Psalm 130

Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD.

Lord, hear my voice!

Let Your ears be attentive

To the voice of my supplications.

If You, LORD, should mark iniquities,

O Lord, who could stand?

But there is forgiveness with You,

That You may be feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait,

And in His word do I hope.

My soul waits for the Lord

More than the watchmen for the morning;

Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the LORD;

For with the LORD there is lovingkindness,

And with Him is abundant redemption.

And He will redeem Israel

From all his iniquities.

Glory be to the Father,

and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning,

is now, and will be forever,

world without end.

Amen.

As I Wrestle

I love a sermon that sounds like it was written just for me.

Who Needs Nouns, Anyway?

One thing about having to quit my job to be on bedrest is that I am free to read whatever I want. No more scrambling to stay a day or two ahead of my students. I can read, or not read, or half-heartedly read, completely according to my fancy. When you have to lie down all day and are only allowed on your feet for bathroom breaks, I think you're forced to appreciate some of these small benefits.

Right now I'm reading through That Hideous Strength, the 3rd part of C.S. Lewis' science fiction trilogy. Rather than write a book report on it, I thought I'd share a little snippet which, although entirely unrelated to the plot itself, I found quite amusing:

"The cardinal difficulty," said Macphee, "in collaboration
between the sexes is that women speak a language without nouns. If two men are
doing a bit of work, one will say to the other, 'Put this bowl inside the bigger
bowl which you'll find on the top shelf of the green cupboard.' The female for
this is, 'Put that in the other one in there.' And then if you ask them, 'in
where?' they say, 'in there, of course.' There is consequently a phatic
hiatus." He pronounced this so as to rhyme with "get at
us."

"There's your tea now," said Ivy Maggs, "and I'll go and get
you a piece of cake, which is more than you deserve. And when you've had it you
can go upstairs and talk about nouns for the rest of the evening."

"Not about nouns: by means of nouns, "said MacPhee, but Mrs. Maggs had already left the room.

Lewis is awesome.

Not In Our Hands

We made it to the specialist on Monday. Overall, I'd say it went well, but certainly not as well as we'd like. My cervix is very short and beginning to open, and there are almost no options for us to do anything about it. There is a high risk for preterm labor, though not nearly as high as we'd feared (possibly in the 30% range). It's particularly scary right now since we have not reached the threshold of viability for the babies.

On the brighter side, the specialist says is is still possible that I can carry the pregnancy to term. He offered us an "experimental" hormone treatment that has shown some promise in reducing the risk of preterm birth, but is not yet approved by the FDA (...not that we think much of the federal government, anyway). There is no risk to the babies, so we decided to go ahead and try it. Beyond that, I try to rest as much as possible, and we pray constantly.

So that's where we are.

By the way...we have been calling the girls Lillian and Pearl. I think the names will probably stick. :)

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,

on those who hope in His steadfast love,

that He may deliver their soul from death

and keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the LORD;

He is our help and our shield.

For our heart is glad in Him,

because we trust in His holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,

even as we hope in you.

--Ps. 33:18-22

A Double Portion!

After nearly 5 years of marriage, the Lord has blessed us with twin girls, due March 2nd.

Aren't they beautiful?

Unfortunately, complications have developed, and now I'm on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. We are seeing a maternal-fetal medicine specialist on Monday.

May God be merciful to us and our children for the sake of His Son, Jesus.

Punchline of the Day

The school where I work has a small 7th grade class of 6 very energetic boys. They can be a lot of fun, but they can drive me crazy.

During study hall a few days ago, one of the boys mentioned that someone was kicked off of an airplane because he was too fat. Another student asked, quite seriously, "Did they at least give him a parachute?"

Out of the mouths of preteens, right?

Moms Say the Darndest Things

Me: We just got Fargo in the mail from Netflix.

Mom: Fargo...isn't that about a stagecoach?

Brody: I think it's a movie about Alaska.

Me: Really? I thought it was set in North Dakota.

Mom: Oh, North Dakota? But isn't it about a stagecoach travelling across country? Oh wait...that's called Stagecoach...

(We still don't know what the movie is about.)

On this, his birthday...

My dad would have been 56 today.

If things had turned out differently, we might have had a party. My mom might have cooked his favorite: prime rib. I might have unearthed my old (and very limited) cake decorating supplies to bake him a chocolate cake with chocolate icing to eat with chocolate ice cream topped with chocolate fudge. The family might have chipped in to buy him a special gift. I might have been sitting at my usual spot at the kitchen table next to him while we talked theology until well after midnight.

But things didn't turn out differently. Instead, I am having a glass of his favorite scotch (Balvenie) in honor of his memory. It was actually his bottle, come to think of it. Thanks, Dad.

In those turbulent high school years I saw my dad as my rock, my steady anchor and support in that raging sea of stereotypical teenage angst. I could tell him anything, ask him anything, and he would drop what he was doing to be what a father should be. Now he is gone, and try as I might, sometimes I can't help but feel alone. It doesn't make sense. I have a wonderful husband, a caring family, and supportive Christian friends. But that connection - that deep understanding I shared with my dad and no one else - that is gone.

A friend and mentor explained to me recently that the Lord sometimes takes our idols away from us. Perhaps that is what God has done here for me. Now my dad is with Jesus, and my heart and mind are more frequently drawn to Him than they ever were.

That is, I believe, what my dad would want. The cross was his life. He constantly pointed others to Christ. In his death, I am reminded that the Gospel gives life. My dad is forgiven, and so am I. When the Lord calls me home, what a happy reunion it will be.

Here's to you, Dad.

Made in China

I ordered a number keypad from eBay last week to make it easier to catalog my personal library with my laptop on LibraryThing.com (a totally awesome site - so worth the 25 bucks!). I was so tickled by the English description. Raise your hand if you think a native speaker wrote this...

"The KEYPAD portabie 18/19 - key numerical

keypad brings the Notebook working

environment to the next level.

To fit to maximum portabilty,hence it's

designed to be slim, lightweight, flexibie.

USB cabie"

Too funny.

Auntie Time

Guess what I did during last week's snow days...

How could anyone not fall for this handsome little guy?

It was a good break.

Snow Day!!

I started Christmas break with all kinds of lofty ambitions to get my grading finished early and to work ahead for the semester.

Ummm...yeah, right.

So, naturally (as some could attest to), I was up until midnight scrambling to get things together for the first day of 2nd semester. Even though it had been snowing all day, there was no news on whether school would be cancelled. How frustrating.

But after stumbling out of bed well before sunrise, the good news came: NO SCHOOL! It's funny how a snow day is as exciting for the teachers as it is for the students.

Now my schoolwork is [sufficiently] complete, dishes are done, house is in decent shape, and it's barely 8 o'clock.

It's going to be a good day.