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Bizarre. That’s pretty much the only way to describe it. One of our girls had her first doctor’s appointment the other day. The doctor started looking for the heartbeat of the baby.

Nothing.

Understandably concerned, he began a full-blow ultra sound. Nothing. Absolutely no sign that this girl was pregnant, or had ever been pregnant. Yet, the clinic she visited a few weeks back before she arrived at the Promise House assured her that she was pregnant.

Strange.

I’m told that this is a first at the Promise House.

Pregnant people crave [insert odd combination of foods here].

Today, it was Doritos and Iced Oatmeal Cookies. At the same time. In sandwich form.

There’s never a dull day when it comes to sharing space and life with a gaggle of pregnant teens.

There was no doubt about it! Also, the doc said my boy is doing great!

We’re thankful and excited!

I’ve learned so much at the Promise House. And, most of it has to do with hair. For example, I’ve learned that in a matter of 45 minutes big hair can become little hair. Look.

That’s one of our brand new girls. I wish I could show you her huge smile. She’s a cool kid. She’s due mid-September, so we’ll have her all summer. I’m excited to see what Jesus is going to do in her life. Who knows . . . Jesus might do to her life, what she did to her hair. Total transformation.

When we found out Amanda was pregnant we sent out a mass email to let everyone know the good news. One of the Promise House girls that graduated from the program a few months ago wrote this back:

I cant believe it! i just knew it cause i had a dream of fish like 2 nights ago. i am going to tell everybody and i will pray for you. tell mrs amanda i said i love her and name the baby after me if it is a girl.

Did you catch that??? She said she knew Amanda was pregnant because she had a dream about fish.

Hhhhmmmm . . .

This morning I walked through the brightly-lit halls of Children’s Hospital. Framed artwork created by children lined the walls. I took the yellow elevator to the 3rd floor. I washed my hands and forearms and put on a gown. I walked past incubator after incubator of babies that looked like they couldn’t weigh much more than a few pounds, wondering to myself what might be wrong with them.

Then, we came upon Jackson’s little plastic incubator. He was tiny. He was curled up in a little ball sleeping. Pads were attached to his back and a feeding tube that reached down into his stomach was taped to his upper lip. Jackson’s mom is Amanda’s first cousin.

“You guys must have been scared to death.” I said to Jackson’s dad. Jackson’s parents are thankful.

Jackson is pretty much a miracle. Any newborn is, but Jackson really is. You see, his mom and dad had wanted a baby for a long time. Like, years. Finally, it happened! Then, a week a go today, during a routine check-up, something went wrong. There was no movement and very little amniotic fluid. Within 30 minutes Jackson was delivered via c-section at 34 weeks of pregnancy. He weighed 3 pounds 2 ounces. That’s him hoppin’ on Angel 1 headed for Children’s Hospital where he is now doing superbly! He even nursed today!! So, you see, Jackson is a little miracle. And by little, I mean BIG.

So what does Christmas at the Promise House look like? Well, right now it looks empty. It’s Christmas Eve and all the girls in our care left early this morning with their families. They aren’t due back until 9pm.

Holidays are tricky around here. Never do we miss those we love more than during the holidays. When you have a houseful of hormonal pregnant teenagers missing their families you’ve got the potential for a Code Red Meltdown.

Despite the dangers, we will celebrate Christmas tomorrow. The key: Activity. We will keep them busy. A big breakfast, followed by present opening, followed by playing with presents, followed by lunch, followed by a movie, followed by Christmas light watching . . . you get the picture.

Speaking of Christmas lights . . . there’s this guy in North Little Rock . . . well, I’ll just put up another post.

I’m sure you’ve heard about this. Today’s THV (Channel 11) called at about noon wanting to come out and interview some of our girls about what they think about the whole situation. They story will air at 5, 6, and 10 tonight. Tell your friends!

You’ll be surprised to see one of our girls’ face. The powers that be got special permission for to be shown. I’m on there too . . . I’m the one with the beard.

People often ask me what it is that I do at the Promise House. Apparently, the term ‘housedad’ isn’t as self-explanatory as I would like to assume. I guess it is understandable because, truthfully, I usually have a difficult time fleshing it out myself. After a few seconds of half sentences I usually resort to “Well, I guess I am basically a dad.” And, in reality, that is the best way to put it: I am a dad.

Granted, I am not your typical, briefcase-carrying, off-to-work-every-morning, coffee-sipping, golf-playing dad (though, I do consider myself somewhat of a coffee connoisseur). I am no Mike Brady, not by a long shot. How many dads that you know have 6 pregnant teenage daughters?

I’m on duty solo tonite. Amanda’s grandfather got really sick last night so Amanda and Sophia met the rest of her family in Louisiana. Thankfully, he is doing much better today.

So, I’m on duty solo. Which is cool. I can handle it. Never would I have ever thought in my whole life that my job would be cooking chili dogs for a houseful of pregnant teenagers. But it is. Pretty crazy huh?

The girls are watching a movie now. I’m using the time to get my wits about me for the trip. And get a few more posts in. There’s something therapeutic about writing all this stuff down for the whole world to see . . .

I just got word that Dave, Marty, and I will be hauling some school supply type stuff down to Ica to deliver to the missionaries. All the schools are gone so the kids are just wandering around . . . getting into trouble. So, it looks like they are going to start focusing on activities for kids.