handsful

Standing in front of the Atlantic ocean…coast to coast completed! 

Let me back up a bit.  With about 26 miles to go, the guys had to cross a BIG bridge called the Shands.  This bridge crosses the whole St. Johns river, about 1 1/2miles long and it’s very busy with traffic.  Just as they were getting ready to cross, a State Trooper drove by.  Chris (their servant-hearted friend who drove the van, fed them, kept them hydrated, etc.) flagged him down, and the guys had a police escort complete with lights and sirens!!  Here is the shot Chris got from behind…

How cool is that?!?

Here are more pictures from the celebration.  All the parents, some of the other Real Life Groups, and the Jr. High Pastor, Bill and his family were there to show their support and love for this great group of guys.  We are all so proud of them. 

The kids made signs for daddy…Ethan noticed his T for J mistake in the truck on the way.  No big deal, dude, dad will love it.  He did. 

Gregg and Randy, giving out Coast to Coast certificates

Randy said the hardest part of the whole 2 days was the last bridge, coming over the intercoastal waterway.  That bridge is STEEP, and they were dreading it.  Plus, it was within 5 miles of the end and the guys were gassed.  One of the dad’s (Luke’s) drove to the bridge, parked, walked up to the very top, and stood on the side.  As the bikers came into view, he started cheering and yelling, encouraging them to make it up that bridge.  That brings tears to my eyes.  Randy also said several of the other parents drove with them, stopping to cheer them on, driving a little farther down and doing it all again.  Love it. 

This was an amazing weekend for these men and boys…what an accomplishment!  They learned much about what it truly means to endure and then come out the other side victoriously.  They learned the most about relying on God’s strength, when you have none left. 

After the certificates were given out, everyone headed home.  As we packed up, I got this…

I couldn’t help it, she was so intensely shoveling and looking so darn cute, I had to snap a picture. 

I also got this…I’d been picturing this photo in my head for a while, just needed to get to the beach to snap it.  Might try again (and have Abbey lay off the orange nail polish?), but I like it.

Spoke to Randy this morning as we were headed out to church…they had gotten on the road early and had a fantastic first leg!  Last I heard at 1:40, they had made it to Green Cove Springs and had lunch.  We’re leaving at 4pm to head to the beach.  They’ll call at their last rest stop, to let us know approximately what time they should be pulling into Mickler’s parking lot.  The end is near, and I heard they’re tired!

The beginning of Day One – standing in front of the gulf, ready to ride!

A shot of the ride – many thanks to Chris Graves (a.k.a. the van driver) for taking these pics! 

I’ve spoken to Randy several times today, and today went really well.  One of the guys had a crash, but nothing serious.  Another has had a sore knee, but they adjusted his seat and that has helped some.  We’re praying for LOTS of sleep tonight, and for them to wake up feeling rested and not TOO sore!  Tomorrow’s ride is longer than today’s, but the adrenaline should kick in as they come to areas they recognize and think of riding victoriously into Mickler’s Beach where everyone will be waiting for them!  I hear some people are even making signs ;) 

On the homefront, we had a great day today, too.  Baseball game was fun and not too hot, all the kids swam once we got home, Lainey had a long nap, and then shopping and Panera Bread for dinner.  Lainey did have TWO accidents today, once after swimming (which is my fault…the girl drinks the pool water the whole time she’s in there because she forgets to close her mouth!) and again right after we got home from dinner.  To her credit, once she started, she was able to stop, frantically sign “POTTY” to me, I ran her in the bathroom and she finished in the potty.  Was that too much information? 

More tomorrow!! 

As of 2:15pm EST, they finished up 3 legs of the trip so far, for a total of 33 miles. They were just leaving their lunch break to go another 2 legs (each one at least 10 miles long) before they call it a day. It’s going well! I spoke to Randy around noon and he said everyone is feeling good, no problems. :)

6:50 AM…all packed and ready to hit the road. You can get regular updates on their ride at gregg’s site, he has Twitter on his right sidebar. I tried adding the link here, but it’s not working (grrrr…). So, just click the Bike Ride link on my right side bar under the heading “Favorite Sites”.

Randy, wearing the t-shirt that he designed himself and had printed up for the guys to wear…

The BIG bike ride begins tomorrow! Randy, Gregg, the five 8th grade boys in their Real Life Group (bible study), and Jacob’s dad, Phil will all ride in a van to the gulf coast early tomorrow morning. After having their picture taken with their feet in the gulf, they’ll unload their bikes from the trailer and start heading east. The plan is to go at least 60 miles tomorrow, and stay in a hotel in Gainesville Saturday night – rest and devotion time there. They’ll wake up Sunday and go another 80 miles to reach Mickler’s Landing beach – where the parents will be waiting to cheer them home while they have their picture taken again with their (tired) feet in the Atlantic :)

The course is COMPLETELY mapped out, down to where sidewalks drop off and exactly where each 10 mile rest stop will be. Thanks to Gregg! The guys have had several training rides preparing for this trip. There will be a van, driven by Chris, that will follow along with them stocked with water, gatorade, first aid, and bike supplies. He’ll drive ahead to the next rest stop and wait for them. I hope he’s bringing lots to read to occupy the time!

I’m excited for this opportunity and praying that God uses it to build these boys up and bring Him glory. What an accomplishment it will be for these guys, and a lesson in endurance. The verse for the weekend is Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The lesson isn’t in winning…it’s in staying in the race.

I’ll be posting updates to the blog about how it’s going, and you can also follow Gregg’s Twitters on his blog – http://greggfriend.wordpress.com/

Lainey proudly showing off the sticker Dr. M gave her on Tuesday.

Lainey had an appointment with a new ENT this week, to check on her ear tubes. Turns out her left one is still in and working, but the right one had fallen out and imbedded in some wax. He used a torturous looking device and pulled it out. Lainy winced and whimpered a bit, but she was so brave :) The ENT said her ears look fine, no fluid, so there shouldn’t be any need to replace the tubes when they both fall out. Great news.

I thought I’d do a quick medical update on where we are with Lainey’s cleft, future surgeries, etc. Hang on, this gets long…

Like I’ve mentioned before, Lainey is an on-going patient in our areas Cleft Palate Clinic, and is seen once a year by a team of professionals who make decisions about her ongoing care regarding her cleft issues. Her last clinic was this past February, and I got a call sometime later tellling me their recommendations based on everyone’s evaluations and their discussions about her case. Seems there is some disagreement among the team on when to repair her fistula. Backing up, her fistula is basically a hole that opened up in the middle of her hard palate, shortly after her palate repair last May…think of the seam in the backside of someone’s pants splitting – it always happens in the middle, right? Where it’s the tightest…Bad visual, huh?

The fistula makes it impossible for Lainey to build up air pressure in the her mouth for sounds like “p” and “b”. Thankfully, even with the fistula, she can blow air out (i.e. blowing bubbles) and suck through a straw, though it’s hard for her. The lead speech therapist on the cleft team thinks her fistula should be repaired now. We recently had a meeting with her plastic surgeon (who did her cleft surgery) and his recommendation is the wait 6 months and see what speech progress she is able to make between now and then (she has speech 1x per week for an hour), and re-evaluate her then. His reasoning is that she doesn’t have enough speech yet to determine whether she may or may not need an additional surgery, called a Pharyngeal Flap surgery, which he would prefer to do at the same time as the fistula repair. P-flap surgery is done when the child has hypernasal speech, which is common for cleft kids.

Are you still with me? Today, when we were with her regular speech therapist, we discussed whether she sounds hypernasal now and she (and another therapist that she called in to also listen) decided that she isn’t overly nasal at all. Good news. The therapist also said that she didn’t see any harm in waiting the 6 months that the plastic surgeon recommended…the same position that the ENT also agreed with on Tuesday.

To throw another thing into all this is a device called an obturator. Think of it like a retainer, that fits onto the teeth and has a piece that completely covers the palate – like a false palate. That would “fix” the air pressure problem without doing the surgery right now and allow us to not lose time on her speech development in the meantime. My next call is to the dentist, to see what he thinks about this option. I’ve talked to other moms of cleft kiddos who have had these with great results. I just don’t want to put Lainey through anymore than needed, but also want to take advantage of all the time we have to improve her speech.

If you happen to be in our “boat” and have dealt with these issues before, I’d LOVE to hear you take on it all. Obviously, we want to do what’s best for Lainey. Her speech is improving, but MUCH slower than we anticipated. Maybe we were naive, thinking she’d just start talking our ears off after the surgery – we’d heard stories of cleft kids who did just that. Lainey’s sign vocabulary increases almost daily (her favorites right now being “now”, “I love you”, and “potty”). We get mixed opinions on that as well. Some frown and think we’re having her rely on her signs too much, others are happy to see her communicating AND vocalizing at the same time (which is always our emphasis – that she approximate the word WITH the sign). We have never regretted teaching her sign…can you imagine the hissy fits we’d be getting right now otherwise??

Okay, I’m done…thanks for hanging in there. It’s nice to have you to bounce all this off of ;)