Outreach

I recently finished reading Bedside Manor: One Doctor's Family written by R.Schaeffer who served with her husband at Red Bird Mission in rural Eastern Kentucky for almost 50 years. I always enjoy reading biographical accounts of people who have served in ministry especially when I've had a chance to talk with them in person. They are currently in their 90's and still have an amazing and active impact on their community. They have become special to our family just in the short time we've known them. I definately include them in my list of people who I consider Hero's of the Faith.

On a more humanitarian level I was wondering if anyone has heard about or had any experience with KIVA... their website is www.kiva.org. It's an intersting concept and I've become more interested in it since watching a segment on Public TV about a month ago. We're not currently participating but are considering. If you have any thoughts or insights I'd love to hear them.

Community

"There can be no maturity in the spiritual life, no obedience in following Jesus no wholeness in the Christian life apart from immersion and embrace of community. I am not myself by myself. Community, not the highly vaunted individualism of our culture, is the setting in which Christ is at play."

Eugene H Peterson

Highlights

We've been working on "final" preparations for the new little one. It could be any day but despite all the planning and preperation I'm sure there will be something that we forget and then remember in retrospect. Regardless ... the delivery, the excitement of caring for a new baby and sharing the new moments with our friends and family should help ease any major worries we have.

We spent last weekend visiting the area where Sarah went to High School. It was my second trip to the area in 7 years. We have a couple who we went to college with who now work at that school... so I had a great time catching up with them and getting to know their kids. We also had a chance to meet other staff and it seems they have a really wonderful community to work at and to raise their children.

I'm now working on potty training Benjamin. It's great to watch him when everything goes well and a bit challenging for me when it doesn't. He's also enjoyed playing in the little plastic outdoor pool the last day or two. We let him play for about a week with no water so he really thinks the water is pretty fun. His vocabulary is really picking up. His newest phrases or words are "I'm sorry" "Giraffe" and "Jellyfish". He is really interested in one Spanish-English bilingual DVD we checked out from the library here. The title is Professor Parrot ... and I guess we'll have to buy it soon so other people at the library will have a chance to watch it.

Last week we had a family from church over for dinner. It was great to see Benjamin interact with their children - one who is older by a couple of years and one who is younger. Sarah and I enjoyed visiting and sharing with another couple who are close to us in age and in life.

(Nursery To Be) Before & After Shots

preparation

Sarah and I spent most of today working on the "nursery". I say it like that only because our intention is to actually use the room as a guest bedroom in a year or so. In the mean time Sarah has done a really nice job decorating. I'll post a before (ie. pink) and after (ie. cafe mocha) picture in the next couple of days. (I've also posted a few pictures of our family under "Skip's Photos".

Sarah is feeling the aches of the last month of pregnancy. She is holding up well and has actually progressed more than she did with Benjamin in the same period of time.

Benjamin has slept on his toddler bed several times over the last few days. He's done well at nap time in early afternoon but has struggled a bit during bedtime. He really likes his new bed and has enjoyed showing it off to a few of our friends who have stopped by. We still have the crib up in his room as a backup ... but hopefully by the time the new baby arrives we can totally switch him over.

Our friends Camille & Roger who have worked with unreached in China are now back in the US preparing for their new arrival. Their due date is about 2 weeks ahead of ours.

Related but not along the same lines... I was in church this morning and began to think about how interesting the relationship between Jesus as a child and his parent's must have been. (Max Lucado wrote a piece similiar in one of his books several years ago) Below are some thoughts I had:

• When Joseph and Jesus (as a child) talked about the Old Testament scriptures... did Jesus have to teach his Dad... did he talked about it like he had experienced it first-hand?
• When they played games together did Jesus have a twinkle in his eyes when he let his parent's win?
• Was Mary the envy of the other Hebrew mothers because she had the "perfect" child?
• Did Jesus always do what Mary and Joseph asked?
• When Jesus worked with Joseph as a Carpenter was his craftsmanship better than Joseph's?
• Did raising Jesus make it more challenging to raise is siblings?
• What was his sense of humor like as a child?
• Did Joseph and Jesus ever go fishing together?
• What was it like for Jesus to pray?
• Did Jesus ever talk about what he wanted to be when he "grew up"?

My Mother's Birthday

Before you start to wonder... this is a picture of my mother holding Benjamin just after he was born a little over 21 months ago. Tomorrow is her birthday and I was having a difficult time deciding just which picture to post. Since we have a new baby coming in a few weeks I thought this one of Benjamin would be appropriate. I won't tell you her age for fear of being dis-owned. She's young at heart and does a wonderful job with her grandson.

Happy Birthday Mom from all of us here at this Little House. Hope you have many more ahead of you. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for being my mother. Thank you for being there for me... and thank you for being forgiving when I've be late remembering your birthday in the past and when you haven't recieved a birthday present for a month or longer. Hope someone special in you life does something special for you on your birthday.

Why I enjoy Blogs

I was thinking this evening about why I enjoy both posting and reading other blogs. I would consider myself a highly relational person. So in thinking about blogs I believe that blogs help me keep connected to friends who I may not talk to on a regular basis. Blogs also help keep me reminded that the world is so much larger than the day to day issues or distractions that are really overall fairly petty. I also enjoy reading blogs because they help me remember or help me to see some exciting events that are happening in my friends families and lives. To me this is way more refreshing after a long day than turning on the TV or reading news via the Internet. I can look at photos, check out a video, laugh at someone's humor, reflect over someone's photos and most importantly I can share a little of my life when I choose to do so. I can "connect" to someone who lives in my immediate community... I can "connect" to someone who lives multiple states away... and I can "connect" with others who live on the other side of the globe. Finally I think that the blogs I read regularly help remind me just how many ways that God is working in the world.

Four to Six Weeks and Counting

We're getting closer each day to the "official" due date for our little one's arrival. I finally finished up the painting and will be moving the furniture in the room this week sometime. I'm hoping to have most everything done and in place at least 2 weeks before due date in case he decides to show up a little early. We went to a child birth class on Saturday morning. It was good and we were able to really focus on the things we hope to do a little different from the last round when Benjamin was born.

We planted a couple of apple trees in the yard. Seems that our yard is already planted with a variety of trees and shrubs that we had mostly forgotten about since we moved in back in August. It's been great to see all the different flowers pop up this spring. The apple trees will add a little new dimension because to our knowledge they will be the first real fruit bearing trees we have.

We also picked up a couple of nice solid wood unfinished furniture pieces. I think this past month was the first time we have acutually bought more than one piece of furniture since we have been married. We went with solid wood unfinished pieces to give up better quality that should last much longer. I should be able to get them finished in the next month or two. I'm looking foward to getting to work on them.

Sarah's doing well but having those third trimester aches and pains and lack of sleep. We're really considering switching from using an Ob-gyn to a midwife. We'll plan on deciding prior to our next Dr appointment in a little over a week.