Baby, It's Cold Outside

I have for years thought of Christmas in the traditional and common way that it is often thought of today: a secular holiday with a very real and spiritual foundation, the birth of the Christ child Jesus. I have reveled in the holiday spirit, the silver bells, the dreams of wintery snow scenes, holly scented greenery and jingle-themed music. Old-school crooners like Dean Martin and Bing Crosby not replaced but supplemented by new-school crooners like Michael Buble and Josh Groban.

I have treasured these feelings and memories for their connections in my heart to the care-free days of my childhood when life was pretty easy, low on responsibility, and spiritual, but not heavy. The Christ child was relevant to me, but mostly in a passive way that gave a nod to the tradition of Jesus, but allowed me to continue in the revelry of the day and my active love for the Christmas holiday itself.

To think of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” brought instant connection in my heart to that full and rich and joyful and warm Christmasy feeling, and meant a celebration of that wintery warm-by-the-fire’s-glow feeling and that hot cup of chocolate.

And to be honest with you I have looked for that feeling in my heart for the last five to ten years. It hasn’t been there as fully or with as much life as it used to carry. I have looked for that “Baby It’s Cold Outside” feeling, trying to restore that Christmas cheer and pine-needle aroma.

And today, while thinking about that feeling and my search for it, I actually reached outside of the doorframe of my mind and found that it was in fact cold outside. I was surprised to find that the warm glow of my Christmas expectations wasn’t outshining the cold. The Christmas aroma was not overpowering the more pungent smell of sadness that I and so many others breathe this year. I realized it was a cold that chills me past my skin, past my bones and way down into my soul.

This week one of my brother’s best friends died. He was 26 and succumbed to the swine flu. Two weeks ago we heard that one of our favorite pastors had had a seizure, that doctors had discovered a fist-sized tumor in his head and yesterday we heard that the tumor was malignant and fighting for ownership of his brain tissue. This week we watched as two young men and a young lady who loved Jesus and served him fought for their lives on the side of a mountain I have climbed. I know exactly where they walked. This month we have watched a number of couples in our lives battle for their marriages, sometimes winning and sometimes failing. We watched an Acts 29 church family suffer as its pastor took his own life. The list goes on and on.

And at one point today, I thought, this is a sad Christmas. It’s hard to walk with a happy heart and dream of sugarplums dancing, laugh with Frosty the Snowman and strain to hear silver bells ringing when so many people are suffering so completely. It feels so heavy and pointless and sad.

Baby, it is cold outside. Very cold.

But as my heart reveled in and gave itself over a bit to the sadness alive in this season this year, God washed over me with a voice like a strong current. This is the meaning of Christmas. This is why He came. This is our redemption.

Because it is cold outside. Because of loss and sorrow and tears. Because of death and dying and sickness and sadness. The Christ child came to redeem these. And they are His. That little boy so poor and needy in that manager hay grew into a toddler and a youth and a man. And lived a sinless life so that He could lay it on the altar as a sacrifice for our sins. And He did.

And so today, you and I can walk in that, setting sadness aside, knowing that He has a plan that doesn’t check in with ours, but defines ours and writes ours. His ways are not our ways, but we know that His ways are good ways, and that He loves us. And that is why the God of the universe humbled Himself as He did, to become part of the creation.

To bring a warmth to us and to redeem the cold. That we might have perfect communion and connection with the God who before that Christ-child was untouchable by us because of our sin.

Baby, it’s cold outside, but there is a Savior. The Christ. Jesus.

So I am going to wallow in that memory this Christmas, and will know deeply in my heart that Christmas is to celebrate our Savior who came to bring us life and life eternal. And He will be my answer to the cold outside.

"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."

Santa - Jesus Theology

OK, I stole this concept from Matt Chandler, but I still want to elaborate on it for a minute: I think a lot of Christians are into the whole Santa Claus thing because Santa theology is so much like their own Jesus theology:

Santa theology:

He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!

Translation: Santa is omniscient like God. And, if you do good things, you get presents. If you do bad things, you get coal.

That all sounds so good until you have kids and you realize, wow, If I was really keeping track like that and playing the good Santa Claus, I could never give my kids presents because dang it they are bent and cruel at their core!

Many Christians (self-included at times) hold Santa-Jesus theology:

Jesus gives me good gifts when I am good and withholds his love when I am bad. Christians get these ideas 1) from their own moral code (and American pull-yourself-up-by-your-boot straps ethos) that says I can get myself out of anything, 2) from a desire to feel in control (if my behavior can control outcomes than I am in control and not God), and 3) from pastors who don’t understand their Bible.

The small (wink, wink) problems with this kind of theology are 1) the reality of life and 2) what God’s Word says:

1) The truth is that even people who – by the world’s standards – are good (they love people, love their kids, are generous, and give their money and time away) sometimes suffer. Take Matt Chandler as a case in point – he is a faithful man and “obedient” in many regards, but God has seen it fit to allow him to have a brain tumor about the size of a fist that needed removing. Or how about the man and woman who love Jesus and give their lives away, but lose a baby? Or the missionary that sells all he has and moves to India and is set on fire with his family? In these cases, good works do not equal good gifts in return. Nevermind the truth that plenty of “bad” or disobedient people live blessed lives. We can see from practical living that this kind of theology is a farce.

2) The Bible reminds us that none of us are good and therefore none of us worthy of either the common grace we get every day (the beautiful weather, the amazing planet God has given us, another day of life, etc.) nor the fullness of God’s forgiveness of sin. It comes only by grace (unmerited favor).

"There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Romans 3:10-18)

Likewise, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

Thankfully, there is grace, both for our kids on Christmas day (we can love them and share gifts with them gracefully) and for those who know Jesus every day and on Judgment day: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6)

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” (Romans 3: 21-25)

The Stinsons

I got ready for work and came downstairs to say goodbye to the Stinsons yesterday. They were leaving later in the day but I wouldn’t be around. Kelly and the girls said their teary goodbyes around noon when Kelly took Shawn, Kal and P to the airport.

It was a bittersweet day. So much excitement for them and their return to Charlotte and family and friends who love them so much. And so much anticipation and hope for Redemption Church and their desire to bring some of the Seattle-meets-Acts Biblical culture back to Charlotte. And yet of course it was hard for those of us here who love the Stinsons and have seen them become such an integral part of our lives over the last two years. Some band-aids come off easy, some come off with a lot of pain because of all of the glue involved. There’s a lot of glue on the Stinson band-aid:

The Stinsons lived in our home for three of the twenty-three months they were in Seattle, not even mentioning all of the Tuesday night Idol nights, camping trips, weekend get-togethers, or the occasional times they spent the night in our guest bedroom.

Our kids ask to pray for them every night before bed (including them in the list of Mimis, Pops, Nanis, Poppis, Uncles, Mommys and Daddys).

When you ask G to say the Cowan names she says Daddy Cowan, Mommy Cowan, "K" Cowan, "G" Cowan, "S" Cowan, Shawn Cowan, Kalle Cowan, "P" Cowan. Hilarious.

They were in our house enough that in the last month I expanded my before-bed routine of coming out onto the upstairs landing and praying over the house and the neighborhood and each occupied room to pray not just for our room, and K and G’s room, and S’s room, but added prayer over P’s room and Shawn and Kalle’s room.

They spent almost every significant holiday with us and our extended family – Easter, a Mother’s Day here and there, both Thanksgivings, both 4^ths of July.

They got to know and love my parents and felt really comfortable in their home and in their care. My parents love them as children and friends with the incredible gracious love my parents always give.

Even my sister and her family came to know and love them (my sister cried when they said their last “see you later”).

The Stinsons were counselors to us through some difficult times, including a painful family situation.

We walked through a period of deep grief with the Stinsons that rooted our hearts together forever.

Kelly and I both built on our friendship with Kalle. Kelly has been in Kalle’s life since she was about ten years old, and I’ve known her since she was fourteen. We’ve watched her grow up to be this amazing godly Mommy and wife and it’s been a great joy.

Kelly and I also both built on our friendship with Shawn. While we knew him as Kalle’s husband and had a friendship with him, I was able to build a solid and close friendship with this mature, solid, Jesus-loving Daddy and husband that I very much value.

And lastly, we fell in love with that little P-diddy and his sweet gentle spirit. He has the biggest smile and the saddest sad face ever seen!

We are very thankful for the Stinsons and for the depth of relationship that God gave us while they were here. I think both couples learned from each other and I know he rooted our hearts together and showed us what true community looks like. It will be hard to replicate, in part because the opportunity to “live together” and do life together in such a close and intentional way is so rare in our American and Christian culture. But we will pray to Jesus for more of it.

Likewise, we will continue our close relationship with the Stinsons. We’ll have to be even more intentional, but they’re important people to us, so it will be a natural intentionality.

Thank you Jesus for good friends! Thank you for these two great years with the Stinsons!

Spurgeon on Winter and Suffering

I am reposting something Lauren Chandler posted on her blog this morning – it is particularly relevant for them as they struggle through this difficult news of Matt’s tumor, discovered when he had a seizure and fell in his home on Thanksgiving day.

But it is relevant for all of us as we struggle through various seasons of pain, loss, frustration. Sometimes it is a death in our extended or close family. Perhaps it is frustration with a job search or with career growth. Or other issues.

This was encouraging to me, and I hope will be to you at all. Spurgeon seems to be saying that God uses these winter seasons not only to kill off disease or germs in our own life (to further refine and grow us in a later season), that God is sovereign and not out of control, but also that God is a present and living presence that we can count on as we go through difficult times and seasons.

Morning + Evening by C.H. Spurgeon--December 1, Morning:

"Thou hast made summer and winter."
--Psalm 74:17

My soul begin this wintry month with thy God. The cold snows and the piercing winds all remind thee that He keeps His covenant with day and night, and tend to assure thee that He will also keep that glorious covenant which He has made with thee in the person of Christ Jesus. He who is true to His Word in the revolutions of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world, will not prove unfaithful in His dealings with His own well-beloved Son.

Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be upon thee just now it will be very painful to thee: but there is this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectation: He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes over the once verdant meadows of our joy: He casteth forth His ice like morsels freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all, He is the great Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore thou canst not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills, are of the Lord's sending, and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill noxious insects, and put a bound to raging diseases; they break up the clods, and sweeten the soul. O that such good results would always follow our winters of affliction!

How we prize the fire just now! how pleasant is its cheerful glow! Let us in the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw nigh to Him, and in Him find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments of His promises, and go forth to labours which befit the season, for it were ill to be as the sluggard who will not plough by reason of the cold; for he shall beg in summer and have nothing.

Fascinating Marriage quote

From Piper's Blog:

Here's an unusual wake up call about the wonders of marriage.

To complain that I could only be married once was like complaining that I had only been born once. It was incommensurate with the terrible excitement of which one was talking. It showed not an exaggerated sensibility to sex but a curious insensibility to it. A man is a fool who complains that he cannot enter Eden by five gates at once. Polygamy is a lack of the realization of sex; it's like a man plucking five pears in mere absence of mind. (G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 103)

Noel Piper on Adoption

As I have said before, Kelly and I have a developing heart for adoption. We don’t know exactly when (although it will certainly be several years before we even start the process) or from where (we have a heart for Asia), but we feel like it’s a burden God has given us.

Somehow I stumbled on Noel Piper’s blog (she is pastor John Piper’s wife) and she has been documenting their adoption story in honor of Orphan Sunday, which apparently was 11/8. You can read her story from start to finish starting here, but I wanted to show you a letter she wrote to John when they were considering adoption. She had a very strong heart for it, and he was in consideration phase. She was trusting the final decision to him. I found this really interesting, and got a real chuckle out of the last set of points (“Being radical and taking risks”)! I also love how she calls him "Johnny".

You can find the original blog here:

-------------------

Johnny writes papers when he wants to explain his view or make a point. So during the days we were deciding whether to adopt, I tried to speak to him in his own language. I wrote what I hoped would be a persuasive paper.

Johnny,

I want to assure you that, in no way, do I think our ministry will be crippled if we go on as we are. It is rich. But I do believe that by adopting a daugher, God will add richness and depth and understanding and credibility in many areas of our personal and public lives.

Random Thoughts

• In general, I expect that having 1 child at home will seem very easy after all our years of 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, etc.
• Having a young aunt here will be extra fun for the grandchildren that will start to visit, maybe before many years.
• Having a child again at this stage in our life will keep us from moving as quickly into older stages. It will shove us back a generation.

Pro-Life Ministry

• The very act of adopting is a renewal and revitalization of our efforts against abortion and for life -- in a very new and powerful way.
• Adopting would add tremendous credibility, and confirm our seriousness in the effort for life.
• A person who is as vocal and visible as you about life will be very visible as a supporter of mothers, as a protector of children who would otherwise be unwanted and perhaps in danger, as living out the implications and responsibilities that follow in the wake of stopping an abortion.
• You have a powerful voice. Even if your writing/speaking isn’t directly about Life and adoption, it will be there, because what’s happening in your life IS there in your writing. And you will be an influence to many for the good of children who need homes.

Racial Reconciliation

• Our efforts toward racial reconciliation would have tangible credibility.
• We would have personal experience with family-level racial diversity.
• We would open ourselves to personal experience of how an African-American person and a mixed-race family is treated differently from the way to which we are accustomed.

Biblical Masculinity and Femininity

• You will gain new understanding and clarity when your Biblical understanding is applied to the life of a daughter. I expect you to have strong confirmation of what you’ve understood and taught all along.
• It will be a good thing for your promotion of these Biblical truths to actually experience and learn how to raise a girl to be a godly woman in a society that expects something else.
• Maybe there are practicalities that you haven’t even thought of, that you would see when raising a daughter, and these things would expand your understanding and teaching.
• Your speaking and writing and persuasion in this area will have new credibility, when you have a daughter.

Evangelism and Missions

• To add another child to our family becomes the most personal kind of evangelism toward adding members to the Kingdom.
• And considering our attitude toward missions, it may also be mission recruitment for the sake of the Kingdom!

Your Writing and Speaking Ministry

• Your public ministry will be deeper and richer because we know that everything God puts into our lives comes through into your writing and speaking as a clearer, more pointed explanation of God and his ways.
• We know there are angles of God’s face and aspects of his personality to be discovered in new situations he puts us into. We will experience more of God as we live with a daughter. And that deeper experience of God will make your public ministry so much richer.
• For instance, if we adopted a child, and raised her, we would understand God’s adoption in a much fuller way -- what it means to adopt a person who is not part of your family and make that person fully a partaker and inheritor of your own life and family.

Being Radical and Taking Risks

• I think it would not be fair to quote yourself to you to try to make a point. But I must say that very often over the years you have made statements about taking risks and trusting God and doing unexpected and radical things -- and I often hear those statements in the light of the radical thing I want to do, and therefore want you to do with me.
• To adopt -- at our age and when it would certainly not be expected of us and when it is not financially easy and when it might make other ministries more difficult -- would be more than a token. It would say that you are serious about radical faith.

Hosea and Gomer

What a beautiful picture of God’s grace to us, each of, before Christ, as we harlot ourselves out to other passions and loves than the love for our Jesus who made us. Our creator, friend, hope. He runs after us and is faithful to us no matter.

I love you Jesus.

Hosea 1:2,3
Hosea 2:13-16
Hosea 3:1,2

Hosea – Andrew Peterson

Every time I lay in the bed beside you
Hosea, Hosea
I hear the sound of the streets of the city
My belly growls like a hungry wolf
And I let it prowl till my belly’s full
Hosea, my heart is a stone

Please believe me when I say I’m sorry
Hosea, Hosea
You loveable, gullible man
I tell you that my love is true
Till it fades away like a morning dew
Hosea, leave me alone

Here I am in the Valley of Trouble
Just look at the bed that I’ve made
Badlands as far as I can see
There’s no one here but me, Hosea

I stumbled and fell in the road on the way home
Hosea, Hosea
I lay in the brick street like a stray dog
You came to me like a silver moon
With the saddest smile I ever knew
Hosea carried me home again, home again

You called me out to the Valley of Trouble
Just to look at the mess that I’ve made
A barren place where nothing can grow
One look and my stone heart crumbled
It was a valley as green as jade
I swear it was the color of hope
You turned a stone into a rose, Hosea

I sang and I danced like I did as a young girl
Hosea, Hosea
I am a slave and a harlot no more
You washed me clean like a summer rain
And you set me free with that ball and chain
Hosea, I threw away the key
I’ll never leave

Learning about Mormonism

Having spent my high-school years growing up in the Seattle area, I became pretty familiar with Mormons, or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as they call themselves. The Mormon church is a fascinating cult religion and I feel like God has given me a missional heart towards this people group, perhaps rooted in a visit to the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, UT when I was in college and on a ski trip in Utah.

Now that we live in the Seattle area again, I realize how ever-present Mormonism is here (being so close to the core Mormon states of Utah, Arizona, Idaho, etc.). We have a large Mormon temple which I pass every day on my way to and from work, as well as a large “ward” or community church type place, only a mile or so from our house.

I’m not sure how I came across it, but a year or so ago I began to follow a blog called Mormon Coffee, which is managed by a man named Aaron Shafovaloff, who is called to bring Jesus to Mormons and lives in Salt Lake City. The blog is an amazing resource for learning about the Mormon church, and has led me to do other research and reading, including finishing “Under the Banner of Heaven” a few months ago.

As I have brought many of these things I’ve learned home to share with Kelly, she has encouraged me to share them on my blog. So, while you can learn much more from the Mormon Coffee site (as well as watch Evangelical Christians (including many ex-Mormons) and LDS-defenders discuss the topics), I’ll pop some of the interesting ones on my blog here too.

For example:

• Mormons say of Joseph Smith (founder and prophet): "Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it..." (Doctrine and Covenants 135:3)

• And yet you could fill volumes of books (and it’s been done) on the inconsistencies of this man, for example:

• He was a polygamist, having upwards of 49 wives, including many young women who he coerced into marrying him at threat of eternal condemnation to hell (the threat extended to these girls’ extended families as well).

o Smith claimed to be a prophet, claiming to receive revelations from God. This is how he received the Book of Mormon, etc.

o One thing he prophesied (as did the prophet who came after him, Brigham Young): that the moon was inhabited by people that lived to the age of ~1,000, and that thye dressed in the Quaker style. :) (Source: http://www.challengemin.org/moon.html)

o Accordingly, even his mother acknowledged his huge imagination, noting that he made up fascinating stories (that sound a lot like the Book of Mormon) long before he “discovered” the BoM: “During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of travelling, and their animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life with them." (History of Joseph Smith by his Mother, 1954 edition, p. 83)

o Prior to “discovering” the BoM, Joseph Smith was arrested and found guilty of scamming people by claiming to be able to use a magical stone to divine hidden treasure:

§ "Prisoner [Joseph Smith] brought before Court March 20, 1826. Prisoner examined: says that he .... had a certain stone which he had occasionally looked at to determine where hidden treasures in the bowels of the earth were; that he professed to tell in this manner where gold mines were a distance under ground .... he had occasionally been in the habit of looking through this stone to find lost property for three years, but of late had pretty much given it up on account of its injuring his health, especially his eyes making them sore;...

§ "And therefore the Court find[s] the Defendant guilty. Costs: Warrant, 19c. Complaint upon oath, 25½c. Seven witnesses, 87½ c. Recognisances, 25c. Mittimus, 19c. Recognisances of witnesses, 75c. Suboena, 18c -$2.68." (Frazer's Magazine, February, 1873, pp. 229-30)

o In 1835, Joseph Smith rounded up some Egyptian “plates” and translated them into the Book of Abraham, which is now considered part of Mormon scripture. He did this long before serious Egyptian language study, which was fully developed when one of the plates was discovered by the Mormon Church in 1967. The plates were analyzed by professors who could translate the language, and found them to have nothing to do with Abraham, rather were common funeral directions connected to a random buried Egyptian. So, Joseph Smith, who claimed to be able to translate these plates (the Book of Mormon was supposedly also in Reformed Egyptian when he translated it), had fabricated this lie.

• Mormons believe that if you live a righteous life, you can become a God or Goddess (or God’s wife, it seems). This is why they believe in eternal marriage. Mormon men and women are married “eternally” (despite what Jesus says about this in Matthew 22:30 or Mark 12:25), populating the spirit world with spirit children, who are then “birthed” into the physical world by Godly Mormons.

o A religion that says 1) marry lots of women and 2) populate the world by having lots of sex – now this is certainly a religion invented by a man, right!

• Mormons are not Christians. They are not “little Christs” who worship Him. As example, in the early ‘80s Mormon students at BYU were meeting in the dorms praying “for a special relationship with Jesus.” A famous Mormon leader named Bruce McConkie spoke to them in a sermon on campus and said, clearly:

o “Some ("holier-than- thou" students) begin to pray directly to Christ because of some special friendship they feel has been developed. In this conception a current and unwise book, which advocates gaining a special relationship with Jesus, contains this sentence - quote: "Because the Saviour is our mediator, our prayers go through Christ to the Father, and the Father answers our prayers through his son. " Unquote. This is plain sectarian nonsense. Our prayers are addressed to the Father, and to him only. They do not go through Christ...You have never heard the First Presidency or the Twelve...advocate this excessive zeal that calls for gaining a so called special and personal relationship with Christ...never, never at any time have they taught or endorsed the inordinate and intemperate zeal that encourages endless, sometimes day-long prayers, in order to gain a personal relationship with the Saviour...I wonder if it is not part of Lucifer's system to make people feel they are special friends of Jesus when in fact they are not following the normal and usual pattern of worship found in the true Church." (Bruce McConkie, Speech at BYU on March 2 1982).

o In the same speech, he said “We worship the Father and him only and no one else. We do not worship the Son and we do not worship the Holy Ghost.”

• Why is there confusion about whether Mormons are Christians? They do not worship Him.

Anyway, I hope you find some of these interesting and thought-provoking. I will share more as I come across them and am learning myself. At the end of the day, I don’t hope to have this knowledge end with me. I am hoping it will spring into a deeper heart for share the Gospel of Jesus with Mormons who don’t know the true Jesus.

Good Eats Southern Style

We just got home from Charlotte and the beach. It was an amazing trip. Very relaxing, very nice to detach from work and regular life. And we had lots of help with the kids which was really fun and refreshing. At the same time, I got to spend a ton of time with the kids, which I really really enjoyed. And good time with Kelly too. And great time with family and friends in the Southeast. Thanks Andy and Leta for all that you did to make our trip special!

I might blog on some other aspects of the trip later, but one highlight for me was the food. Here’s where we ate while in Charlotte, on the way down to the beach, and in the Charleston/Wild Dunes area:

• Chick-fil-a – I ate here four times (!), including once for breakfast. Chick-fil-a really cannot be beat. It is the best fast food around bar none. The girls are big fans of the nuggets here and Kelly is a big fan of the lemon pie. I am a big fan of everything on the menu and I always prove it when I walk in.
  
• Starbucks – old faithful. 'Nuf said.
• Caribou – Kelly likes Caribou and we only went because the Starbucks down the street was closed for a late night remodel. Caribou is a little bit “theme-y” for my taste, but not terrible.
• Deejai Thai – this was a new place that I tried with my good friend Jay Mink. Great food, atmosphere and very reasonably priced. Bye Bye Thai Taste.
• Manzetti’s – used to love this place when I lived in Charlotte, but literally have not been there since I lived there eight years ago. It was really nice to be back. Mama Manzetti’s Chicken is amazing and the bruschetta was great too. It will be even nicer once they ban smoking in restaurants in Charlotte (“Hello! Get with the program!”) as this place has a big bar and lots of smokers in it.
• Taipei South – another old faithful. Enjoyed my usual, Sesame Chicken with wings and a Diet Coke, while catching up with my good friend Robbi.
• Thai Orchid – No one else wanted to eat this with me, so I nearly gorged myself on an entire order of Mee Crob and Panang Curry. Amazing amazing place – best Thai food I have ever had anywhere. Especially that Mee Crob.

• Hank’s Seafood – During the Charleston portion of our trip, we had dinner at this very nice restaurant with Tyler and Court (and Salem and Jake). It probably was too nice a place for the babies, although Kel and I didn’t really love our meals either. I had shrimp and grits and she had broiled something or other. I think they were trying to be too high-brow.
• Sullivan’s on Sullivan’s Island – While at Wild Dunes, we hauled the whole family down to beautiful Sullivan’s Island to eat at perennial favorite Sullivan’s. I had my all too yummy favorite there, shrimp over a fried grit cake over country ham. Side order of fried Okra. I resisted the french fries this time and had a baked potato instead. We had an amazing load of hush puppies to start us out though (accompanied by honey butter), and the real highlight: fried green tomatoes. Amazing! The lowlight was that I could count seven tiny shrimp on top of my grit cake. Seemed light. I mean people, I am in shrimp country here, load me up! And yes that is a lot of use of the word fried for one meal sitting. Welcome to the South and the Low Country. Seriously, do you ever watch Paula Dean do her thing?
  
• Coconut Joe’s – Kelly and I had a fun little date night down on the beach at Coconut Joe’s. We both had more hush puppies (although these were actually coconut fritters) and shrimp po’ boys. Yum. It was nice to get back to this place because I can remember eating there with so many different friends, including Andrew and Amy, Nick and Jessi and Josh and Katie (you guys remember that?), as well as Tyler and Court. Lots of good memories. The lowlight of this dinner was the 45-year old biker dude who kept making out with his girlfriend/wife right next to us, including lots of lip-smacking noises. Made me want to toss up my dinner before I even finished it.

So, yes, now I really have to get back to my running schedule because that is a fat-filled eating schedule, huh? Ugh. But it was tasty and I would do it again (and will next year!).

The Bachelor Life

When people at the office heard that Kelly and the kids were going on vacation a few days ahead of me, the excitement was palpable. Bachelor weekend! Everyone seemed very happy for me.

And yes, there are advantages to being at home sans family. There is no milk to get ready for the morning’s demands, nobody waking up in the middle of the night crying, no little people knocking on our door at 7am, no tiptoeing through my own bedroom because Kelly’s been asleep for an hour by the time I pick myself up off the couch, finish chores and get up to bed.

But this time has confirmed what I already knew, I am called to be a husband and a daddy. My life just isn’t complete without them. The house is quiet like it must be when we leave on vacation, except I’m in it. I feel a little like I got left behind. The girls’ bedroom looks like they just got up and came into our room, blankets strewn across the bottom of their beds. There are toys and bouncy seats downstairs in the kitchen and family room, but nobody to play in them. It’s odd, you clean up a room and it’s still clean an hour later. The kitchen stays tidy aside from my collection of Coke Zero cans and a much smaller than usual row of dishes. The shoes in the front hall are all neatly organized, not dropped here and there when a little lady decided to stop clomping through the kitchen in Mommy’s high heels. The house feels lonely and so do I.

The upside to the weekend without responsibility was getting to get away to Vesper Peak with Shawn, Ryan and Steve. Glorious weather, a very very cold dip in a snow-melt lake, a good solid hike and scramble up to the summit of Vesper, and then a night near the top talking about the stars, creation, food, humor, and life. And best of all good time with good buddies. I wouldn’t have traded that weekend away for anything, but it would have been a joy to return home to my gorgeous wife and my beautiful children. I look forward to seeing their sweet faces and to saying goodbye to what others call this bachelor life.