A Kind Stranger on Facebook Mails Me Back My Lost Bible
The oddest thing happened to me last month. Out of the blue, a stranger sent me this message on Facebook:
Hello,
I know this is strange to send you a message on FB, but my son found a Bible that states it belongs to “Lionel Valdellon” and I would love to return it to it’s rightful owner, but just need to make sure I send it to the correct person… So if this happens to be you can you please let me know so I can send it to you… Thanks,
I was overwhelmed. And delighted.
How it Was Lost
Back in August 2012, I attended a family camp with my wife’s church in Jenness Park for three days, brought my favorite little blue Bible … and upon returning home realized it had probably fallen out of my bag in our cabin. I had just read it the morning before we left for home so I was sure it must have been left behind in the area where we had placed our bags.
I was crestfallen.
I considered mailing the Jenness Park staff and possibly asking some kind Christian worker to mail it back to me with the promise of reimbursing the postage. But laziness took over. (Plus, I had an extra on hand that I could use.) And I decided it would make more sense to simply return there the next year and look for it in their shelf of left-behind bibles.
I’d noticed that bookshelf in the main conference hall… filled with every kind of bible version, once owned by camp visitors, mostly youth as evidenced by handwriting and hearts that dotted the I’s.
I even thought to myself: “How sad to leave behind your bible. I wonder how many of those kids left their faith behind as well?”
Well little did I know, my bible was going to live on that shelf the next few months.
How it Was Found
The woman who contacted me on Facebook said that this June, her son had volunteered to help out the counselor of their church’s youth group at their Bible Camp in Jenness Park. He’d forgotten his bible, and ended up choosing and using mine out of the lost and found bookshelf.
When he returned home, he realized he still had it with him. She said via Facebook:
I told him we need to get it back to the owner, I know how I would feel if I lost my Bible 😦
So she sent off a message to the only Lionel Valdellon on Facebook and a day later, mailed it to my address that was on the inside front cover.
Lessons Learned
1. Always place your name and address on your bible.
2. There are still kind and generous people in the world.
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Losing More Than 10% of Baby’s Weight, Cause for Alarm?
After Aug 26th’s successful delivery and arrival of our third child, whom we named Jericho, we were raring to go home by Thursday morning. Except that the nurses and hospital pediatrician were concerned that Jericho lost 10.6% of his birth weight. At birth he weighed 8.5 lbs. By day two, he had gone down to 7.6 lbs
10 Percent Weight Loss
Apparently once newborn babies lose more than 10% of their birth weight, they are in danger of becoming dehydrated and malnourished. The weight loss could then be a sign that the baby isn’t feeding properly or doesn’t latch well enough during breast feeding. Once they lose 12% of their birth weight, they typically cart the child off to Special Care Nursery — a newborn version of an ICU? — where they’re monitored day and night and where they teach parents how to feed the baby properly, until weight returns to normal.
One More Day at the Hospital
As it stood, we were asked to stay one more day so the staff could monitor Jericho’s weight, and asked us if we wanted to give him formula via a supplemental nursing system — a thin tube that injects formula into the baby’s mouth and which can be taped alongside a mother’s breast or to a finger for finger feeding.
Having his best interests in mind, we opted to do as they say, stay the extra day, feed him the formula, and hope he regained the weight he lost.
The Stinky Formula
We opted to give him Nutramigen, a musky-odored formula that smelled like rotting pepperoni pizza, because it was hypoallergenic and seemed like a good idea at the time. Jericho took it in. But really slowly. 20-25 minutes for 20 ml? This made the pediatrician think he was having problems eating.
Only on the last day did we finally test a new formula — Enfamil — and Jericho downed the same amount in less than 5 minutes. Proving that Nutramigen must really taste like it smells– nasty.
Before being discharged, his weight was back up to 7.9 lbs.
Overly Cautious?
I appreciate the fact that the staff and the pediatrician were concerned about Jericho’s weight loss. But the truth is: it really felt like they were being a little over-cautious. (Or perhaps, as a friend told me, there weren’t enough patients staying at the hospital? Low census?) Especially since he didn’t really seem to have a problem latching or feeding — as long as things were quiet and no nurses were around to readjust his position while he was trying to latch. We noticed that he didn’t take too kindly to nurses repositioning his head or body while he was trying to feed. When it was just us two in the room, he was fine. Personality, personality.
In the end though, we did finally say goodbye to the hospital room where we’d been cooped up for four days and returned home where the two elder kids were waiting for us, excited about their new baby brother.
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Choosing Our 3rd Baby’s Name
We set a theme for ourselves by picking Zion and Cyrene as the names of our first two progeny– that the name must be a place that is mentioned in the Bible. So for our third baby, we were researching and rereading Bible passages far in advance of the due date.
Limited Location Names for Boys
Problem is, for boys, you start to hit a wall with location names in the Bible. Either you’re faced with the prospect of naming your child after one of the enemy countries such as say, Midian or Persia. Or you’re faced with a place that sounds feminine in its form, such as Samaria or Galilee or Bethlehem or even Arimathea. Or you have a name which is way too ethnic sounding for a Filipino American child,such as say, Kadesh, Ur, Chaldea, Ararat or Cherith. Or else you’re left with places that just have negative connections to it such as Gethsemane or Gomorrah. What’s left then?
Our List of Possible Names
We rounded up a list of possible names that included:
- – Tiberias (sounds took much like a dog’s name, my wife said)
- – Tarsus (sounds too much like a body part– metatarsals, anyone?)
- – Damascus (sounds like the American Ninja actor, lol)
- – Jerusalem (too long when paired with our last name)
- – Judah or Judea (sounds too much like Judas, and who’d want that, right?)
- – Canaan (sounds like canine, though it is sorta unique)
- – Jordan (way too common, also, it’s one of those names that parents use for both boys and girls)
In the end, it really boiled down to two choices:
- – Israel (which was kinda like naming your kid Japan or Peru– doesn’t make sense unless you’re from there or conceived the child there, since the country still exists under that name)
- And of course, Jericho, the site of God’s miraculous victory.
When my wife asked why Jericho, I said: “When he was born, he wailed without prompting. And all my walls fell.”
* * *
Now we need your help. What nickname should we use for him? Do you have any suggestions? Hit the comments and give me your ideas for nicknames or pet names for Jericho!
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The Arrival of Baby No.3
On August 26th, 2013, a cool balmy morning by SF Bay area standards, we received the blessing of a third child in the family.
He was born at 10:06AM via c-section and weighed 8 lbs, 8 oz. He measured 20.5 in. long and as is usual with our kids, came with a full head of hair, fair skin, and a voice you could not forget.
Dear Baby No.3, Please Prepare to Exit
OK, baby#3. I’ve laundered and am folding all the new clothes that people have given as gifts. You will be amply dressed. Don’t worry about it.
Your mama’s hospital bag will be prepared in the next two days — you know, in case you decide to come early. Her sleeping gowns and nursing cover have been washed and folded. I must remember to bring the sudoku book.
Baby, your days of lounging about in that warm, relaxing amniotic fluid spa are numbered. You have two weeks to come up with your exit strategy, and while you’re at it, start thinking about what you want to take up in college. Because, it’s never too early to start dreaming about your future.
Also, FYI, your mom refuses to name you “Tiberias” after the alternate name for the Sea of Galilee. She’s convinced Tiberias is a better name for a dog. It probably wouldn’t have helped to mention to her that Captain Kirk’s middle name is just one letter away. Sorry, I know you were rooting for that name. We’ll find you a better one, okay?
Kindly stop kicking your mom and stretching too hard. All of that wriggling makes you look like the baby alien in Lt.Ripley’s pregnant belly in Aliens 3. Ooh, Aliens 3, and baby 3. LOL.
We’re looking forward to seeing you okay? See you in two weeks.
Back to folding clothes.
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Sodor’s Childish Engines are Human Minds Uploaded to Machines
Forbes recently ran a piece by Alex Knapp called “The Baffling Economics Of The Island Of Sodor.” Loved it — because it takes an in-depth semi-serious look at the world of Thomas the Tank Engine (which my kids enjoy over and over again) and asks questions about why the island isn’t maximizing its economic potential.
Reading the piece, I was prompted to write my own Thomas-ian theory as a comment but it soon grew way too long and unwieldy. So I put it all down here in order not to lose any of the ideas which have been percolating in my head for the past two years. (In other words, this is what you get when you’ve seen Misty Island Rescue several hundred times, and still try to be an active viewer instead of a passive sponge.)
First off, you need to read Alex Knapp’s article in Forbes. When you’re done, return here.
Continue reading Sodor’s Childish Engines are Human Minds Uploaded to Machines
Unemployment Blessing 2: Leaving Messages in Sliced Cheese
Being unemployed on this weekday evening allows me to prepare my wife’s lunch for the following day — a bowl of leftover spaghetti with meatballs, cooked the Filipino way (sweet) and topped with a slice of processed cheddar cheese, which should melt after she microwaves the bowl.
I wanted to do something cute with the cheese, y’know? Like in one of those kawaii bento boxes where they cut out hearts and stars and little cute faces? But I couldn’t come up with any good ideas for the cheese. So like a real man, I carved three blocky uneven letters out of the cheese, using an unwieldy kitchen knife: I ♥ U
Next time perhaps I should take a photo.
Photo credits: Original photo from the Barberries and Wine blog.
Unemployment Blessing #1: Sticker Silliness
I’m unemployed once again. But there’s a silver lining behind every dark cloud, a blessing (or a lesson) behind every situation the Lord gives us. Today it is this:
Being unemployed on this weekday morning allows me to see my children wax ecstatic over Disney stickers that came with a marketing SPAM letter. Sticker happy, sticker silly, I just had to capture it on my phone and share it.
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A Stranger Tells Me My Kids’ Lucky Numbers
Today, I loaded my two children into the double stroller and walked with my niece and mother-in-law to the grocery store about a half mile away to buy some supplies. It wasn’t a short stroll at all, more like a good 20 to 25 minute walk.
An elderly Asian man exiting the door of the grocery came up to me after seeing our entourage and said: “Very handsome boy. Do you know his lucky number?
I said: “No, I don’t. Do you?”
“Why yes. His lucky number is 8.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he looks like he ate a lot before coming here!”
I laughed long and loud. “I’ll remember that!”
“And her lucky number? (Pointing to Cyrene) Yes, it’s eight as well.”
He made my day.
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