We've moved (in case you haven't noticed...)

As if the complete lack of posts wasn't enough to clue you in, this blog has been abandoned. Katie and I now maintain a family website, complete with news updates, photos, newsletter archives, blog ramblings, and more. Come check it out, and subscribe to the RSS feeds to stay current.

LASIK

As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he called out, saying, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him; and when he came near, He questioned him, "What do you want Me to do for you?" And he said, "Lord, I want to regain my sight!" And Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God. - Luke 18:35-43, NASB

Well, I've had no miraculous healing, but I tell you what, LASIK is about as close as you can get. Friday almost two weeks ago I had LASIK surgery on both eyes. My eyes weren't horrible. I could function fine without contacts if I needed to, but I couldn't legally drive without them. I now see 20/15. It doesn't get much better than that!

The entire procedure took somewhere around 10 minutes for both eyes. It's a two-stage procedure. First they cut a flap in my cornea. I paid extra for them to cut the flap with a laser instead of a blade. Second, they peel the flap back, and a second laser adjusted my vision. From my perspective, it seemed just like I was lying there watching a blinking red light. And I could see my vision changing as it worked. Finally, they put the flap back in place, and I could see. Simple as that. Each stage for each eye took 20 seconds. Incredible!

When we got through, all I could think about was that I wanted to take a nap. Katie drove me home and I went straight to sleep. When I woke up, there was no pain, no drowsiness, no anything. I felt 100%. And I could see 20/15. They made me wear goggles for 24 hours, and then every night for 10 nights, so that I wouldn't accidentally rub my eyes. And I'm just now getting to the end of the medicated eye drops that are supposed to aid the healing process.

Is that a miracle? Well, not in the same sense as what Jesus did in Jericho. Still, I attribute it to God and His power. In this case, God worked through a long history of inventors, scientists, and doctors to develop the technology, and then He worked through the doctor that did the surgery. And He has been working through my body in the healing process. God is at work, every day. Perhaps we should restore our sense of awe at what He does, especially through us humans.

Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God.

Quite a Weekend

A quick update on our weekend: Katie and I went to Searcy to celebrate the graduations of her brother (Josh Granberg) and her sister and brother-in-law (Laura and Jared King). So we packed into the GAC at Harding and, 650 names later, they had their degrees. Actually, they had empty degree covers. Close enough. This is one type of event where having a decent SLR would have been handy. I made do with my trusty little Sony digital point-and-shoot. Here are a few pics.We also got a few minutes with our mission team, Sam Shewmaker (missionary to Rwanda), and Alan and Rachel Howell (missionaries to Mozambique). We would have loved to spend more time with all of them, but alas, we do what we can. We also got a chance to see several friends, such as the Bontragers and the Ritchies, which was awesome.

In addition, we celebrated Katie's parents 30th anniversary, Jared's Dad's birthday, and Mothers Day. Katie's first. We ended the weekend with a pleasant visit to my Grandmother Reese in Pocahontas. Thank God for such a wonderful family!

Changed Location

In the interests of making this blog easy for me to update, I've moved it from http://angolateam.org/reese/blog to its new home at http://angolareeses.blogspot.com. Update your bookmarks and blogrolls if you need to. Sorry if it causes any inconvenience. Here's a picture to make it worth your while.

Our Most Exciting News

For those who haven't heard, Katie and I are expecting our first child in September! We are incredibly excited, and it's getting harder to wait. We found out a few weeks ago that she is a beautiful little girl! And we've been thinking and praying about names for a while, but yesterday we finally decided. Her name is:

Eliana Dell Reese

Eliana is Hebrew for "My God has answered." Indeed, our God has answered our prayers for child, and we pray that throughout her life Eliana will be God's answer to the prayers of many people.

Dell is in honor of her maternal grandmother, Gena Dell Granberg. We thank God for the faith that lives in Eliana's four grandparents, and we pray that it will live in her too. She is blessed with an incredible heritage of faith.

Isn't God good?

Just call me the epitome of consistency

I think I'm fairly consistent in my blogging. As in, I have consistently not posted now for over a year. I might, however, try to break out of that rut and do something different for a change. Like actually post. But of course, I make no guarantees. If I do post more often, I'll try to include more newsy things about what's going on in our life, since my esoteric ramblings aren't nearly as interesting to you as they are to me.

By the way, if you want an easy way to keep up with (in)consistent bloggers like me, try adding a Google Reader widget to your Google page. I've found it very convenient, because I have Google set as my homepage, and so whenever I open the web browser, I am confronted with a list of the newest blog posts from my friends. And it's easy to scan through them without even leaving that page, if I don't want to. Obviously, there are lots of other tools for doing the same thing, this is just the one I find most convenient. Here's a screenshot, in case you're interested in doing the same thing.