Miscelaineous Music October Edition Part 2

This is one of my favorite songs in the whole world. It's by a guy named John Mark McMillan. I like this song so much that I try to make a point to sing it to Harper every day. It's kind of become her lullaby. I sing it to her because I want her to know how much He loves her. As much as I love my little girl, He loves her way more than I ever could. And if I can somehow get that point across to her, I'm doing an ok job as a parent. 

Friends and Family

Matt, Heather, and Evan were in town to visit us this weekend. It was so good to see them. Heather and I use to work together, but we haven't seen each other in about a year (She just had to move away to accept some silly faculty position at a prestigious university or something.) In fact, the last time we saw each other, I was about 5 months pregnant and Evan was about 2 months old. How time flies. There are many things that I love about Heather. She's smart, beautiful, honest, funny, an amazing cook... (By the way Heather, can you send me some of those Bourbon Pecan things for Christmas this year??)  So instead of gushing, I'll just leave you with one of my favorite Heather quotes. One day in the lab Heather very matter of factly turned to me and said "When I win the Nobel Prize, I am going to wear a pink dress and pearls to make my acceptance speech." That pretty much sums it up. 

Here is a new Harper video. Below are my preemptive responses to questions/comments you may have while watching this clip.

1. Yes, Harper is perfecting a new trick.

2. Yes, I am aware that the couch slip cover in the background is hideous and doesn't fit. But trust me, what's underneath is much much worse.

3. Yes, that is our cat, Sage.

4. Yes, Harper is probably about to get a new tooth as is evident from the hand chewing.

5. Yes, Harper is also learning how to ignore her mother.  I think her dad teaches her the finer points of selective listening when I'm not around. 

Enjoy.

My Pumpkin in the Patch

On Saturday, our family celebrated Harper's first fall by heading out to the pumpkin patch. While this was Harper's first visit to the patch, it was Rob's first visit too. Growing up, my mom made a point of celebrating every holiday (and when I say celebrate, I mean celebrate). For each holiday/season we had a host of family traditions, and while I may have complained about them at the time, these traditions are very meaningful for me now. I hope to pass my favorite ones on as well as establish new family traditions with Rob and Harper. So... after explaining to Rob that 1. we were going to the pumpkin patch as a family and 2. we were going there to take pictures of Harper next to pumpkins that we had no intention of buying, we were off. Here's what our outing looked like.

Check out her 2 new teeth - she worked really hard for them.

I love this kid.

Harper was way too busy people watching to look at the camera.

Last shot of the day. She was done and so were we.

I saw something at work today that I keep thinking about. I was walking through the children's hospital and I saw a little girl (she couldn't have been more than 3 or 4) who had a medical halo brace on. These braces are generally used to allow cervical fractures to heal. The brace was just about as tall as she was and was literally screwed into her head. The thing that I keep thinking about is that this little girl who was wearing this monster of a brace had a princess tiara attached to the top of the brace and she was smiling from ear to ear. I walk through the children's hospital every day and every day I feel my chest get tight as I see sick kids who don't deserve to be sick and parents who don't deserve to have sick kids. And every day, I thank God that He has blessed our family with a healthy, happy, beautiful baby girl. I hope that when the time comes that I don't walk through the children's hospital on a daily basis, I will still be rawly thankful for the gift that God has given us. 

Slow Motion Church Signs

The new season of a show called Time Warp started last night. This show is totally nerdy and totally cool all at the same time. The principle is simple - take video of things in super slow motion. The results are awesome. See for yourself...

Church signs are weird. For a long time, the sign in front of a church near my house said "Stop road raging or I will make rush hour longer. --God". Said sign now reads "Your secret is safe with me. --God". What are they going for here? I don't get it. If you need more evidence that church signs are weird, see below and check this out. 

Harper's Moon

Last night was a full moon - the Hunter's Moon to be exact. While all full moons have a particular designation, in our house, every full moon is called a Harper's moon. Harper was born on a full moon. In fact, it was a total lunar eclipse. My sweet friend Virgie took this picture of the moon on the night Harper was born (she also took pictures of our house and came to the hospital to take precious pictures of our baby girl - so thoughtful). We had a great view of this moon from our hospital room that night. As I held Harper on her first night in this world, it was awesome to look at this beautiful moon and think about what an auspicious day it was. 

Not only was there a full moon total lunar eclipse that day, there was also a huge ice storm that paralyzed the city of Cincinnati as well as much of the surrounding areas. Luckily, we had no trouble getting to the hospital that morning (we left the house at 5am just as the snow began to fall). However, our doctor and anesthesiologist had a heck of a time getting there. So did my mom and dad who drove up from Florida to meet their first grandchild.

So, next time you see a full moon, think of it as a Harper's Moon!

Oh yeah, and by the way... this kid of mine is reading already.

Community

Part 1:

So I have been trying to write this post for over 24 hours now and I just can't seem to get out what I actually want to say. I consider myself to be reasonably articulate except when it comes to trying to express things that are very close to my heart. This is one of those things. So... instead of messing it up, I'll keep it short and sweet. Community is essential. It prevents me from becoming a small human being. The community I had have in Cincinnati was life-changing. The community I am becoming a part of here in Nashville is wonderful and I'm excited to go deeper with all of you. Ok, enough of that.

Part 2:

I am wearing cool shoes today. I know what you're thinking - "What does this have to do with community?" Well, these are special shoes. They're called Toms (Shoes for Tomorrow). Go to their website to find out all of the good details (and pick up a pair while you're at it). In short, this company was started to provide shoes to people who would otherwise go without them. The way it works is that for every pair of Toms shoes that you buy, one pair is given to a person who needs them. Before I heard about Toms, the thought that there were people (many people, most of them children) in the world that couldn't afford shoes really never entered my mind. However, this is a huge problem in places like South America and Africa. Going barefoot in impoverished areas is very dangerous because it significantly increases the risk of contracting soil transmitted parasites like hookworms - very nasty little creatures that can lead to some serious consequences especially if you aren't the healthiest person to begin with. The bottom line is that I often forget that I am part of a much bigger community of human beings and owning a pair of Toms shoes is one small thing that helps me remember that.