Not alone in suffering

Our fasting and prayer yesterday on Good Friday were dedicated to our friends, recently married, who yesterday faced surgery for her recurrence of breast cancer. The fact that these dear friends, our age and just newlyweds, are faced with this unbelievable trial feels so wrong and unjust. As T and I fasted and prayed for her surgery as part of our Good Friday remembrance, we experienced anew the reality that we are not alone in our suffering. We have a Living God who suffered ultimately for us on a cross and holds us intimately in our suffering today.

Here is a excerpt from a note T sent to our friends in an email on the eve of her surgery. It is a fitting reminder for Good Friday:

"There is nothing I can say that will bring you more comfort than your knowledge of and faith in Christ. Our true human condition is certainly desperate at all times yet we tend to fluxuate between feelings of sheer invincibility and complete vulnerability. True insight into our delicate, even fragile nature is given sparingly and for that we must be thankful. Yet some of those who have suffered much are drawn so close to Christ as to occupy a position that he rarely, if ever, grants access to. It is a place only gained by trial and only understood by those that bear the scars of the journey. But make no mistake--it is a place of intimate and infinite blessing. You are given a place at the table where those bleeding meet a cup of blood and broken spirit meets broken bone. And then there He is. Your Host. The Host. And all He asks is for your trust and your love.

British pastor John R. W. Stott wrote the following concerning the God he knows and the suffering we experience. I referenced it in the eulogy of my father when he passed away a little less than a year ago:

"I myself could never believe in God were it not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as 'God on the Cross.' In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time, after a while I have had to turn away. And in my imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wretched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside His immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His. 
 There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark - the Cross, which symbolizes divine suffering." ~John R.W.Stott

Please pray for our young friend. May the message of Good Friday: ultimate hope amidst ultimate suffering, be with you and point you toward the Resurrection power of Easter. God bless you.

Happily Ever,

Queen B

A Big Weekend Ahead...

Three AMAZING things to look forward to this weekend:

1. My sweet sister, fantastic brother-in-law and unbelievably adorable niece are all coming in tomorrow from Boston for a visit! Hooray for family time--we treasure every minute with them.

2. Gabrielle will turn 3 on Sunday! We will celebrate on Saturday in true Grandmo fashion, so that her special day will not be completely overshadowed by....

3. Easter! Remembering that Christ is Risen--this is the most important holiday of the year for our family, and I am so thankful we will all be together to celebrate. Of course, colored eggs and jellybeans are likely to make an appearance at some point.

But first, on to another call for me tomorrow. Can't WAIT to get to the weekend......

Happily Ever,

Queen B

Half Way Through Holy Week

I am taking a break tonight to remind myself that we are in the middle of Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter. Last Sunday the kids and I celebrated Palm Sunday at the Basilica, participating in the "parade for Jesus," as G-Bear called it. She loved waving her palm branch in the air and processing into the sanctuary with the rest of the congregation after the service started outside on the front lawn. Later that day, once T had gotten home, we made Easter eggs at Grandmo & Papa's house together:

But today I am struggling with a headache from the tension of my day, and the joys and childlike delight and trust from last Sunday seem very far away. I guess that is part of what we remember during Holy Week--how the hearts of so many were turned away from hailing Jesus to hating him in the span of just a few days. My "Jesus Calling" reading today again hit the mark, drawing me back to what I need to remember in the midst of weariness and overwhelming responsibility:

"I am taking care of you. Trust Me at all times. Trust Me in all circumstances. Trust Me with all your heart. When you are weary and everything seems to be going wrong, you can still utter these four words: 'Jesus, I trust you.' By doing so, you release matters into My control, and you fall back into the security of My everlasting arms......Search for me as for hidden treasure. I will be found by you."

~Sarah Young, "Jesus Calling"

based on Proverbs 3:51, Deuteronomy 33:27, Jeremiah 29:13-14

Happy Holy Week.

Happily Ever,

Queen B

Jesus Loves The Little Children

Another sweet moment to share...Here is G-bear singing her new favorites song, "Jesus Loves the Little Children." I am pretty sure there are few sweeter sounds to God's ear, either in heaven or on earth, than the voice of one of his precious babes singing about his Great Love. Yes, G-Bear, we are all so precious in His Sight.

Happily Ever,

Queen B

Dinner together again

What a night we had tonight! Our first meal at home back together as a family, a 70 degree night, and a fabulous meal made by our friends Jacob and Andrea. We dined like kings and queens on our porch for the first time since September!

Here are some shots of the crew enjoying the feast. Thanks to Jacob and Andrea for blessing us with an amazing meal!

G-Bear sharing her apple appetizer with an enthusiastic E-Bear.

Dinner is served!

Yum!

Happily Ever,

Queen B

He's Home!

T is home safe and sound! Pictures and more details to come...for now it is onto another call day for me and a full day of surgery for him today. Talk about coming home to hit the ground running!

Happily Ever,
Queen B

Mommy = Exercise

Someone asked me recently when I last went running. Reasonable question, as I have loved running since high school. "Um," came my answer, "two years ago?"

In defense of my "Mommy Exercise Regimen," which does not currently allow for hours of solo running workouts, I would like to direct everyone's attention to an archived post on mommy fitness written a few years ago one of my dearest college friends. I laugh so hard I could cry every time I read it. Motherhood is the best, and so are the workouts. Can I get an oof-dah?

Avoiding High Fructose Corn Syrup

No matter what specialty of medicine I end up practicing once I graduate medical school, I will be confronting the epidemic of obesity that has overwhelmed America and its devastating health consequences. Partly for that reason, and partly because I want to promote healthy eating for my kids, T, and myself, I am always interested in new studies on healthy eating. I will try to post my finds and tips here as they come up.

I just came across an interesting study published by a group of Princeton researchers (hooray, alma mater!) on high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). You can read a summary of the study here or read the abstract in Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior . The study found that Rats who had access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same. High-fructose corn syrup is a processed sweetener used in place of sugar almost ubiquitously in commercially processed foods--everything from soda to fruit juice to yogurt to tomato soup. Now to be fair, the nutritional peril of HFCS compared to plain sugar (sucrose) is far from conclusive: a study published in the journal Nutrition in 2007 compared short-term HFCS v sugar consumption in lean women and found no difference in measured body metabolic responses. The American Medical Association has done reviews of medical literature in the past and has stated that " it appears unlikely that HFCS contributes more to obesity or other conditions than sucrose" but calls for more independent research on the issue. Perhaps this new Princeton study will affect some thinking, but the controversy remains.

Based on research I have read, my conclusion is that HFCS is worth avoiding in place of sugar when possible, if for no other reason than most high calorie foods commercially available use HFCS. Last fall, I decided to make an attempt at removing all HFCS products from my shopping list, instead opting for products that use sugar or making my own versions from scratch at home. First, I was amazed at how many of the "healthy" foods I was buying used HFCS: my yogurt, my pasta sauce, my granola bars, my cereals, the kids crackers, the list goes on and on. I have managed, with some hunting, investigation and habit-changing, to find non-HFCS substitutes for all my favorite products, for about the same price or cheaper, in some cases. Dannon natural yogurt in place of yoplait, Cascadian Farms Organic granola, bars and juices (often on sale at Target or our Rainbow grocery store!) in place of Nature Valley or Quaker Oats, etc. The results have been more fresh fruit and veggie snacking, more home-made foods in our picnic lunches, and (this is just my biased opinion) better satiety for all of us. I am open to changing my mind, but for now HFCS remains on my "try not to buy list."

Happily Ever,

Queen B

Fire! What would you do?

One of the hardest things I have had to do in medical school so far happened one night while I was on pediatrics call. My team was called to the ER to help stabilize children who had been terribly burned in a house fire. There is nothing like looking at a child slightly older than your own, crying in pain and terrified, smelling the stench of burned skin and hair, and watching skin peel off a child's face, arms and legs as you try to take off her clothes. Please pray for these precious children.

Terrible things will happen in life, but there are steps we can take to help

prevent them. Fire safety is something I have never spent much time thinking about, but I am thinking about it a lot today. According to the U.S. Fire Administration and the American Academy of Pediatrics, children under 5 are twice as likely as the rest of us to die in a fire. Each year, thousands of children are injured or killed in home fires, and 40% of them are under the age of 5. What would E-Bear and G-Bear do if they woke up to fire in our house? What would T and I do? How can I keep something like this from happening to the people I love?

The U.S. Fire Administration website is a good resource if you are looking for ideas on how to improve fire safety for yourself or your family. They even have a kids version that looks like it would be great for elementary-age kids to playfully test themselves and practice thinking about what they would do in a fire situation.

Here are some of the many ideas I got from the USFA website that I am going to implement in our home. If you aren't already ahead of me on this, you should do this too!

1. Kids are curious about fire: Matches, lighters, and other heat sources are the leading causes of fire-related deaths for children under age 5. In fact, toddlers actually cause a large number of home fires by playing with lighters and matches. Children have a natural curiosity about fire and you can’t underestimate their ability to strike matches or start a lighter alarm.

*Teach your toddlers to tell you if they find something "hot" by looking at pictures of fires, pointing out fireplaces, candles, matches, lighter. Tell them that "hot" things can hurt them, and only adults should use them.

*Don't ever play with fire in front of kids, because they might try to imitate you, and keep all heat and flame-producing objects locked away out of reach of kids.

2. Go check your smoke alarm!: TWO-THIRDS OF HOME FIRES THAT KILL CHILDREN HAPPEN IN HOMES WITHOUT WORKING SMOKE ALARMS. Go check your smoke alarm, right now! Make sure it has a back-up, working battery, place alarms on every floor, especially in hallways near bedrooms, in your basement, in your kitchen. Replace batteries once a year, check them monthly to make sure they work. Talk to your kids about what the alarm means--don't expect them to know what the loud, scary noise means. AND...teach them what to do if they hear the alarm go off. Which brings me to....

3. Have a fire safety practice day: MAKE YOUR FIRE ESCAPE PLANS AND PRACTICE IT WITH YOUR KIDS, EVEN TODDLERS. Make a picture of your house layout together, including all doors and windows, and drawing at least 2 routes out of each room. Consider different scenarios, with fire starting in different places, and develop a plan with options. Teach kids to crawl to get away from fire to stay under the smoke. Choose a special outdoor meeting place and teach your kids to never go back into the house and to wait for you there. Practice makes perfect, especially with toddlers, so have fun practicing your plan together.

4. Tips for babies: Keep a harness or sling easily accessible near your child's room to ease the carrying of your baby if you have to evacuate quickly (hands free is better). Keep bedroom doors closed, this prevents smoke from entering a room, and may give you or firefighters extra time before smoke and gases overcome a child.

We are going to be having a fire safety day in our house. Do it too! And share these ideas with your friends.

Happily Ever,

Queen B

On the eve of my first night of call for pediatrics, I am praying for my patients, both the ones I know of now and those who I will likely meet tomorrow. Here is a Prayer for the Sick from Saint Augustine. Please offer it up with me, either for someone you know who is sick, or for the children I will be seeing tomorrow.

Prayer for the Sick
"Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ.
Rest your weary ones.
Bless your dying ones.
Soothe your suffering ones.
Pity your afflicted ones.
Shield your joyous ones.
And for all your love's sake.

Watch, O Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight, and give your angels charge over those who sleep.

Amen. "

~Saint Augustine

Happily Ever,

Queen B