Absence makes the heart grow fonder

This week, Mark is on a buying trip in NYC with his boss. My parents are going to El Salvador on a missions trip. I can't be alone with Tyler for that long, so Tyler and I are spending the week in Memphis with Mark's family. This will be the longest Mark and I have been apart since we've been married (3 years) and the only time Mark has been away from Tyler. I don't know how he's going to make it without our sweet boy for 6 days!
On a side note, Grandma bought Tyler some shades and he looks pretty good in them!

The Plain Speaking of Truth in Love

For the last few weeks, our church has been doing a study on what it means to be a "people of the spirit." Many of us are not operating in the spirit out of fear of being insincere or because we have been hurt in the past by others who thought they were operating in the spirit, but were not. This last Sunday, Chris focused specifically on prophecy - what it is and what it is not.
Prophecy is not just a foretelling of the future. I have countless youth camp experiences during which some one told me that God told them I would be a missionary, etc. I do not have that calling on my life. Mark has shared that during his grandfather's battle with cancer, many people told him and his other family members that his grandfather would be healed. He was not, and no one had any accountability for saying these things.
While I do feel that as a spirit filled Christian I should allow the Holy Spirit to operate in my life in these ways, I'm uncomfortable doing so for fear of being wrong. How do you know if that urge you feel is you or the Holy Spirit? You don't and there is no way to know. So, you must operate in faith with a knowledge of a broader definition of prophecy.
Chris, Stephen and Mark have defined prophecy as "the plain speaking of truth in love." This does not mean telling the future (which can be a part of prophecy), but simply being willing to share with one another what God is doing with us and how we see God working/not being allowed to work in another's life.
Jill, a friend of ours at church, allowed the Holy Spirit to work through her in such a way this past Sunday night. Cecil was sitting with us during worship service and asked if we could take communion together. Of course we did. This is always a special time for us to teach Cecil about the sacrament and to pray together. A few minutes later, Jill came to me and said, "Thank you for loving Cecil." It was simple, but it affected me profoundly. I spend a considerable amount of time praying and worrying about whether we will be able to adopt Cecil, what his future will look like, how he will be able to handle the pain he's already experienced and has yet to see. But, through Jill's plain speaking of the truth in love to me, I realized that all that matters is that I love Cecil with all my heart and the rest is in God's hands.

Now with video capabilities

My brother, Rob, expert of all things video, has helped me select and buy a video camera, something all parents should have. My parents did not have one when I was little. Instead, they have audio tapes of my brother and me, which are funny, but not as good as video because you can't SEE how cute we were. Anyway, I hope to soon figure out how to post video of Tyler on my blog so everyone can see how cute he can be!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my handsome husband! I could not have a more loving, caring, patient husband who is sooooo good looking! I love you, Mark!

Give me clean hands

I hate watermelon scented soap.

What's in a name?

When I was pregnant with Tyler, Mark and I agonized over what to name him. (Well, I agonized and Mark rejected every name I came up with.) For those of you who know my mom, she has three rules which she believes everyone should follow when naming a child.
1. The name should clearly indicate the sex of the child (no gender-neutral names).
2. You should not give the name a strange spelling. (Which is funny becuase she wanted to name me Elisabeth and my dad wouldn't let her.)
3. You can't make a name up.
Naturally, I wanted to follow these rules but also have a name that was meaningful and for which he would not be teased. Mark wanted to name him Oliver. I thought it was a cute name, but I was worried that if he was born with red hair and got my athletic ability and Mark's bad eye sight, he would be teased. Lo and behold he has red hair...
Finally we settled on Clyde Tyler Pickens. Clyde was Mark's maternal grandfather's name. He was an incredible man of integrity and kindness and, though I never met him, he is a hero of mine for I know he helped make my husband the man he is today. However, we call our son Tyler because, let's face it, Clyde is an old man name.
A few weeks ago, however, I had Cecil at our neighborhood pool. For those of you who don't know, Cecil goes to our church and stays with us frequently. It's a bit of an unusual situation to explain, so I just let people believe he's my son and go from there.
Side note: I think it's hilarious to let people in my neighborhood believe he's my son because they do the math and think I had him when I was 17! I'm sure it's great gossip for them.
So anyway, we were at the pool and this old lady asks me what my son's name is. I tell her Cecil. And that rude old lady says, "That's a funny name for a kid! My dog's name is Cecil." I'm not sure if Cecil heard this or not but I wanted to deck her. So then she asked my what my baby's name was and I replied, "Clyde." I think the tone in my voice indicated she'd better not comment on that one.
So, whatever your name is, be proud. If you would have told me 5 years ago that I would have two boys named Cecil and Clyde I would have laughed, but I love my boys' names and I never want them to be embarrassed to be who they are. But please, parents-to-be, don't give your kids a wierd name for the sake of being different. They'll hate you for it!

Happy 4th of July

Last night, the neighborhood behind us put on a pretty good fireworks show. I don't know why they did it on the third and not the fourth, but anyway... I was excited for my son to see his first fireworks and while he did not seem to enjoy them, he didn't cry either so I was happy! This week we have a good friend, Misael, visiting us from Peru. He brought his mother along for this trip; her first time to the states.
The fireworks did their job and soon I was thinking patriotic thoughts, star spangled banner, all that. I am generally uncomfortable with the idea of being "patriotic." It conjurs images of middle class white America (my neighborhood), flags hanging from their rooftops, proclaiming America to be the most blessed of all countries because of our freedoms. It makes me think of people who actually believe English should be the national language and that putting a giant fence between the U.S. and Mexico is a great idea. It's an attitude of superiority that makes me cringe, and I was even more aware of the feeling sitting next to two Peruvian nationals.
Mark and I were discussing a quote which appeared on the cover of last month's Esquire Magazine by Charles P. Pierce concerning Barack Obama: "What we need now is not a leader to assure us of our greatness...But one who will challenge us to reassert it." What I think (which, largely, does not matter) is that we don't need to worry about being great, but being good.
While I am truly grateful for the freedoms America affords, keenly aware that this country has made my family very wealthy, and pray daily for the safety of our troops, our freedoms can also trap us into believing being "great" and "free" are all that matter and that we should preserve these qualities at any cost. America, if we want to tout it as a Christian nation, should concern itself primarily with giving: giving money, time, efforts to making other nations stronger as well, without fear of being replaced as the super power we are.
So, this 4th, thank God for the country you live in, but also dedicate some time to thinking about people who live in other countries who may not have the same civil and governmental freedoms we do, but who have true freedom through Christ, the only freedom that matters.

My husband will die when he sees I'm blogging!

Hello, all. I have recently reconnected with an old college friend (Kyle Ray Booterbaugh) who encouraged me to start a blog. I have always said I would not blog because I don't have anything that important to say. I still don't. But, it is a good way to keep people updated on my life without actually having to talk to them, so that's a plus.