An update to Facebook bio.

I was updating my bio on Facebook, so Ithought I would also post my update here.

How does one define themselves? What is my identity?

1. I am a Christian who wants to understand God's word and his direction for my life better.

2. I am a husband to the woman that is the best thing that ever happened to me. Her grace, love, and kindness fulfills my heart.

3. I am a father to an amazing son who is already overcoming many obstacles with a constant smile and continual happiness.

4. I am a son to a compassionate mother who has tried to raise me to love others, and done everything in her power to make me happy I am a son-in-law to two great people who try to provide for all their family's needs. I am the son of a father who I didn't meet till I was an adult and who confuses my existence too often.

5. I am a brother to two brothers that have shaped me more than they know.

6. I am an employee that takes great pride in doing a good job, learning, and helping others.

7. I am a friend and family member to many great people.

A little bit more about me:
I get lost a lot in life. I don't have a good feel for when to be aggressive and when to be passive. I hate it when people assume that people get what they deserve, and i hate it more when successful people think that unsuccessful people are inferior. I love dogs. I want to be a leader in my church. Too often i think too highly of myself. I yell at the TV when the Lakers are on. I enjoy learning.

Last: when I am long gone from this earth I want people and God to remember me as a man who always tried to do the right thing. I define the right thing as what Jesus would have done. The best I can tell that means:
loving other people always, focussing on things that are eternal, living with pure thoughts that lead to pure actions, spending time in prayer, teaching others what God's design for man is, and standing up for the less fortunate, even if that means being disliked by those with more power and any resulting consequences.

Isaiah's health

My wife sums up our last few months pretty well. Isaiah has had a litany of health issues over his first few months. Jackee does an amazing job summing it all up on our/her blog www.theaustermans.blogspot.com

I post this with a little bit of anguish as I know how many people are struggling through much tougher and more severe health issues. Jackee and I are so blessed it is hard to complain, but the last 6 months have been a roller coaster.

Before I go I need to mention one more thing, I am so lucky to have Jackee in my life, she is an amazing mom and an even better wife. She constantly makes me feel like a great husband, even when i don't deserve it. Her love for Isaiah is truly an inspiration for me to be a better father. Her patience with all of my faults make her nearly a saint. I would be lost without her, and I don't always show her how much she means to me. Thank you Jackee for your continuous love and support, you make me the luckiest man alive.

Check out www.Theaustermans.blogspot.com

Life

Life is so interesting.

Tonight is stressful for Jackee and I. Tomorrow we have to take our Isaiah to daycare. We are lucky to have found somebody who lives very close to us, is well recommended, and has dealt with kids who can't eat certain things. But, it will still be hard to drop him off to somebody we have met twice to care for him.

We are so blessed, but life is pretty scary still. The expense of PKU is daunting. The time commitment of cooking and preparing for the food is overwhelming (read this blog post: http://pkufamilies.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-in-life-of-pku.html). Drawing the blood twice a week is sad as Isaiah cries.

With all that said, I still feel so blessed that we caught the disease and Isaiah will not be mentally handicapped. There are so many conditions that you can do nothing for. PKU we can control. It still sucks though.

Jackee has been absolutely amazing with everything. I have to admit she takes the brunt of this. She took all the blood tests while she was off, had done 90% of the housework, and has been up more than me in the middle of the night. Not to mention all of the crap that goes along with breastfeeding and now she is back at work. She has been awesome. I am so lucky that I married her.

We are now past the trauma portion of finding out about Isaiah's condition. Now we are trying to find the time to get our house ready to put on the market. We are looking to the future and thinking of all the extra time PKU is going to take. All of this is just still hard to process.

All though all of the above is not fun, the worst part of the condition is realizing that Isaiah will consistently feel different than everyone else. Our lives revolve around food. Every holiday and event involves food. I am sitting here watching the Super Bowl thinking about Isaiah's Super Bowl parties and what he will eat.

I don't mean to whine, it is just difficult right now. Isaiah is so cute and his smile lights up my life. I wish I could live with the disease rather than him. I wish I knew how to support Jackee better.

God is our strength, and he will continue to provide what we need. I pray for clarity and strength. We are so blessed. We have a child that is healthy, and happy. God is using this now for something.

One last thought, thank you to all of our friends, church, and family, they have been amazing and have carried us.

The best things in life are not things

Just chilling watching my wife and son sleep. God is truly amazing. A few thoughts:

Jackee is an amazing mother.

I have never felt so much stress but so content at the same time.

The Lakers won.

The thought of selling our house make me feel like a failure.

I am excited to go to the Orchard Hill Leadership retreat tomorrow.

My wife is beautiful.

I pray that Isaiah will follow his PKU diet when he gets older.

Pandora is great.

I need to blog more.

Jackee is going to have a sore neck when she wakes up.

I really need to get our basement finished.

I hope we don't lose too much money on our house.

Perspective is a beautiful idea.

Haiti

I should go to bed

God has a plan!!!

Isaiah James

Hey Everyone, I have been slow to post and hope to have a longer post soon, but in the mean time check out our Family Blog that my Beautiful Wife keeps up at www.theaustermans.blogspot.com.

God is Good!!!!