Well I our home burnt down, but as you always hear, "God has a plan." I am not sure what the plan is, but 'all things will work together for good.'

Ironically something that I have been hyper focused on lately is how to be a better father. I do not feel I am a bad father, but I would like to be a better one. Parenting is not a cookie cutter thing and there is not a text book, so I am reading a few books on how to better be a role model for the children in my life.

I am reading a wonderful book written by John Eldredge titled "The way of the wild heart." This book is written specifically to the fathers or men to read. Mothers can read it as an informational read, but the book strikes the core of men. The book helps men/fathers to see and understand the different stages that ALL men take in order to become men and to understand that where ever you are at in life, there are still more stages of learning. Sure you are a man, but you still are learning and do not know everything- this is what fathers need to remember. Boys are learning to become the 'cowboy' and then into the 'warrior' and then the 'King.' Each step of the way is learning lessons for the male to learn before they can move to the next stage.

Do not forget to be a father to your children- not a friend or a buddy to your children, but a father. Your children do not need a buddy, they need a King in their life, someone that they honor, look up to and LEAD them. Too many men have grown up without fathers in their lives today.

Hannah out with Daddy

Yesterday I took Hannah out with Dad. I let her pick what she wanted to do. She could have picked going to see a movie, instead she told me, "Dad, I would like to just hang out with you, and do stuff, I do not know, maybe go shopping!" I asked her if she wanted to get an outfit and she said YES!

We went to Target and I was able to find a outfit that looks really good on her. The outfit she is wearing in the photo is not the new photo. She was very happy to have a new outfit though.

After picking out the outfit, I decided to take her to Dick's Sporting Goods and took her to the rock wall climbing wall. She was a little apprehensive at first, but then she decided to try it. She was so proud of herself to be on the wall! I was proud of her.

Thank you Lord!

On my way down to Mankato, MN I am reminded of God's wonderful promise. I took this photo with my phone and will not be able to see the true qaulity until later. I hope it captured the wonderful sight I saw.

Patrick D Aldridge

(sent from my phone)

Boys will be boys right?

So there I am making dinner and Andrew told me that he was going to play with the neighbor kid 2 houses away and the neighbor kid's dad at the park. Next thing I know I get a phone call from another neighbor which is telling me that I should come to their home, which is clear down the street, because Andrew was hit in the head with a golf club!

I arrived to see my son sitting on the side walk with a towel on his head. It would be easy to get worked up, because he looked like he had been shot with all the blood every where. He was not crying, which was rather surprising, so I was still not sure if he was in shock or not. I was told that he did not loose consciousness or get dizzy. I find the place on his head and the skin is broken (obviously) but it is broke because of the pressure from the knot on his head. He was not going to need stitches.

We bring him home and have him sit in the living room after mom cleaned him all up. We had him sit with thomas, because we wanted to make sure that he did not fall asleep right way, since we needed to make sure he was ok. He was thrilled...not. What a mess.

Life, and the PURSUIT of happiness....

My wife, Dawn is now on a new regimen of medications to keep her kidney alive and functioning. She has to take a pill for fighting the rejection and then a pill to fight fungus from growing and then a pill to prevent to fight this and another one for that.

Dawn lost her kidney at 20 and went onto dialysis and then started taking the large amount of medications when she received her 1st kidney transplant, 10 months later. She now has received her second transplant and she is on more medications.

Something that continually pulls at my consciousness is when is the drug counter-active? Dawn has osteoporosis because of the prednisone medication and she has had cataracts as well. She has had one symptom and they then treat with another medication that will cause another side effect which will require another medication!

Is there anyone out there that has had a transplant and is on a very low dose of medication or none at all? I have heard that some people that have a transplant can be removed from the medication, but it is rare. I just suffer for my wife, and seeing her take the medication daily (32 pills to be exact) just seems like eventually she will end up with another symptom or problem caused by the medication.

One thing I am sure of; medicine is a science, but when you give the medicine to a person, it is still a gamble and a 'practice.' So tell me, talk to me, what is your experience on medication? you do not need to be a transplant recipient, you can be a cancer patient or whatever, but I am sure more have had the experiences that my spouse has had. As a care giver, watching the spouse go through such turmoil is hell.

Having dinner with the family

For some reason the school felt it needed to try and encourage us all to have dinner as a family. Guess the fact that we have done that since day one, and the other fact it is non of their business when and how I eat with my family. I will have dinner when asked to by the school when the school stops including liberal views in the classroom. What a crock.

From this photo, Andrew came downstairs one night to go to the bathroom and peeked in on me watching my favorite episode, the Sopranos. Andrew decided in this photo to try and get 'the look' so he could be in the next episode.

Patrick D Aldridge

(sent from my phone)

Welcome! To my crazy Life!

Ok, hello all, some of you may know me and my family and then there will be those that do not. So I guess I had better get to introducing myself and my family.

I am Patrick, a 37 year old slightly overwieght guy that has five children and a loving wife. I currently work with Union Pacific Railroad as a Lineman 3rd Class Installation Technician and I am based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I am a Veteran which has participated in: Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Noble Eagle. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and have kept it hidden from any medical records as an adult and upon leaving the military was given the wonderful diagnoses of PTSD. I personally feel I function fine and do not suffer from PTSD, but my wife tells me I still do some things that are odd and points to PTSD.

As you will recognize from this post, I have five children. 3 are from a previous marriage and 2 my current wife and I adopted from the state of Kansas foster care system. Mariah is 16, Thomas is 14, Hannah is 10, Marissa is 8 and Andrew is 6. I love them all, even with all thier different issues and personalities that they bring.

My wife and I met online in an internet christian chat room in November 1998. We met for the first time December 1998 and married March 1999. My ex-wife still thinks that I was involved with my current with prior to her leaving me, but that is not the case. Had it been, I may have left her rather then her leaving me! :)

Having a large family brings large problems, both financially and emotionally. Sure I love everyone, but let me tell you, it is not easy being a brady bunch (only one short) these days. To top everything off, my wife suffered kidney failure before I had met her and had to have a transplant in 1994. The entire 8 years of our marriage she has always been on some sort of medication to control rejection episodes. Jan 2004 my wife, Dawn started to go down hill and became very sick. The doctors did not know that her kidneys were on the brink of failing because they were acting like a sponge, meaning she drank so much water that her creatine level was very deceptive to a true functioning and it fooled the doctors for a long time before they figured out that her kidney was only fuctioning at about 20%. Dawn went back onto dialysis June 2006.

Dawn was on the nxstage machine for dialysis and did everything from home. It was good and bad at times. The stress on her and the family was so great that I think I started to disappear into the walls and just become apart of the rest of the house, just 'here.' I have said that SO MUCH at church and with others, "I am here" when I am asked how are you doing, and only now, after Dawns second transplant does it really make sense to why I was saying such a thing. I was depressed. People would look at me rather strangly when I would say, "I am here" in a matter of fackly tone, but it was how I felt and they asked. I was not happy, I was not sad, I was just there, functioning and trying to continue doing what I was expected to do, like a machine.

Like I mentioned above, Dawn had her 2nd transplant Feb 7, 2007! Praise God for her sister who gave her the gift of life. Now she is back on the overwhelming amount of medication daily. She was feeling great and on top of the world for a few months and then all of a sudden, out of left field, along came a different person, it was Dawn in body but not in mind. I sought help for her and we found out together that because of the medications, she now has bipolor disorder. What more does God need to wiegh on my wife? I do get upset at that at times, I feel that enough is enough, but again, I know that I am not the only one that feels like that.

We are now in therapy to help learn about the illness of bipolar and to help cope with it. Of course she is on horse pills to help to curb the effects and feelings, but she tells me she does not "feel" now and feels numb. I hope that will get better, I really do not want her to feel like a zombie all the time.

We live in the Hopkins School district, but we are slowly pulling our children from the school system. Some would say, "WHY! It is a great school system!" I guess to each their own in their prospectives. We have had nothing but trouble with the Elementry school that our children attend. The problems between myself and the staff has continued on now for 3 years, enough is enough and now it is time I put my money elsewhere, literally. We are moving Andrew and Marissa to a Privite Spanish Immersion School, and tomorrow I will be visiting Groves Academy (k-12), another privite school which is specifically for children with ADHD. Groves does not have more then 8 children per class and they have an enrollment of 170 and growing. The only children that will be left within Hopkins will be Thomas and Mariah, only because they are much older and desire to stay where they are at.

I hope to be able to converse with other families from all walks of life. As you can see from this post, I am a father, husband, Christian, Electrician and Legion Member. I am concerned about my childrens education, health and general well being. I am also a care giver, and understand the stress and sometimes thankless task that can become. Until next time!