So the trip to Houston. 

We left on Thursday afternoon – Ahna had to take the afternoon off, as well as the next day; I was placed on family leave – and arrived into Houston a few hours later. We were met in the jetway as we got off of the plane by three Houston Police Officers (HPD) who immediately embraced us and took us into their family. They had two carts waiting for us at the gate, which proved to be a really nice way to get to baggage claim, but made a lot of people wonder what we did on the plane to get three police officers and a ride….

The HPD had assigned us an officer for the night as well as a marked car, and he took us from the airport to the funeral home so we could catch the last part of the viewing. When we arrived, we found that there were still a surprising amount of family around, including TJ (Tim’s son) and most of Tim’s brothers and sisters. 

The next morning was the funeral services, and the family was taken to Tim and Stephanie’s house before the motorcade to the church. We arrived at the church about a hour before the services began so several presentations could be made to the family (from the police chief, from the city, from the academy class, from the police union, etc). 

The services were perfect. The preaching, the stories, and the tribute was something that was deserved. The church was filled with about 3,000 police officers from all over the state. Outside, the Patriot Guard lined the entry ways with American flags. The HPD and the Navy Honor Guards did an amazing job. 

There was no procession because Tim was going to be cremated. Instead, all of the traditional burial site rituals were performed outside of the church: folding and presentation of the American flag, the gun salute, the officers standing at attention, the bagpipes, the trumpeter playing taps, the mounted police salute (an empty boot turned backwards in the saddle), and the aviation unit salute (helicopters flying over in a missing-man formation). The Honor Guard even let TJ dismiss all of the uniformed officers. 

Following the services, there was a reception hosted by the HPD Officer’s Union; and then it was back to Stephanie’s house for a while. It was a long day. It was a perfect day. It was a day that we hope to never experience again. 

We returned home on Saturday night, after spending the day at Stephanie’s house. Our ride to the airport was provided by the Sergeant of the Bomb Squad: the unit that Tim was transferring to. It’s hard to summarize the emotions of the trip, and it is equally as hard to summarize the love that was shown by the HPD. They were there 24-7 for any need whatsoever. They provided anything requested at a moment’s notice….most importantly, they were simply there. 

I have attached some pictures from the Houston Chronicle. We didn’t take any pictures over the trip, but there was a family picture taken….and as soon as I get that it will be posted. 

It was mentioned in a previous post: go and thank your local police officers for the dedication and commitment that they have given to the community. I have long believed that a police officer or firefighter becomes a hero the moment that they take the oath to serve and protect their communities – whatever the cost. Tim became a hero to Houston and to our family – for a second time, after serving in the military – 11 years ago…not two weeks ago. We just had the opportunity to say thanks.

Here is a story about the services from the Chronicle.

It’s a strange thing. ‘Life goes on’ is such a cliche thing to say, but it is also one of the most real things that can be said. I’m not sure that Ahna or I have ever experienced what that means as up-front has we have these past couple of days. 

As Ahna and I were dealing with the news about Tim, Ezra (obviously not understanding any of it) still had his needs…we had to wipe back tears to make sure that he was happy and satisfied, fed and content. It was such a stark reminder of some of the realities of the world – in an incredibly uplifting way. 

In the midst of the emotional chain reaction, Ezra had a doctor’s appointment on Monday afternoon. He was due for his 6-month well-baby check-up, but our Doctor decided to take a vacation (the nerve!) and we were not able to reschedule that check-up until January. We still went in for shots – he did great as always: cried for about 5 seconds then was back to smiling – and we were able to talk the nurse into doing a set of vital statistics for our records. Here are the latest numbers on the ever growing boy:

Head: 17.5″ (75%)

Weight: 18 pounds, 3 ounces (65%)

Height: 27.25″ (85%)

One more note: the change over to the new car seat has gone fairly well. The several times that I have had to take him out of the car while sleeping, we were able to arrange the move so he would stay asleep….but it does take a lot longer to get in and out of the car. He absolutely loves the forward-facing stroller, and therefore never falls asleep in it. We will make the transition in Ahna’s car over the weekend.

PS – Here is the larger version of the photo that was used on the month-by-month image. It was taken on his 6-month birthday.

Not really sure how to post something like this on the blog. 

We lost Ahna’s cousin, Tim Abernethy, in the Line Of Duty this morning (Sunday). Tim was a police officer with the Houston Police Department, and was on a traffic stop when the subject got out of the car and ran. When Tim followed in pursuit, the suspect hid behind a bin, and shot Tim several times.

We really can’t express the shock and loss that we are feeling right now, let alone Tim’s family. He has left behind a wife and two beautiful kids, amongst the rest of the family. 

I’m not really sure what the blog postings will look like for the next several days, but we are trying to go to Houston for the services. Needless to say, the postings might be a bit scattered for the next week or so. 

Please hold Tim’s family in your prayers this week. And please, please, please let your local police officers know how much you appreciate their service, dedication, and commitment to a better community. 

Here is a link to a news story about the incident.

A nice story about Tim.

The picture was taken last June at a family reunion in the Seattle area (nothing on this site is for reproduction by anyone else, period).

Ahna, Ezra, and I went up to Breckenridge over the weekend to spend some time up in the mountains…the excuse was that I had a meeting up there (more on that later). My folks and Rena were already up there for a conference that my Dad was speaking/attending at, so we met up with them for breakfast on Saturday and enjoyed a nice walk around downtown Breckenridge afterwards. It was cold up there: like 0-5 degrees with lots of snow, so Ezra packed into his snowsuit that Grandparents Bersagel got for him.

The meeting that I attended was my first with a new team that I am on called the Colorado L.A.S.T. (Local Assistance State Team), which is a state-level resource for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. We will respond to any and all Line Of Duty Deaths of firefighters within the entire state of Colorado. The team is comprised of about 10 people, and took an application and interview process tojoin. It’s something that is extremely important to me, and I am honored to be selected to be on the team. My specialty will be Logistics: helping the family and local jurisdictions in coordinating the services, and everything that goes into those services (bagpipes, honor guard, etc). I pray that my service to this team never goes beyond simply attending the meetings, but if I am ever called out, I will do it with the greatest sense of pride. 

The picture is during the sunset from the hotel….

I love Saturdays. Especially when they involve waking up to snow, hanging out with Ezra in the morning, spending the afternoon with Ahna (alone), good college football on TV (go Gators), and finally a fairly productive and relaxed evening. Basically what I am saying, is that I like 3-4 Saturdays per year….at least to the degree that I enjoyed yesterday. 

The morning hours were fairly self explanatory based on the previous paragraph….so skip to the afternoon. Mom, Dad, and Rena hung out with Ezra while Ahna and I enjoyed a wonderful lunch, chilling at the house, and some errands. I can’t say the next statement without the qualifier that we wouldn’t change anything for the world, but we really enjoy each other’s company…and miss the intentional time together. 

There we were: 7am, heading out the door to go shopping on Black Friday, stopping at Starbucks, wearing our North Face jacket, going to Babies-R-Us. Wow. What the heck happened to us? We had become representative of the people that we protested sometime in our previous lives. 

But there was an explanation for all of it. First of all, we have always tried to avoid the Black Friday consumption-based world – mostly as a protest of all of the things that we are told that we need. But perhaps there is some merit in it all: like sales on things that you actually need (car seats) in a tough economic time. Perhaps we can take advantage of the early store openings – especially since Ezra woke up at 5 on his own. The Starbucks? Well, simply Ahna’s favorite chai. The North Face? I dunno, I’ve had it for almost 10 years now. Babies-R-Us? I suppose that’s obvious. It’s interesting where life takes you….places that you could never have imagined years ago. 

ed note: so after I wrote the posting, I found this story which seems to trump any of the good that can come from the shopping events of today: a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death in Long Island attempting to hold back the crowds during the opening of the store. It makes me want to say lots of bad things about consumerism.

If there is one lesson that is continuously beaten into us it’s this: the growth curve is dramatic, and so is it’s influence on the pocketbook. Call it ignorance or nievety, but I had no idea that things would change this fast – not even his cloths…and while I got over the clothes by the end of his first month, the larger things are starting to rear their heads. 

Take the car seat situation. He has outgrown his infant carrier seat….due to height. There is still plenty of room to maneuver in the weight limitations, but he is too tall for the straps (they are curling over his shoulders). Turns out that the big secret in the car seat/stroller world is that the kids rarely ever make the weight limitations before they outgrow the height limitations (for the 50+ percentiles). Even as we researched the seats that we purchased today, there were some that were advertising weight limits that would put the average child at 10 years old….and well past the need for a combination seat. I suppose that it only reinforces the need to do a little reading of your own before hitting the stores. 

We enjoyed the relative emptiness of the store in the early morning hours, and the chance to look, feel, test, and ask lost of questions without the pressure of 15 other people waiting to do the same. We used the Baby Bargins book as our guide, and settled on a new convertible seat and a new stroller for Ezra. It’s sort of daunting to think of all of the changes that will happen with these new items (no more in and out with the infant seat, more trips to load the car, what happens when he is sleeping?, no more clipping the seat in the stroller, etc, etc, etc.). Who would have thought that it would be somewhat scary? 

The convertible seat that we ended up purchasing was the Even-Flo Triumph Advance. It’s gotten great crash ratings, good product design reviews, and generally fits within the budget. The bonus to us is that the weight limitations for rear and forward facing are more than comparable others, and since Ezra is in the 75th percentile, we think it will work nicely. We had to get one per car since both of us are primary care providers during the day, and we can’t switch cars (that whole manual transmission thing). 

Since we can’t take it out of the car and clip it into a stroller base, we got a stroller as well. We went back and forth on this one for a while, but purchased the Combi Cosmo stroller for it’s size, weight, and portability (it’s actually designed for air travel constrictions: slightly narrower base, compacts like an umbrella stroller, and it is designed to be compliant with overhead storage requirements). We figured that those were good reasons for travel, but also for taking it around generally: lighter, smaller, and portability can’t be all bad. 

If anyone has any idea on what is next on the replacement schedule, please let us know. It seems like we should have been able to anticipate this change sooner, but we didn’t…the learning curve for us appears slower than Ezra’s growth curve. Hmm, perhaps we should start saving for his first car. Oh boy.