The End of Fall '09

This past Monday I handed in my final assignments for the Fall term. It is always a great feeling to be done, even though just a week or two before it was hard to imagine finishing everything that needed to be done. It has been a difficult adjustment since June, knowing that I would have to lower my academic standards in order adequately focus on family needs. Some further adjustments may still be in order, but it was extremely helpful to have a wife, not to mention some seminary professors, who encouraged me to do just that. To have a professor say something like, "If loving your new baby well means handing in only a reasonable paper, then that's what you should do." After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I breathed a rather large sigh of relief. Needless to say, there will likely still be some shock when the grades come out, but I have a few weeks to prepare for them. I'm done with classes until February, but I will be working on finishing some equivalency work that will allow me to upgrade some of my M.A. credits to M.Div credits.

My work at the shelter is going well. The first two weeks were a little rough, but I'm feeling more comfortable with the goings-on there and the past several weeks have been incident free. I've had some wonderful volunteers helping me out each week, and that makes things go smoothly too. I'd still like to encourage everyone to find a way to donate some time this Christmas season to helping out those less fortunate - trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Our newest addition to the family continues to do very well. She is growing quickly and sleeping longer at night, which Mommy especially appreciates. My other two kids are learning what it means to be a good big brother and sister. We've had a few close calls when the older two get playing a little too rough ... hopefully we are past those episodes now. Yesterday, my older daughter and I had our first real Daddy/Daughter Date. We went to McDonald's (one with a playland) for lunch and then went to see The Princess and the Frog afterwards. We had a great time - although the movie itself had some things in that I wasn't too fond of ... once you see it, you'll know. But the point was to be able to spend some quality time with her and we certainly were able to do that. My son continues to do well in school. He's taking on more responsibility around the house: he takes the trash to the dumpster, he feeds his baby sister when I need to make dinner, and he keeps a good eye on his other sister when we send them outside to play.

My wife and I would like to say a special "Thank-you" to all our friends and family for the wealth of Christmas cards, notes of encouragement, gifts, and especially the prayers we've received over the past couple of months. We know ourselves to be truly blessed by God to have people like you in our lives!