Background

For those of you who don’t know us, 2019 was the worst year of our lives. On May 4, a series of severe, uncontrollable seizures forced us to induce our son, Isaiah, into a coma. For two months, every attempt to bring him back was met with a return of persistent, relentless seizure activity. We spent every second on edge as we watched our son fight for his life. In the search for answers, we worked with doctors from Pediatric ICU, Neurology, Rheumatology, Nephrology, Infectious Disease, Immunology, Endocrinology, Pulmonology, Palliative Care, and Hematology. In addition to countless blood draws, IVs, tests, EKGs, x-rays, and constant EEG monitoring, Isaiah endured three spinal taps, two CT scans, four brain MRIs, two full-body MRIs, three days of hypothermia, two high-dose steroid treatments, three feeding tubes, a blood transfusion, four failed attempts at burst suppression, five rounds of plasmapheresis, 37 days on a ventilator, 41 days in ICU, and 89 days total in the hospital. We watched his vitals crash time and time again and came very, very close to losing him more times that I can count. It was by far the deepest, most prolonged, and most consuming suffering we’ve ever experienced.  Read more... (3560 words, 3 images, estimated 14:14 mins reading time)

It’s been two weeks since the release of the book. Here’s the latest.  Read more... (706 words, 1 image, estimated 2:49 mins reading time)

As many of you are aware, we have quite a lot of things going on in our life in 2020 (well, we’ve always had a lot going on…but especially in 2020). Yes, I’ve recently released my book; but despite this blog and my social media accounts functioning as annoying and repeated pop-up ads for my book (sorry, it’s the only way I know how to market it), my little book is actually one of the least important things in our world this year. Sure, I’d love for it to do well; but our son’s ongoing health issues continue to be our priority (the book was written prior to his health issues).  Read more... (1065 words, estimated 4:16 mins reading time)

I hate promoting things, especially myself. 1) I’m not good at it. 2) It makes me uncomfortable. So, when the time came to market my book, I studied as much as I could in an effort to, well, not fail miserably. Perhaps some of the lessons I learned will help you in your marketing efforts. Here are 5 Facebook marketing tips that will hopefully improve your own marketing endeavors.  Read more... (973 words, estimated 3:54 mins reading time)

Two of my favorite books of the last decade are Love Does and Everybody, Always. Bob Goff ranks among my heroes. There are several reasons Bob’s stories resonate with me so strongly, but here’s the biggest one:  Read more... (405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

I’ve run across a few things over the past couple years that have made my life easier, more efficient, and/or generally more enjoyable. Today, I’m passing along these things to you. I hope they improve your life as well. You have very likely heard of some or all of these things; but I’m posting the list anyhow, because I’ve been surprised by how many people in real-life conversations have not heard of many of these items. Oh, and none of these are paid endorsements. I don’t do those.  Read more... (1378 words, estimated 5:31 mins reading time)

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson

That, in a nutshell, describes year 2019. We began the year navigating a super weird world of viral internet fame. Our stupid old van opened the door to a number of interesting opportunities. One such opportunity was authoring a book based on our adventures in our viral van. I wrote a rough draft, found someone crazy enough to publish it, and made plans to make it happen. 2019 was off to a weird, but great start. Then, we had a wedding. Mary got married. We laughed. We cried. We danced. Fun times. 2019 was rolling along just fine. As a family, we made a number of plans for the remainder of the year. We planned an epic road trip over the summer–up through Utah, Idaha, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and back to Amarillo. We planned a summer of weekly hangouts with our friends in the refugee community. We planned an office relocation. We planned a number of activities with our home church. We planned a couple home renovation projects. We planned a number of kids’ activities. We planned a 13th birthday getaway with one of our daughters. We had a lot of fun plans.  Read more... (1046 words, 2 images, estimated 4:11 mins reading time)