Ethan's Baby Dedication

Ethan had his Baby Dedication on March 9th this year. This was such a sweet service, held for many parents and their precious children. As our Preschool Minister said, the dedication was more for the parents than for the children. And as a parent, it was extremely meaningful. God gave us this amazing baby! Somedays I still can't believe that. He actually trusted Ryan and I enough to place Ethan in our hands for his time here on Earth. And it is our calling to place him back in His. So that was this very special day.







*I would like to take this time to give MAJOR props to the Preschool Ministry at our church. You all are AMAZING. The prayers that you all have prayed for our children, the way you have encouraged us as parents, how you all are there with huge smiles everytime we come through the door. I thank God for each of you!!*


We were so grateful to have Ethan's Pap-Pap and Grammy Musser and his Mom-ma Ocker with us for the dedication.




Our Pastor of Emerging Generations gave a very brief message at the beginning of the service and one of the things that he said that remained in my heart was that we, as his parents, are called to train Ethan according to his "bend". God has fashioned Ethan in a way that will be different from our other children. He has given him his own personality, his own desires, his own calling - and we are given the "without God, forget about it" task of raising him so that he is equipped to be all that God has planned for him. Wow, we need God.

Ethan threw his first, very short-lived, temper tantrum at Chick-Fil-A tonight. I thought it was adorable (don't judge me) and Ryan had his own, very different, opinion. I know that the next time, I won't find it quite as endearing, so I'm already calling my mom friends and asking for advice. My point being, we need God...and we desperately need each other. I'm so thankful for the friends that I have with children older than Ethan - and for all ya'll with smaller babies and none at all. But it's so nice to know that we don't have to face parenting alone.

It happened again!

My ever-present fear of not being prepared has once again surfaced subconciously in the form of a dream.

Anytime I have something big coming up I will inevitably have a dream prior to the event where I am anything but prepared for said event. Take for example...the biggest day of my life, my wedding day. I can't tell you how many dreams I had where the Bridal March would be playing, all of the bridesmaids would have completed their walk down the aisle and someone would be finding me in my sweat pants. I would wake up completely flustered. Yet somewhat relieved.

Right before my qualifying exam I dreamed that I was putting together my powerpoint presentation during my exam and the clock kept ticking and my committee kept getting madder and threatening to walk out.

The list could go on and on. The typical cycle goes something like this. The date for the big event is determined. I begin to prepare for the event. I typically over-prepare for the event. And then I have "the dream". Depending on how big the event is, I could have multiple reoccuring dreams. (Was that redundant?) Then the event happens and everything works out fine! Always. Now there are some things that go wrong or that I'm not prepared for. But what I'm trying to tell myself is that everything usually works out. Oh! My dream last night...

So I am in the process of looking for a job teaching chemistry. And I had the worst dream last night that I got a job teaching and of course, I was not prepared for the job. I couldn't get there on time, so I missed classes. I hadn't read the chapter, so I couldn't teach the material. And even if I had been ready to teach, in this dream, I couldn't even find the classroom!

I didn't even know I was worried about teaching. Maybe it was my mind's way of telling me that subconscioulsy I know that going from a laboratory to a classroom will be a huge jump and honestly, I'm a little intimidated by the thought of it. But what I hope I've learned from my experience with these dreams in the past and the typical outcomes of the big events is that it's going to be okay.

I know this isn't very deep, but can anyone relate?

Consider a pin ball...

then consider my thought processes. So similar. I go from one place to another in my mind just like that little pin ball in that big machine. Ricocheting left and right and up and down. It doesn't help that my screen saver is a bunch of pictures - taking me down memory lane. Which is so fun..but kind of distracting.

This is why I need your prayers. I am on an intense week of writing and my brain goes from one thought to another - and they're usually not connected. Help!! I just want to be able to write two consecutive paragraphs without getting distracted. This is why I absolutely cannot facebook right now. (Maybe someday)

On a random note - (here I go...) Did you know that at the McDonald's in Chambersburg, PA they have high definition TVs and video games?! What happened to the good old play ground?

OK - enough distracting myself, I'm back to work!