On the Market

Anyone looking for a new house? Ours is now up for sale. It was kind of a shock today to come home from house hunting up north and see the "for sale" signs in our yard. It's really happening. We're sad and excited all at the same time. We sure have loved living here.

For those of you who are interested, we have a blog for the house with all kinds of pictures and whatnot. Let us know if you see anything quirky, ok?

Assistant Professor of Linguistics

It is official. Today I accepted an offer to become Bethel College's first Assistant Professor of Linguistics, beginning Fall of 2008.

It is a tenure-track position that will involve helping Bethel integrate Linguistics and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) into their curriculum. We are excited at the opportunity to return to our alma mater, as well as the chance for our children to grow up as Hoosiers and be close to their grandparents.

So, now its on to finishing my dissertation, selling our house, and finding a new place to live...all in the next 6 months!

Ian's First IU Basketball Game

Today I took Ian to his first game in Assembly Hall. Although we lost, it was still one of the most fun IU games I've ever been to because I was able to share it with my son. During the first half, Ian seemed in awe of the place; however, by the second half he was yelling when we were on Defense, and clapping along to the band during timeouts. I took him down to the court after the game, and I had to carry him kicking and screaming out of the arena (he kept pointing to the basketball goals and crying "ba-ba!!!! BA BA!!!!!").
There is a certain joy in conditioning your child.

Real Church

In an article in Relevant Magazine this month, Rob Bell, the pastor of Mars Hill church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was being interviewed on his thoughts on the church and its role in society. One thing that he said in there that really stuck with me was, "We have these giant services with thousands of people, and I think that public gatherings beyond 10 or 20 people should be questioned." He was talking about what church really is, and was saying that the best example of real church he ever experienced happened in his living room with a relatively small group of people who were gathering around someone who was in trouble. There's a lot of truth to that, and it's refreshing to hear someone who is the leader of a megachurch say it.

In the past month, with everything that Eric and I have been through, we have seen that idea firsthand. We have always loved going to our church here in Bloomington, and while we've always been involved there, we've never really had a chance to experience the true love that is available to the members of the congregation (and beyond)....until now. While we absolutely love our Sunday morning services and classes, real church has happened to us on the phone, in hugs, in messages sent to us, or in time spent with us, not necessarily on Sunday morning in the sanctuary. We've been overwhelmed by the loving response of people around us -- not only from those who attend our church, but also our other Christian friends and family who know us. We hope that someday we'll be able to pour out this kind of comfort and love on someone else who is going through a rough time.

It seems like that's what Paul was talking about in 2 Corinthians 1 when he said, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God" (verses 3-4). We've received such an amazing amount of comfort from God through other people, that maybe someday we can take this tragedy that we've walked through and use it to encourage someone else. Based on our recent experiences, it seems pretty clear that that's one important responsibility of the Church as a body and one major way to live out "real church."

On a Lighter Note...

Most of you have seen this already, but we thought we'd post it up here for those of you who haven't. It was a Christmas gift for my sister and her husband, who, even though they live so far away, are so generous to Ian. Thanks, Sherri and Adam!

Enjoy...


NOTE: YouTube disabled the audio due to authorization issues. So sad....

Today we are sad

Last night at a little before 9:00 pm we lost our baby. We were surprised, because things had been going so well. We had just had an ultrasound on Christmas Eve that showed that the region where the placenta had pulled away had shrunk to half its size, and the baby was very active and healthy. As difficult and shocking as it was, we are glad we lost the baby here at home and not in a sterile hospital room surrounded by strangers.

I'm not going to any more detail about what happened other than to say that Beta was a little boy.

Today Lisa, Ian, and I are spending the day together as a family, celebrating the rich blessings that God has bestowed on us. Why this happened we may never know, and nor do we need to. We feel His comfort, and we trust in His goodness, which is all-sufficient.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh

Good news! My doctor took me off bed rest on Thursday after only one week! When he found out that it had been almost a week since any bleeding, and when he heard the "whooshing" sound of a strong heartbeat, he decided that I'd had enough lying around and is letting me resume "light" activity. Praise God!

So, I have another ultrasound and an appointment next Wednesday and Thursday in order to keep tabs on things, but the situation seems to be looking up!Thank you, all of you out there who have been praying and sending encouraging notes. I have never felt more loved and supported than in the past week.

Lisa's first ultrasound was not scheduled for another 2 weeks; however, some events today necessitated an emergency trip to the OB/GYN. There is good news and bad news. First, the good news. Say hello to ß (Beta):

The baby's heartbeat was strong and normal, and developmentally everything looks on track. However, there is a problem. It seems that the placenta has begun to pull away from the uterus in one spot, causing quite a bit of bleeding.

The upshot of this is that Lisa's pregnancy has just jumped up pretty far on the "high risk" scale, and that Lisa is now confined to bed rest for the foreseeable future. There is nothing to be done other than pray and wait. Our doctor told us that he has seen babies in this situation come to full term, but that there is simply no way to know what will happen.

So, we covet everyone's prayers right now. Regardless of the outcome, we know that God is in control, and that is good enough for us. Even if we can't understand why certain things happen, we fully accept whatever He allows.

We're Still Here!

We really are alive, honest! Sorry about the long delay between posts, for those of you who check here regularly. As you probably know, we've been very busy and tired. We've actually had a lot of interesting things going on, not the least of which is that I'm pregnant again! We're extremely excited and are expecting "Beta" (ß) to arrive sometime in late June (Ian is "Alpha," the next one would be "Gamma", etc). So that's some good news for ya.

This week, Eric is in New Orleans for a conference where he's presenting a paper linked to his dissertation. Research is going pretty well, and he hopes and plans to start writing at the beginning of January. He's almost done!

Ian is talking up a storm -- not sentences yet, but about 20 or more recognizable words, which is making our lives a bit easier. It's so nice to understand what your child is trying to tell you sometimes!

Some other things we'd love to blog about right now, but simply don't have time on which to expand are:
* The exciting conclusion of IU football's regular season & possible bowl berth
* The hiring of Coach Lynch for said football team
* The holiday season and how we're trying some new things this year
* Exciting adventures with potty training

We won't make any promises, but we'd like to try to get to some of these topics in the next week or so. Stay tuned!

Ian goes to bed

Some more video for family and friends who are interested. One of our favorite daily rituals...