Washing Feet: An Example of Service or Something More?

Jesus Washing Peter's Feet by Ford Madox Brown 1852-6 So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. - John 13:2-5 Today, in 2024 A.D., we don't give much thought to these few sentences. The impact of the activity of Jesus is lost on us because a) We wear shoes everywhere. Many of us even have "inside shoes" and "outside shoes". b) The Church's liturgy (as popularly practiced) often misses or lessens the importance of this event (pro tip: it's not simply Jesus giving and example of serving others). Contrary to what we see in the movies, the roads in the time of Jesus weren't all covered in perfectly placed cobblestones or silky, fine dust. If r

Catherine Update


Thy will be done!

Thank you so much for your prayers. Catherine, who usually develops some sort of problem or setback on weekends (seriously, I would love to go back through her chart), made great strides this past weekend. Before the weekend, she appeared pale and had lost a significant amount of weight. Her body is not used to being fed directly into her jejunum, her bile was not going down, and so her stools were really watery. She was just not absorbing what she needed from the breast milk. Her doctor said it takes awhile for her body to get used to being fed this way. In the meantime, she got a PICC line and some TPN to supplement the breast milk and it did wonders for her. She looks 100% better today than over the weekend. Other good news is that she has stopped vomiting the green bilious stuff and the output out of her OG tube has cleared up and decreased in quantity considerably.

A small miracle occurred this morning and a great blessing from God. It may not seem significant to any of you but it made me feel so much better about the situation. Catherine's surgeon is very elusive. She makes rounds at 4 or 5 am and then she goes to surgery or she has office hours. I have never spoken to her except right before she's about to operate on Catherine. I wanted to get to the hospital earlier than I usually go so that I could talk with her neonatologist, and I won't go into the details, but our morning was a little busier than usual and if I had left 5 or 10 minutes later, I am sure I would not have been able to talk to her surgeon. I didn't even consider that I would have been able to, but God takes care of us and it was in his plan that I met her in the hallway as she was leaving the unit. So we went into Catherine's room and she explained to me why she didn't think Catherine needed surgery and why she didn't think there was an obstruction and that we just need to be patient and wait especially considering the progress she made over the weekend. It was very nice to ask her questions directly and to hear everything she had to say from her rather than from someone else. Thy will be done. Thank you Lord!

So the plan is to take out the OG tube in a few days and then try to get her just on breast milk feeds and she needs to gain weight.

Again thank you for your continued prayers as we pray for all of you.

Catherine's Mom

Comments

Barbara said…
I continue to keep Baby Catherine in my prayers and am happy to hear she did well over the weekend. God bless all of you.
Glad to hear it was a better weekend. You all continue to be in my prayers!