Today's doctor visit

Today we had an appointment for Owen to finally have his 1 year well child checkup (at 15 months) and he got his 6 months shots (better late than never).  He is healthy and happy and for that we are very grateful.  His height is way above average and his weight is just above average, so he is following well in the “big for his age” department just like his big brother. 

 

Jack also got a quick check up and Joel and I were able to talk with the doctor about what to do next with him.  Jack has been on a dairy and soy free diet for 4 weeks now and we haven’t seen any changes in his tummy troubles so we wanted to know what the doctor’s next move would be.  So this is how it will look for the next month or so.

 

·         Today we took in another stool sample to the lab to have it checked for parasites and other things

·         Today we also began to reintroduce dairy and soy to his diet (boy was he happy to eat mac and cheese again!)

·         In a week we’ll treat him again with Vermox for worms to try that once more

·         In about 2 or three weeks, we will begin to eliminate gluten from his diet. 

 

The doctor said that if gluten is causing the problem, we would know within a few weeks after eliminating it from his diet.  So we’ll try that for 2-3 weeks and see if there are any changes.  After that, if the tests come back clear, the vermox doesn’t make a difference and gluten is innocent, then we’ll be referred to another GI specialist and go from there.  So that’s the game plan for now. 

 

Thanks for all your prayers for our family and Jack, especially.

 

Fabuland!

Owen and Sunny

The Boy of Summer!

Sunny, Our Dog for the week...

Blackmail Material...

Good dental hygiene begins early...

Bon Appetite!

Playyyyy Balll!!!!

a midsummer's day update

‘Afternoon from hot and steamy Michigan,

How’s your summer going? If it’s like ours, it’s passing quickly and it’s hot and mostly productive.

Life here has settled into a fairly regular routine, for now at least. For the last 5 or 6 weeks, I (Joel) have been working out of my office preparing for the students arrival next month. Along with various assorted tasks, my main responsibilities have been to schedule and fill up the openings for our chapel program, a daily hour of teaching, musical worship, student leadership growth and other things that need to be addressed towards the whole student body. Along with that, my other primary responsibility is working and discipling students through their involvement in the musical worship team that I lead. I’ve been preparing a lot of music and ideas and principles that I want to pass on to the students who I have the privilege of working with. I’m excited about the possibilities that lie ahead for building relationships with these students, many of whom will go on to serve as missionaries themselves. Even though our ‘field experience’ hasn’t been the ideal normal type, I’m convinced that our God will use it.

The students begin to arrive in about a month or so, so all of us as a staff of missionaries here at the Bible Institute are squeezing in preparation and rest and relaxation before life revolves around the students again.

Bethany and the boys have been also getting some routine, though it hasn’t been without it’s ups and downs. Not having me in the house all day has been an adjustment for all three of them, though Bethany is doing an awesome job of keeping our house and boys in great shape. She’ll start assisting the schools dean of education in August and is looking forward to that change of pace.

Jack is doing slightly better. We’ve had him on a no soy/no milk diet for 3 weeks and have seen some change for the better, but it seems that all change in his little body is slow going.

So that’s life for us these days. How about you? Seems like everyone is more relaxed during the summer so we tend to not hear from folks as much, but we love staying connected to what’s going on in your lives.

Before I sign off, I would ask for your prayers in two big areas.

First, my Grandpa (Papa as we call him, he’s my mom’s dad) in Southeastern Pennsylvania has been in the hospital for nearly a week dealing with the results of a minor heart attack, some of which have been some serious blood clots. He’s around 85 years old and though in his mind as spry and feisty as ever, his body is not as spry. My mom is flying back from Guyana (where she and my dad serve as missionaries) to help in his care. Would you pray for the Lord’s mercy on Papa’s body as well as for physical and emotional strength for my family.

Second, man the gas prices are awful! You know that and we really know that. Because of how gas effects so many things and the economy in general, we’re facing some financial needs and shortfalls that we’ve never had to deal with. We ideally could use an increase in our support and however things come about, we’re looking, moment by moment, and I mean that, to our God who has promised to meet our needs as we seek His purposes and serve Him full time. Please be praying both for our provision as well as for our ability to totally trust in His ability to provide for us.

Thank you so much for standing with us!

Joel for the Potter 4

4th of July Weekend

Hey all,

Thought I'd send out some photos from our weekend with Bekah and Jon and
Christine. It was a lovely time had by all, especially the youngest
Potters!

Happy 4th!

Bethany

california pictures

Here are a few pictures from my trip to LA earlier in June. The image resolution isn't the greatest as we've had to revert to our older camera.

my office

for those of you who know me (joel) well, you'll understand that I've wanted my own office for qute some time now. i think the idea of an office as a creative and personal space is something that has appealed to me for so long now. now, for some, the office is something to be escaped at the end of the day and week, but for me, while I love and need to go home at the end of the day, having an intentional space that is my own, is sublime.

so, now that we're here at New Tribes Bible Institute, I finally have my own office and I must say, it's quite spacious.

after several days of painting and prepping and moving in some furniture that I was able to borrow (after a while, I'd actually like to build my own furniture), began the task of making the space mine. I'd been collecting books and magazines, appropriate textbooks and journals, all kinds of things that I thought would be perfect for my office. and after a few different arrangements I got it just right.

now, there are a few of my teammates here at the school who don't know this side of me, the ametuer interior designer, the architecture buff, the creative type and several of them after giving good feedback made the assumption that Bethany must have helped, at least in arranging the pictures on the wall. I sheepishly said, 'no, actually I did it all...', not sure what they'll think.

but in the end, I love my office and am thankful for this unique to me blessing from God.

can you ever imagine anyone else saying that about their office...

Jack

 

Owen

 

Bethany and the Boys

 

Joel and Jack

 

Jack's new pediatrician

We have found a new pediatrician here for Jack and were able to get in to see him on Thursday of last week.  Going through the whole history with him was tedious but we were the last appointment of the day and he was a great listener through it all.  We asked him about transferring Jack's care from the Ped. GI specialist in St. Louis to one in Ann Arbor and he had some things he wanted us to try first.  Since we had some short success with taking Jack off of soy and milk, he wanted to try that again for a longer period of time.  He also wanted to get Jack onto a fiber supplement to help "bulk him up".  So this week we started the fiber and next week we'll begin elliminating milk and soy from his diet.  I am a bit intimidated still by this but being home in the states sure makes it a whole lot easier.  The labels here on foods are reliable and most even say if they contain milk or soy so that you don't have to read every ingredient.  After a few weeks without these things in his diet, we'll have a good idea if they were causing his diarreah.  Then we'll try reintroducing them one at at time and see how he reacts.  If we don't find that those eliminations help him, we'll begin to take him off of anything containing gluten.  The doctor felt like that even though Jack tested negative to Celiac disease, it was worth trying th elimination of gluten from his diet to see if that was causing his problem.  * He currently has a patient much like Jack who also tested negative for Celiac but has had success in eliminating the diarreah by eliminating gluten.  But we won't go there yet.  For now, increase fiber and decrease milk and soy.  Jack did weigh in within the 75^th % for his weight and the 95^th for his height so that was great news!

 

Thanks for praying and we'll keep you posted!

 

 

back-blogging - LAUNDRY!

Ok, so it’s proving to be difficult to keep everyone up to date with our lives having the internet isolated in our bedroom upstairs in our house.  I don’t spend much time up here so I don’t see the computer much through the day.  So I’m going to do what I call “back-blogging” today.  Let’s go back a few weeks, shall we?

 

Joel went to California for something like 6 days to handle the transferring of our stuff, which came by boat from Indonesia.  That trip went well for him as he got most of what he had to do done in a couple of days and then just enjoyed the sights of LA.  He actually had the audacity to call me from Malibu to tell me he was having lunch at a little beach café there, overlooking the water.  You can guess my response, while I was home with the two boys alone… “just be quiet!  You are not nice!” Or something like that!  I am glad though, that he got the time away and that it wasn’t all work and no play.  For that makes Joel a dull boy, as the saying goes!

 

He made it home safely and we three survived the week without daddy – Praise the Lord!  We have, since then, continued with some things around the house to get everything settled that we brought with us from Missouri, before the next load arrived and so when, last Friday, we got the call to go get it at the warehouse, we were ready to begin the process again. Or so I thought!  Little did I remember that we had shipped home box after box of clothes, bedding, and towels.  Ok so think with me on this.  How many loads of laundry do you suppose it took to wash say, 6 rubbermaids of “stuff”?  Thirty-six!  Yes that’s 3 – 6, 36 loads!  Thankfully I didn’t have to resort to only using our washer and dryer but was able to take everything over to the school laundry room and do 18 loads at a time.  The washing wasn’t so bad and the drying was actually easier, as they have industrial sized dryers that dry like 4 loads at once in about 30 minutes!  It was the folding that just about killed me!  I left the house at 12:30 and came home around 5.  Whew!  I was tired and hot but it was all done. 

 

Meanwhile, Joel was home doing load after load of dishes, by hand, mind you, to wash all the pots and pans, tupperware, etc. that was shipped home.  After a month on a ship, no telling what nastiness was on it all.  It took us about 4 days to get everything put away, but now I am happy to say, we are settled in with no boxes to unpack!  I am happy to be “home” and to finally get our lives in order again!