How Not To Kill A Dragon

So Kerry is leveling his experience levels today, but I am trying to figure out if we even squashed a dragon shaped bug. If you don't know what I am talking about, read Kerry's blog first.

Today was a difficult day. At first impression, I was very frustrated, but now I think it was good. I must recount what we did and did not do today to explain my view of our first full day in Edinburgh. Yesterday we flew in, and in the blur of tiredness checked into a youth hostel. This is kind of like a dorm, except we stayed at one in which we got our own bedroom. The accommodations were not luxurious, but we crashed at 7:30 and woke up 7:30 the next morning.

After a really good night sleep, I thought today would be a fantastic day for dragon slaying. We had seen a little of the town yesterday, but I was overwhelmed with people and city. I also had no idea which way I was facing and would have depended on a map had Kerry not recognized everything. Our first dragon to slay today was to find a furnished flat. The issue of permanent accommodations has been a source of stress for me since this is a very important step toward truly getting settled. I think every woman needs a nest, especially one three months pregnant. To get to the very first flat we were to see, we walked from the south center portion of the City Centre to the northwest portion of that same area. We began our walk through Meadows Park which was refreshing and beautiful, and I thought that this was very charming. After a hour and a half of walking up hill, after which we were over a half hour late to the appointment, I decided there was no way I wanted that apartment anyways. In fact, I was seconded guessing my “not getting a car” idea and was sure their were too many people in this city. I also had expected the streets to be straighter and longer. How can you call an alley a hundred feet long a separate street? Before I completely made that decision about the apartment, Kerry called the agency to reschedule the appointment, but they could not return until Monday. Fine. So we walked back towards the University to try to slay our second dragon, get Kerry registered.

As we walked our way back, I grumpily noticed we were still going up hill. How was it that we went uphill to get to the flat and then uphill to leave it. As I discovered throughout the day, the whole city is uphill!

Anyways, Kerry did get registered, and pretty quickly, but not completely. It turns out there are three steps. One step was done, but two more to go. It turns out that the University is spread out throughout the city, most of the hard part was completed at Old College in a very busy area of town, the attendance registration was in David Hume Tower near where we were staying, and meeting with his adviser would happen a New College near the castle. We ate lunch nearby as I watch a bunch of over stylized teenagers bustling around. I think these are the only people in the world who actually wear what they show in style magazines, and all of them seemed to be between 16 and 20 years old. It is strange to feel “mature” at the age of 27.

Then came the second flat that we saw. This one was up a zillion stairs and was unfurnished. We walked around in circles for about 15 minutes to find an elusive door number 24. The agent did find us and showed us where the apartment was. Inside it was on the top floor with no elevator. Even though we were kind of eager to sign a lease, that apartment just wouldn't work. Leaving there, we passed Holyrood Park with the enormous dormant volcano, Arthur's Seat. We did not attempt to climb it, but somehow it relieved some of the disappointment of the apartment. We then went to Starbucks, of which this city has one on every corner. The glorious oasis provided us with life giving caffeine and free internet, by which we were able to scope out potential other flats. Even though we would not be able to see any of them until Monday, it was good to get this dragon wounded at least.

We actually did the second step to Kerry's registration at this point.

Meeting his adviser would have to wait until Monday. This still left it on the to do list, so this dragon was not slayed, just seriously wounded. After that we went back to the hostel to find out that because we did not reserve our room for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights, we were going to have to find another hotel and move all of our baggage there. I was very depressed, but Kerry actually killed that dragon by bidding on a Hilton on Priceline and winning it. Fantastic! It is a little far, but we will get a taxi to move our stuff and we will be moving up in niceness for the same price. Now that is some major dragon slaying, but I can't take credit for that.

Even though I felt frustrated at not meeting our goals, we did start getting familiar with the city, a little less overwhelmed with the pedestrian traffic, and really picking out the nice areas which differed from online. So at least we have two wounded dragons and one dead one between us. Not too bad.

Behold Edinburgh part 2

Friday (or How I Gained Tons of Experience Points)

Google Maps is a great tool, particularly the street level, which, I am told, has inadvertently allowed certain persons (not mentioning any names, but his initials are JDD) to view people in their underwear through street-facing windows. While I have not personally had this dubious honor, I nevertheless have found Google Maps to be an indispensable tool in preparing me for walking around Edinburgh. After a day and a half of walking through Old Town and some of the surrounding areas, I feel exceptionally comfortable and familiar. I have been able to navigate by landmarks in a city I had never before visited: there's the Starbucks I saw online, and there's that Greyfriars Bobby pub, and there's that Pizza/Kebab place. Now, some might for some reason think it's funny that my landmarks tend to be food-related. Yes, I like food. There's nothing wrong with that. And yes, I have tried two of the three previously mentioned landmarks already.

What Google Maps doesn't show you, even at street level, is that the city was apparently built on an earthquake and designed by Escher. I'm talking about the elevation variances, so we've had to learn the hard way that High Street is actually high, that walking the royal mile is like traveling from Jericho to Jerusalem, and that some roads run underneath others, instead of intersecting them. This can create a problem when you are trying to reach a destination that is supposed to be at a particular corner, only the corner is about 150 feet above you (now where did I put that tourist's grappling hook?).

We've had quite a bit of walking to do, because today (Friday the 25th) was supposed to be our day to find a flat. Yeah. We struck out. Of the three that we were supposed to see today, one we were late to because I misjudged how long it would take to walk there, one was let yesterday to someone else, and one ended up being too expensive. For Lara, this felt like a total waste of time. No dragons were slain, their rotting carcasses burned, and their bejeweled scales harvested for trophies of her valor (we did register me, which took all of 15 minutes – if you've ever registered at a University, you now envy me, heh heh). That's the way Lara looks at things. That's the particular angle she has on goal orientation. Establish a goal, then seek and destroy. That's also why she gets so much done.

I, on the other hand, while being similarly goal oriented, look at goals differently. Yes, I want to accomplish them, but the process of accomplishing carries with it its own rewards. I approach life more like the way I play a Final Fantasy game. While my brother would rush through the game as quickly as possible and then struggle to beat the last boss because his levels were too low, I fight endlessly to gain levels. I never equip the relic or drink the potion that makes random battles happen less frequently. I often do the opposite. Why? Because it makes me stronger. I gain valuable experience points and max out levels, acquiring the mightiest spells, the coolest blitz techniques, and the most expensive or rarest weapons and armor. It is my endeavor in such games to find every last magical item and thus establish my name in the annals of RPG fame! HAHAHAHAHA!

This is the way I look at life. So today was actually rather satisfying for me, because I felt like, even though we didn't make a decision about a flat, we learned valuable things today and thereby came closer to a good decision. Also, we walked around for miles, so my athletics skill jumped like three levels.

My coin accounting skill must be increasing like crazy, too. The UK has 40,000,000 different coins! I'm trying to learn them all, but so far I know them as the heavy one, the one that looks like a penny, the big single color one, the big two color one, the heptagonal one (yes, it has seven sides), the 3.26 pence one ... okay, maybe not the last one. And the paper money isn't much help either. After my first ATM withdrawal I was okay because all the bills came out looking the same. This would simple to learn, I thought. Only the bills from the second ATM withdrawal came out looking different, but they were the same denomination – Anglican. I've gotten some change, too, that looks a little different. Lara observed that the US has different looking bills, especially recently. But at least a five always has honest Abe on it. I have had at least two, if not three, differently colored 10 pound notes with different people on them. All in all, my various skill levels are definitely increasing, and I think I may max out my character in three months.

Behold Edinburgh

Thursday (or Wednesday, or whatever, I'm too tired to care)

After a difficult Tuesday night in which I slept maybe five hours, we faced a hurried and emotional Wednesday. We had to say goodbye to Lara's parents and grandmother, with her mom lying in a hospital bed. We said goodbye to two cats we raised from kittens, bottle-feeding them from four weeks old. We said goodbye to our dog for who knows how long (it depends on the housing we can find). With all of this happening I honestly did not think much about my own family except to test call Skype, which I would use in Edinburgh to call them when we got there. For my test call I talked to my dad because that was who picked up. Then I got a call on my cell phone from my mom who wanted to say goodbye and hear the sound of my voice. Yeah, I felt like a jerk. I could hear Mr. T saying “Call yo' mama, fool!”

We flew out at 4:30 pm from DFW on Lufthansa (a major German airline, for those of you who are as ignorant as I was). We had not weighed our checked luggage, and ended up having to move several items around to make certain that all the bags were under the limit. We were aided by a very nice lady at the counter who made some exceptions for us. International direct flights, at least on foreign airlines, leave from terminal D. This was my first experience with terminal D. A, B, and C are basically all the same, semi-circular with shops on the inside of the circle and gates on the outside, metallic, shiny, and hectic. Terminal D was a little different. It is more squarish, with a kind of shopping mall feel to it. It was also significantly less hectic.

This was my third international flight (if you count going to and from Africa as two flights), and the shortest of the three. The flight was on-time and about nine hours. As I mentioned in a previous post, we were to lose six hours on this flight, so we thought it would be a good idea to get some sleep on the plane. I knew this would be easier said than done, since the plane left at 4:30 central time and would arrive at what would feel like 1:30-ish AM, and I don't sleep well on planes anyway. You already know how well that worked out.

Frankfurt's airport is an interesting blend of upscale, high-tech modernity and run-down, low-tech simplicity. In the B section of terminal 1 there is a really nice area upstairs with restaurants and comfortable seating overlooking the runways (with a McDonalds of all things – I really think it should be classified as a pandemic). Right outside of this area was an extended section with missing ceiling tiles and exposed wiring. It was kind of like Mad Max meets Ritz-Carlton, all the luxury one might expect in a post-apocalyptic airport.

I've heard that among Europeans, Germans are often caricatured as serious, long-faced, taciturn, and abrupt. Yep, that about sums it up. There was about as much hospitality as what one might expect from a county jail. I know it's one of the ruder aspects of American travelers to expect everyone to cater to them, but I honestly did not know how to order a pretzel in German, and we were in the freaking INTERNATIONAL SECTION OF THE AIPORT! One notable exception was one of the flight attendants, originally on Lara's side of our middle section; I moved to Lara's other side because she was much nicer than the one on my side who seemed rather put out that I didn't automatically know the drink options.

I have to admit that all the angry-looking Muslims waiting for what could have been our flight was unnerving, and it didn't help that the only response I got from my attempt to appear friendly was one of the Muslims getting up and moving away from our area. When our flight was called, I was relieved to be leaving Germany and relieved that the Muslims weren't leaving with me.

I slept most of the two hours from Frankfurt to Edinburgh, hoping that it might refresh me enough to make it through the rest of the day. At this point I didn't know what day it was, I didn't know what time it was, I honestly at one point had trouble remembering Lara's name. I wasn't really in the mood to be happy about being in another country. But the general friendliness level in Edinburgh was a stark contrast to Frankfurt. The lady inspecting our passports and visas for entry had to do some extra checking to verify our story (which I understand), but she did so in a professional and eventually personable manner. I never felt dismissed or an intrusion.

We were picked up at the airport through a service called Edinburgh Direct. The driver's name was Paul, and he was a delight. He made meaningful and comfortable conversation the whole way from the airport to our accommodations at Argyle Backpackers Hostel. I did my best to interact with him through the haze of ludicrous sleepiness, and I gave him a big tip.

Argyle Backpackers is a good example of the European youth hostel: cheap dormitory style accommodation for the most part with shared bathrooms and kitchens, aimed especially at young people traveling on a limited budget. Many hostels, this included, also have private rooms available for a little more money. It's a no frills way to stay somewhere relatively cheaply. Plus, this one was in a good location for us. Objectively, I don't know how comfortable the bed actually was, but I was asleep by 7:30 pm on what felt like the softest, most wonderful bed ever made by third world factory workers.

Ein Postlein (a little Post)

I am sitting here in the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, regretting the fact that I have not posted in weeks. There is so much to tell, but it will have to wait.

Now, I know that there is a rule understood by travelers that being in an airport doesn't really count for being in the country. Well, I say: forget that trash. I'm in Germany! The airport buildings don't magically transport me to U.N.-ville. Besides, I had to walk ON THE GROUND to get to the tram that taxied us to the terminals from the plane, so nobody better be telling me that I haven't been in Germany. And if I'm not in Germany, how does one explain all the people speaking German, huh?

The flight here left the US at 4:30 central time and arrived at 8:45 am local time. Now that looks like a really long flight, but once you subtract the seven hour time difference it was a measly seven hour flight. PFFFT! PSHAH! Nothing. Except that my rear end is still numb two hours later and I know there was a 3-shaped indentation on my seat on the plane. I could tell you about the poor infant who managed to cry for the entire flight, or the poor mother who patiently did everything superhumanly possible to calm the baby, but honestly the most remarkable thing about the flight were the cool touch screen monitors in front of every seat that let me watch my own movie (from a selection). Sweet! I watched the new Star Trek movie and Monsters vs. Aliens. Going into the flight, we knew it would definitely be wisdom to get some sleep, so I did (about two hours).

Well, Lara and I will be in Edinburgh in a few hours. Tomorrow we'll view some flats (apartments) and hopefully sign on one. More to come.

Baby Showers

One of the things I was prepared for in moving to Scotland was not to have baby showers with my friends. I thought if they wanted to get me something when I was there, I would try to register with some store in the UK that had a website that they could order from and not have to pay shipping. I was pleasantly surprised that others had thought about this before me.

Kerry and I attend a Bible study on Tuesday nights in Tyler with a group of friends who I hope are all reading this. They are fantastic! They threw us a surprise baby shower. Kerry knew about it and his version of keeping it a secret was saying, "The guys and girls are going to be together tonight and they want us to be 15 minutes late." We usually split up the guys and girls, so this was a clue that something was happening, but I wasn't expecting what I was greeted with. We walked in Mark and Sheila's house and everyone yelled, "Surprise!" The living room had some balloons, the dining room table had a cake that looked like a train and cupcakes that had pacifiers made of candy on them. There was a full baby shower waiting. The food was good, the conversation was fun, and the gifts were very appropriate for our limited luggage space. They were even thoughtful enough to find Classic Winnie the Pooh (which I know is hard to find) for the receiving blankets and pacifier that I received. The cute rattle had all the little tactile things that babies love hanging on it. The little baby clothes made me think, "Wow, I am going to have a baby who will wear this!" It was very neat! The whole thing was very wonderful and was the first surprise party I ever had. In fact, I can only remember having one birthday party when I was a little kid, so it was a very unique experience! I will treasure it always.

At work, I was told they would be giving me and baby shower/going away party the Friday after the surprise party I just described. I had not ever seen the company give a going away party before and I was surprised that I would get a baby shower since I am still so newly pregnant (I was only ten weeks). I was expecting only a few people to show up and a little celebration. I was surprised that nearly everyone in the company who could be there was there. The conference table was decorated in polka-dot themed cake, baby blanket, and cookies. There was also a "money-tree" in the center of the table with cards and money. There were also some small baby items on the table with which we played a "price-is-right" style game and then a name mommy songs game. It was very nice and everyone was very generous. I especially liked the card that was signed by everyone, even those not there.

I was very surprised by these two events, and it was more than I had expected even if I had stayed throughout my pregnancy. I think that I am always surprised by acts of true friendship because of my lack of friends when I was in school, but I hope that I never take these acts that I have experienced for granted. Thank you to all my friends who are reading this. You are all very special and I hope that such acts will be returned to you ten fold!

Baby on the Way

It has been hard for me to figure out what to write. Finding out I was having a baby busted the last calm nerve I had. I have been reading as much as I can about everything from pregnancy to labor and delivery to the UK healthcare system to hushing a colicky baby. At the same time I have been stressing over the short time we have until we need to leave for Edinburgh.

The main question I have received in the last month is "Do you have morning sickness?" I am not offended by this question even though I hear it about 5 times a day from co-workers and friends since it would be the only thing I would be able to think off to ask too. The fact is I have been blessed to avoid that, though I have been snacking to keep the squeamish stomach feeling down. The main thing I feel is tired. REALLY tired! Then I have also been swinging between depressed and panicked with glimpses of frustration mixed in.

I have found that the glorious image of pregnancy that I kept for four years as we waited for this miracle to happen was completely an illusion. Pregnancy clothes are expensive! I was told by a friend who had her baby in Scotland to buy some to bring with me because they were almost nonexistent in the UK. Well, shopping for them before you need them is really hard. How do I know how big I will get? Will I have a cute basketball tummy or will I need a tent? No matter what I picked out, I felt depressed afterwards because I really don't want to get fat! I understand gaining weight for the baby, but how easy is it to just let yourself go and gain fifty pounds by the second trimester? Everything I have been reading also says that I should not be gaining any weigh right now either (since I am still in the first trimester). Well, like it or not, I have and that makes me wonder if I have already "let myself go". I guess I will just have to be resigned to working hard on losing it all after the baby is born.

After that frustration, there were the issues of finding books that talked about stuff I wanted to learn about. What happened to all the natural birth, hypno birth and water birth books? And why does Walmart only carry one pregnancy magazine? Why do the books about breast feeding not cover all the problems that everyone I know experienced? I would also like to read about pregnancy symptoms other that morning sickness and gaining weight. Is it normal to drink water like a camel? What about about the tiredness I feel now, since the books only mention it at the end of the pregnancy? Where are the over-marketed gear reviews and registry musts? Even the internet seems sparse, but then again I probably should do more that a five second search at a time.

Talking about the internet, I found out that the theme I had always wanted for my baby, classic Winnie the Pooh, has been almost discontinued from some of the major stores. I mean you can find Disney Winnie the Pooh almost anywhere, but that is just loud. I like the old fashioned storybook images. I wouldn't even mind if they replaced "Classic Pooh" with the Velveteen Rabbit or Wind in the Willow, but instead you get Disney or plain patterns, maybe some jungle animals too.

I was mourning over the google searches that showed every store carrying only one or two items when I came across a nice surprise. It turns out E.H. Shepard, the original illustrator of the Winnie the Pooh books and the recognizable "Classic Pooh" images, was British. He lived in Victorian England and the British are still in love with his books. They have lots of classy Winnie the Pooh baby things in the style I love. This asset to our new home location propagated many other happy thoughts.

It really is a fantastic thing that I will have the baby in the UK. First of all, we will qualify for their healthcare which will be free. Secondly, I have heard good reports about the system from the midwives to the house visits after the baby is born. Then, I will also have my dream of being able to stay home with the baby if I do in fact work freelance like I was expecting to. Also, with the housing being so small, there won't be as much housework to do when I am tired and busy with the baby. We will be close enough to everything that I won't have to plan all day excursions into town, but timing quick trips, between feedings, hopefully, for whatever I need.

I have to say that this was still odd timing (can we say God has a sense of humor?). I was not expecting my dreams of traveling around the world to include a child, but I think this was kind of a divine leash on me so that I will not feel like I am doing all of this on my own. I have an over-developed sense of being in control at all times. I like planning and working hard and I am proud of my accomplishments. Sometimes this causes me to feel like I have caused the good things in my life because I have worked hard for it, but the truth is, none of us can cause anything really important to happen without God opening the way. With my tiredness and lack of control over my emotions, I have also lost the vise-like grip over our schedule and finances. I can't seem to stay on top of anything anymore and somehow everything is getting done.

I have to say that this experience, which still has hardly begun, is something I have never imagined would happen. If you tried to tell me a year ago that we would be moving to Scotland and having a baby and Kerry getting his doctorate, I would have suggest you just choose one to pray for and we would worry about the others later.

As if life weren't interesting enough ... - Kerry

Well, Kerry and Lara fans (yes, all five of you), the wait is over. While I have been remiss in my blogging commitment, the events of the last four weeks, I think, justify my brief break. I don't want to just fill up blogspace with meaningless literary wanderings. I have wanted, from the beginning, for this blog to tell a significant and meaningful story of God's provision, blessing, guidance, and just overall goodness. I think few things trump the events of the last four weeks in telling just that story.

On Saturday morning July 11th, Lara nudged me awake to show me a pregnancy test that had two lines instead of the usual one we had come to expect. It's difficult to express the blend of feelings of relief, elation, and terror that started to come over me in that instant. We have been off of any contraceptive since the summer of 2005 - more than four years of leaving children in the hands of God. That fact in itself explains the the relief and elation. But my terror was not, as you might expect, deriving from the supposed next question that enters a man's mind, namely "How are we going to pay for this?" I can honestly say that this question has not plagued me. If God can provide $13,000, and if God can give us this child, He can also provide the money to pay for it. No, my terror was more a concern for this child to make it past the first trimester and be born, for everything to be okay with it. That terror only grew until the moment we went for our first sonagram last Tuesday, July 28. Despite reason, I was fearful that the little bit of blood Lara had seen a few days before had been a miscarriage. I knew they were going to look in there and not be able to find a baby. I knew that it was going to be implanted in the filopian tubes or in the cervix. I knew something must be wrong.

But there it was, implanted exactly where it should have been, with a heartbeat at 111 beats per minute. It wasn't as old as we thought it was going to be (we were off by two weeks, thinking it would be eight weeks along instead of six), but it was perfectly formed and perfectly functioning, apparently developing exactly as babies have since Eve first conceived Cain. Then, I began to really trust that God was not going to give me a stone when I had asked for bread. This is a consistent faith issue with me, somehow thinking that God is waiting to jinx me, just to show that He is sovereign and that I should be faithful no matter what. This is also why I truly wish that the insider Christian joke about not praying for patience (since that is the surest way to get the capricious God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to jinx you with a test of your patience - ha ha isn't that funny) would just go away and never return from the abyss which spawned it. It's bad theology, and not helpful in the least.

So now we have a baby on the way, due March 23, 2010 (that's 3/23 - and all sorts of Bible verses come to mind). When most people hear about this, they're immediate reaction tends to be in the realm of cancelling Scotland plans because this complicates things too much. On the contrary, this is totally perfect. First of all, it is conspicuous that God waited until we were totally committed to going to Scotland to give us a child. I think that had we already had children, we might not have even considered doing what we are doing. But honestly, I think it will be easier for us to do this in Scotland than in our current situation. Lara was already planning to work freelance, meaning flexible (if busy) schedule, we are covered under the NHS healthcare of Scotland since I am a student, and the baby is due at a time when, perhaps, my schedule will be a little more flexible during those exhausting and stressful first few months.

I'm certain that the second part of everyone's gut reaction has to do with dollar (or should I say pound) signs. I will tell you that money has been on our minds, but God is handling it, and every time Lara or I try to take this problem on ourselves, it does not work out. A great example came about a couple of weeks ago. A car dealership in Henderson, TX (which, for my many out of state and international fans, is about a 45 minute drive southeast from Tyler) sent me an advertisement which guaranteed a prize of some sort if I just came by. The prize could have been a car, $2,500 in cash, or a couple of other things, including (most likely) a Walmart gift card worth up to $1,000. I thought to myself, "Well, it's on my day off, and what can it hurt?" So I went. It was raining when I arrived at the dealership, and business looked slow. A man greeted me and brought me inside where he began to give me the sales pitch for why they were doing the deal they were doing and so on. Then he asked me what sort of vehicle I might be interested in. Honestly, I said, my wife and I are selling everything we own and moving to Scotland, so I really am not interested in any vehicle, just the prize. He took it graciously and departed to get my prize. It was, not surprisingly, a Walmart gift card, but he did not know what the value was, I would have to call to get the balance. He did know that the value could be anywhere between $5 and $1000. So I got in the truck and got out my cell phone to call the number on the card. After entering a ridiculous amount of numbers the generic female voice told me that the balance on the card was ... $5. Not even enough to pay for the gas I would use as a result of this little excursion. I laughed and immediately called Lara to tell her. In the end, it was yet another gentle reminder that God was in control, not chance, not the economy, not me. And deep down in the very center of my being, I believe that. I have peace about this move to Scotland, and I have peace about this baby.

But while I'm not concerned about how to pay for it, there is something that concerns me, and that is the lack of overwhelming emotion I've had. I was expecting that once Lara was pregnant, I would instantly feel deep and inexpressible joy which showed itself in laughter and tears. I expected to feel superlative wonder at God's creative handiwork in the conception of a child. I expected to be obsessed morning and evening with thoughts of the baby. Instead, aside from a few moments where I nearly teared up, most of what I've felt at a very deep level is numbness, and there have been days where I hardly thought about the baby at all. This bothers me. I feel like it reflects on my preparedness to be a dad. It's just so hard to feel those extreme emotions right now with everything else that is going on. From the move to Scotland to Lara's mother to my grandfather to other family drama to the Lifeway store I work at preparing to move (which, by the way, provides probably 75% of my day-to-day stress), I don't really feel like I have anything left to give. But if I can't give that sort of emotional attention to my baby, what kind of dad am I? These are likely irrational thoughts, questions that will be resolved in time. I just feel less and less capable of doing something so incredibly important as parenting a child the more I become acquainted with my own shortcomings. But God has expressed a great deal of faith in us by entrusting this baby to our care. I know that He is faithful to bring that which He begins unto full maturity, and that includes both my baby and me.