One in a Million

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Some guys just seem like they were made to be dads. Not that all of us guys can’t get there eventually, but some, like maybe one in a million, seem like they come ready made to be great dads.

Josh Tenney is one of those.

I’ve had the opportunity to know Josh through some key milestones in his life, from finally finding The One (took awhile, but she was worth the wait), to his marriage to her, to giddily expecting his first child, to her birth.

Anna Liberty Tenney. A little sweet-pea, if ever there was one.

I also saw Josh go through the pain of seeing his treasured Anna stricken with sunburns so severe, even with limited exposure to the sun and the protection of copious amounts of sunscreen, her eyes would blister shut.

Several trips to the doctor’s office later, as well as traveling cross country to the specialists at the National Institutes of Health in D.C., the diagnosis was confirmed. Anna has XP, an extremely rare condition that has changed how the whole family’s lives.

Some characterize XP as being allergic to the sun, but Josh points out it is much more than that.

“Each day, Anna’s skin is covered with sunblock and lotions,” writes Josh on his blog. “She must remain indoors to be completely safe. Before going outdoors on occasion, Anna must wear shoes, long pants, long sleeved shirts, gloves, sunglasses, and a custom made hat with a specialty UV-blocking plastic face shield.”

Josh has created a blog about his daughter’s life with XP. It’s called Anna Liberty: A Girl Who’s One in a Million, including this post here, which explains how the family is approaching the coming summer, with its longer days, but with the treasured warm, post-sunset hours, when Anna becomes a night owl.

Math for me seldom makes sense. But sometimes, when the one-in-a-million kid scores the one-in-a-million dad, it clicks.

Firefighter/Paramedic

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Because of the nature of his job, Firefighter/Paramedic maintains anonymity for himself as well as his department. He also maintains the privacy of his patients by not revealing their personal information and by changing minor details of the calls he goes on.

I knew him briefly when I lived in California, before he took up his chosen profession. He’s a 34-year-old who is married and has three young children. Not surprisingly, he serves as his ward’s emergency preparedness coordinator.

Welcome Firefighter/Paramedic to the MDB blog.

One Year Old, Not Breathing

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“Engine 51, Medic 143, you’re responding for a 1 year old unconsciousness and not breathing. PD is also en route.”

Thus begins the latest post by a new blogger to MDB, a firefighter/paramedic working in California.

The blog is a fascinating account of the life of a firefighter/paramedic, from rolling in the middle of the night on calls where an elderly woman is spending her last moments of mortality to lighter fare where the subjects get what’s coming to them.

The experiences, even the big ones, are typically recounted in a very matter of fact way, from the unresolved end of the 1-year-old’s episode to this resolution about the elderly woman:

“We followed the ACLS protocol without success. The patient went from a ventricular PEA into asystole. After 30 minutes resuscitation efforts were terminated.

“90 minutes after the tones went I found myself back in bed, slowly drifting back to sleep….but not before turning off my alarm.”

Because of the nature of his job, he maintains anonymity for himself as well as his department. He also maintains the privacy of his patients by not revealing their personal information and by changing minor details of the calls he goes on.  I knew him briefly when I lived in California, before he took up his chosen profession. He’s a 34-year-old who is married and has three young children. Not surprisingly, he serves as his ward’s emergency preparedness coordinator.

Welcome Firefighter/Paramedic to the MDB blog.

Marriage is for Whom?

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“Marriage is for losers.”

That’s the bold assertion of Richard Tait, a new addition to the MDB community, in a recent post on his blog. The assertion is especially odd in light of a recurring theme of our most recent General Conference, in which the importance of marriage was raised frequently (or seemingly incessantly if you are a single, recently returned missionary).

“If you want to enjoy a long, happy marriage, you have to be committed to being a big loser. In fact, it’s best if you are both losers,” writes Richard.

Find out what he’s getting at in his post I See… Marriage is for Losers.

Richard blogs from Maryland, where he is the proud father of a returned-missionary son and a high school senior daughter. Richard writes that he’s been “married to the same woman for 25 years, and its been the best 22 years of my life.”

His blog is called Mormon Third Eye and sports an eerie banner that is the kind of thing that would confirm my suspicions as a kid that my mom had one: an all seeing eye that could tell from the other side of the house who had his hand in the cookie jar.

Welcome Richard and the Mormon Third Eye to MDB.

MDB Crosses the Pond

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MDB is delighted to welcome our first blogger from beyond these shores. Though he blogs from a good half the world away, John Teal’s email struck a chord familiar to many of us here:

“Hi, I stumbled across you guys on the net today. I was surprised to find a gathering of fellow Mormon Daddy bloggers,” wrote John. “I had almost resigned myself to being a lone man in the wilderness of Mormon Mommy bloggers!”

John has begun an A-Z blogging challenge, and just covered “G,” which he uses to introduce us to a bit of Cockney rhyming slang involving a giraffe. Fun post you won’t want to miss.

John blogs from his home in Manchester, England, where he lives with his wife and three teenage children. He’s self-employed and works in property maintenance. In his “About Me,” John writes:

“I suppose many of my outlooks on life are influenced by my LDS beliefs and general experiences.”

Meet John Teal via his post, Are You Having a Giraffe?

Lessons from the Missed Call

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Inspiration. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an app for that?

Instead, we are left to do our best over the course of a lifetime to hone our ability to discern it. It’s part of the deal.

And there may be no better teacher than the inspiration that got away. The one we didn’t pay attention to. The one we missed, and only realized it later.

Mike Henneke, the Sunday editor for a group of newspapers in Oregon and a father of five, posts about his experience with the missed message and how it prepared him for the next time.

Welcome Mike and his blog, Is This Mike On?, to MDB by reading his post, “Go Get Your Cell Phone.

Aftershock: Lessons from an LDS Family in Japan

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aftershockTwo days after a 9.0 earthquake struck in Japan on March 11, an LDS mom whose family is stationed in Japan sat down to write an email of their experience in living through the earthquake and its aftermath. It’s a gripping first-hand account:

I ran to [my baby's] room and grabbed him out of his crib. [Another son] started crying and calling for me –- I got him too and we huddled on the stairs away from windows and light fixtures. The two boys were walking home from school and came in while the house was still shaking. They thought it was exciting. I yelled at them to “GET BACK OUTSIDE!” because I’d just been told if you’re outside, you’re supposed to stay outside! I sat on the stairs praying: “Please protect my kids, please protect my kids, please protect my kids…

She goes on to analyze her own preparedness level, including what she wishes she had done better. Don’t miss reading the rest of her account, Post Japan Earthquake Notes.

As Jayce Hall, a new addition to the MDB community points out in a recent post on UtahPreppers, learning from our own mistakes is important, but learning from “examples of others doing the same can help us learn the same lessons without having to go through the experience.”

Jayce is a software engineer originally from the Pacific Northwest and who now lives in Utah. He enjoys the dichotomy of the split from regular gadget driven life to back country minimalist experiences. Welcome to MDB, Jayce and UtahPreppers.

Time for a Renaissance of the LDS Stage

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renaissanceAlmost hard to believe now, points out Kent Larsen in his latest post, but once upon a time, the king of Mormon literature was the stage drama, which reigned from approximately 1930 to 1970.

Writing in A Motley Vision, a multi-author blog that focuses on Mormon arts and culture, Kent reminds us that there was a time when wards throughout the church would produce a theatrical production annually. Now most members would be hard-pressed to name a Mormon play other than Saturday’s Warrior.

“This decline is certainly remarkable, especially given the attention paid to Mormons in dramatic works in recent decades,” writes Kent. “Instead of our own works, we are the subject (or target, if you prefer) of dramatic works at the highest level of the theater world.” (“The Book of Mormon,” a new musical that takes comic aim at our faith, recently opened on Broadway to much critical praise.)

While these dark times for Mormon stage drama might seem to be the way it is and ever will be, Kent puts forth the notion that this might actually be the right time for a renaissance. Certain elements necessary for such a rebirth already exist. But what would make them come together? Judging by reader reaction, maybe Kent’s post is a good start.

Don’t miss Mormon Literature’s Once and Future King?

A book importer and publisher, Kent lives in New York City, where he moved with his wife after graduating from BYU. They have raised three children in New York. Welcome Kent and A Motley Vision to the MDB Community.

Brethren, Start Your Engines

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Last night I decided to walk the mile or so to the Stake Center to watch the priesthood session of General Conference. But the weather was a little nastier than I had expected, so when a neighbor pulled over and offered me a lift, I gladly accepted.

When we got to the church parking lot, however, he did the strangest thing. He pulled into the parking space nose in and stopped! Even though the space just ahead was wide open! As we got out of the car, I kept a wary eye on my neighbor, if I could even be sure that he really was my neighbor and not some alien life form that had taken over his body.

Who parks nose in for the priesthood session of General Conference, thereby thwarting any hope of the quick getaway in the mad dash to make it to the ice cream joint first? The nose out parking style (which my recently returned missionary daughter tells me is called Celestial Parking, because it means that she didn’t have to stand outside the car to help safely back her companion out) is apparently a tradition in other parts of the church as well, as evidenced by a recent posting of a new addition to the MDB community, Scott Taylor.

Scott, a father of four, is a screenwriter who also writes the blog Scotty Watty Doodle All Day. Read his latest post about this peculiar parking phenomenon, which he calls Priesthood Park.

Better Than Mother Teresa?

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Writers are the best people in the world. And MDB newcomer Jared Garrett isn’t just saying that because he’s a writer.

Well, in a way, yes he is.

Because as a writer, he’s had many opportunities to associate with other writers at varying points in the writer’s journey from unpublished to bestselling author. All along the way he has found them to be generous and extraordinarily helpful.

Maybe not Mother Teresa generous and extraordinarily helpful, but still.

When you consider the scads of books clamoring for already limited shelf space, and how many of them are about to be inundated by the tsunami of ebooks heading their way, you’d think writers would be a viciously competitive, back-stabbing bunch.

Not so, in Jared’s experience. They give you their time. They retweet you. They linkback. OK, still not quite in the Mother Teresa’s goodness league. But, for this day and age, not too shabby.

Get Jared’s take on the Mother Teresa v. Writers cage match for Best People Champion in Why Writers Are the Best People in the World.