RickandSusanna

We’ve been watching the Republican primary closely and there is a polarization of Conservatives against the Libertarian wing. Ron Paul is a poor articulator of libertarian philosophy, so I’d like to give it a shot. Libertarians believe in the principle of inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property – for all people, applied equally. We [...]

My boy turns five today. Five is the age where my own memories become clear, and I realize the buffer given to parents to work out the kinks of parenting is over. The buffer of a few years to make mistakes and know your child wont even remember. And yet the time spent, the energy [...]

Day 3 went much like day 2. Amelia woke up ready to feed and did close to a full bottle again. She took some solids and more bottles the rest of the day – the amount she swallows continues to be a challenge. At least with the bottle, however, switching between various strategies and a [...]

With an army of over 60 prayer warriors so far responding to the challenge of fasting and prayer for Amelia this is a shock and awe campaign! We are overwhelmed as more and more people sign up and the notes of encouragement keep rolling in, people letting us know they are in prayer, etc. Day [...]

We are asking special intercession for Amelia over the next 10 days. We would like to cover her with prayer for each meal. On the advice of the Gastroenterologist we will take her off the feeding tube for 10 days and make very intensive feeding attempts over that time to see if she can sustain [...]

Let everyone be warned, I am a TSA security risk. A recent CNN article title tells the story: TSA Security looks at people… who complain about TSA security, I’m inclined to do some complaining of my own. First of all, is anyone asking if we need the TSA? within the CNN article we find this [...]

I wrote previously about an interesting website that sends random surveys to track your happiness. I just finished a “happiness cycle” and thought I’d share results I found interesting. 1. Coffee was my second happiest activity Not surprising, but a little scary to be #2. Shopping, errands, housework, etc towed the bottom of the charts. [...]

Sometime on Thursday Amelia should be discharged to come home. We’ll still have a long road ahead though. Tube feeding will continue from home for a few months, we will have lots of follow up doctor visits, early intervention therapy from home, feeding therapy, etc. But we are very thankful that we can all be [...]

Here are some pictures of our make-shift Christmas. Christmas morning we brought the Challies traditional Christmas breakfast and stockings to the hospital. The nurses looked after Amelia so Susanna could come back home for a couple hours of opening gifts and eating Christmas dinner. It wasn’t what we envisioned, but it all worked out to [...]

Some of you know what is going on, others are wondering what is going on from Facebook hints. This is to update everyone about the events of the past few days. Our Amelia has always been small, she’s tracked at about the fifth percentile since being born. But this isn’t unusual if you’ve seen us [...]