We went to see our psychiatrist Dr. Evans today. He seemed to be happy with the progress that Jesse is making.
We’ll also need to get another psychiatrist that specializes in forensic psychology. He’s the doctor that will help write out a case report for Jesse that we’ll need for the District Attorney. We’ll probably end up getting another lawyer to help with the trial. We think that we need to get someone that has more experience in dealing with the psychological issues of the case. Seems like good progress. We’ll have a meeting with the lawyer on Sunday late afternoon for a consultation and figure out what we need to do next. Dr. Evans did write a case report out for Jesse. He seems optimistic that he will do very well, so that was good news. I know we’ve seen a lot of improvement with Jesse in just a week, so keep praying for us!
We got stuck in a bad traffic jam on the way home. I hate traffic.
Jesse and Kathy and I hiked up Stone Mountain this evening to watch the sun set.
I really do love that place! Whenever anyone asks me, “What’s there to do in Atlanta?” I always tell them, “Go climb Stone Mountain.” If you haven’t, you should.
The only thing better than a day with Ashley is a day with Ashley AND Jesse!
We had a great time hanging out today. Our first assignment was at the Atlanta Metro Baptist Association office with Joel Harrison and Barb Newman from Dunwoody Baptist Church. We had a fruitful discussion regarding a possible community chaplain position.
We spent a couple of hours trying to figure out exactly what that person would do, what the goals would be and how we could measure their success. It’s very important to start out with the end result in mind. That way you know if you’re going in the right direction!
This afternoon Ashley and I went over to Georgia State University to work on getting her admitted into school in the fall. Jesse stayed at my office at FBC Doraville to rest. Everything went very smoothly and all the admin people were very helpful and friendly. The school is in the shadow of the capital building’s gold dome.
I think that’s pretty cool! Pray that all the paper work will go well as Ashley goes on line to fill out the forms for the application process and to get her test scores. We were able to get her transcript from Parkview High School and hand it directly to the admissions department.
This evening Kathy and I went over to watch FBC Mountain Park’s softball team play Smokerise BC. Mountain Park won on the last hit of the game! Awesome.
I was up working on the DVD video project till after 1am this morning.
Jesse and I got up and went to the Chamblee-Doraville Property Manager’s meeting at Sheltering Arms in Chamblee. We had a interesting meeting with my friends from the Dekalb Police Department and the Chamblee Police Department making presentations. Jose Ayala is the liaison for the DPD with the Latin American population. He is a true man of God! We’ve worked together on a couple of projects and he really has a passion for helping improve the communities where we work.
We also heard a report from the Renters Bureau. They are an organization that analyzes the rent paying history of residents. This can actually help the people that we work with that don’t use credit cards and pay in cash. I think most of the managers that I work with will get involved with this organization.
After the meeting Jesse and I went to distribute the DVDS that I made to the managers that weren’t at the meeting. We saw the folks at Pearl Lane, Highland Gardens, Wynscape and Briarlake Village. They were impressed that I had a DVD for them that they could show their bosses as well as the residents. Ashley will distribute the DVDs I made in her area, in particular at Oak Forest and Kensington Station. I also made a version to show the Dekalb County PD for the Wynscape clean up project we did. Lot of work making all those different versions, but it’s all about relationships and showing people what we’re doing!
I got home and checked on the house. The contractors are waiting for the insurance guys to give the final approval for the scope of repairs. Nothing happens fast in this process, that’s for sure!
Jesse got his new laptop up and running this morning! Excellent! He’s already updated the Team Assignment page on our web site. Now he’s working on putting up the Spanish version of our “How I Do What I Do” section from our Training pages. I’m very excited about that!
I’ve been working the rest of the day on editing video from our team we had in town last week from Agricola, Ms. I’ve finished the master edit of that (it was about 16 minutes long.) Once I have the labels for that done, I’ll star working on the edited versions that to to the different apartment complexes and to the Dekalb Co. Police Department. We have a partnership with them working at Wynscape apartments where our team did a major renovation of a playground.
Then I’ll work on the videos for my partners the Palmers and Terry Earl. This stuff is really labor intensive!
Jesse is doing better today. He didn’t complain of nausea as much. I think he may have had some type of stomach bug. Keep praying for him.
Not sure if you guys read Ashley’s blog or not, but if you don’t you SHOULD! She’s looking to get a journalism degree from Georgia State University starting in the Fall. I think her writing is already terrific!
Our family had a good time this evening at Ruby Tuesday. It’s fun to have the whole group together again!
I just got finished on a major video project for the team from Agricola Baptist Church. I had to make EIGHT different videos! Then burned all the copies for the teams, the police and for the managers as well as for my archive. It’s nearly 1am. Gotta rest!
It was an interesting sunset tonight. Dig the corona of the sun!
I hope to finish up the videos of the Palmers and Terry Earl this week too. Always good to have big goals!
It was a super cold day today! What’s up with this weather?
Jesse woke up feeling really nauseated again. Please pray that he’ll get over that side effect. The doctor just emailed me that he can drop one of the meds. We’ll see if that helps. He seems to be fine in the afternoon.
Most of the morning I spent working on my financial report for my treasurer. It’s a pretty detail oriented job. I add numbers to a spreadsheet and then add our new donors to our mailing list. It’s simple, but you have to pay attention to what you’re doing.
In the afternoon, Jesse was feeling better. We went by to visit our house. He was so sorry for the damage he caused. I told him, “I didn’t care about all this stuff, son. I was only worried about YOU!” And that’s the complete truth.
We went by FBC Doraville to check on the mail at my office and to make sure that my plants are ok. Are you a plant person? Hope so! At my house I also refilled the bird feeders. Even added the hummingbird feeder. Here’s pictures of a hummingbird I found at the Carter Center. I guess he’d broken his neck on the glass. First time I’d ever really seen one that close up.
J and I went by Azalea to see how the kids at the mission were doing. Good to see my older leaders doing a solid job with the younger kids. Jouvens got some bad news last week about his resident status. Looks like he probably won’t get his paper work for TEN years. That was a real blow to him. I’m still trying to figure out a way that we can make it ok for him. His dad says that there’s a lawyer in Florida that might be able to help.
This evening J and I went by Best Buy to take a look at new laptops for him. He decided that he’d rather have a laptop this time rather than a desktop. His other machine he built himself! He liked the look of the Sony Vaio that I have. They just marked down the last unit another $250 dollars today. I went by this evening and got the last one they had. He was really happy about that!
I had a good time talking with my treasurer Jon Paul this evening. He is such a man of God. I really don’t know how Whirlwind would survive with his help and wise counsel. His wife has been under such a strain physically. Please pray that Linda will do well and that the Father will help heal her!
Jesse and I woke up early to get ready for church. We had the Local Missions Fair at First Baptist Atlanta–Dr. Charles Stanley’s church this morning. He got all ready, dressed up in my suit! Then he started feeling really nauseated like he was going to throw up. Kathy and Ashley arrived around 8am and we decided for K to stay with Jesse in case he felt worse and Ashley and I would go to cover the assignment at First Baptist.
There were a lot of loving people at the church! So many of them had been praying for me for the last two months since our challenges with the fire. They were sure glad to see me! Ashley did her usual fantastic job of sharing about our ministry and loving on people. We handed out nearly the last of our prayer cards. That means we’ve given out over 10,000 in the last two years! I aim to take over people’s refrigerator! We’ll be working on a new family card soon. We’ll probably also do an individual one for Ashley as well as she becomes even more independent!
We ate at a new favorite place after the mission Fire of Brazil. It was a really beautiful place with men dressed in Brazilian garb who carried large skewers of grilled meat who would carve off a slice onto your plate. We had sirloin, sausage, chicken, pork loin, garlic steak, ribs . . . it was awesome. Highly recommend it. It’s located right by the Barnes and Noble bookstore off of Ashley Dunwoody near Perimeter Mall.
I came home and slept soundly for about an hour this afternoon. I was really tired!
Up working on email, blogs and getting my pictures on line.
This is Jesse’s first full day with us since the fire. Thank you SO much for continuing to pray for him and our family. Pray that the medication will be effective and that he won’t have bad side effects like always feeling tired or being nauseated.
We had our final family session at Peachford Hospital and we were able to bring Jesse home today! Praise the Lord!
Well, not exactly home. Jesse and I are actually living at Country Inn. We’re on the second floor with a beautiful view of Stone Mountain.
Stone Mountain is special to me. Whenever I look at that mountain—the largest single stone on the planet–I think of God. His long enduring love for me. His unchanging love. His love that lasts beyond any test!
And when I see Jesse, I know He loves me!
Keep praying for our family. Your prayer has moved the Mountain!
FINALLY got my computer back on line! Spent hours last night installing programs. Still haven’t finished. Wasn’t able to get on the blog.
Yesterday Ashley and I had a great time. We went over to the Gwinnett Detention Center to get the rest of Jesse’s stuff. In particular we wanted to get the Life Application Bible that I sent him. There were a LOT of letters! THANKS to all of you who sent him a greeting!.
We also went by Stone Mill Church which is where my brother Tito Ruiz is the Pastor. I purchased a new djembe for his worship team and took it over for them to use this weekend. Hope they like it!
Then over to the Mall of Georgia. We spent most of our time at the Apple store. Ash had a problem with her Mac with the Windows side of the programs. We had to go to Best Buy to purchase the Office Suite and reinstall that as well as the Vista operating system. All those disks were lost in the fire. Bahd luck. Took about an hour and a half to get everything running again, but now she’s her usual high speed self!
We’re still upgrading her clothes to a more mature, professional look. She’ll be starting Georgia State University in the fall, as well as making presentations to churches for Whirlwind so it’s a good investment for her. Our supporters have been SO generous to us! We really appreciate the outpouring of financial help for our family!
The bad news for me was that the two programs that I had almost completely edited for the Palmers were NOT on the backup. I still can’t figure that out at all. I’m really careful with stuff like that especially with projects that take a long time to complete. Pure spiritual warfare. I was really bummed out by having to redo everything, but that’s just the way it is sometimes. I spent hours reinstalling all the editing software and got the initial bed of the video laid. This morning I got up early and started laying in the cover video. I made good progress, but unfortunately they really needed the project this weekend. I sent them the only thing I had which was the DVD I created for Cathy Palmer and Terry Earl. It least it was better than nothing. It really frustrated me. I NEVER miss deadlines. But sometimes, things are just out of your control. You just have to take a deep breath and do the best you can with what you have.
I had a great talk with Jesse’s psychiatrist this morning. He feels like Jesse has made great progress and that we can take him out of the hospital Saturday after one more family session! Terrific! He was in the hospital for six days, which is about the average for most patients. He’ll be going back for outpatient care every week to make sure that his medications are working well or if they need to be adjusted. The brain is a very powerful and delicate instrument. It takes time to fine tune. The doctor is very optimistic about his recovery. Apparently, if treated properly, the recovery rate is over 90%. Please keep praying for that!!
Kathy and I had a fun afternoon. We rode our bikes from Avondale to Midtown Atlanta! That’s over 18 miles! It was great fun. Atlanta has a system of bike trails that go from Midtown all the way to Stone Mountain! That’s about 20 miles one way. It’s like a triple wide sidewalk that has a dashed line in the middle. It was really a lot of fun. I took a bunch of pictures.
Another of the programs I had to reinstall was Photoshop Elements. I use that to compress the pictures before I upload them to our Photo Gallery hosted by Smugmug. I’ll add pictures to the blog when I get that online!
Thanks for all your prayers for our family and for Jesse in particular. God is still in the miracle working business!
I started out in Alpharetta at the North American Mission Board where I did my seminar on how to raise up and mobilize volunteers. They were an enthusiastic group!
My computer is still in the shop and Ashley’s computer is not compressing pictures properly, so alas, no pix tonight! Bahd luck. I hope to pick it up tomorrow.
After my presentation at NAMB I went to all six of the missions where my team from Agricola, Mississippi was working. They did a FANTASTIC job on the project at Wynscape. Absolutely flabbergasting the amount of work they got done! They collected about 200 bags of trash from that location. After the team left I saw the Dekalb County Sanitation people come in with a big trash truck that had this immense mechanical arm pick up and dump all those bags. Super cool pix.
They also did a great job getting the old apartment at Huntington Ridge ready for the new occupants. Bill Hickey will probably have to finish some odds and ends over there.
In the afternoon I went around the 6 missions and shot video and pictures for the team. Ashley also took pictures of the service projects since I was in Alpharetta. Sure is great to have a partner I can depend on. Ashley rocks!
I had a good conversation with Jesse’s doctor, Dr. Byron Evans. He seems like a really knowledgeable fellow who can help Jesse. They’re still working on getting the correct dosage for him. I had mentioned that he seemed really sleepy. They plan on giving him his meds at night to help with that problem. I look forward to seeing him tomorrow night.
I was pretty stressed out after such a long day of driving–put in nearly 150 miles today. Got home and went straight out on a 4 mile run. Felt great.
This evening we took Kevin Lamb and his family along with the Mayfields out to Longhorn Steak House. It was delicious and the company was really fun. They are two of my very favorite families! We’re so lucky to be living in such a friendly, loving, family environment. I think living with the Lambs has been a critical part of my therapy. If we had been living in a hotel instead I don’t think I would have nearly recovered as rapidly. Pray for their family! It ain’t easy putting up with ME!
Somehow I felt like I heard a chorus of “Amens!” out there . . . .
Started out picking up the new van tire for my team from Agricola, Mississippi. It was a 10 ply tire especially made for carrying lots of people. Pretty expensive, but worth it!
Then over to Wynscape to check on the team. They were making amazing progress. I’m SO glad I went and got that chainsaw. That will flat clean out an area! There was a ton of underbrush to cut and haul out and the team was really going after it!
Kathy, Ashley and I had a meeting with one of the family counselors at Peachford. We had a good talk with her and Jesse seemed to react well to the situation. He still seemed really sleepy. I guess that’s one of the side effects of the medication. They assure me that they can work out the dosage and correct that. Pray that that’s the truth!
Later I went back to check on the teams at the missions. The kids seemed to be having a great time with them! They did a great Bible story about Jonah and the whale.
I checked on the mail and followed up on some phone calls over at FBC Doraville. Then went over to Borders book store to do some research on schizophrenia. The doctors feel like they can really help Jesse. Kathy asked him, “Do you think you’ll take your medicine?” “Yes, because I’m sick.” He’ll still be over at Peachford for at least another four days or so. The counselor said “We’re the emergency room of mental health.” I was glad that we had people taking good care of Jesse. Thinking of him over in that jail cell was heartbreaking.
Kathy and I went over for to visit Jesse again this evening for our regular visiting time. He still looked and acted really sleepy.
We came home tonight and there was a big wreck on 285. Traffic was blocked for miles. Welcome to Atlanta!
I have to get up early to check on the teams and then go do a seminar for the new appointees at the North American Mission Board. Then back to see how the missions are going in the afternoon. Full speed ahead, baby!
