Sometimes it's just good to be lucky...

Some posts just don't need a lot of words, you should just let them speak for themselves.  While taking a movie of Reagan showing off her new ability to stand up by herself, I accidently captured this...

her very first steps!!!

Awake and posting at 5:00 am

26 days ago Candy got a phone call from a very dear friend... and was at her side within minutes...  her daughter was killed at the hands of her daughter's estranged husband in a brutal murder-suicide. So the last several weeks have been spent helping to deal with this tragedy.  The memorial service was yesterday, and we were looking forward to putting this chapter behind us and moving on.

But that was until late Thursday night when I got word that my brother's wife shot and killed their 22 year old autistic son and then turned the gun on herself.  And Thursday night I did not sleep... and yesterday's memorial service was much tougher than I had thought (before Thursday) it was going to be.

And so I have read the news pieces and I have read the opinion pieces and I will not post any of them here, but if you want to read them just google my brother's name, Lester Hodgins.  They are easy to find.

One of the things that stood out in the opinion pieces was a mention of the options for adult autistic children, one of them being the adult facilities available to them.  It wasn't a very nice picture.  And I immediately was taken in my mind to Eastern Europe and what happens to the orphan children there with Down Syndrome and the facilities that they are placed in, and the horror they live in.

And that adds to my sleeplessness...

Notes from "Papa" was never supposed to be a D/S blog, but it was started because of Reagan's birth and D/S may always be a major sub theme... mostly it is supposed to be thoughts and occasional wisdom from the older generation...

So, what can you do?  You can click on the link for Reece's Rainbow and do something to help out there...

You can go and learn more about Autism and find a way to help there...

You can pray for our family as we work through this very difficult time...

Snow in SoCal??

Yes, Virginia, it does snow in SoCal.  It snowed Friday, and Saturday there was still snow on the ground.  But by Sunday?? Well, this is California after all...

See, no snow.  I wouldn't have believed there had been snow there if I didn't live here.

Out for a hike...



Crossing the "river"...

You can do it, really, you can...



She didn't think she could.



The view....

The wild flowers.  Yes, they really are tiny.

Notice how Cadence is always in the front?

Cadence found one I missed.

The end of the trail for today.  Snack time!

Ahh, what beauty.  And a Papa teaching moment.  In this picture there lurks danger...  do you see it?...  Back there by that big tree...

See it now?  Recognize it?  OK, a closeup...

For those of you that don't recognize this, this is Poison Oak.  Just innocently hiding under the real Oak.  You don't want to get too close to this.

And the BIG accomplishment is standing on a BIG rock!!!   But notice that the Big sister doesn't look as brave!

In this picture is another plant you don't want a close encounter with.  See it?

Stinging Nettle...

Papa running rear guard back down the trail...

Cadence jumping from rock to rock.

Clarisse not exactly jumping...

I wonder what made this footprint?

All that hiking really takes it out of you!

Hope you enjoyed our hike as much as we did...

Papa

New pictures

I posted on Shauna's blog that I would be posting new pictures today... so here they are!

To start with, because we were going to have the grandkids for several days while Reagan was in the hospital for open heart surgery, we made lots of plans to keep them entertained.  One of those plans was for a treasure hunt, but since their visit was cut way short by Reagan only being in the hospital for 36 hours... it didn't happen.  So we did it today... and they loved it!

 

Of course Reagan was tired out by it all...



But after a little nap...

And Reagan had to get her Grammy time... 
(or did Grammy have to get her Reagan time? )

And then it was time to go home...



A fun day was had by all...

Papa

48 hours...

48 hours ago we were walking into Loma Linda Children's Hospital to hand off Reagan for her heart surgery...



The next day (yesterday) while Mama was at the hospital with Reagan...

Then later in the day...

Reagan is safely back at home...

48 hours later... I'm off to work!  See ya!

Papa

That's how it is...

This post is a direct response to a comment made on Patti's Facebook post about Carrington.  Michelle Young wrote...  "Wow i will pray how can they get away with this its so barbaric. Dont they have laws in these countries to protect these beautiful gifts from god"


Michelle, you live in a country where we still have a higher value on life than many other places.  From what I can glean from Carrington's story so far, there are probably no law's that were violated.  If Carrington has a medical condition (reflux) that made her unable to hold down food, then she will slowly starve to death without medical intervention.  It is an unfortunate truth that in the very countries that these DS children are, (and this is not limited to DS children) they are throw away children.  They have no value to society.  The money will not be spent on them.  They will not get medical care that they need because there is not enough money for this.  Welcome to socialized medicine.  Some people get treatment, some do not.   DS children do not have the "value" that "productive" members of society do.  Therefore they are put into orphanages, and when they are old enough, they are sent to the mental institute.  They will live as long as thier body will sustain life, then they will die.  I'm sure that if Carrington was not rescued at this last minute, her death would have been attributed to "natural causes", not neglect.


This is why it is so critically important to rescue these children.  I was going to list names at this point, but there are just too many to list.  And they are all important.  And I wouldn't want to leave any out. 


There is so much more that can be said on this subject, and I will be saying more.  But at this moment I will leave it here.  I am praising God that Carrington is now in this country where men fall to their knees in tears at the sight of her.  


And where my own granddaughter Reagan gets the love and caring that she deserves.  Where, at this very moment, as I am typing this, Dr. Bailey is repairing her heart.  At a hospital where children from all over the world are sent because they have value here.


God is good.


Papa

Full Circle... Reprise

If you haven't read "Full Circle..." yet, read it before reading this post...

October, 1984...  Shauna was just 4 years old...

I was driving a truck delivering medical gases to Loma Linda Hospital.  Driving north into the campus, as I came over the railroad over crossing, there in front of me was the largest collection of media I had ever personally seen in one spot.  I was not surprised to see them there, only surprised at their number.  Why were they there?  They were following the story of "Baby Fae",  the baby who received the transplant of the baboon heart.  This was the result of ground breaking research by Dr. Leonard Bailey.  Research he pursued because, early in his career, he got tired of having parents told, "Your baby isn't going to live."

One year later Dr. Bailey transplanted a human heart into four day old "Baby Moses", who is alive and well...

Twenty-six and a half years later...  our granddaughter needs open heart surgery.  And who is her surgeon?  Yes, the very same Dr. Bailey...

Dr. Leonard Bailey holding Reagan

Back when I was right there every day delivering to the hospital, walking the halls in research, talking with these medical pioneers about what they were studying and doing, and following "Baby Fae's" story up close and personal, did it ever occur to me that one of my family would ever be a patient of Dr. Bailey??  Not in my wildest dreams....  but God knew!!  And now I am returning there again...  in just two weeks.  When Reagan gets her heart fixed by the hands of a man whose life-time passion has been to save the lives of babies born with congenital heart defects.

And another story comes full circle...

Papa