Isaac Jonathan Doi

On the day after Thanksgiving, the Pookies received Isaac Jonathan Doi.
He arrived at 8:29pm, measuring 8lbs, 6oz. and 21"


This is his other side.


We could just look at him all day.


The Pookies are now working on learning how to feed and sleep.

More later.

The Dinner

The spread was beautiful.
and of course, we all overate.


This is the last bite I couldn't finish.
This rarely happens.

crouching pesci, hidden willie

62 points

that's how much using all my tiles to spell "minutiae" earned.
and i still only beat john by 4 points.

Happy Thanksgiving.

via

us... parents??

day 2.
still no baby.
wifey felt the need to shower last night at 2am.

i felt the need to have my blood drawn and saved in a tube this morning.
urine, too.

my need was brought on by requirements of my new life insurance policy, set to begin... whenever the lab results are integrated with the policy actuation.

nobody kill me for a couple weeks.


In other news, i'm shopping for a new mouse online for work (With the increase of frequency in blog posts, comes the decline in substance. But hopefully, baby news in the next few days will improve quality. By the way, did you know that it's not proper grammar to begin a sentence with 'Hopefully, …??').

Speaking of contentment with lackluster purchases, this morning the Pookies discussed their frugality, following up on a date night dinner conversation last night at Alder Market Bistro (Did anyone know they have "Half-Price Tuesdays?" We shall continue to know this...).

What else...

Here's a picture of Pookie's 98-year old grandma at Taco Bell!!

Bored meetings

I often grow weary of my profession, longing for employment in a cause I'm passionate about.
I do care about public transportation, especially as oil-conserving and socializing (though now I'm stretching it) tools, but my heart is ultimately driven by the gospel, and engaging culture on the exhaustively biblical level is not something I get to do much at my job.

It is especially during the monthly board meetings I'm obligated to attend, that I get impatient and ungrateful for my job.
(One of the great things about blogging, I've discovered, is the honest introspection that results. "impatient" and "ungrateful" are two words that I hadn't yet stumbled onto until I wrote this.)

It doesn't help to get an email the same day from RZIM offering apologetics curriculum at Oxford.

So here's my question: If I were to indulge my love of bible study and Christian apologetics by attending seminary full-time, what unseen consequences might result? I've heard of evangelistic fires quenched, marriages strained, doubts injected.

Hopefully this is just a season of discontentment, enhanced by my anxiety of an imminent due date.

we'll see...

11:22am on the day and still holding...

Last night after work, the Pookies went shopping and the bored husby took pictures of his wife's belly…

it's a balloon! it's a superball! it's a baby!


…and of himself hiding out in Clinique products


Today, I'm feeling achy (anxiety? sympathy pains?). For one thing, I think I'm coming to grips with the arthritis in my right shoulder that my doctor predicted back in chicago. My back has been aching, too, I guess that's from all the work around the house lately.

It was a sad moment last night when pulling up the covers in bed made my arm ache. just sad. I'm only 33. I hate to think that I will eventually look back on my acrobatic antics and become a voice of caution for young people.

expecting a delivery

tomorrow is the day the doctor told us we could be delivering a baby boy.

at this point, all i can say is that it's unlikely that we'll be early.

new observable behavior in the wifey is nesting, which means bursts of energy at inopportune times to clean surfaces at home while saying things like, "the baby could come at any moment!" she's cute.

she emailed me at work to tell me that the nesting continues as she runs errands, shopping for additional Christmas presents for our family.

i'd like to take this moment to remark how amazing nesting is, this preparatory instinct that shows one more detail of God's design of woman. My female coworker claims she didn't experience this phenomenon, but it's apparently common knowledge, and part of Kaiser's childbirth classes.

I'm not only excited to see my baby boy and raise him at every stage of his life, but I'm constantly comforted by the revelation of God's creativity and purpose along the way.

any day now

The Pookies' due date is November 20th. One week.

When Pookie goes into labor, my first of two 3-week installments of paid paternity leave begins.

The Pookies made the decision recently to curtail our ministries a bit. As with everything else in our lives, we've much to do in too short a time, and we want to be as prepared as possible when our little boy comes home.

Another, more important reason, is that we want to be doing what we do worshipfully and restfully, not rushed or even efficiently. We'd rather do a few things with eye contact and exhalation, than do several things in a blur.

Quality, not quantity.

So Sunday was the last Sunday School we will teach for a couple months or so. I'd just finished 1 Samuel, so instead of going into 2 Samuel 1 and then leaving, I taught on Psalm 103 about God's praiseworthiness. It was fun.

We've also stopped meeting with our friends Tuesdays for prayer and conversation. Although it's always rich, we thought we'd instead spend the evenings preparing a comfortable, restful, and organized home for what will be several weeks confined primarily to it.

Lastly, although we love our church's youth, we have taken hiatus from meeting with them every other Friday.

We'll continue to sing every other Sunday, and I'm continuing my study with the church leaders through MacArthur's book "The Master's Plan for the Church."

We also want to prepare ourselves (along with our homestead) for family worship, that is, a situation with fewer distractions (because things are put away and easily accessible), and habits of prayer, music, and bible study.

I don't want to miss one opportunity to teach my son the joy of Jesus Christ, be it by my demeanor, example, or explicit instruction. We have hope in a Savior, comfort and advocacy in the Holy Spirit, love from a heavenly Father despite the recognition of sin, and a future inheritance.

My thoughts on this day are one of increasing joy of seeing, hearing, nurturing, and raising my son, Isaac Jonathan. His parents love to laugh, and we hope he will, too. Pookie chose "Jonathan" one morning when we sat in on the 1 Samuel Sunday School class when our friend was teaching it. Jonathan was the rightful heir to King Saul's throne, what would be the second king of Israel. He instead recognized God's anointing of David, and not only supported and protected him towards his kingship, but loved him as a friend, above nobility.

Good night.

A Spot of Religious Freedom in Iraq

There's an excellent post by Michael Yon demonstrating an Iraqi situation about as contrary to the Media's portrayal as possible:
Christians and Muslims working together to restore a cross to a Baghdad church, and thanking Americans for their freedom.

Here's an excerpt:

"A Muslim man had invited the American soldiers from "Chosen" Company 2-12 Cavalry to the church, where I videotaped as Muslims and Christians worked and rejoiced at the reopening of St John's, an occasion all viewed as a sign of hope. The Iraqis asked me to convey a message of thanks to the American people. "Thank you, thank you," the people were saying. One man said, "Thank you for peace." Another man, a Muslim, said "All the people, all the people in Iraq, Muslim and Christian, is brother." The men and women were holding bells, and for the first time in memory freedom rang over the ravaged land between two rivers."

The rest of the short piece and beautiful photos can be found here: