RSV, Asthma, Croup, Bronchiolitis, high fevers, puking of guts, and the need for speed.

What’s that? Oh, that’s just the list of everything wrong with my children right now, that’s all. Good news? No pneumonia. Good news? I’ve got the happiest kids ever.
For the most part India will be crying and puking and then if she looks at me and I smile she gets this huge grin on her face and then starts puking again.
There are two Jones’. There’s “gluten Jones” and “GF (gluten free) Jones”. The Jones that eats gluten is fragile and always on the edge of being enraged or furious. Since he’s gone back to GF Jones he’s the sweet boy we remembered who still at times flies off the hook but generally is a happy, passionate, and loving child. So Jonesy, after having a 15 minute asthma attack where he puked all over himself and kept saying “I need to go to the hospital” and who didn’t want us to put new clothes on him because they’d just get puked on again, fifteen minutes later was laughing and playing and generally happy.
I’ve got sweet and wonderful kids. Sick, but sweet and wonderful.
Don’t even get me started on my wife, who is amazing and strong.

God has been so faithful these last few months…I say that as if he hadn’t been faithful before that time and may or may not be faithful after. Well my reason for saying that is it was a few months ago that Jessica and I started fund raising for our work with Renovatus for the first time. Up until today I have been working with Renovatus for free or for peanuts in a part time roll. And it has been wonderful! Working at Outback a few days a week has been enough to pay our bills and then allows me to spend more time in ministry which is where my heart is (the irony is that some of the greatest opportunity for ministry happens at Outback).
So some of you may have received letters saying “we want your money!” or some variation. Some of you may have received phone calls saying “we want your money!” or some more gentle version. Others of you may know absolutely nothing that I speak of.
Here’s the thing, while letters and phone calls that ask for money seem to scream “GIVE US YOUR CASH!”, that’s really not what we want most. I believe that God is creating a foundation for our present and future ministry. Not just a foundation of financial partners, but a foundation of people who are excited and passionate about what God is doing through Jessica and I, through Renovatus, and through all the other new church plants sprouting all around us. Why should you be excited? Well I’m glad you asked because on Sunday, February 10th you are invited to a casual meal at the Vancouver Church of Christ to hear about what is going on in our ministry, in Renovatus’ community, and in church planting in the Northwest. You are all invited. There will be dinner, it will be casual, and you will get to be a part of the growing fascination in what God could, and will do in the following years.
You and anyone you know are invited. We could have ten or we could have fifty people there so please rsvp to me via this blog, my email: ryan@renovatus.com, or call me at 360-991-4555. The party starts at 6:30 and I’d love for you to be there.

I was pretty satisfied with this (especially with only two misspelled words). I mean, I am a home school nerd who’s never taken a typing class.

76 words

Touch Typing

So check this out, Jones and India see the same pediatrician that Jessica and her siblings saw growing up. It’s pretty cool. We travel about 45 minutes to go and see her but it’s worth it because we think she’s so good. She listens to us, she emails us, she’s just the bomb diggidy.
Well, as it turns out we were right. She is the best pediatrician in town! Just ask Portland Monthly Magazine who rated the top doctors in each area of medicine in Portland/Vancouver. Guess who they picked as one of the top seven pediatricians in the area? Yep, Beryl Burnes the best. And she’s taking care of my kids. You should be jealous.
If you want to find your doctor, here is a pdf of The List.

*Is it slightly creepy that I’ve got a picture of her on my blog? Should I remove the picture?*

Have I mentioned before how much I love public transportation? Man it’s a wonderful thing. The funny thing is that up until last week I had pretty much only gone to Outback and back (that is, since I’ve had a bus pass). I went on one easy trip across town to my parents but other than that it’s been pretty routine. Well last week I had to go to the Laurelhurst area of Portland. It was to be an easy trip, two buses and a max ride. And it turned out to be an easy trip too, except for the fact that I missed the max by two minutes which set me back 15 and caused me to miss my bus by literally 1 minute which set me back another 15. It was frustrating. And it was bitingly cold. I was cold.
But on the good side, I started reading Under The Overpass on Monday and had it finished by Friday. Thank you mass transit system. That’s three bus books down in one an a half months and a whole stack to go!
Here’s the irony of the whole thing, Under The Overpass is about a couple of Christian guys who decided to live on the streets for 5 months. For some reason the book didn’t interest me a whole lot before I started. Kind of gimmicky to me I thought. But in the end it was an exceptional book, an easy read, simple, and enlightening. The irony was that I was so flippin’ cold and frustrated having to wait on the streets and all I wanted was to get back on the heated bus so that I could get back to reading my book about what it’s like to live on the streets in cold weather, hot sun, without food, etc. When I got back home I thought about the fact that my total of 30 minutes on the cold street chilled me to the bone while others live there, sleep there, and are stuck there. It made me glad that Renovatus is handing out all sorts of warm clothes this week to those freezind dudes on the street. And it made me want to take the next homeless person I saw to Wendy’s for lunch.
The End