Category Archives: Personal News

Sensitivity Training

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In American society, one of many people’s standard questions for young married couples like us is “So, when are you guys having kids?” It seems like a logical and innocuous question to them because in their mind, children are simply the appropriate next step, and all it takes to get pregnant is a simple choice to try. The longer a couple has been married, the stranger it seems to be childless, and the more often those questions arise from well-meaning people – at work, at church, among friends, and especially at family events. Unfortunately, this seemingly friendly question often pours salt in an open wound. Why? Because not every childless couple is childless by choice.

Some couples have medical issues that prevent them from ever having children. Some have a chance, but only with specialized medical assistance. Some have no obvious medical problems but just don’t have any luck. Some want children but can’t even try right now due to work, school, or financial barriers. Some got pregnant but recently miscarried. If you don’t know about a couple’s situation, it’s probably best just not to ask. First, it’s none of your business. Second, the couple might be in one of these situations, and just getting the question (again) could be painful.

For those who don’t already know, we’ve been trying for over a year to get pregnant with no luck and no clear explanation. We’ve started seeing a wonderful specialist in Irving who has helped some of our friends. He might have figured out the problem, and if he’s right, the solution is relatively easy. We ask for your prayers and understanding, both on our behalf and for all the other couples out there who are struggling with infertility.

Finally, if you know someone fighting this battle, please be careful with your efforts to comfort or help them. Many of the pat responses, such as “Just relax and it’ll work,” “You can always adopt,” “Adopt, and then you’ll get pregnant – it works every time!”, “Have you tried _________?”, “My friend tried for XXX years and finally got pregnant”, etc., are more frustrating/hurtful than helpful. Just tell them you’re very sorry and you’ll pray for them.

The Tree is Up

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My wife and I both love Christmas. We love it so much that we made a nice dinner, played Christmas music, and set up the tree last night. We also only have 1 or 2 more gifts to buy. Some people decorate their trees with beautiful bows and lights, making everything look classy and consistent, like a tree you’d see in Macy’s. And that’s fine. But our tree and my parents’ tree when I was growing up are covered in memories. I have ornaments from my grandparents and parents going back many years. I have a tiny green bell from my mother’s tree when she was little. I have a lollipop from Miss Carter, my kindergarten teacher. Jenny has one from her first grade teacher. We picked up ornaments on our cruises. Some are just fun, like the skiing M&M and the Homer in a Santa hat. We even have a few pet ornaments. Most of them have some kind of sentimental value because they connect us with our people and our past. Putting up the tree is like stepping back in time. I encourage you to put up your tree soon.

This morning I updated the family page with a few more pictures and more info about the colorful individuals in my family.

The Final Lap

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These are good days. If all goes as planned, one month from today I’ll be done with school and headed to Fort Lauderdale with my beloved to board our cruise ship. My car is finally running fine again. The temperature is cooling off. We’ve gotten some good rain lately. We had a great time in Vegas, and you can read about our trip on my new Vegas trip page. The Stars are playing again. I’m working lots of midnight shifts this month. I’m working out consistently, although I’ve pretty much ruled out the Rock and Roll Half-Marathon for this year. Sure, there are plenty of things I could stress about – how much longer my car will run without expensive repairs, when we should move closer to work, what those lab results will say, etc. But I’m trying to worry less, relax, and trust God more since He is the only one who knows what’s coming next. For some reason, I’m remembering the tremendous value of perspective. There are positives and negatives to just about anything if you look hard enough, and we all get to choose which to focus on.

Cut Off from the World

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Due to a hardware problem, my home Internet connection has been down ever since I returned from New York, and my ISP took their sweet time fixing it. But now it’s back. It’s amazing to me how cut off I felt without Internet access from home. I’ve grow so accustomed to checking my email throughout the day, researching various topics that enter my head, banking online, and reading the news at will that it was disturbing to lose the ability. Plus it was difficult to participate in my online course. During the outage I put together a US Open trip page with the story of our trip and several pictures. I hope this makes up for the long gap since my last blog entry. Eventually (read: once school is done) I might set up a Hobbies section with pages on photography, wine, running, or whatever other hobbies I want to share with you. I mainly take pictures on vacation, but some of them turn out well, so I keep doing it even though I don’t really know what I’m doing.

Need a Good Firefighter?

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I’ll dedicate this blog entry to my best friend Lacy. After many months of hard work, he completed firefighter school this week and passed his state exam, so he’s now a certified firefighter. He worked a tough job all day and spent his evenings in class on top of being a good husband and father. Now he’s looking for a firefighting job, so if you know of any, drop me an email. He gets very excited any time you bring up his new career, so I know it’s a perfect fit. It feels a bit odd to be so excited about seeing your friend pursue such a risky career, but if my house were on fire, I’d want him on the scene.

And in other news, I want to give a shout out to my homegirls in the Labor and Delivery unit at Baylor Irving. Apparently they check out my blog sometimes between deliveries, especially on the night shift. Thanks for stopping by! “Empuje el nino!”

Finally, I want to make sure you know about one of my other favorite websites: babelfish.altavista.com. You can type in a word or phrase in a variety of languages and have the site translate it into various other languages. It’s not perfect, but it’s fun to play with. Give it a try!