I wanted to post here something that I never, ever would want to post. Last Tuesday (when internet connectivity was only on my iPhone and my emotions were too intense) Jessica and I drove to the hospital in Ukiah, California and after the morning and part of the afternoon in the ER learned that Jessica had had a miscarriage. This is not the sort of thing you expect. This is nearly the worst case scenario. We cried a lot there in the hospital. I wrote notes on my iPhone about how I was feeling, but I won’t post them as they’re far too intense for me to publish without feeling like its too much. They’re also feelings that I don’t have any more because we’re OK. We’re trusting the Lord that He’s used this to get our attention. Prior to the unexpected fourth pregnancy (our first pregnancy was also a miscarriage), we we had planned on no more pregnancies. Except that now our hearts are set on having a third child that we can hold, love and prepare for a life of intensity.
My brother, sister, and I were all born in Ukiah, CA. It was strange and backwards to go to the same small town and discover that this expected Peterman life would not be seeing Ukiah. After the doctor’s gentle disclosure of the diagnosis, “Fetal Demise”, we went to eat (having missed breakfast and our normal lunch) at a place where I recall eating with glee as a boy, the Mutt Hut. Something about the place, and the honestly tasty hot dogs, brought a sense of comfort that sounds stupid as I write this. I was with my wife, who I loved, looking forward to my two healthy girls, whom we both love dearly, and eating food (which we really needed). Ukiah has a movie theater there that I remember as a child. I went there once as a teenager, too. Ukiah now has another memory in my heart and mind now: the place where Jessica and I decided we will try for a third child – a place that has some endings, but also an important beginning. The beginning for the plan for three Peterman kids for Randy and Jessica.
We’re doing OK. We’re doing well. We’re doing this on purpose. And we’re looking forward to seeing this little child we didn’t get to meet on this earth in heaven.
My Grandpa Peterman once responded to my statement that he worked too much that I had a negative attitude about work. He went into further detail about it, but let me say that I did have, and sometimes still do, a negative attitude about work. This video (contains graphic description about sheep castration) got my attention in a big way:
Work is a good thing – I’m glad to be employed and part of the problem of our economy has been the glamorization of not working. Or working less. I don’t like to be exhausted from work (which I have been in the last few weeks) but I do like honest physical labor, good intellectual challenges in coding, and to achieve something that is sometimes mundane, sometimes new, but always a job well done.
Keep up the good work. And if you’re not, change that.
I had installed WordPress 2.7 as a beta last month. When the final release came out WordPress notified me, but instead of like previous versions, it just let me click a link and it handled the upgrade on the server with very little fuss. It was like buying a 2008 Honda knowing that when the 2009 Hondas came out you could push a button and for free your Honda would upgrade to the latest. Before several steps were required, now, I just click a button. Wow.
The new interface for administration is very clean and polished and easy to use. Wow.
The ease of editing posts has been taken up just a notch, which is quite nice. Wow.
I can install plugins from within the plugin interface without having to download and unzip zip files, it just works. WOW!
Thanks to Matt and the rest of the team at Automattic for a fantastic release that is well worth the upgrade.
Good grief! Its been a long time since I was thankful on a Thursday. So I’m going to be thankful today for three Nadias. In alphabetical order :)
Our WorldVision child is named Nadia. We get periodic stuff about her well being, but after hurricane Ike caused a lot of trauma, I’m glad to hear that she is well. I’m thankful for the opportunity to sponsor a child and and that she’s growing up and maturing with health and food and a family. We need to send her a letter to tell her that. I’m a bad sponsor in that department, but I’m thankful for the opportunity nonetheless.
My second Nadia to be thankful for is my niece. When I look at these pictures I just smile. She’s getting bigger and bigger and soon she’ll be getting married talking to me instead of just smiling at me. I’m thankful she’s growing and is generally a healthy well taken care of baby girl.
Lastly, but not leastly: our friends daughter Nadia just makes us smile (and sometimes cry – in a good way) when we get to see her in person and online at the YouTube. I’m thankful for our friends and their amazing care for not only their daughter, but so many others directly and indirectly.
Today is Friday. The day after Thursday, which is the official day of thankfulness around here, but since my posting is as consistent as a politician in a tough week of financial news, I’m just going to post a bit of thankfulness today.
One Set of In-Laws are in town and I’m thankful for them. They really are swell folks and I’m enjoying the time with them.
My mom had her birthday Wednesday – she’s a great mom, and I’m thankful for her a lot.
Abby is growing up a lot the last couple weeks. We put her into a charter school program and we really, really like it. I’m thankful for her
My sister-in-law who is living with us constantly makes us smile. She’s a blessing and we hope that we can get some more time with her before she finds a scad of friends and leaves us in the dust ;)
Time with friends. We’ve also had some friends over in the chaos of the last few weeks and enjoyed their company.
Time with family. My brother’s family came into town a few weekends ago and I’m finally getting to blog about it in tiny micro-bits: We love them and had a great time. Pictures should be forthcoming some time this year.