She arrived.
All 5 pounds 12 ounces of her.
She is small, beautiful and ours. We are blessed.
Eliza is in love. Practicing with her baby dolls has paid off.
Tomorrow, little Evangeline will meet the rest of her family and all six of us will be together.
For now, we are enjoying our time of quiet at the hospital. Thanks for the prayers and support!
Back in July, after my miscarriage, my dad came over and planted a tree in our yard as a memorial to the little one we said goodbye to. Spring has made it green and growing.
It seems fitting to me that the tree is an early bloomer.
My own excitement at seeing the blossoms was matched only by my oldest daughter’s, who is committed to watering the tree.
I look forward to many years of blossoms as we remember our early bloomer who God took in His timing–His perfect timing–which will probably always seem early to me.
Filed under body of Christ, family, sorrow
Here are five ways to know a woman is nearing the end of her pregnancy:
1) She’s developed a 5th food group. It’s called Tums.
2) Her thighs used to touch when she walked. Now her small children can run between her legs as she waddles.
3) When she sits down on the couch a small cushiony title wave ensues giving everyone else already sitting a little whoosh. She also realizes that once down, she may never get up.
4) When she takes her socks off at night, the imprint in her lower legs is so deep that a plaster cast could be made to determine the exact brand of sock.
5) She may have strong inklings to sneer at (or punch) anyone who calls her radiant, glowing or beautiful, along with those who call her worn out, tired and, the all time favorite, “about to pop.”
Let’s face it, childbearing is cursed. We walk a fine line of blessing and curse as we bring little ones into the world. And for me, a minute after the baby is born, the curse is so overshadowed by blessing that it’s hard to recall what all the fuss was about.
Russell Moore recently blogged about cremation. As one who has been largely indifferent about cremation vs. burial I found it very informative and helpful.
He is biblical through and through. His thoughts in Touchstone were particularly good.
After some comments on my post about funeral planning, I became interested in why Christians might reject cremation. Dr. Moore answers my questions and then some.
I think I may be amending my funeral plans to include a desire to be buried. There is something to the beauty of following suit with Christ (namely that we are buried like Christ and resurrected like him on the last day) that is hard to resist. It’s not that God can’t raise cremated remains. Of course He can. But when the opportunity to imitate the biblical model is presented, I think I’ll take it.
Dr. Moore fleshes out his arguments in the Touchstone article very well and in Christianity Today. Worth reading.
Filed under blogging, body of Christ, culture
I have no authority to write a post giving tips for would be writers.
That’s why I’m re-posting a few of Doug Wilson’s tips that I found particularly good.
1. Know something about the world, and by this I mean the world outside of books. This might require joining the Marines, or working on an oil rig, or as a hashslinger at a truck stop in Kentucky. Know what things smell like out there.
2. Read. Read constantly. Read the kind of stuff you wish you could write. Read until your brain creaks. Tolkien said that his ideas sprang up from the leaf mold of his mind. These are the trees where the leaves come from.
5. Be at peace with being lousy for a while. Chesterton once said that anything worth doing was worth doing badly. He was right. Only an insufferable egoist expects to be brilliant first time out.
I haven’t entered the world of trying to be published. I write for my own enjoyment, for record-keeping of life, and to be helpful in a God-exalting way to others. But these are good tips for everyone, and if ever I do endeavor to be published, I’d definitely take these to heart.
And even though I have no authority to give a tip, here’s mine anyway:
1. Be passionate about something. Have an opinion. Feel things strongly and let that come through. It isn’t enough to know a lot, you have to have ideas about what you know. For Christians this should be easy.
Sidenote: Go Sara G0!
