shriners for the two of them to discuss the results of the MRI.

Answer to prayer#2. During the time between appointments, we discovered that both doctors had planned some time off, and it was going to be nearly impossible to get them together. With lots of prayer and phone coordination with our nurse care coordinator at Shriners, Dana worked diligently to make sure no balls were dropped trying to get the two physicians together. On Wednesday of last week, to our great relief, our care coordinator called us while the two physicians just "happened" (we know it was the hand of God) to be in the same place at the same time discussing another patient. She encouraged them to take the opportunity and make time to review Josiah's MRI and discuss his care- which they did. We found out today that even the best laid plans for things like this rarely, if ever happen and how miraculous it was for the two of them to have spent the time they did reviewing Josiah's file together. God was so faithful to make sure this piece fell into place prior to our consult at Shriners today.

This morning we roused the family early to get Dara to school on time (Thanks to our carpool for doing both shifts today-- (bless you! bless you). Traffic was no problem and we were 30 minutes early to our appointment. After checking in, we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, Dana checked in with the registration staff to discover that our file had been sent to the wrong nursing unit and our "buzzer" which they use to keep patients in cue wasn't working properly. Now, if you know anything about spinal clinic at Shriners - you can be completely on time and still wait for 3 hours to see the doctor, so we were beginning to think this could be more than a three hour tour. Upon learning about the mistake, Dana began praying, and she just felt like the Lord told her there was a reason for the delay and not to worry.

It wasn't long before they called us back for the x-ray and, 15 minutes after that for our appointment with our doctor. We began settling in to the exam room, where on our previous appointments we had waited for 2+ hours to see the doctor. So, Dana began to feed Josiah lunch when in walks our doctor! We were shocked and surprised and delighted at the same time for this change in events. Now, as I dive into describing what we learned, there were two distinct parts to the appointment.

Part 1: The doctor explained that Josiah's MRI had, in general, had not changed much regarding the bone structure. He examined Josiah physically and watched him as he walked around. He was very pleased to see that developmentally, the deformity in his spine wasn't having a dramatic impact on his walking and mobility. He did bring up the concern with the nerve roots at the base of Josiah's spine and the potential for injury to them should his spine narrow any further at that junction. However, intervening on a 2 year old is quite risky because their bones aren't fully developed - they are still quite soft. Not until closer to the age of 4-5 is it much safer to consider intervention as the bones are stronger.

He stated that his desire was to continue to monitor Josiah every few months over the next couple of years and keep close watch on this with the goal being to buy as much time as possible for Josiah's bone development before an intervention was required. He seemed to be in agreement with the neurosurgeon that in fact, Josiah does have a tethered spinal cord, which normally there would be very little concern with addressing, however the structure of Josiah's spine would complicate such a procedure, putting at risk his stability unless the "snipping" of the phylum (the tendon like material which supports the cord) could be done higher up on the spine to release the tension in his spinal cord. In order for us to assess how significantly this tethering is impacting Josiah, the neurosurgeon and our spinal specialist agreed it would be necessary to have a pediatric urology test for them to evaluate what level of bladder control Josiah currently has since we cannot evaluate that since he is so young and not potty trained. At this point, he asked us if we had x-rays taken as apart of our appointment today, which we did. And this leads us to part two of our appointment...

Part 2: Our doctor left the exam room to go review the x-rays. He ended up being gone about 10 minutes. On one hand, it seemed long considering the x-rays probably weren't vastly different than last time, but I figured it was a busy clinic day and he had likely gotten interrupted. Unbeknownst to Dana and I, he spontaneously decided to ask his partnering physician for some input on Josiah's case, which became the focus of the latter part of our appointment. When the doctor came back in, he prefaced what he was about to tell us with the fact that what he was about to share with us was not to scare us in any way, but to help us gain perspective of Josiah's situation and understand some precautions we needed to consider for Josiah.

Before the story came, he made several admissions, all of which were new to us. First, he said that deformities like what Josiah has are extremely rare, a physician like him may see only one to two cases like this in his entire medical career. Which is why it makes Josiah's case so complicated to deal with. His second admission was that prior to today he had not considered Josiah's bone structure to be fragile he was not very concerned about the likelihood of his spinal column failing in any way structurally - but now he was thinking differently. With these admissions he shared with us a story from his partner's patient that had a similar style defect in his spine, although it was higher up on the spine. One day while this child's mother was at home with him, she got frustrated with him and set him down in a chair roughly to get his attention and verbally reprimand him for getting into something. When she set him down in to the chair, his spine collapsed due to the impact to his nerve cord & deformity and resulted in a permanent paralysis. After sharing this he said that Josiah's spinal deformity is lower in the spine which makes his back more stable, however, that being said he wanted to raise our level of precaution regarding normal everyday activities that could potentially have an impact to his back unnecessarily (i.e. roughhousing with dad or big sister, etc...). He asked us to specifically watch out and protect Josiah from any impact (bouncing on our knees, etc.) or falling on his back. This was and is a big change in our minds as well.

Additionally, following his conversation with his partner, he decided that waiting and observation wasn't enough when it came to watching for indications of pinching to the nerve cord. He immediately ordered a CT scan for Josiah which would provide a 3-D image of all of the bones in Josiah's spinal cord where they can visually see how much margin exists in the area where his spinal cord narrows at the base of his lumbar and beginning of his sacrum. From the urology test and the CT scan, they hope to establish a firm plan for whether or not there is any need to intervene at this point with a surgical procedure. The doctor today said, "It's a tough call - do we wait and then kick ourselves later because we didn't intervene soon enough and there was a neurological catastrophe? Or do we intervene now but then kick ourselves because it was too early and we should have waited? This is such a tough case and we need as much info as possible to make the right decisions." We will be having both of these tests scheduled in the next 2-3 weeks and then give the doctors a couple weeks to meet & talk about Josiah's results. Then we will meet back with them - probably about 5-6 weeks from now.

We are grateful for the precautions that our doctors are taking on behalf of Josiah's safety. You can imagine we are having some mixed responses at this time. It seems as if, as one of our friends so well stated, "a fuse has been lit, we just don't know how long the fuse is." We definitely see the hand of the Lord involved in our circumstances which is giving us encouragement. Please continue to pray with us for the following:
1) Supernatural healing in Josiah's body. We continue to encourage ourselves with the scripture in the gospels that states "With God all things are possible". We value and honor the wisdom and care of our physicians. We have however, not ceased to contend for God to do a miracle in Josiah's body.
2) Strength for Dana who feels the burden of being more cautious with Josiah as he plays each day and the need to watch him also for any symptoms of nerve complications.
3) That once the urology test and the CT scan have been completed that our neurosurgeon and spine doctor from Shriner's will be able to make the time to connect and review the results of the tests. We need another "meeting miracle" in this area!

Thank you again for all of your prayers and support - it means the world to us. Dana told me that when they were potentially going to have to reschedule Josiah's MRI last week unless they could find a 2nd sedation team for Josiah - she literally thought of all the people praying and knew in that moment that EVERY prayer matters and is effective. You may not know how God uses your prayers but they are ALL needed and put to good use. So thank you for your prayers and please continue to stand with us in prayer for Josiah & his healing. We'll continue to post updates as we have them.
Blessings,
Shawn & Dana
P.S. - Thank you to our friend, Jenifer for these amazing pictures of our boy. We LOVE them!!! Check out her website here - she's an amazing photographer!

August 2009 - Appointment Results for Josiah

2010-01-03T21:24:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,
Sorry this post is so long in coming - the Fall really got away from us. So, we will get right to it! This is what we found out from Josiah's last round of appointments back in August:

Josiah had an extensive MRI of his spine and brain after which we met with our neurosurgeon at OHSU and our pediatric spinal specialist at Shriners. Upon initial review, our neurosurgeon was convinced that Josiah had a tethered spinal cord which was causing the cyst in the fluid sack around his spinal column, he wanted to discuss with our doctor at Shriners the possibility of shaving some of the bone at the base of Josiah's spine to reduce the narrowing at his lumbar sacriatic joint and the risk of it pinching his nerve cord and untether his spinal cord at the same time. Additionally he noticed a narrowing of the spinal column up around Josiah's neck which he also believed could be contributing to the cyst in his spine.

When we met with our spinal specialist at Shriners, he completely disagreed with our neurosurgeon and said he saw no evidence of the tethered cord. He absolutely said that there would be no surgery at this point to the bone at the base of Josiah's spine because of the risk it could cause to Josiah's stability and long term neurological complications from the surgery. He did confirm the narrowing of the spine at the base of Josiah's neck and believed that this, along with the narrowing of the spine at his lumbar sacriatic joint could be responsible for the cyst developing in his spinal column.

After both doctors conferring, they elected to wait another 4-5 months. They ordered another set of xrays and spinal MRI to see how Josiah's continued development is affecting his spine and nerve cord, particularly, how his walking, climbing etc... has affected the part of his spine with the deformity. This leads us to the present.

Josiah has his next round of appointments starting next week. January 11th, he has his MRI and appointment with the pediatric neurosurgeon to review the findings from the MRI. January 21st, we have Josiah's appointment at Shriners for another set of xrays, and appointment with the spinal specialist to review the MRI, xrays and give some input as to what he thinks next steps are regarding Josiah's spine.

We have a lot of questions as we head into these appointments with the doctors and are hoping there is nothing critical that is happening in Josiah's body at this time that would require intervention. His body developmentally is in such a tender stage any intervention at this point is a huge concern because his bones are still soft and there would be significant risk. We would greatly appreciate your prayers as these appointments are all day long ordeals and very exhausting physically and emotionally. We also ask that you continue to stand with us in prayer for a miracle for Josiah's back as that is the most ideal option.

We will post an update at the end of January as soon as we have more information. Thanks for your love and support!
Shawn, Dana, Dara & Josiah

Our trip to Redding, CA

2009-08-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who prayed for our trip to Redding - we had a wonderful time! The travel down on Friday was amazing - the kids did great. Our van was packed with lots of activities (thank you Aunt Michelle & Brynna for the use of your DS & games), snacks, movies (thank you Weldon's for the portable DVD player), coloring books and of course we made lots of stops for potty breaks and stretching. :)

One of the highlights of our trip down was a stop in Corvallis to see Shawn's brother and his family. What fun we had hanging out with Jason & Olivia and seeing our neice, Teagan and nephew, T.J. - the kids got to play at a jumping gym (even Shawn & Jason got in on the action). It was the perfect pit stop on our trip - we LOVED hanging out with you guys! The rest of Friday was pretty much a travel day - checking into the hotel at 9:30pm, getting settled in and then heading to bed for some much needed sleep.

Saturday morning we headed over to the healing rooms at Bethel Church. There were about 120+ people there for healing. Because of the numbers of people that come each week to the healing rooms, they have it very organized. We registered, were assigned a group letter (we were in the "H" group), and then proceeded to the sanctuary to spend time in worship and in the presence of the Lord. They had the chairs all moved around the room in small groups and you could sit anywhere you wanted, worship was going on constantly and it was very peaceful but declarative, and in the back they had a section with toddler toys and then a table set up for the older kids with crafts and painting activities. It was very welcoming for both the adults and the kids that were there. For the two hours that we were in the sanctuary waiting for group "H" to be called, we witnessed a lot of people experience healing miracles. There were many people who were either deaf or had significant hearing loss that were healed and received their hearing back. There was a woman who was healed of a severe ankle injury. There was a man & his wife from Montana who had a severe back injury from 30 years ago when a large piece of machinery fell and hit his lower back. He could hardly walk and spent 6-7 hours a day in bed, had had 8 surgeries, been to multiple pain clinics, on lots of pain medicine, etc. As we were in the sanctuary, over about an hour & a half time he went from hardly being able to walk to completely bending over, jumping, running, etc. They brought them up for testimony and he was just praising the Lord and his wife was sobbing as they shared that God had just healed his back - it was amazing! Praise the Lord! It was awesome to witness these miracles taking place all around us - it really built our faith. Group "H" was called at 11:30am and we were taken to a fellowship hall type room where 2-3 people from Bethel's ministry team were praying with each family/couple/individual there for healing. So we waited until Josiah's name was called. Two older gentlemen prayed with us. They introduced themselves, read through our form, asked a few questions about Josiah's situation and then began to pray for him. They also coached us that while we witness some miracles being instantaneous, that some miracles happen progressively. So they coached us on how to continue praying for Josiah which was very encouraging. Lastly, one of the men praying for us felt the Holy Spirit tell him that we were like the story in the Bible (Mark 2:3-12) of the four friends who cut a hole in the roof and lowered their paralytic friend down on a mat so that he could reach Jesus and be healed. He said that we are like those four friends to Josiah, bringing him to the feet of Jesus to be healed and that God would honor our faith. We also attended service on Sunday morning at Bethel and had Josiah prayed for again after the service at the ministry time for physical healing. We very specifically felt the presence of God while Josiah was being prayed for then. Dana also took the opportunity to be prayed for as well for her PCOS (poly-cystic ovary syndrome) and Dara was prayed for as she had burned three fingers earlier that morning on the waffle maker at the hotel's breakfast bar (poor thing!). On the way to church her fingers really started to blister badly despite our efforts to soak them in ice water and she was in a lot of pain. During the ministry time when Dara was prayed for the pain left her fingers and the blistering on her hands was almost completely healed - you could barely tell that she'd had a burn that morning. God did a miracle in her fingers because her burn should have blistered up and been painful for the next week, it's like God just stopped the progression of the burn and healed it - Dara was really excited and we were too - praise the Lord! We left Bethel feeling very encouraged in our faith and in the conviction that God will heal Josiah's back. We are continuing to contend for that healing in our prayers as we look forward to his MRI on Aug 24th.

We headed home on Monday and the trip back was good - not quite as "amazing" as the drive down had been. The kids were tired from the traveling, Josiah had had it with his car seat (how do you tell a 19 month old there's 8 hours of driving left?) and it was time for us all to get home. :) However, we had a wonderful visit with a good friend, Robbin and her kids (including her beautiful new 9 week old little girl). We made it home late Monday night about 10pm and we all crashed. We are SO glad we made the trip but it's always good to be home! It was quite an interesting transition home, although, because we had been in 110-114 degree weather down in Redding and then we came home to a week of 104-110 degree weather here - all week we kept saying how much it felt like we were still in California, crazy! What a relief that it's finally back in the 90's again. :)

Thank you for all of your prayers! We will continue to keep you all updated about Josiah. As a side note, Shawn finished his last shift at Starbucks this weekend - yippee! He begins his new position at Adventist Hospital tomorrow morning. He's SO excited and we are thrilled to have him home with us again every evening.
Love & blessings,
The Klinkners

Arrival in Redding

2009-07-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends-
We have safely arrived in Redding. We had a really nice drive down today. We checked into the hotel at 9:30pm. It only took us 12 hours to make a 7.25 hour drive. We figured not too bad for 6 stops!

Actually, one of the best parts of our day was getting to see Uncle Jason and Aunt Olivia, and cousins Teagan and TJ in Corvallis on the way down. We got to catch up a little and spend some time in a jumping gym with tons of inflatables. Even Shawn and Jason got in on some of the action! (Pictures to come- I promise).

We are headed to bed for a much needed rest before our big day at Bethel's healing rooms tomorrow. Thank you for all of your prayers for safety and traveling grace- the kids did great. More updates soon-
Love,
Shawn, Dana & Kids

Trip to Redding & New Job!

2009-07-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends,
I have some great news! As many of you know last year after being unemployed for 8 months, in July of 2008 I was hired at Adventist Medical Center in Portland to provide support and coordination for a large construction project they had undertaken. It was a temporary year long position, but I felt that it was the right opportunity and that it would lead to other open doors.

During the past year I have learned a lot about healthcare, hospital operations and construction, which I previously knew nothing about! My boss, who was the Senior Vice President at the time, 4 months into my new job ended up promoting to become the CEO and was unable to continue providing leadership and oversight for the project as he previously had. So I had to step up to take on additional responsibilities from December through the finish of the project at the end of May. It proved the perfect testing ground, as God used it to provide a way for me to demonstrate many of the capacities He has given me, some of which I didn't even know I had. I gained a new interim boss, who also became an amazing advocate for me.

Well, to make a long story short, I have been offered a new, permanent position working as the property manager for the hospital, medical office buildings and our outlying clinics. Its a great opportunity for me to continue to learn, not to mention build relationships with many of the physicians that work with our hospital. I will also be in charge of space planning, and making recommendations for how vacant space is used on the campus, including the hospital itself. (I will even have my own office and an assistant who will support me in my new position!) I am so grateful to be able to continue on at AMC, as this position will open up other doors for me long term.

Another blessing is that I will finally be able to turn loose of my second job!! {Hear the angels singing & dancing? I think I just saw Gabriel bust-a-move!) It has been a long road, but God has rewarded my perseverance and faith and given me an amazing opportunity. My last day as a Starbucks barista will be August 1st, and that will officially mark 4 years and 10 months. That's a lot of mochas and frappucinos people! It has been a good part-time job to have, but I am ready to enjoy my Friday and Saturday nights with my family again. Suffice it to say, we are all so excited for this new season- thank you Jesus!!

Now, on to our next bit of news...

Many of you have been following our updates on Josiah. He continues to grow and develop into a fun-loving, loud, busy little boy. With his upcoming MRI on August 17th, both Dana and I have been prompted to take opportunity to really seek God for a healing miracle on his behalf. Following the doctor's appointments he has already had, it appears that there is no easy solution for the issues with his back. There are many risks with doing any kind of surgery, and risks if there is none. Our neurosurgeon even admitted that he didn't have any clear ideas on how best to address the issues in Josiah's back.

So, after some thinking and prayer, Dana and I have decided to drive down to Bethel Church in Redding, California. We have been familiar with Bethel and Pastor Bill Johnson's faithful work there to raise up a church body that walks in the power of God to see healing miracles come to all people. Over the past years, Bethel Church has seen people healed from cancer, broken limbs, gastrointestinal disease, deafness - there are so many testimonies, we couldn't possibly list them all. Bethel has a ministry of their church called "healing rooms" where anyone who is in need of physical healing can come and be prayed for. Weekly people come to be ministered to in the healing rooms and experience God's healing power in their bodies. We believe that God has made provision for Josiah's healing and are therefore making every effort to get him in an environment where he can experience that healing.

Many of us become familiar with a construction company, or a physician, counselor or pastor, who has developed a reputation because of their skill and talent. People seek them out because of their knowledge, giftedness and wisdom and benefit from it. In the same way, God works through different parts of the Body of Christ who have cultivated wisdom, knowledge and understanding about teaching, evangelism, discipleship and healing. We feel it would be foolish to not take advantage of the wisdom that God has given to this fellowship of believers who have with sincerity and diligence pursued God for wisdom and understanding about how to walk in the supernatural. So Friday morning we are driving down to Redding, California to take Josiah to the healing rooms at Bethel and to attend church services. We will come back Monday evening, so we are doing our best to also make a mini-vacation out of it and have some much needed rest and relaxation for our little family.

Will you join with us in believing God for a supernatural intervention in Josiah's body? The Bible says that all things are possible with God, and scripture gives us example after example that Jesus has not changed- He is the same yesterday, today and forever! Like the woman who had the issue of blood for 13 years and no doctor could heal her of her condition, we are reaching out in faith to our precious Jesus to take hold of His healing power for Josiah. Thank you for your prayers- we will be driving down Friday all day - and back home Monday. Please pray for safety and traveling grace for us, and most of all for the healing miracle we so desire for our little guy. We will post an update next week after we return from our trip!
Love,
Shawn, Dana, Dara and Josiah

Josiah Update #3

2009-06-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest on our little man...we met with the pediatric neurosurgeon at OHSU and he was amazing! He took us through each part of Josiah's MRI from his neck down to the base of his spine. The two concerns are the cyst in his spinal column and his deformed vertebrae/narrowing of his spinal column in the lower back.

The cyst is inside his spinal column area and they do not know why it is there. It is a fluid filled cyst and looks like a long, skinny water balloon filled with water hanging inside his spinal column. They are concerned that it could grow causing more pressure and ultimately they want to find out what's causing it.

Secondly, Josiah's lower back where he has the bump (that you can feel from the outside and it's what we started feeling when he was 4 months old), they originally thought he had one deformed vertebrae but the MRI showed three vertebrae deformed and twisted up. The concern with this is that these mangled vertebrae are pushing out (hence the bump) in his lower back and causing his nerve cord to have to go out and over this area and then tuck way under near his bottom. The reason this is such a concern is that when his nerve cord gets to this part of his back - it narrows from about an inch down to 1/16 of an inch which is way too small and he is at risk for this area to pinch off causing his nerve cord to be damaged. This area of the nerve cord controls his ability to feel in his legs, all of his leg mobility, function of his bladder and bowels and his kidney function.

Obviously we don't want him to have any damage to these nerves and his ability to function in any of these areas! The reason this "pinching off" is possible is because of the extreme narrowing and also because the last part of his spine (sacriatic area) is tucking under and not out like normal. Normally the sacriatic part of your spine takes most of your weight when you walk and "bounces" with your every step. Because Josiah's spine tucks under there is nothing in his lower spine to "take" his walking so all of his spine pressure when he walks is going to that area of his defromed vertebrae and causing his spine to narrow more and more in that area - hence the potential for it to "pinch off".

Now what? Our pediatric neurosurgeon met with three other pediatric neurosurgeons and the radiologist to go over all the details of Josiah's back. His comment was, "Josiah's case is so complicated because of all these variables that we need to put our heads together for his care." The doctors decided that they would like to do the next level of MRI on him. It will be an MRI of his complete spine (same as he had in April), his brain and also what they call a "live feed" MRI of all the fluids in his spine - blood flow, spinal fluid and some nerve impulses as well. This MRI will be Aug 17 at 8:00 a.m - we actually check in at 7:00am and then he's sedated at 8:00am and then the MRI will be from 8:30-11:30am. He'll wake up and be in recovery for about 45-60 min and then we have an appointment with the neurosurgeon at 1:00pm. Because MRI's are all digital now, as soon as it's done they can send it over to the doctor and radiologist right away - they'll be able to meet and talk about it first and then we'll be able to have our follow up appointment right away and won't have to wait. I'm SO thankful for that! :) In the meantime the doctor gave us a list of "symptoms" to watch for that could happen if his nerve cord were to begin to be pinched. Things like Josiah rubbing his legs - meaning his legs would be tingling, not wanting to put weight on his legs, regressing to crawling more than walking, acting like he is in pain when you lay him down to change him, etc. So far Josiah has none of these symptoms - praise the Lord!

Josiah doesn't have a clue about any of this stuff and is a BUSY little 19 month old. He's walking now all the time and getting faster every day. He's very curious and loves to figure things out. His favorite thing to do is put things in and out of cups, bowls or containers of any kind. We've also decided he's part squirrel because he hides stuff all over - under the couch, in our shoes, in my purse, behind his high chair, etc. It's hilarious! He's definitely the kid that you never want to get a hold of your cell phone or keys - you may never see them again - ha! :)

Dara is loving being on Summer break! She plays Jr. Golf once a week and we go to the pool at least 4x a week - she loves to swim. She's been having lots of play dates and enjoying seeing her friends. She'll be in 4th grade next year - I can hardly believe it!?! Shawn is winding up his current position at Adventist Hospital in Portland at the end of this month. They are in negotiations with him right now for a permanent position that will start the beginning of August. Once all of the details are worked out - we'll post about his new job! :) I'm keeping busy with both kids and all the fun Summer activities. There is never a dull moment around here that's for sure!

Please join us in praying for Josiah's back to heal - for the cyst to be dissolved, his three vertebrae to be untwisted and made whole, and for the narrowing in his lower spine to be opened up. We are still believeing God to do a miracle in his little body! Thanks for all of your prayers and support.
Dana (for Shawn and the kids)

Josiah Update #2 - 4/27/09

2009-04-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

We finally heard back from the doctor's about Josiah's MRI & ultrasound. The reason for the delay? The doctor had a death in his family and had to leave suddenly for the east coast for a week - so our prayers have been with Dr. DeMatta and his family during their loss.

After talking with Dr. DeMatta and his nurse here is Josiah's update...
1) The ultrasound came back showing that Josiah's kidneys are functioning at 100% - praise the Lord!
2) They ruled out that he has any narrowing of the spinal column going up into his skull (it's common when there is a spinal abnormality and can cause complications in the nerve flow thru the spine) - his spinal column is normal size and all electrical impulses and nerve messages are flowing perfectly - praise the Lord!
3) They got good pictures of the area where his deformed vertebrae is protruding and as they told us before, it's protruding, pushing the nerve cord out with it but it looks stable, nothing is being crushed/pinched right now and it is up to the neurosurgeons to evaluate and decide at what point it might need intervention (surgery, etc.). They say sometimes they need to intervene right away and other times they can just watch it and wait for years. They will also be able to tell us how they think this area of his back is going to progress as he grows. Praise the Lord - they can see clearly now what is going on with these detailed MRI pictures!
4) They found a cyst in the area of his deformed vertebrae. It's a fluid filled cyst and is very typical in children with spinal abnormalities. However, they are concerned about it because of it's location (inside the spinal column). They told us that sometimes these cysts are no big deal and just go away on their own and other times they can cause problems because they keep growing, causing pressure, pushing on the nerve cord, etc. Praise the Lord - they found it!

So what now? We are being referred to the Pediatric Neurosurgeons at Doernbecher in Portland. They will evaluate both his protruding vertebrae and the cyst and then evaluate him and consult with us about what they think is going on and what we need to do, what's our plan, etc. That's the next step and it means more waiting right now. They should be calling us in the next week or two to schedule our meeting with the neurosurgeons.

How are we doing? Josiah is doing great! He doesn't have a clue that anything might be wrong - he's a busy, busy, busy 16 month old. And he is such a happy little guy - smiles all the time, laughs out loud, loves to make us laugh - learning new words every day - he's a joy to all of us. Dara is doing great. She understands what's going on with her brother and prays with us for his healing. She has her class at school praying for him as well. We are doing good. These results are good in that they ruled some things out, verified that his kidneys are functioning 100%, his nerve impulses are all flowing perfectly, etc. We are thrilled to hear that! Obviously, we are concerned about this protruding vertebrae, what it could mean for his nerve cord and all the parts of his body that this area effects and now also this cyst and what exactly it's doing in there. I think we expected to feel relieved after this just to know what's going on but we don't feel that way because there are still so many unknowns. And until we meet with the neurosurgeons and really get some questions answered and hear their insight, we're not exactly sure what we're dealing with.

So for now, please continue to pray for Josiah's complete healing of his back. Pray that we get to see the neurosurgeons sooner rather than later - it's hard to wait. Pray that we have wisdom as we hear all of these things from the doctors and that we know what to do. We are still believing for a miracle for Josiah - that his back would be healed every step of the way. Right now we're believing that this cyst would totally be gone next time they go to look for it. We serve Jesus and one of His names is Jehovah Rapha "God IS my HEALER" and that cyst is nothing for Him to heal - praise the Lord!

Thank you so much for all your prayers! It's a blessing to know so many are praying for Josiah. We will post again when find out when our appointment with the neurosurgeons is so you can be praying specifically that day. Thanks again - love & blessings!
Shawn & Dana
P.S. Thanks so much, Jenifer (www.polkadotphotography.net) for such great pictures of our little guy - we love them! These are from his one year shoot - we'll post some newer ones next time.

Josiah Update

2009-04-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

Hello Family & Friends,
First of all, thank you to all of you who prayed for our day up at OHSU/Doernbecher. Both Josiah's ultrasound and his MRI went very well. He was extremely wiggly through the ultrasound but thankfully they're used to that up there and we were able to get all the pictures they needed of his kidneys. Then we were off to check in for his MRI. Our biggest concern of the day was the sedation process for Josiah's MRI. Despite not having solid food since 6:30am (sedation was at 12:30pm and the MRI was from 1-3pm), Josiah was his usual charming, good natured self. The whole time we were in the pediatric sedation room, he was playing with the other kids, greeting people with waves and his exuberant little "Hi!"

Although he didn't like the process of getting the IV (hello, who does?) we had a great nursing staff who cared for him and the sedation went very well. We were able to be with him until he was totally asleep and then again we were allowed to be with him when he woke up. When they called us back up to his bed, he was sitting in the lap of a nurse chugging a sippy cup of apple juice. All the nursing staff were fawning over him and asking if they could keep him - yep he had them thoroughly charmed! And we were rejoicing that he had absolutely no reactions to the medications and recovered as well as could be - what a praise! We hope to have the results of his MRI in the next week and as soon as we know more we will post an update.

For those of you who are not familiar with this journey we have been on- let me catch you up. From the time that Josiah was approximately 12 weeks old, we began to notice a bump at the base of his spine. As time passed, the older he got, the more pronounced it got. After x-rays, an ultrasound and several specialists, we were ultimately referred to Shriner's Hospital for an evaluation with an orthopedic doctor whose expertise is the lumbar/sacrum area of the back. We recently learned that Josiah has a misformed vertabrae in the lumbar area of his spine which is causing his spine to compensate and protrude at the base of his back. It is also potentially putting his nerve cord at risk of being damaged/pinched - meaning it could effect the function of certain areas of his body that this part of his nerve cord controls - mainly his kidney function, lower leg movement, bladder and bowel control, etc. While he has not developmentally presented any delays or shown any signs of damage, the MRI we had today was to see 1) does he have a tethered spinal cord (meaning that the end of the spinal cord tucks under instead of out), 2) Verify the position of his nerve cord as it relates to his spine and this protruding deformed vertebrae and to see if there is any potential impact to it based on all of these issues.

If the doctor determines that either of these are an issue, we will likely be meeting with a neurosurgeon to discuss necessary interventions. If neither of these possibilities are an issue, our specialist will continue to evaluate Josiah's orthopedic issues as he develops. Our specialist thinks that once Josiah begins walking more, that the increase of impact to his spinal cord will only become more pronounced. That his "bump" will protrude more and potentially get worse causing his entire spine to compensate. He told us several times that this problem will not go away - he's not just going to "grow out of it" but that it's going to progress as he grows. He told us that about four different times during our appointment with him. However, each time he said that Dana and I both heard the Lord whispering in our hearts, "But you don't know our God - He can do things that look impossible!" We believe that God has healing for Josiah.

Today's tests are to get clear pictures of his spine to help us understand what is going on with Josiah's nerve cord and to make sure his kidney function is normal. The ultrasound was performed today to verify that his kidney function is normal. When there are spinal abnormalities in the area of the back that Josiah's is in, there is the possibility that the kidneys could be affected. There are different kinds of outcomes that could come from all these tests ranging from further observation to interventional neurosurgery to correct issues with his nerve cord and vertebrae. Obviously we will know more what the doctors are thinking once we get these test results back. And in the meantime we are continuing to pray for Josiah's healing.

We are relieved that the day is done and that everything went so well with the testing. He was a little trooper and really the day went as well as it could have gone - God worked out so many little details to make it all come together. Thank you to each of you for praying and please continue to join us in praying for Josiah and his back to be completely healed. We will post again as soon as we know more. Blessings to each of you -
Shawn (Dana too)

Stealing a moment...

2009-02-04T20:27:00.000-08:00

Dana is making a run to grab a movie and grab some Cold Stone for the both of us (thank goodness for coupons!). So I am stealing a moment to blog!

I got to leave work early today. being limited to a 40 hour a week work schedule certainly has its advantages. Since I have to work late tomorrow and Friday- I got to leave at 1pm today, pick up Dara and take her to piano lessons. On the way to pick her up from school, I cleaned out the minivan (nobody could have EVER told me how corroded a minivan could get with children- don't even ask me to describe what I found underneath the car seat!). I got the car washed, and still had time to zip over to Yard and Garden Land for 20 minutes before pickup at Kingsway, for some pre-spring Garden inspiration. I have to tell you that many of the witch-hazels are blooming, and the buds on the winter daphne are growing pinker by the day. Soon their heady lemony scent will fill the air heralding the coming of spring. Can you tell my gardening juices are flowing??

I got home and got completely ready for the next day, puttered around in the yard. After I snipped off the English Ivy creeping through my back fence from my neighbor's neglected abandoned yard, I sprayed the stubs with Round-Up. Can't have that stuff showing up in my garden beds.

I came back inside to a smiley Josiah who plays and periodically stops, grins ear to ear and just waves at you. If he gets any more charming, I don't know what we will do. It makes me a little nervous for when he gets older. Dana and Dara finished their homemade Valentines cards today for Dara's 3rd grade class - and I fixed dinner. It was sort of an unusual day for us. Kind of like a Friday in the middle of the week. {sigh} It has been a good day. Blessings!

Of Birthday Boys and NW Style Blizzards

2008-12-21T16:12:00.000-08:00

Howdy friends!
I am currently lounging in my living room while Mrs. Claus (Dana) is baking in her kitchen. No visions of sugarplums here, just sugar cookies, homemade almond roca, chocolate dipped peanut butter balls, fudge and ginger snaps! It's Sunday night and in addition to the 6-8 inches of snow we have already had, and the freezing rain, we are now having quite a snow shower again. Its very fun to be INSIDE!

This month we celebrated Josiah's 1st Birthday on December 15th! The first cold wave hit on his birthday so Grandma and Grandpa Klinkner weren't able to make it up as planned- but Nana and Pop-Pop and Great Grams came over so we proceeded with the festivities anyhow:

Josiah blowing out his first candle!

Josiah liked the frosting, but couldn't quite figure out what to do with the rest.

Opening presents- Josiah needed a little help from sister and daddy.

"Pop-Pop, will you help me open my box full of cars?"

Hangin' out with Pop-Pop and Great Grams

The snow has been a pleasant surprise. Dara and I have managed to get out for a few snowball fights, and we were also invited by our neighbor with the large property to the north to be pulled on a sled by a 4-Wheeler with his two grandsons. Here are some of the shots:

This is Dana and the kids when the winter weather began to hit a week ago, Dec 14th.

This is me sneaking a snowball into Dara's face during the picture - but you can see the minivan behind and how much accumulation there had been.

Dad is laughing at the surprise attack

Daddy and Dara coming in after playing outside in the snow.

Check out our ice

Slabs of ice we lifted from the snow. Jack Frost has been nipping at our nose!

Dara, our snow angel

Mommy even made it outside for a bit of the snowball fight action!

Dara sledding at our neighbors

Dara had a hoot sledding today with our neighbor's grandsons, Coda and Aaron.

Well, we have Christmas baking to finish, Christmas cards to address and a few presents left to wrap, but wanted to post a shout out from the Klinkner house - "We love the Winter Weather!"

Annual Trip to Joe's Place and Halloween

2008-10-31T22:58:00.000-07:00

Here's pictures from our annual trip to Joe's Place here in Vancouver. It was Josiah's first time to Joe's and we had a good time. Following that we had our annual get together with our good friends, the Branchflowers for the trick or treat event and hang out night for kids and adults.

This year Dara decided she wanted to dress up as Princess Leia. What sweetened this even more is when some friends of ours said they had a yoda costume for a baby that their little boy had outgrown. WARNING: You will LOVE the pictures you are about to see. Who knew Yoda could be so cute??

We have arrived at Joe's Place! What to do first? Pumpkin Patch or Hayride??

Josiah loved hangin out in the wheelbarrow, he just took in all the sights the whole time we were there.

Sittin on the pumpkin next to dad

Dara and little bro at Joe's Place

Dara loves the sunflowers at Joes

Josiah likes traveling in the backpack with dad

OK. This close up is way too cute.

Quick- lets take a family pic!

The hayride was fun, now we're all done- time to head home with our pumpkins in tow!

Mmmm... Love me you will- yes!

"Do or do not! There is no trying!"

Our Star Wars crew with lightsabers. The Force is definitely with us!

Shawn with Joseph Jr aka Batman, Josiah (Yoda), Dara (princess Leia), Willow (Sweet Pumpkin Baby), Violet (Little clown girl), and Jordan (Power Ranger Superhero).

We had a great time. The kids got way too much candy, and Josiah and I were able to score some candy too (of course Josiah didn't want any of his candy so he's sharing with mommy and daddy this year :)!

Catch Up

2008-10-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

Howdy Friends,
Long time no blog! Surprise, surprise :)
Work has been keeping me very busy. It has been a fast 3 months at my new job at Adventist Medical Center. I am really enjoying my work there- it has been an entirely different world than my previous one at Christ Community, but the change has been good. My days are filled in meetings with different hospital departments navigating through remodel challenges, producing construction reports, following up on equipment decisions and more... Looking ahead we have just under 7 months to bring the first phase of the project to completion and so far we are on target.

Things on the homefront haven't slowed down either- Dara is enjoying 3rd grade and has been keeping up with her piano lessons and nightly homework. She and I went out for a date the other night to watch the American Girl "Kit Kittredge" movie (good movie by the way), it was nice to have some time together just for the two of us.

Josiah is growing, teething and crawling! Yes, you heard it first here. The little "wunga" as we call him, is on the move! (Don't ask me why we call him wunga, we just do!) Actually, I remember why we call him wunga now. When we would get Josiah undressed and ready for bed sometimes his onesie would get stuck on his head. We would leave it there and call him "King Bubbawunga", which has now been abbreviated to just "wunga". Wow. Etymology of Klinkner family nicknames.

In any case, it is high time you see some of the latest pics, so I won't bore you with details:

We had a beautiful fall day, decided to go lounge in the backyard on a Sunday afternoon.

Josiah with his first experience touching grass. He just pawed at the grass, mesmerized by the texture.

Dara working on homework- loves 3rd grade.

Josiah learning to crawl in his crib.

Dana has had her hands full with me being gone so much more, managing both kids and our home. She's doing a great job too. Its a full life, and a good one. We are looking forward to a trip to the pumpkin patch tomorrow- the weather has been so pretty the last week, crystal clear blue days, brilliant fall color and crisp foggy mornings. Mmmmm. Time for a hot cup of tea and my blanket. Hope to post again soon!

The Don't Song

2008-08-30T23:44:00.000-07:00

This is hilarious! A word for my brothers...

A Moment...

2008-08-12T20:57:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends-
Finally I have a moment to write. The last two weeks have been quite a turnaround for our family. From joblessness to working full-time, being home working on projects in my spare time, to getting home barely in time to see the kids 90 minutes before bedtime, talking to Dana throughout the day, to maybe talking with her once a day while I am at work and then catching up after the kids get to bed.

It's a new reality.

I am loving my new career at Adventist Medical Center. I have been blessed to discover God's kindness and handiwork once again in my life. The hospital's mission is "to carry out the human expression of the healing ministry of Jesus Christ." When we were there for Dana's surgery and for Josiah's birth- we really felt a qualitative difference in the care we received from the staff of the hospital compared to other places we had been before. I attribute this to the mission of the hospital being expressed through its staff. You see this even moreso in the Administration- and its not only about healing and health, the people I am getting to know really demonstrate godly character in the way they live and work. Monday mornings we can go to worship at the hospital, a 30 minute opportunity to sing a hymn or two, and hear a devotional thought presented by a staff member, and time to pray. HELLO?? I still freak out about that. Fridays, many of the staff leave work early to prepare to celebrate the Sabbath, a time of rest and devotion to the Lord; It's amazing working in an atmosphere where you are supported in living out the mission of Jesus Christ.

I guess I wasn't expecting to be in another environment similar to the one I left. Sure there are differences. But foundationally it is a gift to be able to be in agreement with the mission of your workplace. This position is stretching me to sharpen in fresh ways and I am tired when I get home. But I wake up excited every day and ready to jump in to work at the hospital. God has been very good to me and I am so grateful for His kindness manifested to me in and through this opportunity.

Our family is doing well. We just enjoyed celebrating Dara's 8th birthday. We went up to our family's Island House on Andersen Island in Puget Sound for a fun weekend of BBQ, fishing, Olympics watching, cribbage playing and general R & R. We had a great time and Dara had a great 8th birthday. Josiah is turning 8 months old at the end of the week. He is sitting up (a little wobbly still), but getting more adept day by day. He is in the process of being weaned- and has been eating solid foods. Boy he doesn't like veggies much- we are a little concerned he has inherited a palette for sweet things like his big sister. We have doctored up peas and green beans with some applesauce and peaches to help things go down- and he seems to like it. Before he would just cry uncontrollably when we were feeding him things he didn't "have a taste for".

How's Dana? Well right now she is having a well deserved girls night out with a good friend, eating desert for the first time without having to be concerned about soy or dairy anymore because she's not breastfeeding. She has been a real trooper the last 10 days as I have been working again. You have heard the saying, "Behind every great man there's a great woman"? Well it's true- she's pretty awesome. Lastly here's some of the latest pics- even these are outdated- we haven't even taken time to download pics of the digital camera- so these will have to suffice for now. Enjoy!

These are a couple of shots from Josiah's 4 month pictures done by our friend Jenn Johnston of Polkadot Photography-

Summer BBQ'ing is fun

Able Baker Dara enjoys the fruit of her labor

Dara reading to Josiah on our bed

A New Job!

2008-07-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

Howdy Friends-
We are praising the Lord over here at the Klinkner house and here's why: I accepted an offer today for a position at Portland Adventist Hospital (the hospital where we had Josiah, and where Dana had her surgery)!! Starting tomorrow, I will be the Executive Assistant to the Senior Vice President of Facilities, helping to administrate the current construction project on the hospital campus. This is a great opportunity for me, especially to get a foot in the door at the hospital. More details coming- just had to announce the good news!
Shawn

Spring & Early Summer Virtual Garden Tour

2008-07-09T17:15:00.000-07:00

Well my friends, it brings me great pleasure to share with you some of the fruits of my labor in the backyard. Below is a collection of pictures from this year's landscape. I will have more as the summer progresses some of my late blooming perennials and hydrangeas are just beginning to put on their show. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Shawn

Jump!

2008-07-08T22:46:00.000-07:00

Josiah is almost 7 months old. He is delighted when we put him in his Johnny Jump Up. He could spend hours in it. It was an unexpected surprise for us because Dara was never into these, so we are having fun watching Josiah. Here's a video of him in the jumper!

The job hunt...

2008-07-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

Howdy friends-
While it has been fun posting pictures of the kids and some of the fun events of our family lately I have felt like I have needed to blog a little about my job hunt. July 9th will mark my sixth month of being unemployed. Working part-time at Starbucks has been a blessing because it is providing for our family to have medical benefits and some income in addition to my unemployment, and it helps me to get out of the house and have something concrete to give my time to besides my work at home and the church.

I have had a handful of interviews, a couple job offers but nothing that would provide what we need to live on. I continue to trust the Lord for the right opportunity. Most days I am able to stay level headed and positive about things but there have been a few days where the weight of not having a full-time income and having only a handful of leads has gotten overwhelming. Dana has said on more than one occasion, "Honey it only takes 1 right door to open..." and I do believe that God's faithfulness will lead me to that door. As of this point though that opportunity remains to be realized and I am still standing in faith, looking regularly for work, applying and following up on leads.

This last week I was reminded at 4:00 am of God's lovingkindness. I had just finished a difficult closing shift at Starbucks on Saturday night, came home about 1:30am and was asleep at 2 am. Josiah had been waking up periodically that night because he was teething and Dana was exhausted. At 4am he started wailing again- so bleary eyed and delirious, I turned down the monitor in our room so Dana could sleep and went to Josiah's room. After a bit of problem solving, I determined that he was hungry so I picked him up and got a bottle ready and sat in our recliner in the living room. Sitting there I found myself smiling and talking at my little guy, not feeling the weariness from the night before and not worried at all about having to get up in three more hours to get ready to set up for church and lead worship. I was just delighted to take care of my son. In that moment I realized that God delights in meeting my needs as well. That during this time of my unemployment, God is faithfully listening and responding to my cries for the next step in my career journey, my cries for provision and open doors of opportunity. His responses to me are not obligatory, or begrudging. He wants to help me right now, He wants to meet my needs, just as I was content and happy to hold my little Josiah and feed him at 4 am on 2 hours of sleep. God is delighting in showing His faithfulness to me during this time. I know that many of us have had revelations about God's care for us as we care for our children. This, however, for me was the first time. For whatever reason (maybe my thickheadedness) its just sinking in a little bit more. Well there's more to the story...

So I got Josiah fed and laid him back down for the rest of the night and got back in bed and promptly blacked out. One of those luscious, deep sleeps where it seems like you close your eyes and you just sleep forever. My alarm wakes me up at 7:30am blaring the Christian radio station. In my spirit, however there is an ENTIRELY different song playing loud and clear. I was a bit astonished because I hadn't heard this song in years and I just had to chuckle. In my mind, loud and clear was Marvin Gaye singing, "I wanna beee, your sole provider".

I know the Bible says that God surrounds us with songs of deliverance, and that the psalms alsosay that "at night Your song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life..." but Marvin Gaye? Maybe you think I'm crazy... but I'll take it. In my mind there is no coincidence between what God was showing me with Josiah and the song I woke up with in my heart. He IS my Sole provider!

I would like to ask for you to agree with me in prayer with me right now. First, that I would get interviews. One of the main challenges in today's job hunting environment is you never have face to face interaction with an employer. They explicitly say in the position announcement, that they want no calls or follow up emails about the position; that they will contact you if they are interested in pursuing you as a candidate. So your chances for making an impression on an employer lie entirely with your resume and cover letter. Pray that I will get called for more interviews. Also, there is a job that I have applied for that I would be thrilled to get. I have not yet been contacted for an interview, I just applied a week ago. Pray that I would be called for an interview. Thank you so much. I'll keep you posted!
Shawn

Starting Cereal...

2008-06-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

Its hard to believe it but Josiah turned 6 months old on June 15th! This fun milestone brings with it all sorts of new adventures with eating. We got to start Josiah on Rice cereal and slowly we are introducing some of the fruits and vegetables. So far he has had only a handful of good eating experiences. He doesn't seem to get it yet and won't hardly open his mouth- I don't think it will be long though. Here's a video of big sister Dara feeding him and a sweet pic of the little guy- you are sure to enjoy!

And here is the cutest pic of Josiah! Check it out:

School's Out and so are Teeth!

2008-06-25T16:05:00.000-07:00

Summer has officially arrived and Dara just completed her 2nd grade year at Kingsway. It's hard to believe that another year has passed by so quickly, but here we are with an almost 8 year old on our hands! To celebrate the finish of Dara's 2nd Grade year we have a few photos of her last couple of days at school and we also celebrated her outstanding report card by surprising Dara with the hard-to-find Whimsy Dragon from Webkinz. Take a peek:

Dara, Emily & Victoria hanging out

Dara's farewell note to Mrs. Wold (her 2nd Grade teacher)

Dara and her newly adopted Whimsy Dragon, Pink Thunder
Way to go on your report card Dara- we are so proud of you!!

Not only is school out, but another one of Dara's teeth came out. This was no ordinary tooth either. It was a stubborn eye tooth that refused to come out. So stubborn in fact, that when the new tooth started coming in, it was pushing this one straight out (see above picture). Yes we have some nice pictures of our precious Dara and her horizontally protrudung eye teeth! There is still one to go, but this was real victory to have this one out!

Look at the hole where that tooth used to be!

Now the tooth fairy can come- yeah!!!

Fresh Photos!

2008-06-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

So here I am again playing catch up with my blogging. I am still fighting this idea that because you have small children, it means its harder to get things accomplished. Although, I guess if intentions accomplished things-- boy howdy would there be a lot done!! Nuff said. Y'all have been starved out here in bloggerland and I came with fresh material to share! On with the good stuff. To start off a few severely cute pics of the chitluns:

Just love this little picture of Dara and Josiah!

That's my boy! The older they get the more fun they are to get dressed. We couldn't wait to bust out the Baby gap jeans- aww!

Josiah has officially moved on from tolerating his bath times to actually enjoying them. Most recently he figured out how to splash much to mommy's (wet) chagrin! Here he is discovering his little tiny rubber ducky:

"What's this little creature? I think I will see what it tastes like..."

"It doesn't taste like chicken..., but still its chewy... and I like the way it squeaks when I bite it."

"I think I like you... You are mine and I shall bite you as often as I can, because you are my duck!"

Hope you enjoyed this snippet of Klinkner life- more posts ahead!

Heroic Handyman, Speech Contest & Teething Boy

2008-05-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

Howdy friends!
A few recent happenings at the Klinkner household. Most notably would be that Dara scored 3rd place out of the entire 2nd Grade at Kingsway in the speech meet!

Each one of the students were required to memorize a poem and recite it in front of the class. The top three then competed against the other top 3 students from the other two 2nd grade classes. Dara scored 3rd place overall with her dramatized version of "The Mouse" by Elizabeth Coatsworth. If you would like to see her you can watch her speech recital right here:

We are very proud of her!

Now for our second hero... ME!!
If any of you know me very well, you know that when it comes to handyman projects I am mostly inept. Well, I surprised Dana and myself this week when our dishwasher handle broke and I ended up taking the door off and replacing the entire latching unit on the dishwasher by myself (with a little encouragement from my neighbor Jerry). Shocking, but true! I ended up saving a nice little chunk of change by not paying for a service call from an appliance repair company and having someone do it for me. Here's proof of my studliness in action:

Awwww YEAH! Who's in da HOUSE? Shawn is!

Lastly- some pictures of our little slobber monster, Josiah. He is 75% of the way on being able to roll over from his tummy to his back and from his back to his tummy. He has been pretty fussy this week and salivating like someone on the next to the last day of Survivor as they look at a sizzling cheeseburger and fresh french fries. Here's some pics of the lad:

Hope you enjoyed this brief yet exciting journey through the highlights of this last week. I will leave you now with the promised recipe from my last post. It is simply a fresh take on frozen veggies:

8 oz frozen corn
8 oz. frozen green beans
6 oz fresh baby spinach
1 Tbl. Olive Oil
Costco's Organic No Salt Seasoning
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 Tsp. Balsalmic Vinegar

Saute frozen corn and green beans in olive oil on medium high heat until crisp and cooked through. Reduce heat to medium low and add the baby spinach, stirring regularly until just wilted. Add salt and pepper and Costco's No Salt HErb Seasoning (this stuff is awesome and only about 4 bucks for a huge bottle!) to taste, and add balsalmic vinegar, stir well and serve. Its Delish! Enjoy friends- talk to you soon!
Shawn

Time Travel Anyone?

2008-05-15T10:05:00.001-07:00

Ok- so we aregoing to do a bit of time travel today and recap some of the fun events of the last month. With Dana's surgery and recovery, it sort of eclipsed some of our regular routine. So here's the catch up:

Happy Birthday Dana!!

Dana turned 37 years old on April 21st. We celebrated with some fun gifts and a nice dinner out at Rose's Bakery and Deli. Dana recommends the Vienna Mocha Torte if you ever have the chance to visit there. Some of her favorite gifts were some new Amuse Rubber Stamps and card making supplies (surprise, surprise)!

On another note- we also celebrated another fun event (although not so auspicious). But Dara and I traveled to several local stores for the Webkinz Day Extravaganza. For those of you who do not know about Webkinz, they are small stuffed animals that come with a code that you log on and enter online to adopt a virtual pet. These virtual pets are yours to care for- you get to make them a home, feed them, play games and earn kinzcash (the currency of Webkinz World) etc... The whole website is fantastic- and Ganz has really done an outstanding job with it. It is educational, fun (and Dana I have been known to play too!) So the Webkinz day extravaganza was to celebrate Ganz' 3rd anniversary of releasing webkinz. For every $10 spent at a participating retailer, you got a free Webkinz pet. There were also fun games and prizes for participants.

Dara and I picked up her friend, Emily, and we went to a store in Portland where they had the "Wheel of WOW" - like the one you get to spin in Webkinz world. Just FYI, the Wheel of Wow, online, is a game kids can play daily where their pet gets to spin and they win prizes. Well, there was a real live Wheel of Wow at this store and Dara got to spin. Here are some pictures from our adventure:

Dara and Emily outside CardWorks in Portland

Dara and Emily with their newly purchased Lil' Kinz White Mice, named in honor of the story of the country mouse and city mouse, Millie and Tillie.

Dara spins the Wheel of WOW

All in all Dara made a haul over the weekend. Our little webkinz collector was able to win 2 free pets from contests she participated in, a pack of free trading cards, 2 free mouse pads, not to mention an additional 3 free pets from the pets she saved money to buy (and the one that Daddy and Grandpa Bill bought for her!) Can I just say that God knows the desires of this little girl's heart??

And now (drumroll please...) for some of the latest and greatest pics of the cutest baby ever......... JOSIAH!! By the way, the cutest baby ever is officially 5 months old today! Happy 5 month birthday Josiah!

Bathtime is fun- he used to cry, but now he is starting to enjoy it!

Josiah loves his Super Teether from Discovery Toys (Thank You Great Aunt Susan!) He loves to gnaw on this thing- and by the picture you can tell he's excited!

And lastly, some way fun pics from my garden. Everything has been coming back to life and growing. Its so neat to see how the plants mature from year to year. My bleeding heart plant is absolutely enormous this year (its a little over 3 feet tall!!) Here's a close up of the blooms:

I almost think this would be way cool as a wallpaper for my desktop... hmm... I think I am going to experiment with that!

And this variegated Hosta postively glows in my yard- its lemony yellow variegation really lights up the southeast corner of my yard.

Well, thats all for now- I promise more adventures and pics soon. As well as a recipe for a fun new side dish that Dana and I have been thoroughly enjoying. Stay tuned!!

Introducing something new...

2008-05-13T14:10:00.001-07:00

Hello friends-
Just want you to know of a new endeavor I have begun. In addition to this blog, where I will be posting fun stories, happenings and Klinkner news and pictures, I just launched a devotional blog called "Planted by Living Streams". The Bible tells us to fan into flame the gift of God that is in us. So I have decided to apply this scripture in my own life and work on my writing and teaching skills by posting observations, encouragement and insights from the word of God there. Please feel free to visit. I hope that it is a blessing to you!

In the meantime- stay posted- there is a fresh update coming to celebrate some of the happenings of the last month, and to bring the latest news from the Klinkner homefront! Thanks for visiting-
Shawn

CURRENT moving to a new service time...

2008-05-03T23:11:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody!
Just wanted to pass the word along that our church, CURRENT, is moving to a new time. We have a new building we are leasing and services will now be held on Sunday mornings from 10:30am - 12:30pm. We are meeting inside the Schlatter Prayer Chapel on the Warner Pacific College Campus at 68th and Division- just 19 blocks east of our previous location on 49th & Division.

We are excited to be moving to Sunday mornings and to have a building that will better serve our growing church family. We hope to see you there sometime! If you need directions to our church- just click here for a map. See you soon!

Praise for the Zofran shot & We made it Home!

2008-04-23T23:18:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends!
Just a quick note to expound upon the virtues of the Zofran drug. Zofran is an anti-nausea drug- and boy howdy- did it do wonders for Dana today. She woke up extremely nauseated from the surgery, despite already having had 3 anti-nausea medications "cocktailed" into her IV before having anisthesia. Because of the Zofran Dana was able to emerge from the black hole of nausea, gain coherency and make it home b y 7 pm tonight. (Thank you Briana for suggesting I ask for more drugs! - Dana)

It is so nice to be in the comfort of our own home- its so much quieter and everyone feels much more relaxed. Praise God Josiah is finally eating. Most of the day he refused the bottle so I ended up feeding him breastmilk (amidst spitting it out and the occasional gagfest) with a syringe.

Dana is taking Tylenol for pain- and is very sore, but overall in good spirits. We are so thankful to the Lord for the surgery going so well and the care that we received at the hospital. Now its rest and recuperation for the next 5 days. Thanks so much for all your prayers- we could feel every one of them!
Shawn & Dana

Good News!

2008-04-23T14:05:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends-
Thanks for all your prayers. I spoke with our doctor and Dana is here in the room waking up. The surgery was successful- and they were able to do the surgery laproscopically- which is a huge praise!! Dr. Nakamura showed me actual pictures of Dana's ovaries and where the cysts had been after the surgery. So far Dana is mildly coherent and very sleepy. Dr. Nak said we would be released later tonight.

The nurse just came in and said that doctors orders were that she can't take Ibuprofen for pain (because Advil is like a blood thinner) and Dana is allergic to narcotics- makes her throw up. So we are now trying to find a solution for her to take something for pain later today and when she gets home.

That's all for now. Thanks again for your prayers!
Shawn & Dana

At the Hospital for Dana's Surgery

2008-04-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends-

As many of you know Dana is here at the Portland Adventist Hospital having surgery for her Poly-cystic Ovary Syndrome today. We arrived this morning at 9am and got Dana prepped for surgery, fed Josiah and they just took Dana back to the Operating Room to get going. Josiah and I are hanging out in the waiting area for the next 2 hours until the surgery is completed and Dana is waking up. I will be sure to post as soon as I have news. In the meantime, if you would like to pray, pray specifically that:

1) During the surgery that they will be able to accomplish it laproscopically (small incision). There is a possibility that if the ovaries are difficult to access they may have to make a longer C-section style incision- which we do not want (for many reasons). So pray that Dr. Nakamura is able to have sucess with the laproscopy.

2) Pray that the surgery is successful in general, and that Dana will be able to reap the most optimum benefit from the procedure.

3) Pray for Josiah that at his next feeding (approx 12:30pm) that he will take the breastmilk we have pumped and stored for today through the bottle.

Thanks for your prayers. We'll post more information as soon as we are able!
Shawn & Dana

2nd Grade Program, Cute Baby Pics and Hamster Wheels

2008-04-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

Howdy Friends-

It's late Wednesday evening- and its been a long day. The dishes from dinner are still on the counter and the table. I got home from Starbucks after a 10.5 hour shift, and by the time we had finished dinner it was time to get Dara ready for reading time and bed, do Josiah's next to the last feeding and settle down for the results show on American Idol and catch all the buzz about the cold weather we're supposed to have this weekend. About 10:30pm I am starting to freak out, so I made this little video for you all. Hope you enjoy it (warning: I am looking more than a little frumpy- but that just lends itself to the authenticity of the content). Here it is:

There is a candid glimpse into our home! Hope you enjoyed it :)

And now for some ultra-cute baby pics! (Applause and drum roll...)

This picture was taken when Daddy got adventurous with some clothes we pulled out of Josiah's 0-3 month drawer the other day. I will call this picture: Handsome Little Dude

This next picture was so adorable. We took Dara's old Fisher price sound and lights gym and got it set up for Josiah. When he started playing with it, Dara said that Josiah "needed" her to show him how it worked and that he really wanted her down there with him. Check out this one:

And lastly, since Josiah has been growing so much lately (it seems that he is going to be breaking into his 3-6 month clothes here in the next 3-4 weeks because he's so long), we have had to shop for some 3-6 clothes for warmer weather. Originally all his 3-6 month clothes were for the dead of winter because the doctor thought he was going to be big. Instead we had him 4 weeks early and he has been a little bean! So we found this cute little speedo sun hat for this summer and we had to try it on. He looked hilarious!

On another fun note- this week Dara had her 2nd grade program. Their theme this year was "Under the Sea". The last several weeks they have been studying ocean life, they have prepared reports about particular ocean animals (Dara's was the bottlenose dolphin), and memorized scripture from Genesis about how God made the sea and the animals in it. Well, our little Dara came home from school one day telling us about how she auditioned for a solo in the musical! We were excited (and a little surprised at the initiative she demonstrated to audition for the part, and VERY proud!) Well, she got the part! And last night, I must say we felt a little star struck watching our little girl sing about "Ollie the Octopus". Here's a short video clip of Dara singing- she is in the pink shirt on the right side and she sings the second verse. Check it out:

Blog Fashion Crisis

2008-04-14T23:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Faithful Blog Readers,

I want to take a moment to apologize for all the construction happening on my blog. I have been trying to find a blog template that I was happy with and have consequently been changing things around frequently. Bear with me! I think I have finally settled on a layout that is functional and aesthetically where I am wanting it to be. More soon-
Shawn

Parental revelations of the multiple children kind

2008-04-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

Howdy Friends!
Just wanted to give a quick shout out to you faithful bloggers. We have had quite an eventful week here at the Klinkner house. Late Tuesday night Josiah got the stomach flu and ended up throwing up and being very sick. We fortunately were able to keep him hydrated with some pedialyte until the morning when we could try breastfeeding him again, which he did- much to our relief. It's horrible watching an infant projectile vomit like that.

So here's a little realization I had this week the night after Josiah got the flu...
You know you are a dad when about 10:30pm at night, all the kids are in bed, you are wishing you were in bed, and you decide that its time to make a trip to Winco to get groceries because 1) Its the only time you can have uninterrupted thinking time, 2) the fridge is almost empty and in order to save the budget from being sabotaged by the desire for convenience and eating out you need to go get some easy fixins to feed the fam. So there I was at Winco wandering down aisles of food with a grocery list that was 8 days old, stuck in the frozen food section trying to decide if I should buy El Monterrey's chicken and cheese taquitos with the flour tortillas, or the chicken taquitos with the corn tortilla that didn't have any cheese at all. After going back and forth in my mind... I had to stop for a moment and consider if this is what my life was going to entail for the next couple of years... Which leads me to another couple of things i have been contemplating of late:

Dana and i have been tossing around a couple of catch phrases in this new season of parenting. These have been instrumental in helping us shape our responses to situations that come up in everyday life. The first is: "Is this childishness or disobedience?" I don't know about you, but sometimes I catch myself having adult expectations of my daughter sometimes (which is obviously ridiculous), but it helps me realize some of my own issues with perfectionism and control. Dana has really helped me out by asking me to evaluate Dara's responses to daily llife by asking me, "Shawn, was that childishness, or disobedience?" The end result being that if it's childishness- then it merits a different quality of response from me as a parent- such as patience, longsuffering, some quality teaching moments, and most importantly teaching our daughter how to laugh at her mistakes. Disobedience, also holds then a different response such as accountability and right responses to failure, and training. Its been good to clarify and recognize that many times the choices and responses that Dara has originate from childishness and not stubbornness, or willful disobedience.

The second catchphrase that has been really helping me is, "People are more important than things". Some of this pertains to the times in life when you find that you have weird priorities. For example, I like my house to be picked up. Good ambition for someone with young kids right? Normally not something you would have an issue with. But when your daughter wants to set up her new mini tent that you just got from Ikea in the middle of your living room and leave it set up all week long, (while daily transporting treasures from her room into the tent and back out again, then melting down right before bedtime because she can't find something that she moved). I have had to tell myself, that despite the inconvenience it is to me to have a small tent in the living room (and the trail of toys everywhere), that the fact that it brings Dara joy is more important than my house looking spotless (and me feeling in control). By the way, I bet the people who came up with the concept of feng shui didn't have young children- or maybe they did... and that's why they came up with those tiny little zen gardens- so they had something small in their life that was totally under their control... I'm going to have to think about this a little more.

Isn't it amazing how having children exposes just about every area of life that you need to grow in? It's a good thing we love the little buggers! And in case you are still wondering which box of taquitos I bought at Winco... I didn't get either of them. I snagged a Michelangelos 4-Cheese lasagna instead. Garlic bread and salad anyone?

Spring Garden Pictures

2008-03-31T10:32:00.001-07:00

Just had to share some pictures of my garden from Spring. Since my backyard is partially shaded by some very large doug fir trees, we have a prolonged spring and summer since my flowers and shrubs tend to take a bit longer to bloom. I love the springtime with everything coming back alive from being dormant. Plants are shedding fresh green growth, trees are putting out their leaves and the spring bulbs speckle the landscape with bright colors. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Daffodils

Coral Bark Maple Acer Palmatum 'Sango Kaku'

This is a close up of the Coral Bark Maple putting forth its leaves. It sort of reminds me of a baby bird hatching with its tiny wet little wings. Soon these leaves will broaden and be a nice spring green.

Tulips just starting to turn color. These are some of Dana's favorites. She has loved tulips ever since her trip to the Ukraine when she was in college.

My bleeding heart just emerged from its underground slumber. At the end of last summer I accidentally stepped on it and snapped the main stalk coming out of the ground. I was worried that the plant wouldn't come back since I had recently planted it. I was glad to see this guy coming back up in the spring. It just goes to show you that if you have great roots, you can have some trauma in your life and get resurrected in a new season!

Seeds...

2008-03-31T10:20:00.001-07:00

Last summer, in my gardening adventures, I turned slightly mad scientist and began hybridizing some of my daylilies. After I harvested the seed pods and air dried the seeds, they went into cold storage (to trick the seeds into dormancy). Well, I have since planted them (you can see my previous post) and now we have seeds germinating!! Wanna see? Check it out:

So far 5 out of 24 seeds have germinated. I am excited to see how they continue to grow and develop. More later!

Update on the Job Hunt

2008-03-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends!
It has been a while since I have posted so I have several things I am going to be posting today from family updates to news and infomation about our church,Current, to some fun garden news and pics!

First of all- an update to my job hunting. As many of you know I was laid off from my full-time job at Christ Community in the beginning of January when the organization was closed by the benefactor. Since then I have continued to work at Starbucks part-time and have been searching for work to replace both jobs. Usually I find 3-4 good job opportunities in the my ideal pay range every week to apply for. Recently I started working with a few recruiters that do direct to hire placement, and that has been good to employ other people in helping me find work as well. Until last week I hadn't had any contacts for interviews which was a bit discouraging. Last week, however, I was contacted by an organization in Portland that utilizes motivational coaching to help college and university students in their success at school. The company is contracted by colleges and universities to provide the service (rather than by the students themselves). I had a short 15 minute phone interview with them- which went well. I actually have another interview this Wednesday in the morning to check out the opportunity further. I am not sure that it is something that will financially work- but I am going to go and sharpen my interviewing skills and see what opportunities will open up for me. Its nice to finally have some action on the interviewing front!!

Several friends at the church I am helping to pastor have been unemployed and we been praying for them and have seen God provide wonderful jobs three times now. That gives me faith that my breakthrough is coming. Thats the wonderful thing about a testimony. When people give testimony about something that God does in their life- it releases faith in those who hear it that God can do the same for them. So I am certainly benefitting from having seen God answer our prayers for Tom, Lindsey and Trish. I'll be sure to share mine when I have a new job! Stay posted-
Shawn

Piano Girl

2008-03-31T09:49:00.000-07:00

Some of you may or may not know that we have had Dara in piano lessons this year. She has been doing extremely well- and I thought I would post a small video clip of her playing the piano. This is one of the songs she has been working on in her piano lessons. Enjoy!
Shawn

Random 80's Flashback

2008-03-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

So this morning I just got home from taking Dara to school. I get into the house and am getting ready mentally to attack my week of job hunting with fresh vigor and faith when I hear Josiah wake up in our room and starting to fuss because he's hungry. Naturally, I go in to say good morning and to help Dana wake up (something that takes a while). So I grab Josiah out of the bassinet and walk with him into the living room while Dana is making her way out of the fog of morning sleepiness, and he just begins to wail. The blood sugar level has officially dropped and he can't wait anymore. So I'm calling to Dana, "Come on hon- he's hungry- and I don't think he can wait much longer", when all of a sudden streaming through my head comes (to the chorus of REO Speedwagon's "I can't fight this feelin' anymore")

Momma I can't fight this feelin' anymore
I've forgotten what I've started cryin' for
It's time to bring this ship into the shore
And feed this boobivore, cuz' I'm hungry...

Crazy, I know. I am such an 80's kid. That's all for now- just had to share. More later!
Shawn

Announcements, Apple Crisp and Electrical Projects...

2008-03-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends!
Well, we did it! Our Christmas cards/Baby Announcements are out! We're trying to block out the fact that its almost Easter- so you should start to see them arriving in your mailboxes- yeah!

On another note- we have had an electrical project done in our house and had to stay a couple of nights up at Wayne and Elaine's house (Dana's parents)- because the power had to be shut off while they redid our electrical panel. They also had to check all the outlets and light fixtures to make sure they were oxidized properly being that we have a mixture of aluminum and copper wiring in the house. So all that to say- we are now living in an electrically safe home- but we were out of the house for a few days.

And now for our next item... Probably the best apple crisp I have ever made! I was in Winco the other day doing some food shopping and the Granny Smith apples were on sale so I picked up a few and was inspired to make apple crisp. A week later (because thats the way things tend to work around here with the baby- inspiration hits and a week later is realized), I made it. I got the recipe off of the All Recipes.com website So here it is! I recommend that you try it out. Its DEELISH :)

And our finale (You didn't think that I could get through a fresh post without a new baby pic?) Here's a recent pic of Josiah.
I call it: Josiah Thinking...

Sowing Seeds...

2008-03-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

As some of you may remember... last summer the mad scientist in me got out and I began hybridizing my daylilies (you can read about it on my old blog The Winding Road). Well it was time to plant our seeds (a little late actually, but better than not planted at all!)

So on one bright and beautiful Sunday morning while Dana was sleeping in... Dara and I sat down and read the Parable of the Sower in the book of Matthew and we talked about the different kinds of ground in the story. We had a good time- and it was fun to get to explain to Dara something in the scripture that was about to become relevant to her. After we were finished I got out my new APS-24, a cool self-watering seed starter kit from Gardeners.com and Dara and I began sowing my daylily seeds that I had harvested from my hybridizations last year. Here's a picture of our completed project:

I am seriously hoping they germinate and grow. It would be a cool reward for sure! Stay tuned for updates :)

Valentine Video Girl

2008-03-03T20:08:00.001-08:00

Howdy Friends!
Two weeks ago was Dara's week home from Kingsway. They have a Winter break AND a Spring Break. In any case we had our hands full! Here is a little clip of our Valentine Girl:

Introducing: Klinkner Home Video!

2008-02-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

OK. Whole new worlds of blogging just opened up here. I just figured out how to do video with my digital camera. Enjoy baby fans- enjoy!!

Announcing our first video debut:
Josiah Urps

Pancakes, Hampster Wheels and Bugaloos

2008-02-16T12:23:00.000-08:00

So this morning Dana and I were finishing up a pancake breakfast while Dara was brushing her teeth. We had just laid Josiah down for a nap. For the past week he has been sleeping a 5-6 hour block at night which gives us about 4-5 hours of uninterrupted sleep- SO NICE. Last night however he didn't sleep so great and was hungry about every 3-3.5 hours on the dot. Ouch.
So here's a glimpse of our conversation this morning:

Exhausted Dana says, "Remind me again why we decided to have children."
Slightly perky but still tired Shawn: "O hon- do you realize how empty our life would be without Dara and Josiah?"
Dana pauses..." Yeah, but at least I would be able to sleep- at least I would be rested!"
Shawn laughs.
Dana: "I just feel like I am on this never ending hampster wheel and I can't get off" (laughing somewhat hysterically). Sigh of resignation. "Yeah, you're right. Our life would be pretty empty. I would be rested. I would have my scrapbooking done, cause it would just be you and me, my house would be clean, but we wouldn't have our two little 'loos (short for bugaloo, a Klinkner nickname for our children). They are pretty cute."

Yep. They are pretty cute. Wanna see? Check these out:

Big sister Dara and Josiah

Josiah gets dressed for Superbowl Sunday- Go GIANTS!

Hangin' out with my dad

And the moment we have all been waiting for: SMILES (spontaneous applause)

Killer Pics of the Offspring...

2008-02-05T23:39:00.000-08:00

So- the moment you have been waiting for. Unbelievably cute baby pictures. But first... a tribute to our sponsors:

Our friend Jen Johnston, who oozes creativity, has a photography business. She just did a photo shoot of Dara and Josiah for us as a baby shower gift- you can check out her business and her handiwork at:

Polkadot Photography

The pictures were amazing. Dana and I have decided that we want at least one of each of these and enlargements besides. I would definately recommend Jen to you if you are needing to have some family pictures taken, your kids/babies pictures done, special events etc... She does it all. And pretty well I might add.

So without further adue... Our handiwork and some of Jenn's pictures of them:

Sendin' some power out to my sistas...

2008-01-26T16:20:00.000-08:00

Ok ladies... they say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach right? Well, I have a power packed meal for you that I just made today in less than 1 hour. Are you ready for this:

Slow Cooker Beef Brisket

Sara Roger's Cheesy Potatoes.

Uh huh. That's right- you'll be rating pretty high after he eats some of this grub. Remember, Queen Esther of the Bible fixed King Xerxes a feast right before she made a request to save her nation. It worked for her-- nuff said. So it's this easy:

2.5 lb. Beef Brisket at Winco $4.83
Rub it with these spices
1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder 1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. some kinda BBQ grill seasoning of your choice (be adventurous)

Slap that in the crockpot for 4-5 hours on high. And put half of this sauce on it:
1/2 cup ketchup 2 Tbl. Apple Cider Vinegar
2 tsp. tabasco 2 Tbl. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup packed brown sugar 1 tsp. Yellow Mustard
1 tsp. chili powder
Heat in a small saucepan to boil, stirring. Then remove from heat. Pour half on brisket. Save half for dipping when its all said and done.

Now for the cheesy potatoes.
Warning- if you are doing weight watchers or any other kind of weight reduction plan- you might want to not read this recipe. Have someone else make it for you and just eat it. In small portions that is. Or right after you get the kids down for nap. Or when you get up in the middle of the night. Or... well, you get the point. They are scrumdiddlyumptious!

10 potatoes Boiled and grated**** stay tuned for Shawn's Shortcut
2 tsp. salt Dashes of Pepper
1/2 onion, diced
8 oz. of shredded cheddar cheese
4 Cups (2 Tubs of Sour Cream)
1 stick of butter
(To save time- Shawn bought 2 refrigerated ready to cook hashbrown packs at winco @ $1.73 each to save time. Sara says they are not as good as when you boil and grate the potatoes yourself- but time is of the essence right??)
Empty hashbrown potatoes into mixing bowl, pour melted butter over them. Add salt and pepper and onion, mix with a strong wooden spoon. Fold in cheddar, then bathe the potatoes lovingly in the sour cream till you have the heavenly (yet almost sinfully delicious and highly coveted) dish prepared. Scoop into a 13x9 and top with more of the cheddar cheese, bake for 1 hour until golden brown.

Oh yes and find some kind of non-starchy vegetable to go with the brisket and potatoes. Like string beans, or salad. Its ok- the vegetables feelings won't be hurt. They always feel like wallflowers next to the brisket and cheesy potatoes. They know their place on the food chain.

So go forth. Make the meal of the century. He'll be glad (and in somewhat of a stupor afterwards) and you could probably ask for anything you want and get it. By the way- don't tell your husbands I told you to do this... K?

Tribute and Getting down to business...

2008-01-26T15:39:00.001-08:00

Hello Friends-

As promised I am here with content! This will be the first of a couple of posts- so be sure to read on!

First and foremost- I wanted to do a tribute to my staff at Christ Community. Here we are the Friday after our lay off getting together for some closure and some lunch:

My co-workers: Walter, Brian, Carolyn (my other mom) and yours truly (not pictured: Michael Johnson, Arrianna Moody, Dan York and Brian York)

Christ Community was a unique place- nowhere else could people come to get food and find not only a friend, but someone they could speak candidly to and be spoken candidly to about their life and about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There were a lot of special relationships we had with our clients there and our staff was like a family. Here's to you guys!

The last two weeks have been an adjustment. It has been weird to actually have a bit of margin in my life. I find that I look forward to the days I have at home to job hunt and be available to help Dana with Josiah. Kicking my week off I had to get organized. Props to anyone of you who can manage to function in a dirty office, or cook in a dirty kitchen... cuz I can't! I totally ransacked my office and the 6 months worth of filing I had to do. I cleaned out my desk so that I had a space I could finally function in. I made a trip to Office Max to get myself a new ink cardtridge for the printer. And then I found these:

OK- so they are file folders. But they were the COOLEST file folders I had ever seen. And I needed them. Surely the man who organized his job searching process with these file folders would be sharper, keener, cutting edge- just like these folders.

They were mine. And not only am I organized now. I am stylishly organized.
Did I mention they were on sale?

Quick Update and Promise

2008-01-17T22:33:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Family-
How I have missed posting! You have lingered like a shadow in my mind calling to me saying...
"Shawn... please, post something, anything... quirky tidbits, delightful baby pictures, anything!"
So here I am, signed, sealed and delivered, responding to your cries for an update!

So here's the latest:
We have singlehandedly watched all of the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition DVD's (yes, all three) during our midnight feedings with Josiah. Dana and I found that if we watched something we were less likely to black out during a breast feeding. Not only did we watch LOTR, but we watched all 5 of the Love Comes Softly DVD series (very good, mind you- Pioneer Love Stories, for you who are unaware), Anne of Green Gables the first movie and the sequel. We have seen one episode of Planet Earth and we have begun watching the 6 hour epoch of Gone With the Wind. Josiah is steadily growing and doesn't seem to mind that our attention has been divided between him and watching the occasional movie while breastfeeding in the wee hours of the night! The little boobivore has graduated from his preemie clothes to the Newborn (to 7lbs.) size. Its fun getting to change his little wardrobe around. And, just a side note- the preemie Huggies don't absorb worth beans! If it hadn't been for the timely admonition of Mrs. Briana Branchflower and recommendation of Safeway's Diaper Doublers, we would be lost in laundry land washing small loads of blown out onesies and one-piece outfits.

Our church, Current, is doing well. Our weekly radio broadcast has been a faith filled adventure for us. Although we saw our first fruit from it last week at service when a family who had been touched by the broadcast came and visited on Friday night. Yeah God!

On a sad note, we found out last Wednesday that Christ Community Ministries is permanently closing and I was laid off from my full-time job. The news came very suddenly and the ministry was officially closed the same day we were notified of the change. We are unsure as to all the reasons why the change occurred, but are confident that God's hand of providence and purpose will be evident in this sudden transition. I have great hopes for an effectual opportunity to be opened to me for work here in the future- in the meantime, I have some severance pay from the lay off that will provide me some time to find what God has laid up for us. Though I am feeling very hopeful at this point for my future, I will miss my co-workers dearly- we shared many adventures together over the last eleven years. We are trying to stay connected as best we can with the transition- but I know I will miss seeing them as regularly as before... Miss Carolyn especially. She is like another mom to me. I would recommend that everyone have such a loving and fiesty black lady in their life!! I will also miss many of the special relationships I was priviliged to build with the clients we served at the food ministry and through the Mobile Dental Program. It is difficult to imagine the sense of loss they might be feeling with the ministry being closed now.

That being said, I am now home exploring my future. Dana is enjoying the added support and convenience of having me around to help with Josiah. And I am enjoying it too. Its a time to rest and a time to dream again. I promise more adorable pics of Josiah are coming and updates on my journey. Check back soon!
Shawn

Pictures Galore!!

2007-12-29T01:18:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends-
I think we are going to make it! Josiah is no longer jaundiced and has officially gained back the weight he lost and is now 1 oz. over his birthweight. He is doing much better with his eating and has been eating without any breastmilk supplements. Yahoo! Now to indulge you with pics from the last couple of weeks:

Here's a picture of our little peanut

This is a picture of me finger feeding Josiah- this is what we had to do in addition to Dana breastfeeding- to help him get the full amount of food that he needed to grow and get over the jaundice. You can see the little catheter alongside my finger which we used to pump the extra breastmilk through.

Ok. So I have to tell you why I love this picture. Everytime Josiah finishes eating he will go from a curled up, snuggly fetal position to stretching out his little arms and legs and holding them out mid-air until he is satisfied. He then promptly collapses back onto the boppy pillow with a full tummy. Here he is stretching his little legs out!

A closeup of the little Boobivore

Josiah in his carseat looking ultra-cute before we go to get his blood drawn at the lab to test his billy-ruben level.

Ok. So I got a wild hair 2 nights before Christmas because we had no Christmas goodies. So I went on a rampage and made Almond Joy Cookies (hello- so scrumptious- just ask me about them and I will extol their chocolatey, coconutty, chewy virtues) and Peanut butter fudge. Here we are licking our spoons after pouring the PB fudge. MMM good.

We took this picture to show the diminutive nature of our little son- so for some perspective, we put Josiah up next to a 16oz. Starbucks coffee tumbler. He won't stay this little for long...

Big Sister Dara is always ready to lend a helping hand-- except for when it comes to changing diapers!

Just had to share this picture of our beautiful girl in her Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve. We are blessed with two beautiful children!!

Well thats all for now- more soon. Thanks for keeping up with us!
Shawn & Fam

Quick note from Sleep Deprivation Land...

2007-12-23T16:28:00.000-08:00

Hello friends-
Just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know- YES! We have fallen off the planet :)
Actually many of you have been kind enough to call and leave messages for us- but we have had a few more challenges this week with coming home. Tuesday we followed up with a visit from our pediatrician and found out Josiah was really jaundiced. So we have been wading through that all week long with a Billy Blanket, or a photo-light therapy blanket that helps the infant pass the Billy-rubens out of their system. As soon as we started Josiah on the therapy- he responded very quickly. What I mean is that- jaundiced infants usually are somewhat lethargic- well our precious little Josiah turned into a vigorous little Boobivore (you know, carnivore+meat eater, boobivore=breastfeeder) and wanted to eat every 2-2.5 hours which was a lot of work for Dana and I and even less sleep than normal. We are still doing the 2 person feedings where after Dana breast feeds, I finger feed Josiah with my little finger and a small syringe w/ a catheter tube full of breast milk that Dana has pumped- the goal is to get Josiah his required amount of food and still build his stamina and consistent sucking reflex. The other result of the photo-light therapy is that the infants "pass" the billy-rubens through their stools (I know, I could have said poop- but stool is just so much more medically appropriate). So Josiah has been blowing out his diapers at least once every hour or two. His poor little bum has gotten a bit raw- so we have regularly been ministering to it with applications of Desitin.

We officially got to take him off the photo light therapy blanket last night and we had another turn- Josiah after being the ravenous little boobivore that he has been for the last 4 days- all of a sudden stopped eating which was a huge concern for us and we made another visit to the pediatrician today. Fortunately all is well with our little man, we found out that this sometimes happens with preemie babies. Go figure. I wish he could have let us know- we could have slept longer- HAH! He has to have his blood drawn again tomorrow morning- to confirm that his billy-ruben count has stayed down after he has been off the blanket for 24 hours. If it has crept back up there could be some more photo-light therapy in store for him. If it has stayed down then we can move on and count this as another milestone for our little man!

So that's the latest. Dana and I have been wanting to take some pictures of our little guy and his photo-blanket to post. When he is on it- we call him our little glow-worm. It's very cute. So that's all for now- more later. Until then, a very sleepy Shawn & Dana bid you Adieu...

We're home!!!

2007-12-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

Yes folks- we were suprised too!! Yesterday afternoon our nursing staff at Adventist told us they were confident that we could go home. So they went over a ton of paperwork, talked to us about caring for ourselves and Josiah and turned us loose about 5:30pm. Josiah had been eating so well, that instead of keeping him and monitoring him over the next couple of days, they felt certain that he would do just as well, if not better at home.

So we got home last night to a very excited big sister Dara and Nana, who had dinner waiting for us. Here's a pic of Josiah with Dara in front of our Christmas tree:

So cute!! Our two greatest gifts together under the Christmas tree!

So transition home has been a bit interesting- gone are the days of trying to keep the house clean- there are piles of things everywhere. Sleep is now (next to caring for Josiah and Dara of course) the #1 priority. I woke up with Dana every three hours last night to help feed Josiah. Until he builds enough stamina to feed on both breasts, we are "helping" him eat a little by pumping a small amount of supplemental breastmilk through a syringe and tiny catheter-like tube, while he is breastfeeding with Dana. Its definitely a two-person job. So here's a snapshot of my thoughts last night:

Alarm goes off... Oh gosh... it's time to get up already- I just laid down. Shake Dana. Go change Josiah's diaper and wake him up. Is it possible to sleep standing up? I sure hope so- cause I have to do this again in a couple of hours. The fog slowly lifts... He is so dang cute! I love the way he yawns and stretches and starts smacking his lips- oh yeah... dinners coming buddy! We get the feeding started. We ooh and aah, and talk to our little man, tell him what a good eater he is, how proud we are of him. Half an hour later, get him dressed and swaddled up- reset the alarm, collapse in bed, promptly black out. Repeat. We are having so much fun. Its amazing after you muddle through your tiredness how coherent you get and you just fall in love with your baby over and over again.

This morning I took Dara to school, picked up a Grande Vanilla Americano with an inch of cold eggnog at Starbucks, picked up gauze at the pharmacy to care for Josiah's circumcision, ran into Spanky's (our local consignment store) to pick up a handful of preemie clothes. We weren't prepared for him to be so small. For months all we heard about was how he was so big- measuring long, in the 80% for his development. Then we deliver early and we have hardly any preemie clothes (he just swims in them- I can't imagine him wearing 0-3 any time soon!). Thanks to our friend Josie DeHaven, who was kind enough to drop some preemie clothes from baby Dominic over, Josiah has something to wear. And then I tuned into 1330 AM, to hear our church, Current's, radio broadcast that we kicked off this week. You can tune in to our radio broadcast Monday-Friday from 9:45am-10:00am. Joseph has been working on some awesome messages for our broadcasts. I'd really encourage you to listen sometime- you'd be suprised what can fit into 15 minutes of airtime- God has really been speaking to Joseph and giving him some amazing content for these times. This is going to be a wonderful feature and part of our ministry at Current- so I'd encourage you to check it out!

Thanks for being patient about updates and pics- the transition home took a bit of time and energy. Here's proof from 4:30 am this morning:

See you soon! Like my snowmen pajama pants?

Josiah's First Bath

2007-12-15T15:41:00.000-08:00

Howdy friends!
Well it has been an eventful day here at the hospital. Dara and Wayne came to the hospital this morning to meet Josiah. Josiah has been entirely in the nursery of the Family Birth Center because they needed to monitor his vital signs, make sure his breathing and oxygen saturation were adequate and to test his blood sugar. So far- his lungs appear to be working great and he needs a little help maintaining temperature. His blood sugar was chronically low this morning (should be 41, was 10) so they immediately got Josiah on an IV which is releasing sugar in his system to help his blood sugar stabilize. Now, they are weaning him off of it so that we can begin to help him to eat and learn how to suck properly. Many babies born pre-term struggle with eating- its something you have to teach them and help them to get into a rhythm about. So Dana has begun pumping to get some of her colostrum out for him to eat & mix with formula. Once they are confident about his eating abilities we should be good to go- but we could potentially be in the hospital an additional couple of days beyond Monday.

This afternoon we are trying to recuperate and rest- Dana and I have been up for about the last 40 hours- so we are pretty bushed. Before naptime though, Dana got to go in and assist the nurse with Josiah's first bath. Here are some more pics of our handsome little guy:

Big Sister Dara meets her little brother

Josiah- mad and crying during his first bath

Josiah practicing his one-eyed pirate look on us after bathtime

Happy, clean little man!

Welcome Josiah Seth Klinkner!!!

2007-12-15T05:20:00.001-08:00

Hello Family & Friends-
Josiah Seth Klinkner was born at 3:50 am 12/15/2007. He weighed 6 lbs., 1 oz. and was 20 inches long. He has a full head of wavy brown hair and big hands!! God was faithful to help us along. He is doing well and breathing fine- we are waiting to see what kind of reflexes he has for eating- most 36 week old babies take some time to develop in this area. For now, Mom & Dad are full of joy (and relief) and Josiah is doing great. Enjoy these first pictures (more to come later). We are not having any visitors except for immediate family at the moment. You are welcome to call and leave messages on our cell phones and we will get back to you when we are not sleeping. You can continue to check the blog for updates and cute baby pics. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Baby Josiah fresh out of the womb

Mommy greeting Josiah for the first time

Dana, Elaine and Josiah.

A Quick Update

2007-12-14T20:58:00.000-08:00

Yeah friends- after hours of labor making no seeming difference- and us upping the amount of Pitocin that Dana is receiving through the IV every half an hour- finally we have a breakthrough. Dana's water just broke all by itself! This is a very good sign that Dana's body is responding well to the pitocin and engaging in productive labor. Hold your breath- there could be a baby soon!
Shawn

Proof...

2007-12-14T15:15:00.000-08:00

Here's proof that epidurals work:

Dana was having some serious contractions and just received her epidural about 15 minutes ago. All is good- now we are anticipating more contractions, dilation and hopefully soon- a little Josiah :)

The Amazing "Baby" Race

2007-12-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is your cervix:

This is your cervix on Pitocin:

ANY QUESTIONS???????

__________________________________________________

Seriously though- today is day 2 in the Amazing Baby Race. Last night after 2 laps around the Family Birth Center, and being freed from bed rest- Dana has had a decent night's sleep, intermittently woken up with contractions. Today our team heads for the Pit Stop and the final destination for this leg of the journey. Our team must now begin the labor induction process with some Pitocin- the anesthesiologist is expected anytime with the epidural. Will Josiah Seth Klinkner be born before 3pm today??? Join us and find out in this last episode of.....
THE AMAZING BABY RACE!!

Walking in a Labor Wonderland

2007-12-13T21:02:00.000-08:00

Monitors ring, are you listenin?
In the nursery, babes are sleepin'
It's a beautiful sight- we're happy tonight
Walkin' in a Labor Wonderland!

So here we are at the Adventist hospital- its 9:12pm and Dana has been released from bedrest! She was eager to get up and walk around the Family Birth Center, so up we arose- we were walkin in a Labor wonderland. Elaine, Dana's mom, has joined us for the labor process. Right now they have started Dana on a medication that will help finish softening her cervix- and it can stimulate labor- its usually what they start with before the pitocin. SO, she has had some decent contractions, but they are still building in strength and regularity. Unless there is a dramatic change we will probably rest for the night and their plan is to start pitocin in the morning unless she goes into serious labor.

We have had some good reports from Wayne and Dara. After school, they did homework and piano practice and then they went to see Mr. Magorium's emporium at the theater complete with Skittles and Popcorn and dinner at Red Robin afterwards. So by all appearances Dara and Pop Pop are having a great time. So here are some fun pics for all you Klinkner baby hopefuls - more updates and hopefully cute baby pics soon!

Dana, Walkin around in the Family Birth Center... modeling some gorgeous eveningwear (ooh, ahh)

Dana and waterbottle bearer/mother extraordinaire, Elaine
Shawn & family

We're having a Baby!

2007-12-13T16:16:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends!
This morning we showed up for our amniocentesis at the hospital and when Dr. Nakamura got out the ultrasound to begin to look for pockets of amniotic fluid, he noticed that Dana's amniotic fluid was low, another complication of the gestational hypertension AND an automatic reason to induce! So we ended up not having the amnio after all and they admitted Dana to the hospital.

Its now 4:18pm and they are getting Dana set up on IV and preparing her for the induction. When we had Dara 7 years ago Dana responded very well to induction and we had Dara after 9 hours of labor (and an epidural). We are hopeful that Dana's body responds equally as well this time if not a bit faster. Stay tuned for cute baby pics!!

Tuesday Dr.'s Appt. Update

2007-12-11T22:06:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends, Family and Baby Whisperer hopefulls,
We had our appt. with Dr. Nak tonight. (Drumroll please...)
And Dana is so healthy and the best rest has been working (blood pressure regular, no protein in urine) that he no longer has any reason to induce Dana's labor immediately. However, because many women who have gestational hypertension develop preeclampsia, it doesn't mean Dana is out of the woods. So, the next move is that we are having an amniocentesis Thursday morning to determine Josiah's lung maturity. If the results come back that his lungs are viable- then we can induce labor because Dr. Nakamura doesn't want to take the risk that Dana could develop preeeclampsia. If the results of the amnio show that his lungs need more time to develop then, he will continue to watch Dana every couple days until either her body can't handle it anymore or until we are sure that Josiah's lungs have matured. So Dana is still on bedrest until the end of the pregnancy, but we are encouraged by this good report and that the bedrest has been effective.

We should have the results from the amnio (and a gameplan) by Thursday evening. As always thanks for your support, encouragement and prayers. Now its off to a movie and peanut buster parfaits (oh yeah- they are buy 1 get one free at the DQ on Mill Plain- can't beat that!)
Shawn

God's Mystery

2007-12-10T22:05:00.001-08:00

So today I was driving home from Christ Community thinking about how excited I was for Josiah's birth- how great it would be to announce that he was here, and something cool and profound occurred to me. This is the thought- that God was excited to announce the birth of his Son, Jesus as well. We all are familiar with the story of the Nativity. We gloss over it... baby Jesus born in a manger, Mary and Joseph hanging out in a stable - yada yada yada. We tend to move on and oversimplify the magnitude of what God had actually prepared for humanity.

The apostle Paul spoke in the New Testament about the unveiling of the "mystery" of the gospel. We know that the angelic host proclaimed the birth of the Savior, but the significance of His birth was still yet to be comprehended not only by men, but by the angelic hosts as well. Hundreds and even thousands of years, the prophets foretold the coming of the Son of David, they prophesied that He would be born in Bethlehem, of the increase of His government and peace there would be no end. It was easy to see how Israel might have mistaken that the Messiah would restore the glory of Israel and set up a new government and an earthly kingdom. Clearly, Satan didn't understand the total significance of the Son of God coming, otherwise he wouldn't have motivated men to crucify Him, for it would prove to be his undoing.

The great significance of Jesus' birth, was only understood by a few at first. No wonder the heavenly host exclaimed "Peace on earth, goodwill to men!" There was no earthly peace being dispensed to mankind- we think of peace as end to war, an end to oppression, an end to conflict or a cessation of pain- emotional or otherwise. No, the peace that the Prince of Peace was bringing was so much more substantial, so much more real than anyone of us can grasp... Because Jesus came to give mankind the Peace that existed within the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Perfect peace. No hindrances. He perfectly restored our potential to have fellowship with the Heavenly Father through His sacrifice and death for our sin. He laid aside His glory to bestow it upon us. He took our nature so we could take up His.

No wonder they sang his name- EMMANUEL... God with us.

He was the perfect solution for not only the chasm that sin wrought between God and man, but He also was and forever is the restoration of our original design. We can have unhindered, close relationship with God again. We don't have to question God's intentions toward us anymore. The Son of God secured goodwill and Peace, heavenly Peace, for those on earth. I hope and pray that this inspires you to sing with fresh conviction this Christmas season: "Hark the herald angels sing- glory to the newborn King- Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and Sinner reconciled... Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth! Hark the herald angels sing... glory to the newborn King!"

The true measure of love...

2007-12-10T21:43:00.000-08:00

All right folks- so you wanna see what true love looks like:

There you have it.
Yes folks- it's a half order of biscuits and hashbrowns and gravy from Carol's Corner Cafe here in Vancouver, Washington. My beautiful (and very, very pregnant) bride of 12+ years begged me this morning to get this famed dish from Carol's Corner. It has been the heartbeat of this pregnancy- biscuits and sausage gravy. Actually it was one of the early indicators that it could only be a 100% real boy growing inside Dana's womb.
So there you have it- true love & biscuits & gravy, who would have ever thought they would be synonymous?

Wishin' and hopin' and waitin' and waiting some more, and waiting more...

2007-12-08T14:15:00.001-08:00

Well friends-
Here we are on the 5 day countdown. Dana's body has completely STOPPED having contractions. I'm beginning to think this is some kind of weird torture. I have felt like a little kid at Christmastime the last couple days (in regards to Josiah being born). So here's a snapshot ito my thoughtlife:

I get up in the morning... I wonder if its going to be today? Lord it would be really great if we had the baby today... Honey have you had any contractions yet? What? You want me to fix you biscuits and gravy? OK, it might be your last meal before you start labor- sure why not? Oh yeah, I have to work today. I don't want to work- what if this baby comes? Dara needs a lunch for school. OK. I can do this. She has to leave for school in 10 minutes- oh boy the pressure's on. I'll fix you biscuits and gravy when I get back from dropping her off.

The drive to school: I wonder if Dana's having contractions..., is there anything I'm forgetting to pack in our bags? DId i put the cord for the digital camera in our bag so I can upload pictuures to the laptop? I wonder what Josiah is going to look like? Will he have blonde hair and blue eyes like me and Dara, or will he have dark hair and Dana's eyes? What if he doesn't have hair? Hmm... wouldn't it be neat if I got home and Dana's water broke and I didn't have time to fix her biscuits and gravy and we had to go straight to the hospital? By Dara, have a great day at school...

Home again... As you can see, nobody is driving me crazy except for myself. It's so hard to wait- especially after being in the Family Birth Center in the hospital twice in one week and being so close to the reality of having a baby. Seeing and hearing little babies all around when you walk by the hospital nursery. {sigh} I guess I'm going to have to wait.

So I wake up this morning. "Hon did you have any contractions last night?"
Reply, "No. Are you going to rake up the leaves in the yard today?"
Are we on the same planet?

The show must go on! More info soon (please oh please- let there be more info soon!)
Shawn & Fam

Dr.'s Appt Today

2007-12-06T22:10:00.000-08:00

Hi friends-

Thanks for all your emails, blog posts and encouraging phone calls! We are doing well. Today Dana had her appointment with Dr. Nakamura and here's the scoop:
1. Her blood pressure is in a good range.
2. She is 70% effaced and dialated 1 centimeter
3. She got to stop taking the labor stopping medicine today- which means if she goes into labor, they are not going to stop it.
4. If for some reason we don't have the baby by next Thursday when Dana reaches 36 weeks- they are going to induce Dana's labor. The reason being that often gestational hypertension (high blood pressure) can often turn into preclampsia which is dangerous to child and mom- and since 36 weeks is the beginning of what they consider full term, Dr. Nak says at the very latest we will be having a baby next week! Yeehaw!

So that's the big scoop for now. We had a nice lunch at Old Chicago after the appointment (if you ever go there, you HAVE to get the artichoke dip- it comes with garlic bread and fresh veggies and hands down beats any other artichoke dip I have ever had). Moving on... tonight Dana had contractions for about 2.5 hours ranging from every 4-16 minutes apart (starting off longer and then getting closer and closer together), then they mysteriously vanished. It's clear her body is getting ready- so we may not even make it to next Thursday. We celebrated tonight with pizza and by decorating the house for Christmas- Dana supervised from the recliner of course (still on bedrest until Josiah gets here), but we had a good time getting the multitudes of snowmen out, hanging the wreath and Christmas pictures up. Stay tuned for more exciting updates-- just think... really cute baby pictures are just around the corner!! Love-
Shawn & Family

Here's a pic our Mommy-to-be and Dara, excited big sister!

There and Back Again

2007-12-04T08:52:00.000-08:00

Hello friends!
Yesterday (Monday) Dana started to experience some pre-term labor, so we spent the night at the hospital again. She was having contractions approximately every 3-6 minutes. When we got here they decided to try and control the labor with a muscle relaxant called Procardia, with the disclaimer that if Dana's body was going to labor, it would do so in spite of the relaxant, but if her body was just going through a "dress rehearsal" that the Procardia would probably stop the labor.

Its Tuesday morning now and we are waiting for our Dr. to come and give us the scoop. Whenever the Procardia would wear off during the night, Dana's contractions would start up again- so it's any body's guess where we will be today... Home or Hospital? Baby or no Baby...

Hmmm.... It's hard to wait. Playing footsie with your expectations is not my cup of tea. I am ready to have a BABY! (Just FYI, Dana is too.) but we may be waiting again. More info soon. {sigh}
Shawn

Home Again and waiting....

2007-12-02T18:09:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends-
We are home again! We were finally able to get Dana's blood pressure regulated with medication and bed rest at the hospital. Our Dr. felt comfortable that Dana would be safe at home now- so she is officially on total bed rest and medication for the next two weeks until she reaches her 36th week of pregnancy at which point we will look into inducing labor.

We are so grateful to everyone at the Portland Adventist Hospital- we received such wonderful care there from our nurses and from Dr. Nakamura. Now we get to wait for a couple more days until we get to have Josiah, and then Christmas! I certainly have my work cut out for me. I just did all the grocery shopping for a couple weeks and popped a Tater Tot casserole in the oven. Nothing like some comfort food for some cold rainy weather. More updates soon!
Shawn & fam

Adventures at the Adventist Hospital

2007-12-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

Hello friends-
Just an update- we have been having a nice stay at the Portland Adventist Hospital the last couple of days. On Thursday, Dana went in for her weekly meet with our OB/GYN and her blood pressure was up and hadn't come down since our last visit. She was promptly admitted to the hospital and has been monitored here since. It has been a godsend because several times her blood pressure has spiked really high. They have her on blood pressure medication which has helped to regulate her blood pressure and she's on mandatory bed rest from now until she reaches 36 weeks in her pregnancy (Dec. 13th) at which point we will probably be inducing labor and having Josiah. We hope to be discharged from the hospital sometime tomorrow, but that is all dependent on her blood pressure staying in safe levels.

So thank you for those of you who have been praying. We are in very good spirits and looking forward to returning home and also to having Josiah very soon. Keep posted for more updates! Talk soon-

Introductions...

2007-11-12T18:52:00.000-08:00

Welcome Blog visitors new and old! Since I just recently moved my blog- I thought I would make my updates with some special introductions! We have had a busy fall season with Dara beginning the 2nd grade, Dana finishing her 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy and more. To catch you up- here is a picture of our family on a recent trip to Joe's Place Farm in Vancouver, WA:

We love Joe's Place! Its a great place to get seasonal fruit (strawberries and peaches- YUM!), and a great place for a hay ride and the annual pumpkin hunt. We had the most gorgeous fall day- and a great time!

Now, for introduction #2:
As many of you know, this Spring, Dana and I left City Bible Church to start a church with some friends of ours, Joseph and Briana Branchflower. Our church, Current, is located on 49th + Division in SE Portland. We meet Friday nights from 6:30-8:30pm. It has been a wonderful adventure and we are excited to see God work in our lives and others lives. We are believing God for a mighty work to be done through this church in our area and around the world! I will be writing updates about Current here on my blog, and sharing about what God is doing through and in our church. So Please check back often! Here are some long overdue pictures of the outside of our church:

The front doors of the church

One of our signs

Our Street Sign (to be seen as you are heading west and/or eastbound on Division St.)

OK, so this is one of the planters I potted for the outside of our church. I couldn't help myself- I love gardening and had to share! You will see more of my gardening exploits throughout the year- I promise.

And lastly, Introduction#3:

This is a picture of our baby boy, Josiah, drawn by our daughter, Dara. (Didn't she do a great job?) Josiah is due in January of 2008, but is slated for an early arrival sometime after the 2nd week of December. We are so excited for his arrival. He is a long awaited blessing to our family. I guarantee more updates and pictures to come as we near his birth!

Well, my friends- thanks for joining me on this journey. There is more adventure to come for sure- come back often for more musings, meditations, updates on the Klinkners and our church, Current! You can visit our church website at www.portlandcurrent.com - It's still in the process of being finished- but you are welcome to check it out nonetheless!