I was kindly alerted to my own mis-speaking, today, and I need to clarify: Three Nocturnes was entered in the Pulitzer Prize contest for 2008 by its publisher, Hinshaw Music. This, however, does NOT constitute being “nominated” for a Pulitzer Prize, as I had been saying…
Background: One of my professors at KU once told me [...]

You’ve caught me with my pants down! I am finishing a new theme very shortly here. At present all the issues with the site being moved should be resolved. It took a little bit of .htaccess magic but all the old links should now be pointing to the new blog. Oh and the amazing blogger [...]

Before we left Angier, Josh sold his Jeep. We’ve been living on one car since then, which is fine because Josh walks to work. Josh has been looking for another “dream jeep” but decided that he would “settle” for this little number until he finds exactly what he’s looking for. It’s a 1999 Ford Mustang and will definately do the job to drive around town while the boys and I have the van. Oh and for those who are concerned, YES there is room for 2 car seats in the back. That was a prerequisite for the purchase

So I’ve enjoyed using Google’s Web Search History despite the potential privacy implications. I honestly don’t do or search for anything that I wouldn’t do if someone was looking over my shoulder. And if I did it wouldn’t be from my home computer ;). So I was poking around in it today and started checking [...]

I have been very busy the past couple of months, with very little time for blogging or other diversions. I have managed to read some, however, during my lunch hour and when I get snippets of time at home. The two books I am currently, but slowly, making my way through are Pierced for our Transgressions and Jonathan Aitken’s new biography of John Newton.

In my reading I came across a quote by John Newton that I wanted to share with my readers. The quote comes from his first message to his parishioners after he moved from Olney to London. In this message, in which he intended to set forth the foundation of his new ministry, Newton explained his philosophy of speaking the truth in love from Ephesians 4:15. Here is the quote regarding speaking the truth:

The Bible is the grand repository of the truths that it will be the business and the pleasure of my life to set before you. It is the complete system of divine truth to which nothing can be added and from which nothing can be taken with impunity. Every attempt to disguise or soften any branch of this truth in order to accommodate it to the prevailing taste around us either to avoid the displeasure or court the favor of our fellow mortals must be an affront to the majesty of God and an act of treachery to men. My conscience bears me witness that I mean to speak the truth among you.

This was a helpful reminder for me as I begin the day finishing up my lesson for SS tomorrow.

How To Say No To a Stubborn Habit (subtitled Even When You Feel Like Saying Yes) by Erwin Lutzer has been republished under the title Winning the Inner War: How To Say No to a Stubborn Habit. My copy was published in 1994: I don’t know if anything has changed other than the name.
It could [...]

PhotoHunt

Theme: Self or part of self | Become a Photo Hunter
Well, we’re supposed to show a picture of ourselves or a part of ourselves today. Brace yourselves!

Seriously, though, I spent an inordinate amount of time looking through digital photos. Some of my family members have neat artsy shots of an eyebrow or [...]

Thank you to all who have been praying for my neighbor kids! I have been really burdened about how to get the Gospel to them, but I didn’t think I would be able to convince them to go to church with me. But today I invited them to youth group, and the two girls who are closest to me came! This was a huge answer to prayer! I have been praying for these girls ever since I met them, but I didn’t have much faith that they would actually come to church with me. How exciting that God answered my prayers!

Madi and Ale were pretty quiet and stuck close to Isabela and me during youth group, but they seemed to be enjoying the experience. The other kids were kind of wild. I was especially disappointed at how the other kids (all our “regulars”) were very disruptive during the preaching. Madi and Ale seemed like little angels in comparison. The two girls sat quietly with me in front of the other girls (good seats to reduce distractions). I helped them find the verses in the Bible, and they seemed to be listening attentively as Baron shared the message of the Gospel very clearly. I don’t think it could have been any more clear.

Please continue to pray for these girls. I’m going to try to get them to come to church on Sunday. They didn’t come last week when I invited them, but maybe this week will be different. This evening after the other kids were gone, Madi and I stayed outside together for a while, and I’m pretty sure she said she would come to church with me on Sunday. We told another girl who lives upstairs from me, and that girl sounded excited about coming. It remains to be seen whether they will wake up soon enough on Sunday.

I am so thankful that the burden is not on me to bring results from my efforts. All God requires is that we be faithful sharing Him with others, and He will use His Word to convict and bring the fruit. Please pray that the Scriptures that Madi and Ale heard today will lodge in their hearts. Maybe it will be years before it all makes sense to them, but God’s Word is powerful, and He can do anything. Thank you for praying!

In other news, my packing is going well although there’s still a lot to do. Today the girls begged me to let them help, and they enthusiastically attacked the cleaning in 3 rooms of my house.

They were so cute, fighting over who got to do the mopping, and attacking each other with the bathroom cleaning spray. They came away wet but happy, and I was very thankful for all their help. I had been dreading all that scrubbing, and dreading even worse doing all that scrubbing alone. It was a joy to have such sweet helpers! Praise the Lord for using the girls to provide the help I need, and using me to be a positive influence in the girls’ lives. My earnest prayer is that God will use me to break down barriers in the girls’ hearts so that they will be open to the Gospel.

Today was supposed to be an ordinary day. My goals were to pay my bills and clean. Baron took me to pay some of my bills so he could help me tell the people I’m moving out and make sure I was paid up to the right day. He brought little Gheorghe along because Gheorghe loves going places with his new daddy. The adoption process is still moving very slowly, but the twins came this week for a visit.

We were in the middle of talking to the people at the gas company when Baron got a phone call from Joyce. Although he had the phone up to his ear, I could clearly hear her voice saying, “Baron, come home!” He asked her what was wrong, and all she would say was, “Just come home right now!” Her voice was urgent, possibly panicked although I couldn’t tell from where I stood. She definitely sounded like she had been crying.

We dropped what we were doing and hurried out to the van, not knowing what we would find when we got to the house. Baron said he had heard a kid screaming in the background over the phone.

At this point we didn’t even know what had happened or who might be hurt, but immediately my mind went to this week’s tragedy in the family of Steven Curtis Chapman. As Baron drove home as quickly as possible, worry on his face and in his voice, I was able to clearly imagine what the Chapman family went through this week with the tragic accident that happened to their adopted little girl.

When we got to the house, as Baron was struggling with the temperamental front-door key, Joyce called him again. He told her we were at the door, and she sent someone to let us in. “What happened?” he asked. I couldn’t hear what she said, but his reaction was a loud, “NO!!!” I didn’t know what to think, so I asked what happened, and he said the dog had bitten Gina.

As we hurried into the courtyard, I imagined the worst-case scenario, like half of Gina’s face being ripped away. I just thought it must be really gruesome because Joyce had sounded so upset. I saw Mac, chained up and looking unsure of what was going on, with blood on his paws. Then I entered the house and saw Gina.

What a relief! Her face was still there! She had several wounds across one side of her face, with at least one appearing to be fairly deep, and she was crying inconsolably, but it didn’t look like anything horribly disfiguring. Painful, but not as serious as I had feared.

Baron and Joyce got their stuff together and took Gina to the doctor. While they were gone, it was me and the grandparents with five little boys. Since Gheorghe doesn’t really understand English yet, and I was the only adult at the house who could speak Romanian to him, I decided to stay and help with the kids. At first Gheorghe didn’t want to do anything we told him to do, but pretty soon he settled down. At naptime he didn’t want to sleep without his sister there, but I kept sending him back to his bed until he stayed. I also read to Nate and played games with Zach and Spence to help keep them occupied.

When Baron and Joyce returned with the newly-stitched-up Gina, the whole one side of her face was covered in huge white bandages, and there was a place where they had to shave her hair to treat a wound up on the top of her head. Baron called the dog trainer, and he came to take the dog away. It’s a mystery why Mac bit her, because he is not an aggressive breed of dog, and he has always been fine around the kids before. All we can guess is that maybe she stepped on his foot or something. Whatever the case, the dog is gone, never to return to their house.

After they got back, I left to finish paying my bills and walk home. They were having a visit from a social worker to do a home study for the adoption process. Hopefully the social worker understood that this was just one of those freak accidents that could happen to anybody.

Please keep Gina and Gheorghe in your prayers. Pray that the adoption process will move along quickly so they won’t have to remain in limbo for too long between their world at the children’s home and their world at the Howertons’ house. And please pray for healing for Gina’s face.