I’m still planning on finishing the posts on ‘What I did this Summer’, but I want to interrupt myself to provide links “We Are the Body of Christ” (August 11, Acts 2;42-27) on Google video. I”ve tried repeatedly to put up the June 15 message, “Creed”, but failed. I’ll keep trying.
Well, this has been a remarkable five weeks. I thought it would be good to share a more or less chronological account of ‘what I did this summer’ for those who may not have heard the details – and for my own benefit. I’m going to structure this as several chapters, each a separate blog entry.I had hoped to put several pictures with each chapter, but for the sake of actually getting this done before it gets too far in the past, I’m going to have to leave that for future edits.
Chapter 2: Elaine Ruth Rask
Abbie may actually have been due the last week in June, so that she was at least a week overdue by the time Gail and I’ve left for Dallas on Sunday July 6. Abbie had actually been in false labor the preceding Friday, or at least not fully productive labor, and she was tired and discouraged that weekend. So Gail asked if she and I could come up to gather that Sunday so that Gail could be there for the whole of the labor and delivery. Abbie was more than willing to have her come.
We drove up on Sunday afternoon and arrived at Abbie and Tim’s in time for dinner. I had to be at the seminary by 8:00 the next morning so we went to bed relatively early. I got up modestly early to do some work and discover that Abbie was already beginning to feel one other onset of labor. By the time I left for seminary she and Tim had already talked to the midwife, and labor seemed definite.
All that day, as I sat through the introduction to my seminary course, I got updates that Abbie was continuing and labor, and by late afternoon It at gotten pretty intense. I decided to stay at the seminary into the evening, because Abbie and Tim’s house will stop really big enough for someone to labor in modestly. In fact Abbie and Tim and the midwives and Gail spent time in pretty much every room of the house during the course of Abbie’s 24 hour ordeal.
By the time I finished up of the library, labor had been going on all day and some progress was being made. I stopped on the way to pick up a few things at Wal-Mart, and then snuck in the house, and Gail the groceries, and retreated to Tim’s study or Gail and I were sleeping on an air mattress. I lay there and will send to the sounds of labor, napping briefly, until Gail came in around 11:40 to tell me that they had broken Abbie’s water and that she was beginning to make real progress. It was actually quite a lonely moment as I had to lie there all by myself while everyone else was involved in the delivery. But at about 1:40 I heard an intensification of the tempo, and the next thing I knew I was hearing Abbie say “breathe, baby, breatheâ€.
And so Elaine Ruth Rask was born. Almost the first thing that Abbie did after the delivery was to get a little bit modest had to call me in so that she could give me my birthday present. Ellie was born on my birthday, July 8. It’s actually one of the better presents that I’ve ever received.
Gail and I stayed the rest of the week. I went every day and enjoyed being a student at the seminary, and came back every evening to to enjoy been a grandfather at Abbie’s home. It’s funny how the Lord juxtaposes death and new life in our lives. The grief of the previous week was matched by the joy of this new little life.
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Well, this has been a remarkable five weeks. I thought it would be good to share a more or less chronological account of ‘what I did this summer’ for those who may not have heard the details – and for my own benefit. I’m going to structure this as several chapters, each a separate blog entry.
I was hoping to put a number of pictures with each chapter, but for the sake of getting this done before it gets too far in the past, I’m going to leave that for the end.
Chapter 1: Mom’s Homegoing
It began, of course, with the decline and passing of my Mom. She had reached a certain level of contentment at the nursing home, but continued to decline mentally, and eventually physically. She began to lose the ability to chew, swallow or grasp.
On June 17th, Mom had a brief black-out, and it was discovered that her blood oxygen was down to 70%. This may have been congestive heart failure or a heart incident of some kind, but the immediate diagnosis was bronchitis and aspiration pneumonia. Mom responded well to antibiotics for a few days, but then continued to refuse to eat, even with help, even after that round of antibiotics was complete. She became almost completely unresponsive to the world around her.
At this point Gail and I guessed that Mom was in a final decline. But I misjudged how steep that decline might be and left on Tuesday, June 24th for the Evangelical Free Church of America National Conference in St. Louis. My plan was to be there for only three days. But on Wednesday, June 25th, Mom had another incident. Though now unable to talk and laboring to breath, she had obvious significant chest pain and nausea, possibly brought on by another major heart incident.
So I was in St. Louis, and Gail had to go through that very difficult day without me. Fortunately at the end of the day hospice stepped in and the use of morphine provided significant relief from the pain. After a short time on morphine Mom no longer needed it and slept peacefully. Early in the morning on June 26th, about 3:30 a.m., Gail got a call from the nursing home indicating that Mom was slipping away. Gail went to her bedside, where she seemed to be at peace, and read Scripture to her for several hours. At about 8:00 a.m. she went to be with the Lord.
Fortunately, despite the fact that I didn’t think anything would happen while I was gone, I had taken the time to say a prayerful good-bye to Mom before I left for St. Louis. So as Gail and I talked to by phone several times that morning I was relatively at peace with Mom’s passing. At the conference, we voted that morning on the new statement of faith. I stayed until the vote was counted (it passed), and then left and caught an afternoon flight to Houston, so that I could be with my family that evening.
My focus over the next several days was the preparation of a memorial service for Mom which was held on Tuesday, July 1. I really wanted to share are Mom’s life, but even more to share a word from the Lord which would show how he was glorified through her life. On Saturday morning as I was thinking and praying about this I felt like the Lord spoke to me to the effect that Mom’s ordinary life made her a trophy of his grace.
The next several days were spent planning the next several weeks. We were waiting for Abbie to have her baby, and she was already overdue. But I knew that I needed to coat at Dallas on July 6 because I was starting a doctor of ministry course at the seminary on July 7. Gail, of course, wanted to be there when the baby was born and was scheduled to drive to Dallas as soon as Abbie went into labor. Then, after my week in Dallas was over we would have to go to Connecticut to inter Mom’s remains and then leave on our family vacation. But we’ll have to save those stories for the following chapters.