Happy Birthday, Mom!

Dear Mom,

I've tried taking some pictures of Cutie for you all week for your birthday, and it hasn't been working. She smiles a lot, but then whenever I pull out the camera, her smiles disappear, and by the time Steve gets home from work, she is tired and fussy. Maybe we can get some good ones this weekend. Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Relationship conference

Steve and I had the pleasure of attending a marriage conference at our church this weekend. Actually, it was less specific to marriage, and more about relationships in general, since it focused on attitudes, communication, conflict, and forgiveness. Dr. Tim Lane, of the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF), was the speaker. I started to write on this blog a list of all the things that we either learned or were reminded of, but it was going to be too much, so here are a few highlights:

1. Relationships exist to glorify God by helping us to grow in grace (not to make us happy); it is through interaction with others that we realize how much we are in need of God's grace.
2. Being dishonest includes failing to address a problem, and saying you are okay when you really aren't; however, there is a difference between being honest and being critical.
3. Gentleness is saying something encouraging at least five times more often than saying something critical.
4. If you have a hard time taming your tongue, the only effective cure is to praise God (you cannot simultaneously praise God and offend Him).
5. Conflict arises when we have unmet desires that are more important to us than glorifying God; we must constantly be pushing down these idols in order to avoid conflict (examples of common idols include comfort/happiness and order/control, which are not bad in and of themselves, but are bad when they are the most important things to us).
6. Forgiveness is both an event and an ongoing process.
7. We fail to be conduits of God's grace when we cut ourselves off from the grace that we ourselves need. This includes believing that we don't need to be forgiven ("I would never do what that person did!"); believing that we are unforgiveable; and losing amazement at God's grace toward us.
8. We need to be accountable to other Christians for our words and actions to help us grow in grace.

Low thyroid is not fun

I'm having a low thyroid week. It's one of those weeks where I keep putting off grocery shopping because I'm so tired. I haven't done any cooking, either, and last night I used up the very last of the non-dessert food in our freezer. All we have left in the fridge is deli meats, fruit, yogurt, and drinks, which is enough for me, but Steve eats all that stuff for lunch and (understandably) wants something different for dinner.

I was so exhausted last night that I went to bed at 9:30 and slept until Rebecca got up at 6:45. And then I took another two-hour nap this morning while she did. And I still feel like I need to sleep for a week. The worst part is feeling like I'm not being a good mom because I'm too tired to entertain my baby. I read three books to her and played with her a little this morning, but she also spent a long time playing in her crib because I was too tired to do anything with her. And it is so frustrating when she wants to nurse and I have to give her a bottle because my malfunctioning body is not making enough milk.

I just took some extra thyroid supplement about thirty minutes ago, but it hasn't kicked in yet. Thyroid levels are even harder to control than blood sugar levels. My need for both insulin and thyroid fluctuate constantly, but at least with blood sugars, I can get numeric readings as many times a day as I need to, and adjust my insulin accordingly, and get immediate results. With thyroid, I can only get numeric readings every six weeks by going to the lab, and the numbers aren't that helpful anyway. And if I happen to be having a good thyroid day on the day my blood is drawn, it's harder to convince my doctor that I need to be on a different dose. And even if I did get a different dose, it would only be the right dose on some days and not others. And even if I had three different doses available to choose from every day, I have no way of knowing in advance which dose I need.

Our high-schooler babysitter who lives down the street is coming over this afternoon for me to help her with Spanish. We have an ongoing arrangement in which I trade Spanish tutoring for babysitting. She's supposed to babysit Friday night while we go to a marriage conference at our church. The church is providing babysitting, but Rebecca never sleeps at church (too much going on), and I thought it would be better for her to stick to her usual early bedtime. On Saturday, Rebecca will be coming with us, because I didn't feel comfortable leaving her for five hours in one stretch, at least when I know she will be awake most of the time. Anyway, please pray with me that God will give me enough energy to make it throught the rest of the week. I just feel like I want to disappear under the covers for days.

Five months old today!

Little Cutie turned five months old today. We are having so much fun with her and are so grateful that God gave us such a happy and healthy baby. She continues to enjoy seeing new people and places, and is growing more interactive. In the past month, her vocalizations have become more varied, and last week she started doing this really unfeminine grunt, usually when she is excited about something. She also laughs when we tickle her under the arms. She has only ever rolled over once each way, but she can sit up for a few seconds at a time. She seems to have adjusted somewhat to the sensation of teething; none have poked through her gums yet, but she is constantly drooling, and tries to fit as many fingers in her mouth as she possibly can. Her naps are getting shorter (so Mommy is more tired during the day), but thankfully she still sleeps ten to twelve hours at night. She still enjoys books, only now she also tastes them instead of just looks at them. Her favorite toy is her lullaby glowworm (in the left side of the picture), which has the power to make her stop crying and start cooing. Here's Rebecca playing in her crib.

All dressed up

Steve and I got to go to a friend's wedding on Saturday night. I like getting dressed up, since I don't get to do it very often. It's so hard to get a good picture of both of us that I thought this one was worth posting. Thanks, Mom!

My birthday dinner

This past weekend we celebrated my birthday at my parents' house in Plano, with my parents, grandparents, all but one of my siblings (David had to play at a football game), and my mother-in-law. We weren't able to get a complete group picture before everyone went to bed, but here I am with Steve and my parents and grandparents. My mom fixed a lovely dinner and we hung out and played games the rest of the evening, which is one of my favorite things to do. This birthday was infinitely better than last year's birthday, when I felt so sick that I didn't want to eat anything!

Quechua language breakthrough

My parents have known Dan and Diane Hintz for twenty years. They have served many years with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Peru and are currently in California pursuing a doctoral degree, but still make periodic trips to Peru to help advance the continuing work there. Being a Latin American missions enthusiast myself, I was very encouraged to read their most recent newsletter. Below is an exerpt from the letter that describe a breakthrough in understanding the Quechua language (it has multiple dialects). Imagine what a difference this understanding will make as the Bible continues to be translated and revised. Read and rejoice!

Dear praying friends,

Greetings from Huaraz, Peru! I’m glad to be here for the second time this summer. This trip coincides with the Old Testament translation workshop here in Huaraz. It’s been great to see my Wycliffe colleagues and the Quechua co-translators.

During the previous trip I was working on “aspect time reference”, that is, how Quechua grammar expresses the way events and situations unfold over time. I was really happy to apply this study of verbal aspect to the translation of Genesis, which is now in print.

On this current trip I’m focusing on the way elements of personal experience become marked as “shared knowledge” during the course of conversations. Quechua has a set of word-final suffixes that have puzzled me for years. I remember praying 10 years ago that God would help me to understand these suffixes. Then 2 years ago their meaning became clear when I presented a paper in a university class on linguistic anthropology.

There is nothing in European languages like these Quechua suffixes. It turns out that Quechua speakers use two different suffixes to indicate “personal knowledge” (one for high certainty and the other for low certainty). In addition, they use two other suffixes to express shared or “mutual knowledge”. Over time, this mutual knowledge can eventually lead to “general knowledge”. I was surprised to learn that the grammatical marking of personal versus mutual/shared knowledge hasn’t previously been described for any language.

This is an exciting discovery not only for linguistic researchers, but also for our Quechua Old Testament co-translators. Last week I taught how these suffixes work together to distinguish personal versus shared knowledge, and it was so fun to watch them catch on to this new concept and apply it to Scripture translation. We had a lively discussion on their experiences using these small, but crucial suffixes in the translations. Lunch that afternoon was filled with laughter as they created humorous plays on words using these “knowledge” suffixes, which are a little different in each of these Quechuan languages. I was so happy as this showed just how well they had understood.



In the picture above, Quechua friend Reida Valenzuela, whose family helped with the revision of Genesis, reads it to her nephew’s wife, Eva, holding her newborn baby. (In Quechua culture, the baby won’t be named until the “hair-cutting” ceremony in about a year.) It's a little hard to see the baby, but isn't it wonderful to know this little one will grow up hearing the Word of the Lord? In the picture below is a view from an Andean mountain trail, with a rainbow signifying God's promise and the hope we have in Him.

Trash day

Today was trash day. I love trash day (and recycling day, too) because there's just something very freeing about getting rid of stuff you don't need that's just taking up space. It's also nice to have incentive to do a bunch of weeding and pruning in my garden. Since we've had a baby, my appreciation for trash day has taken on a whole new level. I'm sure you don't have to wonder why this is. We get to get rid of a bunch of smelly diapers.

Before I had a baby, I always wondered why so many babies' rooms had kind of a stinky smell to them. Didn't their parents know about those special diaper disposal systems? They could at least use some sort of air freshener, couldn't they? Well, I can now verify from first-hand experience that even if you have the best diaper disposal system AND you use air freshener AND even if you wrap the stinkiest diapers in a grocery bag before you put it in the diaper trash can, AND you empty the special diaper trash can often, the room where you change diapers will always have some sort of smell to it. And we haven't even started solid foods yet! Although, I think I've adjusted to the smell because I usually don't notice it as much anymore. I just hope my friends who come over aren't bothered by the smell.

Now if I can just figure out what to do with all my clothes that I don't wear anymore....

Remembering my pregnancy

It was a year ago today that I had my first prenatal visit, at which my OB/GYN confirmed my pregnancy. I had such a mixture of emotions. I was amazed that it had happened so quickly, frustrated that I hadn't figured out I was pregnant sooner than I did, scared that my recent trend of high blood sugars had damaged my growing baby, and hopeful for the possibility of having my very own bundle of joy in less than eight months. I was very hesitant to assume everything would be fine, since I'd known several friends and family members who had miscarried, and I was keenly aware that my pregnancy was high-risk.

It turned out to be a very long and difficult eight months for me, with scares from cramping, spotting, high blood pressure, and excessively high and low sugars. These were on top of what I was convinced was much-worse-than-average hormonal fluctuations, nausea, back pain, and exhaustion. I told Steve dozens of times that I was not going to do this again and that the rest of our children were going to be adopted. Those eight months felt like eight years to me, and it was hard not to get frustrated when verteran moms would tell me that it would be over before I knew it. Now I'm telling other new moms the same thing.

Every day I experience a living reminder of God's grace toward me manifested in my sweet, happy baby girl, whom He created. He knew her long before I did, and protected her every moment she was inside of me. Even though I continually failed to trust Him, He, in His sovereign mercy, chose to give me what I had always wanted. I hope I never cease to rejoice, and that regardless of what God has in store for Rebecca, I will give thanks for her as long as I live.

It's good to be home

Babies are smart. At least my baby is smart. She knows when she's at home, and when she's not at home. Although she seems to enjoy seeing a variety of people, she definitely prefers being at home. Or maybe she just hates being in her car seat. (Who wouldn't?) This picture was taken right after Steve took Rebecca out of her car seat when we got home from D/FW last night. Have you ever seen a bigger smile?

Seasonal ice cream flavors

Kroger's had Blue Bell on sale today, so I got two each of my two favorite flavors, even though we already had one of each of them in the freezer at home. I also got a vanilla to go with the applesauce brownies I'm going to make this week. Normally I would not have such a large quantity of tempting ice cream in the freezer (seven half gallons is admittedly excessive), but since I'm sure my favorite flavors are bound to be discontinued in the next week or two, I decided to stock up. (Providencially, we had enough freezer space.) Key Lime Pie ice cream was introduced two years ago, and I was thoroughly disappointed when I went to get some for my birthday, and they were out. Not just out for the week, but out until the next summer. My other favorite flavor was introduced this summer. It is Strawberry Shortcake, which I like better than Strawberry Cheesecake, Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Strawberries 'n' Cream, and just plain Strawberry. (Only in the U.S. would such a variety be available.) Key Lime Pie ice cream and Strawberry Shortcake ice cream are even better when eaten together. It reminds me of the (also seasonal) strawberry lime cheesecake from Chili's, which I also love, but is twelve times more expensive for a single serving. For those of you who are blessed enough to live in a city where Blue Bell ice cream is available, I highly recommend giving one or both of these flavors a try before they disappear until next summer. If you don't make it to the store in time, the Cookies 'n' Cream is always an excellent standby, available year round. Now I just have to convince Blue Bell to make my other two favorite seasonal flavors: pumpkin and egg nog.

My brother's birthday

Today was my brother Stephen's quarter century birthday. We got to celebrate together with our families at our parents' house by playing fun games and eating good food (Stephen is a master at both). Stephen and I are the closest in age out of all of our siblings (he's two years younger than I am), and so he and I share a unique set of childhood memories (books, songs, people, events, etc.) that our other brother and sister were not around for or are too young to remember. I am so glad we still have fun together! Happy Birthday, Stephen!