I survived my
1st birthday at Seminary, does that mean I get to be 1 again? I think it
should. It was a happy party; my friend, Marci, took me and the family out
to the Nature Museum for a fun afternoon. I promised the children that we
would go see the frog exhibit for my birthday if they let me finish one of my
final papers the day before. We all held up our ends of the bargain and
got to see some really cool frogs. One would think that
by now that I would start to find more time as I settled into life here;
however, that does not seem to be the case. Christmas is coming and it's
cookie season, but with exams coming up next week Santa may see a skimpy tray of
cookies at my house this year. I'm pretty certain I won't get the usual 15
different kinds made this year, hopefully, I'll get some of the favorites made
though. Speaking of Christmas--we
finally worked out a place for the Christmas Tree! It has taken many weeks
of thought to achieve this small miracle. Our home here is somewhat
smaller than our house in Charlotte (by several rooms) so finding a spot was
slightly challenging. We did it--the Christmas Tree is now partially
decorated (still no Angel on top) and residing just behind our sofa in the
family room. We had to move the sofa a few feet forward to achieve this
location. The children are talking about wanting to get a small tree to
put in the fish tank so that the fish can also enjoy Christmas. I wonder
if they even make fish tank Christmas Trees? Joe & Marci took good
care of us over Thanksgiving break, since we opted not to go to Ohio this year
to celebrate with my family. Everybody enjoyed a great dinner with a
traditional turkey and all the fixings as well as great company for the day. I did fly up to Ohio to
visit my family the weekend before Thanksgiving--my grandmother in particular.
She has been ill with bronchial pneumonia (better known as walking pneumonia)
and at 93 that is a concern. She received treatment and is doing well with
the pneumonia, but her dementia is getting worse. They had to take her to
the hospital and she couldn't remember the next day why or where she was.
It is very difficult to see someone you love fade away like that. I finally made it to a
Buddhist temple for my Buddhism class. It turns out it is the North
American monastery for Tibetan Buddhism and is sponsored by the Dalai Lama and
Emory University. It was rather interesting, but not as engaging as the
Hindu temples. The lack of English speaking monks makes it difficult to
teach a tradition from another country. Our experience was translated, but
its just not the same as hearing the inflections of the voice with the words
being spoken. No fear that I'll be jumping on board with the Buddhist
either. Thank God that the love of Christ is so strong in me that these
other religions--although quite fascinating--can't hold a candle to
Christianity. There is too much comfort in salvation for me to even
consider another faith. Oh no, I'm starting to sound like a
preacher! We are still working to
get S into the Talent Development program .... The ever running saga.
Tomorrow Charles will pop by the school and rank S on his motivation. Maybe soon
we will get where we need to be, they have assured me that he will be set before
the end of the year. I failed to ask whether they meant calendar year or
school year. We are still waiting on B's exam results to see how she is to
making the cut. Add those to the list of things to get done over Christmas
break. B's fish gave birth to
3 small fry while Charles was cleaning out the tank. So take note those of you out
there with pregnant wives that won't give birth, cleaning the house might work.
The fry are separated so the older fish won't eat them and
seem to be doing well. For the weekend that we are back in Charlotte, we
will try a weekend feeder to see if that takes care of them all. We are all excited
about our trip to Charlotte, and look forward to seeing everybody on Sunday the
16th. Hopefully it will be nice and sunny. Don't fret if you are not going
to be around on the 16th, I'll be back on the 30th for something special at
Sardis. More on that for my next update. Please continue to pray for us as you are in our prayers
too.
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