The Norman Nest

This was one of those weeks where time was elusive as it simultaneously crept along and caught us up in a whirled.   The Timeline Monday morning, May 6th, I awakened early and read a devotional entitled, “Do the Next Thing.”  It perfectly resonated with my paradoxical emotions.  I dreaded the 7th, I wanted to hurry up and get to the 7th, most of all, I desperately wanted to be on the other side of the 7th with my son in my arms.  May 7th was so intense. In God’s mercy, Nathan was as cool as a cucumber, and the four of us had a small posse with us in the waiting room along with a swarm of texts, pictures, etc. of friends in red, bible verses, prayers and well wishes.  To say we were being upheld is an understatement.    The surgery was supposed to be about 5.5 hours, and we got the typical text updates the first few hours.  When Jonny’s phone rang with a call from the O.R. after just over 3 hours, the conversations around me faded to the margins as my heart slowed and my attention

(It’s Jonny this time, so set your expectations accordingly - my wife's the writer!)  My heart is full!  Even though we are 4 days away from what will likely be one of Nathan’s hardest surgeries and certainly the most intense recovery - I witnessed something truly amazing this morning.  Our brave son, Nathan, got up in front of 450 of his peers and shared a presentation he created about his upcoming surgery.  The backstory is that Nathan loves making google slideshow presentations. He’s had to make a couple for school which is what got him going. But just for fun, he’s made one on the NFL and on the NBA and on various soccer players (feel free to ask him about them, he’d love to show you :))  So when Jen suggested that maybe he make one about his upcoming surgery to share with his class, he was all over it. Then after he made it, he shared it with the school principal and she asked if he would be willing to share it with the whole school during the morning assembly and to our great