Seems that this was a big birthday…
Birthdays
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Ellie = 12
Ellie’s birthday
Ellie’s birthday
Ellie’s birthday
Ellie’s birthday
Ellie’s birthday
Ellie’s birthday
Ellie’s birthday
Ellie’s birthday
Later that week we went on our Family Birthday Adventure! Ellie had request a science themed birthday, so we went off to the Telus Spark. Lots of activities, plus a planetarium program.
Overbite Fix: Twin Blocks
As many of you know, we have been looking into getting Ellie some sort of dental intervention for a 100% overbite that she has. We did quite a bit research on what would be the best route to go. As we spoke with dentists, it became clear that while Ellie has a major overbite problem even though her teeth are actually very nice and straight. Braces are often used because they can fix both overbites and crooked teeth simultaneously; however they also put a lot of torque on teeth, which can damage the root. Since straightening her teeth wasn’t a concern and we didn’t want to risk damaging them, we decided to look at other options. And thankfully, those options were far less expensive – as in 1/4 to 1/3 the price of braces!
We ended up going with a dentist who uses the Twin Block appliance and today was the big day when Ellie finally got them.
The reason the appliance is known as a “Twin Block” is because there are two “blocks” on both upper and lower retainer that fit together to force her jaw forward into its new position. From our research, it seems this method is quite popular in Europe, but rarely used here in N. America. There’s a better explanation below of how it all works.
Ellie, just after she had popped in her new Twin Blocks.
The overbite! You can see the lower jaw is back quite a bit from the upper teeth.
Over the next 10 months or so, these two little retainers will move her jaw into the correct position.
Here you can see better how the two parts work together to force her lower jaw forward. Right now, she bites down on quite a chunk of rubber or plastic (not actually sure what it’s made of) that is situated between her molars. Every 6-8 weeks, Ellie will go in for a check-up, where they’ll shave down the rubber between her teeth, slowly settling her jaw into a new position and giving her a new bite. In the meantime, she gets to chew her food with those chunks of pink whatever, instead of her own teeth. Makes eating a little tricky, but it’s apparently not as awful as it sounds and she’s been a real trooper so far.
They have the Twin Block set to over correct her bite, since her jaw will slide backwards a little once this is all done. Also, because of those thick chunks of rubber/plastic between her teeth, she can’t actually close her mouth all the way, so in the second picture, her teeth aren’t closed like they are in the first picture, which elongates her face quite a bit. Once this process is all done, she’ll be able to close her teeth nicely.
This was something that needed to be done this year, but it was also something we could not afford! We decided to make an appeal on GoFundMe, and we received 130% of our goal in less than a week! We are so thankful for the provision through God’s people for this appliance for Ellie.
Here is Ellie describing it in her own words, if you can understand them! Turn on the closed captions.
Ministry Update :: Immigration
Immigration: Missions on our doorstep
At our church here in Alberta, we recently had a speaker from Syria who leads a ministry that works with refugees. He shared about his experiences with the collapse of civilization in Syria, how he fled the country, and his current ministry helping other refugees. At the end of the service, I was able to give him a copy of the GoodSeed book, All that the Prophets have Spoken, a book written for people coming from an Islamic worldview. Actually, I gave him a stack: English, Arabic, Farsi (Iranian), Turkish and French. He was very pleased to learn about and receive these resources, and some day I hope to hear about how they have been used.
Later that same week, I met up with a guy in Calgary from whom I was buying some used stuff from. I keep a box in the trunk of the car full of books to give away. When we concluded our business, I thanked him and asked him if I could give him a book. He said yes, and I asked him what languages he reads. He listed about five, but Farsi (Iranian) was his “heart” language, so I was able to give him a copy of All the Prophets have Spoken in his native tongue!
Immigration is back at the top of the news cycle again, and everybody is talking about it. People from all over the world are coming to Canada, the United States and other Western countries. That means the mission field is coming to us. But are you and your church prepared to share the true hope, the Gospel, with people of other worldviews and languages?
At GoodSeed we have invested years of work in creating resources for people from eastern religions and those coming from Christian or Islamic backgrounds, and then spent more years translating our evangelism and discipleship resources into many different languages, including our children’s book, The Lamb.
What Are Christmas and Easter All About?
Laos, Chichewa, Chinese, English, French
The Story that Matters
English, English with KJV, French, Hungarian, Lingala
We encourage people to have books available to give away at any moment. In the trunk of my car, I have a “be ready box” full of books, mostly English, but a few translations, that I can hand to a stranger. You never know when an interaction can lead to someone being receptive to a book. But if you don’t have the tools at hand, you may not get another opportunity!
Do you and your church have the tools to respond to people in your community?
On the occult
No, not that kind of occult. I’m talking about the celestial-body-blocking-something-else kind of occult.
Last night I was trying to get some photos of the moon when I noticed it was about to occult a bright star. Here it is blocking out Mu Ceti. These 1.3 second exposures are taken about 4 seconds apart.
I ended up overexposing too much, but I couldn’t see the star on the screen on the camera unless it was a longer exposure. I later noticed I could see it (especially if I bumped the highlights for that part of the picture) with a shorter exposure that also doesn’t give a star trails. Here is an image from earlier in the evening.
These kind of occultations used to be quite important for lunar studies to help astronomer’s map the mountains and valleys on the lunar surface with precise timing and viewed from different locations here on Earth.
I think I got the star starting to come out the other side an hour later, but the moon was getting low. One app showed that it should be visible, another didn’t, so I’m not sure. There is a speck that wasn’t there 10 minutes before. It is interesting to see the moon moving quickly against the background stars. The whole sky moves pretty slow, unless you looking through a telescope, and the moon doesn’t appear to move on it’s own until next to something else, like Mu Ceti.
