Know your current events

A quick look at recent events in our lives:

 

§         Jedidiah had his first haircut about two weeks ago. A combination of a really dry winter and wearing hats everyday had left his hair unmanageable. We loved all his baby curls and were heartbroken to part with them. But, his sweet disposition throughout the cutting and his joy afterward made it a fun event. In the end, his hair is still curly and a bit crazy, but I think that the cut helped to calm things down a little.

§         We had our long-awaited sonogram last week. Josh and I went together while Jedidiah stayed home with a friend (no kids allowed at the particular doctor’s office we used). We decided to have the doctor write down the gender of the baby on a slip of paper and put it in an envelope. That way, we could open the envelope and find out about the baby at home, as a family. We had a positive experience with the doctor and sonographer. The baby is healthy and doing well – and cooperated well with the sonogram machine! Later that day, we opened our envelope to discover that we are having a baby girl!! We are all excited about this news and look forward to meeting this little one in just over three months!

§         The winter has taken over our lives here in Evanston. Snow falls frequently and, we are told, will not fully melt until April. This is yet another adjustment that might have been a little easier without a toddler and a pregnant mommy. We are learning the joys of moving our car when city-wide sirens indicate that the plows and tow trucks are coming. Jedidiah is enjoying stomping around in the snow and sliding on the ice here and there. It is truly beautiful when the snow comes down and when a fresh snow blankets our neighborhood. Getting out and about is the complicated part. We are figuring it out like everything else.

§         Our friend Amberly Strebeck hitched a ride with a friend in Wilmore and came to visit us this week! Having Amberly here was an encouragement to Candace, and really to all three of us. Life in a new place, especially in the winter, can become very lonely. Candace was deeply grateful for the chance to process this new life with such a good friend.

§         In the past two weeks, Candace has started her job at Center for Independent Futures. The job is just the right pace for her right now – very part-time and not too intense. She has two adult clients with disabilities that she works with weekly. She is looking forward learning and growing in this position after the holidays.

§         Josh has been painting away! He was commissioned to paint a portrait of a family of six. He had just about a week to complete quite a project. The completion of this portrait has boosted the income of the Evanston Atelier (the art gallery Josh & 3 others opened in November) to the point that the gallery will probably get to remain open after the new year…more about that later.

§         For all of his hard work at the Atelier and at the Amish furniture store, Josh has earned a paid vacation! What a blessing for our little family who desperately needs some time together and some time away! We will be traveling to Pine Bluff, Arkansas on Tuesday and returning home to Chicago the following Sunday. We are excited to spend this time with just about all of Candace’s family. Candace’s grandparents also recently moved to Pine Bluff, and we are looking forward to spending time with them during their time of transition.

§         As we approach Christmas, our church has helped us to prepare our hearts for this special season. We will be sad to miss the culmination of these special advent services at Reba Place Church. We are thankful for the artistic and emotional depiction of advent at our Sunday services and anticipate celebrating the birth of our Lord with our family next week. Merry Christmas!

Integrity

     As you know, I am impressed with the strength and health of the Reba church. One of the messages recently has been about how God hates a life that is very different on the inside than on the outside. God detests worship from people who ignore the poor, or who maintain grievances with their brothers.

     So then there is a lot of ugliness inside – inside of the individual (i.e. me) and inside of the body or community. If all we do is cover over that, fake it, ignore it, then we are not living according to what God wants. Sometimes it takes another trusted adviser to call me out on a vice I am entertaining. Sometimes another person’s confession can lead me to my own.

     Ahh how we avoid the difficult conversations that separate authentic from phony! It is so much easier to keep on faking it. Until the double-life, the duplicity causes us to grow numb or freak out. We aren’t meant to live a double life. It is so much more painful to deal with the truth.

     I love that this place is more about practicing the Gospel than proclaiming it with the mouth, or developing good creeds and right answers through the head. We have people who will confess their sin, and a congregation that believes in sin, but also in forgiveness and restoration.

     Getting out of the duplicity is painful and vulnerable and all, but we should not fear the pain. The way out of it is through it.

     These are the messages I am learning through life in community. I would not learn this in our former situation, so I am thankful that we moved.

I hope the readers will find this encouraging, and maybe deal with some secrets of their own.

JWM

Second Sunday of Advent

     Another week has gone by. Work at the furniture shop is going well. Candace has had several trainings for her new job, and has met the first person she will work with directly. The gallery has opened another show with six Josh paintings, and the local papers did a story about it. We had a chance to decorate our apartment for Christmas with a little tree and some lights.

 

     It has been pretty cold! It was 7 degrees when I walked to work the other day. This morning there was a wind-chill factor of -4. That takes some adjusting to. The weather forecast actually calls this weather “frigid!” The snow falls and stays where it lands for weeks. Nursery schools won’t send the kids out to the park if the temp is below 20.

    

     Our church has some beautiful traditions that have developed here. They have a candle-lighting dance performed by four women while we all sing a cappella before they light the advent candles each week. There is an illuminated piece of art that gets progressively revealed week-by-week. The Gospel is read. On communion Sundays there is a congregational dance. During Advent we have dramas instead of sermons, but they are well done, and I like them. Experiencing Christmas in this new environment is helping me to let the season be fresh and expectant.

 

     Jedidiah offers some pretty sweet prayers at night. We always try to pray together as we put him to sleep. He prays “thank you” for the friends he sees, and the food he eats and the games he plays and other stuff. We love to listen and hear what events of the day seem to matter the most to him. He seems to have fully adjusted to living here. He sees people he knows and gets excited; he anticipates our weekly events and is thrilled each time we do them. He loves church, especially the music. He is all about drumming these days. He takes his drumsticks (one knitting needle & one plastic xylophone mallet) with him everywhere he goes. He uses them to play air drums through the entire worship time at church.