Here I am, finally posting an update after three months! And what a busy three months it has been! I will attempt to summarize the major events of the last few months, both personal and ministry-related, without making this too long of a post!
Our second son, Joseph William (Joey), was born on December 23rd! Merry Christmas to us! Everything went great with the delivery and we were able to go home on Christmas Eve. My family flew in from Indiana to spend Christmas with us and they also helped with Micah while we were at the hospital having Joey. We had a really fun, unique Christmas (our first California Christmas) this year and enjoyed celebrating at home with our new family of four.
After the holidays, we thought things would start to calm down and that we would get to settle into the dynamics of our new family. Things certainly didn’t go as we had planned! Joey’s first week and a half of life was very normal and he was a seemingly perfectly healthy newborn. When he was about ten days old, we started to notice some rapid breathing which we weren’t sure was normal or not. We brought him to our family doctor the next day, because he had gone a night without feeding well (we knew that wasn’t normal). To our surprise, Joey’s breathing really alarmed the doctor, so much so that we were immediately rushed by ambulance to Northridge Hospital in the San Fernando valley.
At Northridge the doctors began treating Joey for what they thought was a respiratory virus. After almost two days of careful monitoring and his condition worsening, they began to suspect a heart condition. After a series of tests, he was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect called coarctation of the aorta, in which his aorta (a main artery of the heart) was very narrow and restricting the blood flow to the rest of his body (see link for more details). This was causing his heart and lungs to fail, and untreated would be fatal.
Immediately after the diagnosis, we were rushed by ambulance to the UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital and Joey had surgery a day later to repair his aorta. Thankfully, his condition is one that can usually be fixed by a single surgery (and the UCLA cardiothoracic unit specializes in this kind of surgery). The surgery went as planned and about a week later we came home! Joey has a healthy heart now, but will need to be monitored the rest of his life to make sure the condition does not recur. He is also on blood pressure medication now and may battle high blood pressure for a while (a result of the sudden change of blood flow after his aorta was repaired.) But he is doing very well considering all that his little seven-pound body has been through!
Needless to say, the last month has probably been the most challenging and scary month of our lives…but it has also been a month where we have seen God’s blessings and felt his care for us in a more real way then we ever have before. We are so thankful for His care for us and Joey. And we are so thankful for all of you who have been praying for us, calling us, visiting us, sending us cards, bringing us meals, etc., etc.! We have been overwhelmed by God’s use of his people to encourage us and provide for our needs during this time. We hope and pray that we can use the comfort He has brought us to comfort others in their time of need (2 Corinthians 1). So, from the Meidals to you, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
Although our lives seemed to come to a stop the last few weeks, life has continued on for the rest of the world, and for the ministry here at THE OAKS! A couple of weekends ago, we had our annual Winter Teen Retreat, with 300 teens from inner-city areas all over southern California coming to be challenged and changed by God’s truth. And, once again, God proved faithful! At least thirty young people gave their lives to Christ over the weekend.
One ministry in particular was extremely excited about four teens that they have been working with for seven years finally deciding to give their lives over to the Lord. Their patience, dedication, hard work, and consistency has been rewarded! Many teens also contacted our program staff after the weekend, saying that they really needed their weekend here and how it helped them. Many tears were shed and many were convicted about the way they were living their lives detached from the Lord even though they claim to be Christians. So praise the Lord for his faithfulness, and please continue praying for the teens.
A highlight for us that weekend was getting to see our “adopted daughters” from the Leaders in Training program. Both of our “daughters,” Tatiana and Victoria, stopped by to say hello and to see their newest little brother Joey! And of course, they wanted to see Micah too! Its really fun to get to see them throughout the year and to grow in our relationship with them.
Click below for some photos and videos from the Winter Retreat:
Here are some ways you can be praying for us over the next month:
- Adjustment for our family as our visitors start to leave and life gets back to “normal” (if there is such a thing as normal anymore!).
- Provision of summer staff for our summer camp program, as well as wisdom and guidance for our program staff as they travel around recruiting over the next month.
- That Jared would have the ability to focus and plan for the spring season of Outdoor Ed, which will be bigger than ever this year!
Thank you again for your ongoing prayers for God’s ministry here at THE OAKS. He is definitely alive and at work here on a regular basis!
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