An Update from the Oldest Son's Family

We can no longer be the Baileys of Hurst and using our address seemed strange, so I ran out of options for what to call us. Mom has been nagging me to update, so whether or not you have a desire to know, this is what's going on at our house. Caitlin's basketball team has been winning games right and left and are looking forward to play-offs. The picture is from my latest show Much Ado About Nothing, which is over, and we've started work on One-Act, which is The Last Night of Ballyhoo. I'm playing Boo, a cranky Southern Jew with delusions of grandeur. Dad is preaching and lawyering up a storm and tonight he had his first stint on the Legal Hour radio show the firm's doing. Mom is crazy busy as usual with subbing and saving the world one activity at a time. We're all in love with Emily Rose. Caitlin can't wait to train her in the evil ways of little sisterdom, and I'm excited about training Rainey to have the patience of a saint. We're all busy, happy, and healthy and can't wait to hear more from everyone else!

O HAPPY DAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAILEY!

Emily Update

Sorry I've been so lazy, but my computer has been giving me problems. Check out more pics at www.stephenabailey.blogspot.com.

Hourly Report

 

Calling For More Pictures of Emily Rose

The response to posting Emily's picture has been great! Only Bailey Brown responded but I think she spoke for hundreds of you who don't have a blog address. 

Emily Rose and big sister Rainey - Jan 18, 2006

That's right! Emily Rose arrived at ll.01 a.m. at the North Hills Hospital. She weighed 8lbs. 6 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. She is as beautiful as her big sister and her mom is doing great. I am sure that Stephen will forgive me for beating him to bloggersville, but I just couldn't wait to share this photo with you.

Emily is grandbaby No. 8 - five girls and three boys.

Children are a gift from God and grandchildren are a gift with a bonus. If you are not a grandparent you cannot understand. If you are a grandparent there is no need for me to explain.

John

Tomorrow

Doc said he wouldn't let Steph go past Friday. FRIDAY! We're ready like, yesterday and so's the kid. After a quick phone call he told us to arrive at the hospital at 6:00 in the morning and let's get this party started. In other words, if nothing happens tonight we're inducing in the morning.

Come On Already

I had a meeting this morning at 7:00 (no disrespect intended MLK), after which I called home to check on Steph. She was out of breath when she answered the phone. "Oh boy!" I thought. "Here we go!"

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I was just doing my aerobics workout." she replied.

One day past her due date and she's doing aerobics.

I met her at 11:00 for a sonogram. Baby looks good. Big feet, strong heart, probably around eight pounds. So what's the hold up? Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow at 10:00 when we see the doctor.

Stay tuned.

Guatemala - April 6-16, 2005

Working with Marie Agee and her team is always a pleasure. It is one of the reasons I try to go to Guatemala every year. The Clinica Ezell is a fine hospital with three surery suites, a large sterilization area, pharmacy and a large post op recovery area. There is a dental clinic with a full time dentist who works in the clinic but also goes to remote villages one day a week. I like to work at Clinica Ezell but I like going to the villages more. I have been fortunate in being able to do this each time I have visited there.
I try to take at least one person with me who has never been on a medical mission. This is a good place for a first trip because you have a good place to sleep, shower and the food is great. You are not overwhelmed like you might be if you just went from here to a village and saw the primative conditions we work in. 

Julie Plemons and Margaret Ball were very tired after working the night shift in the post op.
This was Margaret's first medical mission and both of them worked extremely hard and accomplished a lot. 

Guatemala - April 6-16, 2005

One of the most difficult parts of doing medical missions in developing countries is that you often arrive too late to help the most needy. This is a case that no one could help either in Guatemala of in a developed country. 

Rock On!

Rock on! I'm in! Thanks for sending another invite Tod.

Steph is starting to swell a bit and each day gets a little more uncomfortable. If nothing happens by this weekend, we will take a sonogram look on Monday and see the doctor on Tuesday. It's really working out well because we are getting further away from Christmas and closer to Emily's arrival on Thursday of next week.

We're excited and covet your prayers.

My first post

This is my first post that accidentally went to the wrong address.


Sometimes you fall into things. Other times you are shoved. I've been shoved. Rosalyn and I have enjoyed reading the blogs of several of our family members and the response they have generated. Now, with the gentle push of our son in law, we launch our blogging career.

Both of us are computer challenged. I am a function illiterate when it comes to computers and I'm better than Rosalyn at making them work. You can imagine the place she occupies in geek land.

We have no intention of writing daily or of making you feel inferior by telling the truth about our children and grand children. Those comments will be incidental to the major thrust of this site. We will try to share with you the things that are happening in our lives that some will be interested in reading. I plan to post stories from where ever I am in the world via my BlackBerry. We have experimented and it does work. There are only a few countries I have worked in where my BlackBerry didn't allow me to call home daily.

I hardly know how to sign off.
For some it will be Papa & Rose,
others call us Dr. John and Rosey Babe (not many)
and for the vast majority it's just John & Rosalyn

If anyone living out there in blogger land reads this, please respond to I will know that Tod didn't just set me up to make sport of me.

To say it is hot in Indonesia, is an understatement. I don't think an American can stay there for long and not be dehydrated. We had 16 of our workers from the USA miss all or part of a days activities because of the heat. When I say this was a hard trip, let me give you a few examples. One preacher from the US was sent to Singapore and had a triple by-pass surgery. The crowd control leader had to go home early and was given a three month leave of absence from his job because of the emotional strain he suffered. Our leader, Jim Karl, was taken off the plane in Houston on a stretcher because they thought he was having a heart attack. I am happy to say that all of the three mentioned are now well and back at work. I did not miss any work, but it did take me longer to recover from this trip than any other. 

Baptisms on the island of Nias, Indonesia

The church is growing in Nias. We have been active in relief aid following the tsunami. I don't know how many have been baptized or how many new congregations have begun, but I do know the numbers are significant.

Many tons of rice and dehydrated food has been shipped by Rapha Internations of Fort Worth, TX and T.E.A.R.S. from Lake Jackson, TX has been distributing it to the needy on the island. Most of this work has been in the southern part of Nias where it is very difficult to transport heavy loads due to the poor roads and lack of equipment. 

Nias, Indonesia February 26 - March 13, 2005

We visited Nias a few months after the tsunami hit. This island is inhabited by about 700,00o people and they have about 20 physicians. I am not sure how many dentist they have, but there are none on the island that do any fillings - only extractions. This was not a dental case. The doctors sent him to me because they thought he has an abcessed tooth, but his problem was that he had a small piece of metal that had been in his face for about 18 months. He had been on antibiotics for months. I removed the piece of metal and five days later he looked much better.
This was the most difficult trip of my career. The weather was extremely hot, there was no place to get cool or to get a cold drink. There was electricity for only a few hours a day, so at night you were very uncomfortable. The crowds were so large that we were forced to close down the clinic one day until we could get local law enforement officers to keep the people from hurting themselves. We conducted clinics in romote villages as well as at the Lukas Hospital.
I was able to visit local churches and was impressed by their faithfulness during some very trying times. You will see in a later report just how much improvement was made in eight months. I will attempt to post a few pictures to help you get a better understanding of what I mean. 

Hello!

I just got connected and thought I'd say hello to everyone. Dad is currently continuing the red wall around the corner to the coat closet wall and at rehearsal this morning we were hurriedly trying to finish painting the stonework onto the set, so I'm anxiously awaiting the end of paint fumes. I'm going to finish The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to make up for all my years as a heathen and grow new brain cells to make up for the ones lost to asphyxiation. Lots of love to everyone and keep me updated.

Happy Birthday Stephen

I thought my first blog should be to wish my baby brother a very happy 36th! You were a special gift to our family...just think how rotten I would be if I had been the youngest. No matter what I told you when we were kids...I'm glad we got you instead of the stereo. I hope you enjoyed your day and your lovely lunch but as a nurse I must tell you... now that you are almost middle aged you may have to cut back on the tots and corn dogs! We love you and are blessed to have you as a brother, brother in law and uncle.

Trip 2 of 9 - Tsunami Relief India Jan. 20-29, 2005

I was able to get an India visa while in Manila, so I flew from Manila to Madras, India. The Caris Foundation provided enough money for me to buy two truck loads of supplies and take them to the villages that were the most harmed by the tsunami. I cannot describe the memories I have of the devastation there. What burns in my mind most vividly
was the "lostness" of the people. They had once worshipped the sea, derived their living from it and their children had played on the beaches. After the tsunami many were afraid to go near the ocean and many wondered what they had done to anger their god.

It was difficult to distribute the blankets, stoves, rice, oil, pickles, clothing, mats, blankets etc., because of the crowds. The first village we went to they gave us a 4 police guard. About 20 minutes after we began our distribution, the police ordered us to get in our vehicle and to leave immediately. The truck drove away with people trying to get in the back.

We learned from that experience and the rest of the villages we distributed food and supplies were much better organized. We would not come into the village until we had contacted the village leaders and put them in charge of crowd control. We told them we would leave at the first sign of losing control of the crowd.

Dr. Carroll Osbourn, executive directer of Caris, and I distributed food and supplies to four villages and one orphan's home. We could not have done this without the assistance of Dr. Alexander and the staff at Phillips Hospital. We estimate about 500 families were helped in this way. 

First of Nine MM trips - 2005

Jan. 12-20 I worked in the Cebu, Babag, Tagaytay and Manila, Philippines. This was my fifth trip to the Philippines and it almost seems like going home. We have many friends there and they always are a great team to work with.

On my left are two public health dentists from Cebu. I always try to work with the local dentist and make sure I am not taking away any of their paying patients.

We have planted churches in a number of places where we first held a free clinic.

Salvador Cariago, native Filipino and long time evangelist in this area, has planted a number of congregations and he has shown great leadership skills in the work he does.
We have been friends for many, many years.
A trip to the Philippines is usually filled with things to do from early morning until late at night. What they consider a full schedule is for me to have breakfast with a group of church members at 7 a.m. Be at the clinic by 9 a.m. and see about 30 patients. The problem is that they always have just three more patients who have been waiting for hours. After you see three more they tell you there are now just four more that need to be treated. We eat lunch with all the workers about 2 p.m. and have a late afternoon session with some of the men discussing church leadership or some other topic of their choosing. After dinner with one of the church families, I lecture on some church related subject and have question and answer session until late into the night.

The Legacy Church in North Richland Hills, Texas sponsors some work in the Philippines and they are generous in their support of me when I travel there. I expect to make one or two trips a year there for several more years.

John 

Celebrating 45 Years

Thanks to all who responded to my first blog via email. It was great to make contact with some of you whom we haven't seen in years. I thought you would like to see what Rosalyn and I look like when we we grew up. This is as good as we ever look. This photo was made in Greece in October 2005. We were celebrating 45 years of marriage.

We took a tour of the Greek Islands. We sailed at night and visited beautiful islands and famous places like Ephesus, Athens and Corinth during the day. Cruises are supposed to be relaxing, but on this trip we walked many miles each day while we were exploring the sites.

Now that I know how to post a photo I think I will try to send one photo with each description of last years MM trips.