On Thursday night, I (and two others: Royce & Taylor) had a two-hour live interview at 3ABN.  It was pretty fun. 

Since most of you will not watch it (and those who do will get the edited version), I’ll let you know some highlights. 

1.  I confessed to pirate other preacher’s sermons!

I was trying to prove that the power was in the word and not in the preacher.  So I confessed that I had…you konw, used other people’s materials (there’s not copyright on truth!).  And I told the audience that my churches thought some of my presentations were powerful (usually the ones that aren’t my own).  Today at church, several of my church members said “Nice interview, pastor”.  Didn’t realize so many of them would be watching (I didn’t tell them I was going to be on).

2.  I tried to call out Yamil and I cracked up on TV and couldn’t finish my thought.

There was a Q&A part and people were sending in emails and calling in.  Yamil tried to be sneaky, sneaky.  But I knew that one of the questions (regarding networking opportunities) was from him.  My answer to the question started off “I have a friend named Yamil…”  The camera was focused on me, so no one knew that everyone on the set was laughing.  I couldn’t hold it in.  I put my head down, paused, and tried to regain my composure.  I don’t think I’ll ever get invited again.

3.  We all shared the same cup of water.

Out of the three of us being interviewed, I was the only one who got a cup of water by my chair.  During one of the musical presentations, I got a drink and told the guys they could get a sip.  When we were back on the air, Taylor tried to be smooth and kept on “sneaking” sips out of my cup.  It was hard to hold in the laughter…but I’m pretty strong.

4.  We fumbled with the web addresses.

Towards the end of the interview, they put the web addresses up.  The camera people put them up as supers while each of us were talking about our ministry.  But we were talking so fast (and short) that by the time the super was up, the next person was talking.  You had to see it.

5.  C.A. Murphy (interviewer) called Royce & Taylor my sons (and their parents were watching); I tried to disown them; a viewer emailed in and made me re-adopt them!

At first, he called me their mother.  I think he meant that GYC was the mother.  But it sounded like he was saying I was the mother.  So I said I was the father.  But I shouldn’t have said that…cuz I’m not their father!  And so when I realized that I had just made myself their father, I tried to say that I wasn’t their father.  And then a viewer from I don’t know where gave some nice comments that ended up being like a gentle rebuke. 

6.  I made Al look bad (but not on purpose).

They asked me a logistical question that I didn’t have the answer to.  So I said that my logisitic people didn’t keep me up to date on that one…but it came out a little wrong.  I tried to correct it, Al.  But I’m not sure how good of a job I did.  I may have ruined your reputation for life.  But don’t worry, if you want to come out on TV, you and I can start our own…4ABN (it’ll feature people who have been banned for life from 3ABN). 

The interview turned out nice.  But these were the bloopers that will be taken out so I thought I’d keep you informed. 

-IR

I’m currently 25 weeks pregnant (translated into months, that would be 6 and half months).  Because I live up in the boonies, my hospital is small and so they don’t offer VBACs (vaginal birth after cesarean).  So, I will be having another c-section.  The date has been chosen:  NOVEMBER 19, 2007.  Unless I go into labor earlier, we will be celebrating a birthday on this day.  This delivery is going to be completely different from the first one so in many ways, I feel like it’ll be my first all over again. 

This time, there is a scheduled date and time.   I don’t know how I feel about that yet.  I’m definitely a planner so I feel like I’ll be more in control.  But I feel like the anxiety building up to the DAY and the HOUR and the final moment will drive me nuts!  I know for sure that as that date draws closer, I’ll be a frantic mess – trying to clean the house, getting everything in order, and I may even be late to the appointment!  I can’t imagine what that night before will be like.  I doubt I’ll be able to sleep.  Then on that day, without the pain of labor to cloud my mind and numb my emotions, I’ll have to say “good-by” to Imanuel knowing that I won’t be coming home for the next few days.  And when I do, he will no longer be the only child.

Driving to the hospital with our packed bags…What in the world will we be thinking about?  Not about when the next contraction will come.  Not about driving carefully over bumps.

In the hospital, as we wait for the surgery to begin, it’ll seem like waiting forever – doing nothing.  Just sitting and waiting.  But, once it does start, we’ll be seeing our baby in a matter of minutes!  After Imanuel’s delivery, I can’t even imagine what that will be like!  This time I will actually be awake.  Israel will be there and see him when he’s pulled out.  This will be a completely new experience for all of us. 

In many ways, I feel like I’ll be cheating.  The more I think about it, the more I realize that God knew what he was doing when he designed labor/delivery.  The element of “not knowing when” does have so many advantages.  And, when labor finally hits, its progression at the different stages is so natural and I think it helps the mother ease into delivery.  I think that’s why God likened his coming to the labor pains of the mother and knowing that that’s a sign that the coming is near.  (His coming definitely won’t be like time-setting c-sections…)  I, for sure, will not miss labor pains, but I just can’t imagine a delivery being so “simple” and predictable.      

Anyway, I’ll be sure to let you know how things turn out.  Hopefully recovery will be better since I won’t have to go through sleepless hours and hours of labor and pushing right before the surgery.

The baby has woken up.   I’m going to go get him now.  Today will be a happy day not only because it is almost Sabbath, but because Israel will be flying home today from 3ABN.  Take care!

PS:  Did any of you watch the 3ABN program he was on last night?  I know Yamil did…

Imanuel is (-as of Saturday-) 17 months old.   I’ve heard that 18 months is the magical potty-training month and so Israel and I have been doing as much prepping as we can to get Imanuel ready.  As of now, he’ll always notify us when he’s pooping by saying, “poo-poo” in a slightly strained voice and cheeks reddening.  The peeing situation is bit more challenging.  I’ve been letting him run around on the back deck in his birthday suit to get him more in touch with how he expels his waste.  The first few times he peed without a diaper on, he was quite shocked with what he saw (and what was actually happening).  It was kind of funny.  Anyhow, we’ve also been taking us with him to the bathroom and he’s well-aware of what the toilet (and tissue roll) are used for.  He loves sitting on his own potty seat and a few times he’s gone #2 on it- with a diaper, of course.  Today he actually sat on it bare-bottom while I gave him some toddler cookies (which he LOVES).  I know he had to go #2 because he told me, but on the potty he couldn’t perform.  I wasn’t surprised.  Anyway, at least he sat on there for a good 5 minutes or so.   I’m happy with his progress.  Any tips on making this a swift and productive journey, please let me know!
People think I’m crazy, but I’m still trying to see if we can get Imanuel potty trained before the next baby comes.  He will be about 21 months when that happens…and hopefully he doesn’t regress like the older siblings tend to do.
           

He is already trying to fit himself back into his old bouncer…

Something exciting that happened a few days ago was I finally saw my first buck.  All of the dozens of deer that I’ve seen up here have been females (and maybe males, but I never saw antlers to prove it).  Bucks tend to be super shy and cautious so they are really hard to spot.  The females are the ones you’ll see munching on vegetation on the side of the road while cars are zooming by.  So, when two deer were munching under our ripe apple tree and I saw that one had little antlers, I grabbed my camera to take pictures.  It was difficult because Bentley was barking like crazy, the baby was sleeping, it was getting dark outside, and I had to take the picture through a window and screen.  I had to take it quickly before Bentley either scared away the deer or woke up the baby.  The result was a blurry picture that I’m not too proud of.  But at least you can see the little antlers. 

The apples are tart and yummy.  Imanuel always wants to go outside to pick some apples to eat.  He even likes the ones that ar en’t ripe! 

One final thing that is worth mentioning is that we’ve adopted a new member to our household.  I believe it is a female (which is exciting to me).  She is our faithful bug-catcher that lives right outside the middle pane of our bay window.  Imanuel has named her, “Bitsy”.  I think you’ve guessed it.  She’s a huge, patterned spider that first found her home on our front porch, (then Israel destroyed her web because people kept almost walking into it) and then relocated to where she is now.  I’m going to have to do some more research to see what type of spider she is.  She’s a very good hunter (-caught and ate a moth a couple days ago).  Imanuel is particularly thrilled by “Bitsy” and consistently requests that we sing her song whenever he notices her.  (Her song being “The Itsy, Bitsy Spider”, naturally.) 

Imanuel checking up on Bitsy (close to the top of the window in dead center).  That’s where we can usually find her.

A close up of her on her web.  Picture is facing her belly.

The weather has cooled down – Thank God.  On the hot days, Imanuel’s favorite treat is ice.  I turn it into snow with our trusty snow shaver.  (Don’t tell him you’re supposed to put flavored/colored sugar syrup on top!)

So, I kept telling Israel that we needed to make a post about the new baby, but he thought it would be HILARIOUS for us to just announce the birth of our child in November – especially considering that we’re way up here and no one can see me growing.  Anyhow, he’s at ASI telling the world, and telling them now that we’re expecting.  If the Lord tarries and the kids grow up to read this xanga, this one will feel left out since I haven’t posted much about this pregnancy.  So, this is to our second boy.  “In the womb, you’ve treated me much better than your big brother Imanuel!”  And, to answer my brother’s question, there are no pictures of me because I’ve ballooned so dramatically that my doctor even asked me if I would want to be referred to a dietician.  Okay, it’s not that bad, but that conversation did happen…

Anyhow, right now, the Imanuel is playing with his Sabbath felts and I’m waiting for 3ABN to load up so that by the time I start watching what’s been loaded, there won’t be any stops or delays during church.  We didn’t have church service here in Houghton because of the U.P. Campmeeting that’s going on right now at Camp Sagola.  And, after Imanuel woke up 3 times last night (probably due to indigestion – late dinner and a combination of bad dreams), I didn’t feel up to driving all the way over there for the day.  So, we’re having church at home.  We’re planning on watching ASI’s church service on www.3abn.org.  Israel will be giving a report during offertory and Chester Clark will be speaking so we’re excited about that.  (We just have to wait for it to load!!)

So, hopefully this killed some time.  I’m so thankful that it is the Sabbath.  The weather outside is absolutely perfect and after “church”, I think I might take the boys (all 3 of them) to the park to enjoy some of God’s creation.  

That is the ASI National Convention theme.  And I’m taking it seriously.  We are thrilled to announce the soon-to-be fourth member of our family.  Let’s pray for him.  He’s coming in November. 

PS:  We were conducting an experiment to see how long we could keep this news a secret.  But ASI has forced us to disclose this information.  So, we are telling the world, and telling them now.