A personal update

I should've wrote something on March 21, my daughter's 4th birthday.

But since i procrastinated too much, how about a re-cap of the past four years....or at least enough stuff to let you know that i have a lot to be thankful to God about:


4 years & 1 month ago:

2 years & 5 months ago:

2 years ago this week: we closed on a beautiful bungalow in a good & vibrant yet working class (those qualities seem contradictory on the North side, at least in some people's minds)

1 year & 2 months ago: I was unemployed. Even the temp agency, where i got "Temp of the Year" in 1998 couldn't get me a temp job!

Sorry if it sounds like bragging...but ultimately, these things happened, not because of some amzing thing *i* did, but that God had done.

Mia's 3! It's a miracle

Today is Good Friday. It's good because Jesus died for us and what we have done, and made it "all good" with God.

It's also a good Friday because it's our daughter Mia's birthday, born 3 years ago today... and my daughter Mia is a miracle!

A quick summary: my wife was fine at our last doctor's visit. Then the next week, she started getting these headaches that wouldn't go away. So we called the hospital, who told us to come to the emergency room. Just a few minutes afyer we got settled at the hospital, they saw her blood pressure was off the charts, and Sythera went into at least 2 seizures (that i saw!). Our doctor came and let me know that she had to deliver the baby, or both could die!

As soon as those things took place, we called our church secretary, who prayed & spread the word to not only our local church, but to friends as far as Washington, Thailand, Russia, India. A friend later told me "People you don't know are praying for you."

Mia was 10 inches long and 15 1/2 ounces when she was born. As a friend enlightened me, she was smaller than a pack of Twizlers when she was born!

A lot of her story is detailed on an old web page .

Since those early days, Mia has changed a lot. She came home on oxygen. She had four therapists, covering speech, occuational, physical & developmental therapies. The therapies she still had until age 3 (when the state of Illinois' Early Intervention program for preemies runs out) were more for us parents, to help us make sure Mia was on track.

Today Mia is a healthy girl who now is fighting mommy & daddy so she can have more sweets instead of fighting for her life.

Some of her recent phrases:

I want to wash my hands.

Let's go to gymnastics!

I like the money, daddy!

MY (fill in the blank of whatever we're trying to pry out of her hands) !!!!!

In the midst of this, we had several other life changes:

• moved out of our Rogers Park condo and settled in the South Side fo Chicago, in the Chatham neighborhood
• Sythera got a new job!
• Recently, JP got a job with the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, utlizing many of the skills & experiences he gained from previous work & volunteering

Thanks to all who have prayed for Mia & supported my family.

We can't wait to see what the future brings!

If you've been through this, or know someone who has...God CAN bring you through. He won't give us what we can't handle.