A good weekend

We had a great first weekend home with the family. Simon did great except for a few times when he threw-up but I think it was because the doctors were a bit too agressive with his feeding amounts and it had to do with his positioning at home compared to the hospital (the hospitals beds are inclined a little). If he doesnt eat well then he could possibly run into problems again so we have to keep an eye on him (as usual.)
I took the kids to meet with our church on Sunday. Go figure... when getting Tobi ready to leave Sunday morning I found a few tuffs of hair near the base of her bed. I come to find out that she had found some play scisors and was trying a new look. Summer tried the best she could to cover it up but there's only so much you can do when Tobi is bald in a few spots.
It was great being with our church on Sunday. Because of usual kids stuff I was a little late and though I could sneak in the back and grab a seat without disturbing anyone but right away I got three hugs. At the end of the sermon pastor Dan mentioned to everyone that I snuck (past tense of sneak) in and gave an update on Simon. I couldnt say much at the time becaue the fact that people were still concerned about my family meant a great deal to me and any words that my mouth tried to form came out as jibberish as I tried to hold the tears back. It is incredibly encouraging to hear that everyone has continued to pray for Simon and our family even after 4 weeks.
I know its easy to pray for someone or be concerned once but to remember to continually pray is something all together different. I guess this is how the church is different from the most of the world. Everyone we tell our story to on the street (for one reason or another) ends up feeling concerned for a few minutes but I know it passes as no one likes to think about depressing things. The body of Christ is so different and I think that can be seen in how quickly our story has spread (see the counter at the bottom on the page at 5789 hits in 3 weeks) and how so many people continue to pray and remain concerned about us.

Here is a little snipet I got from Wikipedia:

• Empathetic but not sympathetic, by internally experiencing another's feeling but not being motivated to alleviating action as a result (eg, a lust killer who is aroused by his victim's fear, or a con artist who knows how his mark feels but uses it to manipulate not support).
• Sympathetic but not empathetic by realising (perhaps cognitively) someone is upset and wanting to alleviate that, but not experiencing their sense of upset directly and internally as an emotional state within themselves (eg, a person at a help desk who sees another in distress, does not feel distress themselves, but tries to find what is wrong and help them anyway).

I guess what moved me so much this weekend was seeing a whole building full of people who were trully Sympathetic and Empathetic. These are the acts of selflessness that have been encouraging beyond words to me and my family.

Thank you,
Dean