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.