Penelope (“Penny”) Joy Seitler
born June 17th, 2009 at 1:09pm
weighing 9 lbs, 4 oz and measuring 20 inches long

More to come later, but for now? We rest.

• I’m stepping down as Art Director for Gemstone Publishing’s line of Disney Comics. My last day will be Wednesday, November 26th.
• Two days later, we’re loading up a truck and moving to Columbus, Ohio! (Thanks in advance to Rae Whitlock, who’s already agreed to round up some strapping young church men to help us unload the truck over the weekend.)
• I’m looking to take on some additional freelance web design and optimization clients. If you know anybody who’s looking for that, you can get yourself a 10% referral bonus (because I’m cool like that—also because I hate cold-calling). Just go on over to the “Feedback” page and pick your favorite way to get in touch with me.

UPDATE: According to Google Maps, this might be where we’re moving:

Is there really anything I could add to this? Oh yeah—he’s climbing on things now, too!

So while looking around, I got a bit overwhelmed by the huge lists of recalls. Thankfully, it looks like we’re okay, but I was wondering if there might be an easier way to keep track of new notices.

Well, there is. Just plug the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s child products RSS Feed into your feed reader of choice (Google Reader, Feedblitz, Sage, etc.) and you’ll get updates as other items are recalled! (The CPSC provides a number of other recall feeds, too.)

I hope you find that as helpful as I do.

Geppi announced that… Gemstone Publishing will be… relocating to York, PA effective the first week of October 2007.

[snip]

“York has an exciting dynamic to it. It’s definitely a city and a region on the move, and we’re excited to be a part of that. This is a terrific entry into a rich marketplace, both in terms of the history to be found and the collectors with a vibrant interest in it. I am personally very pleased to be able to create this opportunity,” Geppi said.

Yup, that’s right: moving from Timonium, MD to York, PA in just a couple of weeks: “The new facility, located at 3679 Concord Road, York, Pennsylvania 17402, is expected to be fully up and running by the first week of October 2007.” Gemstone is now under the “Geppi Entertainment” banner, along with Diamond Intl. Galleries, Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, Hake’s Americana & Collectibles and Morphy Auctions.

I’m still pretty sure Joshua has Alport Syndrome, though. This fever was just a fever, but it seems to have caused some symptoms that pretty much only show up if the fever victim has a disease like AS. Prayers are still appreciated.

Thanks, everyone.

The hallmark of Alport syndrome is blood in the urine (hematuria). In boys with X-linked Alport syndrome, hematuria first appears in early childhood and their urine always tests positive for blood. [...] The hematuria of Alport syndrome is usually microscopic, meaning it can only be detected with a microscope or a urine dipstick. Sometimes children with Alport Syndrome have brown, pink or red urine (gross hematuria) for several days, associated with a cold or the flu. This gross hematuria eventually stops on its own. It can be frightening, but it is not harmful.

Source: Inheritance of Alport Syndrome & Your Child (Renalife)

If only we knew this before taking Joshua into the emergency room on Saturday night. It was especially stinging because:

1. we were there till 5:30am Sunday morning,
2. Joshua got a catheter so they could get a urine sample,
3. they told us to come back Sunday afternoon for antibiotics only to tell us at 8:00pm (following a three-hour wait) that it was a 24-hour dosage and they wouldn’t be giving him any then,
4. we had to follow up at the doctor’s office the next day,
5. he needed a 10-day antibiotic prescription,
6. the doctor wants a renal ultrasound this week, and best of all?
7. We have no health insurance. (In a touch of irony, we just couldn’t afford it this year.)

So now we’re weighing our options—all of them. This was also a bit of a wake-up call for me personally, because I’ve been living in this sort of “we don’t know if he’s got Alport Syndrome or not” limbo of blissful ignorance. Now I’ve got to wake up and be the responsible daddy, because this is going to be a lifelong battle: the only options for an Alport Syndrome sufferer are dialysis and kidney transplants. There’s no cure (yet).

I’m going to be a sporadic blogger for a while (it’s already started, I guess, but this makes it official). We’ve got some things to take care of before I can focus on this blog the way I was for a while there. In particular, we need to secure prayers, health insurance and a good pediatric nephrologist (preferably nearby, like at Johns Hopkins).

Right now my greatest temptation is to pull back from everyone around me and just sit quietly in a little bubble of depression and fear. Feelings of inadequacy (a distortion of Phillipians 2:3′s “count others more significant than yourselves”) lead to my believing that people either don’t/wouldn’t care, or that they’d see this as petty compared to what they’re dealing with. Either way, I feel like I’m just whining if I talk about this and I’m honest about how much fear and doubt I’m living with right now. So I just don’t talk about it…and all that does is make things fester inside me.

And then I go to work and make comic books, and it all seems so surreal. It’s like amusements are the “important” part of my life (my career), while what are quite possibly life-and-death matters (searching out the latest AS research and good doctors) are relegated to hobby status.

We live in a screwed-up world, and some days it leaves me in the fetal position.

Wilson covers all the major concerns of shaping boys into real men: laziness, sex, secret sin, courtship, girls, friends, fights, school work, and sports to name a few. Each section is written with that ‘serrated edge’ he is known for, so you need to read with a smile and not take offense if you are to gain from many of his good insights. —Paul W. Martin @ kerux noemata

Interestingly, Wilson notes that the abandonment of the Psalms in worship means that the church has discarded a songbook, that is throughly masculine in its lyrics, in favour of the effeminate hymns of the 19th and 20th century. The result being that the church is dominated by females as men are put off attending divine worship. The author also has lots of helpful advice on how parents should instruct their boys with regard to work, sports, education, friendship, sex, courtship, fighting, bearing firearms and the use of money; which, all in all, makes for a very stimulating read. —Daniel Ritchie @ Reformed Covenanter

This is a book on raising boys? Wow, I think I came away from reading Future Men with more instruction on raising myself! Not that it was necessarily Wilson’s aim, but his lessons are of the sort that I need to put them into practice myself before I can raise my own boy in them. This one is so insightful that I need to read it again; there’s just too much to soak up in the first reading!

We had a really nice Mother’s Day weekend this year! On Saturday, we bundled up the kids and a picnic lunch and moseyed on over to Spring Lake Park. We’d only ever been to the “lake” side of it before, so the open grass and the quiet creek were wonderful. (More photos at Flickr.)

On Sunday we decided to pass on message #2 of Chesapeake’s building fund series and instead visit a nearby congregation. (See, we’re really bad about driving 30 miles to attend Sunday services and not having a clue who the believers are within a 2-mile radius of our apartment.) Timonium UMC got the short straw, so we went over there and checked things out.

Wow.

It’s one thing for a church to think it’s okay for women to serve in pastoral roles… but I saw a number of appointed leaders in there yesterday morning, and not a single one was a man. (The men were either in deacon roles or just not there.) If that wasn’t enough of a shocker for me, they had the kids come up for a kiddie sermonette on Acts 16 where they were told that Lydia had her husband and kids baptized and pastored a church in her home. Needless to say, Katie got some of Papa Bear’s personal commentary on that passage at lunchtime. Maybe I’ll post my thoughts on it later, but suffice it to say, I think there was no small part of eisegesis in what was told to the kids.

The really nice part about visiting that church, though, is that we were back home by 11am (where we usually get back after 1pm). We couldn’t get over how much longer the day felt because of that, so we went driving around later, looking at houses for sale.

I still love that bride of mine, too.

in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there were none of them. — Psalm 139:16

A few weeks ago, a childhood friend died in a car accident on his way to work on a construction project for his church. Just this week, some other friends had a miscarriage. Meanwhile, my great-grandmother just celebrated her 100th birthday. All of them love Jesus, all of them seek to serve and honor him. At times it can seem like there’s no rhyme or reason to such things, but the Bible paints a different picture:

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. — John 11:5-6

[Jesus said,] “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” — John 11:5-6

Few of us know by what death we will glorify God, but we can be assured of this: everything happens for God’s glory. No matter how tragic, no matter how seemingly untimely, every death brings glory to God in some way. We can catch glimpses of this now, but we may never know the full story until this chapter of life is over. For instance: the couple who miscarried? God is already using them to minister to the people around them. The faith and trust they exhibit as they walk through this trial is strengthening the faith of the believers in their midst. And that’s just this week—only God knows how much fruit will be harvested from this one event.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. — Romans 8:28

It’s enough to make a Christian look forward to the day of his death—the thought that my final act on this earth will bring God glory! What an encouragement!

Travis tends to write a lot of posts about theology and comics, but that probably doesn’t give one a full impression of what he’s really like. So, in light of the fact that he’s gone to serve a fellow brother and left me with full access to his blog, I thought I’d write a little bit about the Travis Seitler I know and love.

Stay tuned…

That’s right: it’s new baby time!

Joshua Felix Seitler was born at 4:59am on July 1st! He was 21¾ inches long, weighing 8 lbs. 11.3 oz (big boy!).

We went in on Friday morning for a checkup with Nicole’s midwives, and since she was almost at 41 weeks, they ran a non-stress test. First off, the great news: he was head-down! (This boy’s been breech twice in the past six weeks! We were starting to think a C-section was inevitable…) Anyway, during the test Nicole began having regular contractions… and Joshua wasn’t responding too well to them. Next thing we know, Nicole has a room in Labor and Delivery!

Pitocin was started around 4pm, and progress was a bit slow. I tried to be up to help Nicole however I could, but by 1am I was snoozing on the couch/bed in the windowsill any chance I got. Around that time, Joshua’s pulse started really dropping during contractions: he was pretty steady at 120-150 bpm, but the number began to drop to 60 after Nicole’s contractions. (The nurses rushed in a few times that night, trying not to look too alarmed but rather quick to stop that!) At this point, the pitocin was cut back to make things easier on Joshua. It worked. His pulse began to stabilize! Just after 4am, Nicole began pushing. Just before 5am, she was holding Joshua in her arms!

We just got back from the hospital today — with the Independence Day holiday coming up, the pediatrician wanted another day to be able to keep an eye on “Lil’ Shu Shu.” Nicole’s mom is in town this week to help out, too, so you might not hear much from us for a little while. Here’s a movie to hold you off with!

Oh, this guy is so cute! I wanna go watch him sleep some more…

The condensation pan (or whatever it’s called — you know, the thing the water goes in) for our apartment’s central air conditioning fell down two weeks ago. The maintenance crew came in right away to re-attach it, but there was all sorts of water damage in our closet (Nicole photoblogged this). They came out on Monday to re-paint the wall and install a new shelf, but we noticed more water on Monday night! Looks like the pan didn’t just get dislodged; it’s also heavily corroded on the bottom and leaking. There’s a bucket on the closet shelf now, collecting the water that drips until we remember to call maintenance back out to fix it.

Joshua Felix is really wearing his mom out. (You can come out now, you know!) His due date is the 25th, so I know we’ve still got time… and if he’s anything like his dad (3-and-a-half weeks overdue, thank you!) we’ve got plenty of time! Still, we want him out in the open where we can see him! We’re not the only ones; the boys grandmoms have been calling a lot more this past week or so; you know, “just to check in.”

Jordan e-mailed me yesterday to tell me that a guy we were in Cub Scouts with was killed in a
car crash, leaving behind a 2-year-old daughter. It’s an awful tragedy… but since I remember Joe as the class clown (and he’s the only person I know to be posthumously described as “ornery”), I felt it fitting to rhyme the title of this post in his honor. Here’s to you, “laugh-man.”

Katie turned three on Sunday, and she’s memorized her first scripture now, and it’s (rather appropriately) the first verse in the Bible: Genesis 1:1. Here, see for yourself:

Next up: the book of Jonah!

There’s my boy!

Daddy’s been busy making preparations for the little guy, and Katie has offered her booster seat to her little brother — on the condition that she can sit in a “big chair” at the kitchen table, of course.

Meanwhile, “Shu-shu” (Katie insists on calling him that!) has been happily kicking his mommy for a few weeks now, and Katie and Daddy have written our first song about him:

Little brother Shu-Shu />Crawling ‘cross the ‘partment />Scooping up the dollies />And bopping ‘em on the head!

(Along came the big sister and she said…)

Little brother Shu-Shu />I don’t want to see you />Scooping up my dollies />And bopping ‘em on the head!

I’ll give you three more chances, />And if you don’t behave, />I’ll tell Mommy on you!

There’s just something about how fresh-from-a-nap Baby Girl…she’s so snuggly and sweet. =)

So how are you spending your Saturday?

That’s my darling wife right there. I tell ya, it’s stuff like this that I find so endearing. How could I not love a woman who’s an endless source of quotable quotes?

In reading about various topic in bioethics, I came across this rather ominous sounding bit of Orwellian newspeak: “wrongful birth.” It’s kind of like “wrongful death,” but the exact opposite. It points to a rather elaborate counterfactual analysis of circumstances:

If a mother had known that her fetus [unborn baby] was afflicted with some incurable genetic “disease” (i.e., Down’s syndrome, cystic fibrosis, etc.), then she would never have allowed the pregnancy to continue its course and instead would have aborted [murdered in the womb] the fetus [unborn baby].

“Families” have sued doctors for wrongful birth, claiming that doctors should have provided them with information about certain genetic markers that portend to genetic defects or diseases, so that these “families” then could have chosen abortion [murder] rather than carrying the fetus [unborn baby] to term. I say “families” because can you imagine being in such a family? “Gee honey, we didn’t really want you but we got you anyway, so we’re gonna sue Dr. So-and-So for making us take you.”

Anyway, I’m sure there is some real philosophical argumentation to be done here, but I’m too pissed to do any right now. Maybe later.

And to think, these are the people who like to call fundamentalist Christians “nazis”? Sorry, we don’t tend to encourage mass murder… and last time I checked, “infanticide” and “genocide” bore more of a resemblance to each other than did “genocide” and “intolerance”.

I’m sick of selfish idiots.

Boy, that brings back memories…

No word yet on viewing or funeral plans. Please pray for my mom’s family: Grandmom Myerly was somewhat of a matriarch for them, and so much a part of their lives.

Also, please pray for the people around me. I don’t want folks wringing their hands, wondering what to say. (I’ve been in their shoes plenty.) The best thing you could do for us is to pray that we would remain in God’s love; that Christ’s joy would be in us and that our joy would be complete.

One of the most important things a father can do for his daughter is to give her plenty of fatherly affection. That way, she don’t go runnin’ after the neighbor boys to get it another way.

I love that Katie Bug! We have so much fun together… we drive Nicole nuts with how goofy we can be.

Oh, and she loves it when I put on puppet shows for her with my leather gloves. Every glove she sees is now officially a “puppet.”