(the picture was taken about 20 minutes before the surgery)  

We praise God in telling you all that Ethan's surgery went very well! 

We arrived at 6:15 and he was quite a champ. He played on the Nintendo DS while the nurses poked and prodded and then around 7:50 they gave him some meds a.k.a "happy juice" which just relaxed him and made him a bit loopy, so that separation from Jason and me wouldn't be too painful. He still did cry when they took him from us, which was the hard part for Mommy as well. I didn't like hearing him cry the whole way down the hall as we left.

The Anesthesiologist said he did remarkably well. The surgery took about 50 minutes and then they brought me back into the recovery room, where I found him awake, confused and upset. He was pretty cute when he saw me - laid against my chest, put his finger in his mouth and fell back to sleep. I stayed on the bed with him until he woke up again and we gave him some juice (just to make sure he kept it down). He began speaking fine, answering questions correctly and sitting up on his own, so they let us go home 2 hours ahead of schedule! Every time they'd ask him a question, "how are you feeling, Ethan? Would you like something to drink? Are you dizzy?" he would reply with "No thanks, I'd like to go home now." :) We got home around 10:45 and he's watching a new movie that Nana bought him. He seems to be doing better than I thought he would. I had my adenoids and tonsils removed, so I think my recovery was a little more painful... and much longer.

His ears actually appeared to have NO fluid in them, so the surgeon went ahead and put temporary tubes in each ear. They will be taken out within 6 months to a year at a regular office appointment. His adenoids, however (the part we knew was probably the biggest problem) were very large for his age, infected and just plain nasty looking. She said they had a lot of bacteria and just basic infection on them, which was probably causing a large part of his problem. He is having some basic speech problems right now. She told me that he will probably form some of his words better within a week or so, but at first it will be hard and weird for him to talk. She said they were interfering a bit with his previous speech and also with the way he formed his tongue and breathed when he talked... since that is all changing, his speech will take a little while to catch up. That's probably the biggest frustration he's had since being home. He started crying a bit ago and told me "Mommy, I don't know how to talk right!"

Anyway, we're all 3 very thankful to be home and so thankful to God for answering our prayers and making this a smooth process. Thank you to ALL of you who were praying for us - we love you all and are so thankful for you.

-Stef

Tomorrow morning we have Ethan's surgery. Please keep him in your prayers. He told us tonight that he's "a little bit scared" but he also seems like he's ready and understands this will help his over all health. He told me today he's glad he's having the surgery "because I do NOT like getting sick all the time."

He had a fun night all by himself with us. Rachel went to Jason's parent's house and so it was just the three of us. 5AM is going to come very quickly, but Jason and I are both having trouble going to sleep. We'll most likely skip out on sleep tonight and nap with Ethan tomorrow when we get home.

Thank you ALL for your kind emails and phone calls, reminding us that you're praying. We greatly appreciate it. I'll be sure to post about the surgery as soon as we're home and settled back in.

... you hear they're closing down 600 Starbucks in the Bay Area, due to the bad economy.

Wow. How sad is that? Maybe its just me, but I'm not sure even seeing all the houses that have been foreclosed on, or seeing other businesses go under has really had a strong impression on me. I kept thinking "it can't be that bad, the lines at Starbucks are still out the door!" But this morning I hear that they are closing down 600 Starbucks in the Bay Area and I'm like "wow, things must really be bad."

We spent the weekend in Citrus Heights (Sacramento) at my Uncle and Aunt's house for a family get together. It was great to see my Uncle, Aunt and cousins again and to just hang out with everyone, relaxing and enjoying each other. They have a pool, which is where the kids lived for the weekend :) We enjoyed a BBQ dinner, yummy pancake breakfast on Sunday morning and just really good, family fun. Today the kids have been recovering from the weekend, but in a good way. They had too much fun. :)

Rachel had some issues with my Uncle. I have no idea why, because he's the nicest guy, but she was literally terrified of him. On Saturday night she woke up every 1/2 hour crying "I don't want to see Uncle Jon! I wanna go to Rachel's house!" so she and I didn't get good sleep Saturday night... but she made up for it with her 3 1/2 hour nap on Sunday. :)

We visited our friends, Abe and Jess Green's church on Sunday night, before heading home and had a great time seeing them! Their little boy is only 4 months younger than Rachel and its cute to see that they older they get, the more they have in common. After church we had dinner with them and then headed home.

This is (another) terribly busy week for us. Today I did some house cleaning and then made and froze a few dinners for later on in the week, since I won't have time to cook. Tomorrow starts our meeting with Doctors, Anesthesiologist, etc... to go over surgery details and for them to get a good history on Ethan. Wednesday he has his final pre-op appointment to get his last clean bill of health before they operate and then in the midst of all of this, Jason and I started our first birthing classes!! Kind of weird since its our 3rd child, but we're aiming for an all natural birth this time and so we're preparing with some Bradley Method classes. I think its going to be so helpful and I can't wait to see the difference it makes.

We're looking forward to the weekend, because we have NO plans, except a low stress, quiet, family weekend. I will do my best to blog a quick update after Ethan's surgery, but please be in prayer for him Thursday morning! I took pictures from our weekend in Sacramento, so enjoy.

VBS is over! I can't believe how fast the week went. Tonight we have "closing ceremonies" where the parents and families come, the kids sing, recite verses and talk about what they learned all week. We had a great week, though I admit I am exhausted and glad its over. I think mostly just the early mornings and rush, rush, rush of life has gotten to me... and the baby. We're both rather tired. :)

I took a ton of pictures (and I'll take more tonight and post them soon). I already posted the pix I took this week, so you're welcome to take a look at those. Our class was the kids in 1st and 2nd grade and we had 26, count that... 26 kids in our class! It was fun, if a little crazy.

Ethan had an absolute blast all week! He's been telling us all about the stories he heard, verses he learned and the songs... oh, the song! He has learned several new songs and has already committed them to memory, along with the hand motions.

We leave tomorrow for the weekend and when we come back, we have Ethan's surgery (Thursday). We cannot wait for that to be over, but are so thankful its finally here and getting taken care of. Please keep him in your prayers.

I've posted this before, but its been over a year and so its time to recycle! We had this for dinner tonight and its definitely a family favorite. Also, I know the recipe says to chop the onions up, but I cut ours into big wedges and we eat them on top of the chops. Also... as you've probably imagined, this goes great on top of your favorite rice!

BBQ Pork Chops

Ingredients:

6 rib or loin pork chops -- cut 3/4 to 1-inch thick

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 cup chili sauce

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup vinegar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon finely chopped onion

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions: Place pork chops in 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Season with salt and pepper. Combine remaining ingredients; pour mixture over chops. Bake at 325: for 30 minutes. Turn chops. Bake 1 to 1 1/2 hours longer, until tender. Skim off fat and spoon remaining sauce over chops. This recipe for Barbecued Pork Chops

serves/makes 6.

We're going to be changing a few things here at jastef.net -- Nothing that will effect any of you too much, but I wanted to post about it so there's no "wondering" or confusion.

Since starting this website (4 years ago - wow!) we've always posted family birthdays and Anniversaries. From now on, we're going to keep that to personal cards and phone calls and only post about major holidays. No other reason other than worrying that we'll forget someone and also just having lots of birthdays and such in a large family... this will eventually turn into the birthday blog. :)

In closing this out, we will send Anniversary wishes to my sister Trisha and her hubby Caleb. Their Anniversary is tomorrow, so this is a nice way to close out this habit. Happy 9 years to you both! May God bless the next 90 :)

Rachel is 23 months old now and this is officially her last month-to-month update from me. I don't know why I stop doing that at 2 years. Maybe because when they turn two they have less new things they're doing each month and life becomes more consistent and gradual. Who knows.

Anyway, not very much has changed over the past month, other than some new words she can say and her understanding more of what we say. Her new word these days is "favorite". Everything is her favorite and she loves being dramatic when she says the word. She wants to be potty trained very badly, but I'm a bad mom and I'm putting it off until after VBS and after Ethan's surgery. We need a good week to stay home and focus on just that and right now, I can't do that. She tells us every time she goes in her diaper and then tries to take her diaper off saying, "I need to go on the potty!!"

She still has a massive love affair with shoes, purses and all things pink. We have to gasp and catch our breath every time we pass pink, princess looking things in the store. SO not what I imagined MY daughter being like... but I am enjoying it.

She has this new thing of saying "Thank you, Mommy!" anytime I do anything for her; put her shoes on, fold her clothes, do the dishes, serve her dinner, etc... she's very good about thanking Jason and I for everything we do. I love that she notices.

She loves running errands with Daddy... the other day when she and Jason went out together, they got home and Jason came to me and told me that he can tell life is speeding by, because he can't remember Rachel getting so big. He said she was talking his ear off in the car and acting like such a big girl and it was then that he realized, he's going to blink and she'll be 16. Too true.

Anyway, she's our little princess. I know that term greatly annoys some people, but its true. We love how girly and sweet she is (though not perfect, of course) and are thoroughly enjoying her in our family.

Happy Father's day, to all you wonderful Dads out there! I hope this day is a blessing for each one of you. I love that we have this day on the calender... gives me especially a reminder to tell and show my husband how much I love and appreciate him. I cannot imagine life without this man in my life and I know our kids would agree.

Hope you all have a wonderful day! This is one of my favorite Psalms and I thought it was very fitting for today...

 "Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.

It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn is exalted in honor."

Pictures: 

Today, June 15th, we have TWO family birthdays to celebrate! Our brother-in-law Caleb turns 30 and our nephew Sam turns 8!

Happy birthday to you both. We hope you have a wonderful day -- Happy Father's Day to you as well, Caleb!

We love you both - Jase, Stef, Ethan & Rachel