Happy Birthday Myles!!

Last year at this time...I was dead as a dog tired, waiting for my milk to come in, with a 8lb. 3 oz Myles resting on my belly...which still looked like I was 9 months pregnant. But oh how happy I was!! Oh the staring I did... (Oh the diapers Seth changed.) Oh the beauty of this glorious world! There's absolutely nothing in the world like meeting your own baby for the first time, 40 weeks after they have been kicking around in your womb. 30 hours of labor and delivery (20 hours unmedicated), 4 hours of pushing, and 1 major abdominal surgery later...there he was! He cried and he grunted and I whispered his name into his miniature ear for the first time.

Today I'm so grateful for God's gift of life, grateful for family, filled up with gratitude for this little baby-turned-boy who wakes up happy every morning, who giggles and farts and gets into mischief, who is making his own way in the world, and where he goes only time will tell. Who he will become, what he'll love, the gifts God has blessed him with, all to be revealed in good time. My sweet joy-giver. And that's enough for now.

The photos above are from Myles' first encounter with meat. He was on a vegetarian diet in the womb and throughout his first year of life, but last weekend he wanted a bit of chicken soup from Grandma's spoon. As you can see, at first he wondered, "Am I destined to be a vegetarian, like my mama?" But I think he concluded, "No, bring it on!"

Happy first Birthday, Myles Seth Hendler-Voss. We love you boy.

Good News About My Dad

My folks flew back to Houston on Monday, and my dad underwent a series of tests (heart, lungs, CAT, etc.) on Tuesday. Today, they met with the doctor, who treats about 500 sarcoma patients, and the news was looking up. The cancer has grown a bit, but the doctor recommends a chemo that my dad can take in Tennessee. He will have to get a port, and the chemo will affect him about the same as the last stuff he was on...in other words he will feel pretty sick for a few days in the cycle, but will still be able to work, exercise, and maintain his life for the most part. My folks were about to call their doc in TN when I got off the phone with them, to schedule an appointment asap so my dad can get back on treatment. He will lose his hair, and the beautiful silvery goatee he has sported recently. The doctor seemed to think that this is not the only treatment option for him, although this chemo has had a good deal of success with her other patients (success meaning the cancer will shrink, not be eradicated completely). The chemo will last 4 months, and after 2 rounds (I think) they will go back to Houston to consult with this doc again. We are very grateful that the cancer is still controllable, that my dad will be able to do chemo in TN, that he can maintain his lifestyle while he is in treatment, and that he has treatment options that seem to be successful with other sarcoma patients. I'm sure he will update his caring bridge site with more details, for those of you who know him and want to know more. I'm so thankful that he is facing cancer with such courage, support from my mom, and optimism...for those of you who know my dad, his spirit is the best thing about him!

Wintry Mix

Well, I really need to label our photos better, because these were not the photos I thought I chose for this morning's blog. But I dont' feel like waiting for a whole new group to download. I was going to snap a photo of the quiet, white world from our back porch, but it turned out the camera battery needs charging. So it goes. Anyhow, it is white and quiet here. Every school known to Asheville is closed. We got a few inches of snow overnight, and we're expecting that famous "wintry mix" this morning. Meaning that it's too warm for the precipitation to remain snow, so it will turn to a slippery slush and then to a rain. Without road salt (just sand and a pre-snow de-icer), everyone is pretty much staying at home today.

I have been working with a group that is planning a forum called "Immigration: fact, fiction, and faith" for clergy. It was scheduled for this morning. As it turned out, one of the key organizers had his first baby (or rather his wife did) over the weekend, and he wouldn't have been able to attend anyway. So perhaps it's all for the best that we've postponed it.

I'm trying to talk Seth into taking Myles out back to slide down our backyard hill on top of a plastic lid from one of our storage boxes. A baby needs to do these things. And Seth is just the parent to make it happen (his tolerance for cold is much higher than mine despite the fact that I grew up in Michigan).

On Tuesday, I went with my friend Michelle to a show at the civic center featuring Emmylou Harris, Patti Griffin, Shawn Colvin, and Buddy Miller. It was incredible! Patti Griffin has a really beautiful song called "Mary" both about her grandmother and mother Mary. Each musician would take a turn singing one of their songs, and the others would provide back up.

On Sunday I get to preach. I am hoping to skip out on Kindermusik on Monday in favor of taking Myles to the MLK peace march that I go to annually. Maybe this year I can convince Seth to come along. I remember last year I was very large and in charge with a belly full of Myles, and I was sitting on the ground, listening intently to one of the speakers, put my hands absent-mindedly on my belly and had a woman next to me exclaim, "Are you okay???"

Well, if there's snow in your world this weekend, I hope you enjoy it. If there's a MLK event that you like to attend, I hope you enjoy that too. I can't resist closing with a quote from the King himself:

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

The Good, the Bad, and the Pretttty!

It's been a busy week with no time to blog...so here I am on a Saturday night, and this should give you a good indication of what life is like with an almost-one-year-old. He's in bed by 7:00, and we spend more nights in than we ever imagined. Here are a few fun photos, the first is Myles as we got him ready for bed tonight. He is very fascinated with his shoes, and loves to play with them. The second photo is a drama shot, a reminder in the midst of all the smiley photos that the world of a one year old can come crashing down around them very quickly and life can be just plain hard. Smart enough to know what you want, but not equipped to communicate it, makes for frustration and tears. And a sweet sweet red face. The third photo is Seth at Christmas, and I love it!

This primary season finds our home the center of vigorous debate as Seth and I are lining up behind different candidates (oh to return to the Dean days when we were in it together!). I am all about Barack Obama. The two speeches he gave following the Iowa caucuses and the NH primary have been brilliant in my book. I think he's smart, savvy, positive, articulate, and...the word I think describes him best: dignified. And I'm ready for some dignity in the White House. Seth has been supporting Hillary (which, as a woman, I pretty much dig although I still try to win him over to Obama). So the argument playing out over the news of experience vs. change is the same one we've been having in our house, only ours has lasted more than a few soundbites and been a little more informed on the issues. I am ready to have someone leading our country who I can believe in, someone who bridges this intense polarization in our nation right now, someone who inspires people to believe that we can do things differently. And yes, I am more than ready for a person of color to hold the highest office in our nation. Seth finds some of Obama's hope language a little empty and wants to know where the candidates actually stand on the issues, he wants to read the details of their plans and see how they differ. He believes that we need someone to lead who can get things done, who has the experience of knowing how to get things done. We are both persuaded by the arguments of the other, but still sticking by our folks for now. Seth was pleased that there's still a competitive race coming out of NH, and I guess in some ways that is good for our nation in terms of getting folks invested in the political process.

On the Republican side, I'm just going to throw this out there: we like McCain and we like Huckabee. We disagree completely with McCain's stance on the war, but at least the man is honest and forthright and doesn't feel slippery in the least. Huckabee we disagree with on almost everything, but it's nice to see him win out over Romney's money and there's also a positivity and humor that he has that's somewhat endearing.

What else...Myles got a little sick two nights ago, he threw up twice during the night, but didn't seem sick in any other way and still had a lot of energy and a smile on his face in the morning. We tried to sleep with him after he vomited the first time, and were reminded of how impossible it is to sleep with that little one. He managed to be completely asleep and still poke Seth directly in the eye, and then pull my hair. Then I really had to go to the bathroom cause I had had all this water and I slooowwly rolled out of the bed, tip toed to the door, but as soon as I turned the knob, he woke up. Light sleeper extraordinaire. Finally, we put him back in his crib and turned the monitor up as loud as it could go, and got some sleep. Today, he's refusing to eat anything but Teddy Puffs. Oh, how he loves Teddy Puffs. I managed to sneak some sweet potato, avocado, oatmeal/banana, and cottage cheese down, but just a few bites at each meal before he began waving his hands in front of his face or spitting out the food. Maybe his appetite still isn't back.

Well, that's it from the Hendler-Voss house for now. Have a great weekend yall!

Update on my Dad

Just back from tasty breakfast at the Over Easy... a cute, women-owned local cafe not too far from home. Seth had the special, strawberry chocolate chip pancakes, and they were incredible. Myles feasted on grits, a few bites of my egg croissant sandwich, and water.

My folks should be getting back from Houston today. They met with the doctor yesterday, and learned that he needs to come back on January 22nd for bloodwork, CT scan, lung scan, and heart exam. On the 23rd they will again meet with the doctor to determine the course of treatment. The good news is that the doctor seems to think that they will find a chemo for my dad to try, although she also didn't rule out radiation or even surgery as possibilities. The bad news is that we again need to wait to find out what that treatment will be, where he will get it, and how it will impact our lives. Fortunately, MD Anderson is quite impressive. Although my dad's form of cancer (a type of sarcoma) is very rare, they see 400-500 cases of sarcoma annually, and so we very much feel that my dad is in the right place at the right time. The other very good news is that my dad's insurance is covering all of this thus far, aside from his annual deductible. So please continue to keep my dad in your thoughts and prayers and I'll update you again later this month.

And now for an update on sweet Myles. Let's see...we are wondering whether he will be a nudist, as he loves to pull off his socks every day during nap time and fling them over the side of the crib, he pulls off his bib at every meal, he squeals each time he's naked, and he creatively resists being dressed in about every way possible. This morning, he offered his pacifier to his stuffed bear with a giggle and we thought that was cute. He also was proud to sit in his rocking chair and make it rock back and forth all by himself.

We're excited about his first birthday, which is coming up quickly! Today we are creating the invitations...it will be at the YMCA, a pool party followed by some cake and ice cream.

NYE 08

This year, we spent New Year's Eve with friends from the Appalachia Service Project...as we have done for the last decade. This was the first year that we attempted to make the event family friendly. We rented two cabins in east Tennessee and one was the family cabin for the three of us who brought babies for the first time. See Myles playing with sweet Olivia. We had a lot of fun, and the older we get the more we appreciate these friends who have known us for all of our adult lives and continue to keep us in their lives through the good and the bad.

Although we didn't get back in time for it, our church did a beautiful thing on New Year's day. There's a homeless woman who often comes in to our office to get warm, and she called the church on December 31st wondering whether she could come in on New Year's day, because the weather was supposed to be very bad and all the day shelters are closed for the holiday. My colleague Joe did some calling around and discovered that the day shelters were indeed closed on New year's day. So he sent an email out to our congregation proposing that we host as many folks from the streets as could fit in our friendship hall and provide heat, food and hot drinks, and fellowship. 50 volunteers from our church showed up, and 100 folks came in off the streets, some of them picked up by a member of our church who drove around town and brought folks who were exposed to the elements to the church in her car. Some really good things came out of all of this...an article came out about it in the front page of the Citizen Times, a member of our church went down to the Rescue Mission and took two of the guys out to eat who helped out in the kitchen to thank them, and then two women who were traveling through town stopped by the church today and felt called to write a large check after reading the article in the paper. The weather here has been frigid. We've had two snow days in a row, though I hear it will get back up in the fifties over the weekend. I can't help but think about all those folks who live on the streets and my heart goes out to them. Anyhow, just thought I'd share this experience our church had, we may consider making this an annual event since all the day shelters are closed on new years day.

Hope all of you had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and wonderful New Year's!!