The Testimony & Exhortation of Anne Rice

The family and I left for vacation in Chicago Tuesday night, and I've been delayed in my posts. Here's a late one, from Good Friday...

Anne Rice, who became a Christian 10 years ago, has posted a moving and exhortive testimony to God's trustworthiness on the Washington Journal online. I've excerpted bits below, but recommend the entire read.

On the afternoon in 1998 when faith returned, I experienced a sense of the limitless power and majesty of God that left me convinced that He knew all the answers to the theological and sociological questions that had tormented me for years. I saw, in one enduring moment, that the God who could make the Double Helix and the snow flake, the God who could make the Black holes in space, and the lilies of the field, could do absolutely anything and must know everything --- even why good people suffer, why genocide and war plague our planet, and why Christians have lost, in America and in other lands, so much credibility as people who know how to love. I felt a trust in this all-knowing God; I felt a sudden release of all my doubts. Indeed, my questions became petty in the face of the greatness I beheld. I felt a deep and irreversible assurance that God knew and understood every single moment of every life that had ever been lived, or would be lived on Earth. I saw the universe as an immense and intricate tapestry, and I perceived that the Maker of the tapestry saw interwoven in that tapestry all our experiences in a way that we could not hope, on this Earth, to understand.

...

Within days of my return to Christ, I also became aware of something very important: that the first temptation we face as returning Christians is to criticize another Christian and his or her way of approaching Jesus Christ. I perceived that I had to resist that temptation, that I had to seek in my
faith and in my love for God a complete certainty that He knew all about these factions and disputes, and that He knew who was right or who was wrong, and He would handle how and when He approached every single soul. Why do I talk so much about this trust now? Because I think perhaps that with many Christians it is lacking, and in saying this I’m yielding to the temptation I just described. But let me speak my peace not critically so much as with an exhortation. Trust in Him. If you believe in Him, then trust Him. Trust what He says in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and trust what He says about having conquered evil; trust that He has won. Don’t ever succumb to the fear that evil is winning in this world, no matter how bad things may appear. Don’t ever succumb to the fear that He does not witness our struggles, that He is not with every single soul.

note to NYC and the UK

Today's lunch was spent on two postponed projects that I'm grateful to be able to work on.

I've begun retracing the last 4 months of pooklet's life and beyond in order to make a list of notes and recommended gear for my newly pregnant friends. I know friends of the wifey sometimes check in here, so feel free to comment with your faves and warnings for 1^st trimester through month one.

Similarly friend-related, I've also been working on an outsized essay I've called "Which Struggle," as a response to my friend in England regarding the inquiry she made on an admittedly vague generalization I made in an old post. However, after today's contributions of thoughts to Word, I'm beginning to think it will never come to fruition. It's beginning to feel like a book I'm unqualified to write. Oh well. I've since made more effort to write only that which is easier for me to expound on. Like how many times the pooklet pooped in one hour.

weekend engagement

this is my brother-in-law adler holding the pooklet, and his brand new fiancee natasha.
they got engaged this weekend. pesci is between them, mediating.

mrow.

I've been sluggishly asking around of our friends who'd consider taking a cat or two, since finding out that the pooklet is allergic.
pesci, the black one, has been more affectionate than usual lately, too, which has been bittersweet. he's such a unique cat. unafraid, stubborn as he is friendly, always desirous of being in our gatherings, he always looks like a family member, hopping onto whatever chair, lap, or garbage can will put him at our level.
i've had both cats since late 1997, when they were both kittens.

To Pee So Free

Pooklet wet the bed in his Pack 'n' Play last night. Silly me didn't think his diapie needed changing at 3am after a feeding. We think he's going through a growth spurt, eating more during the night, and eating more at each feeding (That's a safe bet, right?).
Anyway, his diapie was like a balloon this morning but he was just as sweet and smiley as can be.

Awww, to be a pooklet free to pee, to soil with reckless abandon, with nary a care in the world.

I see a new poem in the works!



On a drier note, we belatedly put the baby bjorn to use yesterday. We somehow thought pooklet wasn't qualified to ride in it yet, so we've wasted precious front-mount bonding time and back muscle development. We're going to Chicago on Wednesday for a wedding and returning a week later, and I'm currently trying to figure out when to employ The Bjorn.

How to Lull Your Pooklet to Sleep

Here's an overdue music recommendation for new parents: Sing Over Me: Worship Songs and Lullabies.
It's a great collection of some of my female favorites: Nichole Nordeman, Bethany Dillon, and Christy Nockels, and a couple others with whom I'm unfamiliar.

I've failed in the habit I set out to create a couple months ago, of memorizing worship music to sing our pooklet to sleep. so i still only have about five songs i can sing to him by heart. But the most prominent song in my repertoire by far, a Pookie favorite, is "May the Words of My Mouth," sung by Christy Nockels and Janna Long. I'm still not familiar with Janna Long, but this album and a couple other songs by Christy Nockels led me to buy Watermark's "A Grateful People," a nice, celebratory, live worship album, which is currently in rotation in the Camry's CD player.

It's funny how crying is a pre-sleep soothing mechanism for babies, and that it persists even when the pooklet is laid down in his bed. one would think he's all set for bed-ums and he can stop crying and start snoring, but no. what seems obvious to the parent is not apparent to the pooklet. however, there is great pleasure in rocking a fussy overly tired pookberry in your arms while gently singing him to sleep. Watching a few yawns... then the eyelids droop... and the sleep overtake him.
there's satisfaction in reconciling the sleep-deprived fuss-bear with his rest.

sum dim sum

Pooklet has uttered his first word!

Nying!

We're still figuring out what it means, but we're pretty sure it's a proper noun.



dim sum with friends today.

this is a pretty typical activity for us, as it's one of three things we can do with grandma. we might play mah jong with her later today, which is the second (and very rare) thing we can do with her. The third and main thing is letting her hold the pooklet.