Filling a Blank Space

This is going to be an AI-free writing space. Maybe it will be a primary source when my kid is writing in high school, or maybe in 100 years when we are trying to figure out how the hell things got to be the way that they are.

Today Charlie Kirk was assassinated

The US feels about as stable as minor players in Eastern Europe in the 90’s. Charlie Kirk is known pretty well in our circles because of the AZ roots of Turning Point USA, and honestly a lot of friends had direct interactions with him because he was a real guy. Sure he has a ruthless personality that the media magnifies, but he also had a family, lived in buildings directly next to people we know, in neighborhoods that most would recognize.

Political polarization is about as dire as I have seen in my lifetime. And I have probably said that just about every year since 2015. I am no longer hosting Thanksgiving because of it, and it is my favorite holiday with my favorite activities. The outpouring of support (at least in my algorithm) is largely sympathetic, despite some of the more left leaning individuals and groups that I follow. The most reproduced negative propaganda is Charlie’s quote about how some people have to die to gun violence, it is inherent in the “God-given right” that is protected in the 2nd Amendment.

That is a little too cute for me, the harsh reality is that this imperfect world is going to have tragedies like this, like school shootings, like the murder in North Carolina because the world is full of broken people, systems, etc. We should do our best to limit this from happening, but it will always be there to some degree.

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This is a really affecting event. It seems like most people that I am talking to were connected in some way to Charlie or his orgs. Churches are posting a lot about prayer and support, political orgs are blaming everyone, it is a bit of a hot mess. From the perspective of an average guy, in average suburbs, with normal levels of connection, this does seem to be a bit of a landmark event in our country.

God-willing, we will get through this and something positive can come out of it. Vigilance, gun restrictions (would love to just keep guns out of the hands of mentally unstable individuals), support in the form of an organization pushing for free speech and safety, just something.

Believers, non-believers, just praying to someone somewhere or something that we can push back the darkness that seems to be creeping over our country.

We've Waited for You

The most perfect gift that God could give us arrived on 2/26/2022. At 3:08 AM Sloane cried, I cried, Allie cried, and it was the most magical moment that I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. I have never been more proud of my wife (she’s SO incredibly strong) and I have never felt love like what I felt for Sloane the moment I laid eyes on her. More importantly, this moment was a celebration of life that we know God had promised us so long ago finally coming to fruition.

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Sloane is our rainbow baby. We had always felt that God promised us daughter(s) way back when we first got married and prayed about having kids someday.

We lost our first, we named her Gia, back in early 2021, and it took a long time for us to understand how something like this could happen. I still don’t have words that can do justice to how that made us feel. This experience crushed us emotionally and still grew us closer together as a family and closer to God. We are so thankful for the support of our friends, family, and church during those tough times.

When Allie was laboring in the hospital, we played songs that were meaningful to us. That’s Just What You Do by Andy Cherry came on right at 3:08, and we played it during our golden hour. The moment couldn’t have been more perfect, remembering how good God is:

You give beauty for ashes
You trade joy for our sadness
For our mourning there’s gladness
That’s just what you do.

You have never stopped turning things around
And you will never stop making all things new.

We both wept just thinking how true these words are, remembering how far we have come and how the lowest lows of 2021 can be redeemed so beautifully in God’s timing. It will never take away the loss of Gia; nothing will. But we get to pour everything out into this girl’s life for years to come, and that is what we had been waiting for.

God turned things around for us and is making all things new.

Sloane Noelle Osugi is a beautiful 9 lbs 4 oz and is over 21 inches long (96th percentile for females!!). Our prayers were answered. She is finally home after an almost 6-day stay in the hospital due to testing Coombs positive (I’ll probably post on that next), and everyone is happy and healthy.

If you’re wondering why you’re reading this, it is because you are either a close friend or family member that we want to share our lives with. We aren’t planning to post a ton of public content about Sloane on our social media, but we want to share her privately and more intimately. So I will be sharing this with “Close Friends” on IG, and you can check back in whenever you want to see what’s going on in the Osugi household. Also, please excuse any bad grammar; we are definitely a little sleep-deprived. I will try to keep pictures and videos and whatnot posted weekly. Speaking of: