Chicago whirlwind wedding trip

Sooooo...a couple of weeks ago we braved a trip to Chicago.  What would cause us to brave such a harrowing trip with two wee babes?  Why, the nuptials of one of my dearest friends, Scott Sexton of course.  What made this wedding especially fun is that it was a "Tower Player" wedding, and they are always sure to be chalk full of stupid silliness, as indeed this one was.

We had been looking forward to this trip and dreading it for some time.  Looking forward to it because, we would be seeing friends we had not seen in a long time, and others we can never see enough of.  Not looking forward to it because traveling to the city of Chicago was sure to be filled with all sorts of baby tensions.

Turned out, due to the hard work of other people, we had nothing to worry about.  The trip was made possible due to the hard work of Nana, she came along with us just to help with the babies (now that is unconditional love).  Nana flew to St. Louis, so she could drive with us to Chicago and help in the car, and then watched the girls in the evenings when we were at the rehearsal dinner on Friday night, and on Saturday night while we were at the wedding and at the reception.  Leaving us free to....

...to enjoy ourselves...and, for me at any rate, to act like...um....well...this guy...

The trip also wouldn't have happened without the gracious kindness of Paul and Emily.  They, because they are amazing people, gave up their apartment and allowed us to take it over with our motley crew.  (Thanks Paul and Emily!!)

On the last day, a bunch of us got together to introduce each other to our kids.

All in all it was a great trip

"Hey Paul"

"Yes Emma Jane"

"Do we have to go home?  We've been having so much fun"
"Sorry Emma Jane...all good things come to an end"

PS Paul's Birthday is tomorrow (the 24th) say happy birthday!

PPS Marcos Machado's (Emma Jane's god-father) birthday is tomorrow, say happy birthday!

PPPS  Steve and Becky Gadlin's wedding anniversary is tomorrow, say happy anniversary!

"...an offer you can't refuse" or "back to your usual commentator"

Parker's Godparents came to down this last weekend. They are Paul and Emily Luikart. You may remember them from back when Mary Jane's water broke. They were here fro a few days when all this began, helping us out. They came back this time with the hope of getting a chance to hang out with us. Life got a little unexpectedly hectic for me so unfortunately I didn't get to see them quite as much as i would have liked, but it was still a great to see them.
Thanks for coming guys! We look forward to seeing you in January! Emily with Parker

Paul with Parker

Parker's big yawn

a staged causal shot

“hole” lotta love part IV: A New Beginning

Well…here we go again. Some of you may remember from way back when (about a week ago) when we were going through the PDA campaign, that Parker needed surgery because she was not responding to the ibuprofen, but Emma Jane handled the ibuprofen well and it was closing her PDA, but had not closed it. Well, guess what…the PDA has gotten larger.




"You've got to be kidding me!"











What does this mean? Good question. For a more precise explanation we turn to the graduated nurse practitioner in the family: Mary Jane
“Clinically Emma Jane appearance is unchanged. They have been able to wean the flow on her oxygen, she is tolerating her feeds, she shows no signs of distress, however she does have a murmur again, the PDA is larger and if she does begin to show signs that the PDA is affecting her adversely then she will have to undergo a PDA ligation as her sister did.”
For the medically ignorant explanation we turn to Jason:
“Emma Jane looks the same, but looks can be deceiving, lurking underneath is the same danger which was plaguing her sister. Currently this is not putting her in any immediate danger, however, as we saw with Parker, things can change fast, and we may end up having to have the same surgery. They want to wait as long as possible because the older she is the easier it is on her.”
For the overly simplistic explanation we turn to Jojo the idiot boy:
“Emma Jane eat. Emma Jane poop. Emma Jane breathe. Emma Jane heart go..um swishy swishy (sound of a murmur).”

On a lighter note: Grandma left. Nana is coming back tomorrow, and she is bringing the cord with her. So a big thank you to all who offered to pick it up for us, or even ship it to us (wow Weav…that was cool), but it is coming by way of Nana.

Blessings,
The Broges

PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY (sorry we haven't called...life is...well...you know...but we love you and wish you the happiest of birthdays)

Spotlight on: The Luikarts

Throughout this whole ordeal Mary Jane and I have been blessed to be surrounded by countless people who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help us. We couldn’t possibly do justice to thanking them all. That said I want to try to at least chip away at the block a little. So I will, when time permits, begin a series of “spotlight posts.” This, in some ways, is actually the second of them, (I mentioned a few posts ago how thankful we are for the support Pastor Biermann has shown us) however the first to actually be designated a “spotlight” post. All this said, before I continue, I want to assure Liz there will be another post sometime later today with actual update information. Some of you know that I will sometimes pre-post things to show up later the next day. You can usually pick these out because they are posts with no real update information.

This post is dedicated to Paul and Emily Luikart. To say they have gone above and beyond the call of duty is to say too little. The Luikarts have been friends of ours for quite some time. Paul when to college with me and was the best man at my wedding. Emily went to High School with Mary Jane and was one of Mary Jane’s bridesmaids. They had met once before our wedding, but we kind of hooked them up at our wedding, making for instant and wonderful couple friends. They live in Chicago and had already been planning to visit us. The original plan for Labor Day weekend was for Emily to come down from Chicago and travel with Mary Jane to Chattanooga where Mary Jane was going to have a baby shower at home with her family. Meanwhile, Paul was going to come on a later train and spend the weekend here with me in St. Louis helping me paint the baby’s room and just generally hanging out and being stupid (something we excel at). Emily was just getting up at 5 or so in the morning Thursday the 28th when she learned Mary Jane’s water had broken. She came anyway. She came and helped in more ways then I can count. She sat with Mary Jane when I or her mother could not. She ran errands for us. Then Paul got there and they both jumped into high gear. They did everything from pick up our dry cleaning to helping with laundry and even folded and put clothes away. Paul worked with my dad to prime the baby’s room. Emily sat with my mother-in-law while I was with Mary Jane in the Operating Room. Paul sat with Pastor Biermann while they waited for the chance to come back and baptize the babies. (Paul is the one who took the pictures I posted earlier) They laughed with us, they cried with us, they even filled the gas tank on our car (behind our backs) before leaving town. In short, they lived life with us and were the hands of Christ to us.
Your friendship has always meant the world to us, and was more appreciated that weekend then you’ll ever know.

PS. Paul and Emily are Parker’s godparents.


here are just a couple of other pictures. This is another of the almost family photos. One day, Lord willing, we will get all four of us into a room together. Pictured here is mom, dad, and Emma Jane.














This is a picture of Parker's monkey. I'm really excited about it and hope it becomes "the" stuffed animal. You know, the one that is loved forever and is secretly kept even into adulthood. (Not that anyone would ever do that....certainly not either of her parents...nope...never.)

Beginnings

This post is a bit out of order, but I wanted to go back and show pictures from it.
Want to take a moment to shine a spotlight on the Baptism.
An important person in this story is Pastor Biermann. He is one of many people who have gone above and beyond the call of duty over this past week. I spoke with him later in the day after Mary Jane’s water broke and he offered words of comfort and promised to pray for God’s mercy (as many of you did…thank you). He told me not to hesitate to call him if I needed anything, and so when Mary Jane began bleeding and it became apparent the babies were coming I took him up on his offer. He was on the way back into town and graciously drove straight over to the hospital to be with us. He sat with my mother-in-law and a friend of the family (Emily) while I was in with Mary Jane in the operating room. He then sat with another friend of mine (Paul) over at Children’s while I waited with the girls in the NICU until they were on the machines. Pastor Biermann and Paul then came back and we baptized them. Unfortunately Mary Jane couldn’t be down there (something which I will always be a little sad about) but I was glad Paul was there because he was able to document it with these pictures. All told he was probably there five hours or so and he has checked in with us everyday since then. Even though he will probably never read this I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank him. He was the vehicle which brought the peace of God to us during a crazy time, and was the instrument used in my daughters’ baptism. Thank you.
As I go back and look at pictures of the Baptism of the girls I find my mind wandering to Mark chapter 2. Probably not the text most Christians would expect me to jump to. Truth be told not the text I would naturally have expected my mind to go to…but I think it fits.
This is the story of the paralytic and his friends. Jesus is teaching in a house and things are so crowded these friends can’t bring the friend into the house. These clever friends figure, ehh no big deal. Let’s just climb up on the roof. Cut a hole in the roof of the house and lower him right in front of Jesus. They seem to have this clear understanding that nothing is going to get in the way of them bringing this guy to Jesus because he is the only one who can solve their problems. So they’re lowering the guy down and Jesus looks us, sees their faith and says “Your sins are forgiven.” Now in today’s day and age this is easy to just run on by. We hear sins being forgiven left and right, it is a phrase often said with a little too much flippancy. But back then…this was just plain crazy talk. And all the people in the crowd new it. Remember this is Mark 2, the beginning of Jesus public ministry. Jesus has a reptutation, but not necessarily as being “the Son of God.” So everyone in the crowd starts grumbling. Who does this guy think he is? Only God can forgive sins.
Well it turns out Jesus knows exactly who he is, and yes…he fits those qualifications for forgiving sins just fine. He ponders which would be harder to forgive sins or to instaneously heal the paralytic, and then goes and heals the paralytic to prove that he does indeed have the authority to forgive sins. People are stunned and amazed. You kind of wish they would have pulled a Thomas and said “My Lord, and My God” but instead they seem to just marvel at him.
Anyway what is jumping out to me right now about this story is the order of things. Jesus starts off by forgiving the guy’s sins. Because, that’s the bigger problem. He can live as a paralytic, he can die as a paralytic, but if he dies bearing the consequences for his own sin…now that’s a problem that won’t get fixed. He then is gracious enough to grant the healing as well, but that is a secondary thing in this instance.

I guess that is kind of where we are right now. Parker and Emma Jane were called by God in their baptism. They have received that forgiveness of sins, and now we’re asking for the healing. Course we’re not sitting around wondering about Jesus’ credentials. We know and trust that he has the authority to extend his promise to our daughters, and we know and trust he has the authority to tell them to “pick up their mat’s and walk”. Will he do it?
I don’t know. Who’s to say he hasn’t already? Their alive. There was no guarantee in that. Their doing well right now. And let’s face it. Whatever else comes, they’ve been given life etneral, that’s nothing to sneeze at. (course…I still wouldn’t mind 80 or 90 years of life here with some grandbabies and great-grandbabies some day…really really wouldn’t mind it, but then…that’s why we’re all still praying.)

Hmm. This will probably come as a big shocker, but I’ve gotten rambly. It’s late. Here are the pictures.