Excited about going back to that church on Sunday. I am concerned, though, because it is Thaipusam here which is a HUGE Hindu holiday. This means major traffic jams everywhere you go. Typically, we don't even leave the house on religious holidays here because of the total chaos they cause but I REALLY want to go to church again on Sunday. Hmmm....

No more of a time suck than hanging out on forums, facebook, or Pinterest. It is Legos on a computer screen. My kids play it in spurts. When they do, they make the most amazing things. My oldest recreated Helms Deep from LOTR. Not bad for a time suck!

Thanks ladies. I think we may reschedule the book club. I don't need the stress and I don't want to take any chances!

I really, really liked that book!!

I know he won't technically "catch" it from the girls. I was wondering if it would trigger an outbreak due to the fact that it is already in his system.

THE FACTS: My dh got shingles while recovering from his motorcycle accident. It was awful! My children are all vaccinated against chickenpox (except dd who has only had the first shot and won't get the 2nd until she is 4). We host a book club once a month and it is this Sunday. One of the families that comes has three little girls and one of them has chickenpox right now. She is just starting to scab over. The other two girls do not show signs of it yet. THE QUESTION: Will exposing my dh to a child recovering from chickenpox cause another shingles outbreak in him? I am also not jazzed about the idea of any of my kids getting chickenpox. Being vaccinated, it is less likely but not guaranteed. And her other daughters may have chickenpox but it just hasn't shown up yet. I know it won't kill them but I just don't have the mental energy to deal with it right now if I don't have to. Can you carry and expose others to the virus but not get chickenpox yourself? Like if her dh stays home with the kids and only the wife comes, can she be a carrier and expose my dh and kids? Obviously, i am not well-versed in the intricacies of the chicken pox virus. :)

I am sure you didn't mean for this to be offensive, but to a mom who dealt with infertility and now has two adopted children... it was. Adopted children are NOT a consolation prize. They are a gift from God.

We own it and like it a lot. Also, this week is the 450th anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism. :)

That's exactly what I was thinking. Don't get me wrong, I love my life. But I'm also not afraid of death. If I am going to live then I want to LIVE not just barely survive. If I felt the need to live in constant fear of a worldwide catastrophe like the people on that show do, I'd rather just go to heaven. There are definitely worse things than death!

I have been in Malaysia for 3.5 years now and I don't miss Michigan but I miss my family there. For us, it took a good 6 months before it stopped feeling like an extended vacation, then another year to settle into a routine and a life here. Now, it IS home to us. In fact, when we were in the states for 6 weeks this past summer my ds said something about "when are we going home?" because he missed his home HERE. My mom chucked a mental at that!! :lol: She said rather vehemently, "THIS is your home!" Ds was a bit confused.

We, too, suffer from secondary infertility. Ds was easy-peasy to conceive then... nothing. I had a horrific pregnancy, horrific delivery, horrific recovery. I had said after ds was born that I was NEVER getting pregnant again. When ds was about 3 years old, I changed my mind and we started trying. After 1 year we went to fertility specialists. After 1 year of that we decided to adopt. We have now adopted twice and it has been the most amazing blessing in our lives. My story is probably different from yours in that I really, truly hated being pregnant and the ONLY reason I even considered doing it again was because we wanted more children. When we realized it wasn't going to happen without a lot of serious, expensive intervention that had a pretty low return on investment, the decision to adopt instead was an easy one. We never even tried IVF. Just didn't feel worth it to us. I don't have a strong need to be "genetically" tied to my child. So combine that with a serious distaste for pregnancy and adoption was pretty much a given. Having given birth and adopted, adoption was MUCH easier for us. So I guess I never "mourned" our lack of fertility. I just went with plan B. But I am a very pragmatic person in general. YMMV

Well I can totally agree with stocking up on wine!

Well, two of mine are adopted but they are both international adoptions and we know very little about their "stories". The case for both of them is that their birth mothers were young and poor and unable to take care of them and they wanted them to have a better life. I tell my 8yo that his father and I prayed and prayed for a little boy just like him and at the same time his birth mother was praying for a nice couple just like us and that God knew we would be the perfect fit. My children are taught from the cradle that God is always in control and it was His will for us to be a family. Maybe their birth moms have a darker story that we don't know about but even if they did, I probably wouldn't tell them until they were older and could understand better.

You will be missed. Praying...

That's true. I felt very anxious just watching the show!!

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2013/01/18/five-reasons-to-read-the-heidelberg-catechism-this-year/ Great article. DeYoung's book, "The Good News We Almost Forgot", is on my reading list this year!

I was flipping through the channels because I was bored and I landed on this show. I watched it out of morbid curiosity. So, apparently there is a worldwide catastrophe caused by an EMP, which will cause economic collapse and mass anarchy, coming soon... And I am definitely not ready. :) I watched this guy talk about living off the grid. Ok. Fine. Not my thing, but not my business. He talked about how they raise rabbits for protein. Then he proceeded to break the rabbit's neck right on camera and then his 5yo daughter SKINNED it on camera. All I can think is that if there is a huge war and we are lobbing nukes, I just hope my family and I die in the initial blast and we go to be with Jesus because I am NOT drinking my own urine no matter how long it is boiled! Some of them actually seemed like they WANT something bad to happen... So they can be justified in all this preparation. I knew a pastor who went so overboard with the Y2K thing that his congregation thought that he was nuts and fired him. So how about you? Do you have your bunker ready??

www.challies.com www.thegospelcoalition.org www.desiringgod.org

I work with a guy from New Zealand... His accent is beautiful!!

With even just the small part we know of the story, no one can say that you have not gone above and beyond. I am so sorry it has ended this way.

Amen!!

Regarding The Paris Wife.... I taught AP English Lit for years before becoming a principal and I have always LOVED Hemingway. So I was pretty excited to read this book. Afterwards...well... I was reeling. I emailed my BFF who still teaches Lit and here is an excerpt of what I wrote (It describes my thoughts on the book): I just read "The Paris Wife" and it is all about Ernest Hemingway as a young man just as he started writing and his first wife, Hadley, and Paris and the roaring 20's and all that. Beautifully written. But now I am devastated. All these years I have been in love with Hemingway and he was this amazing writer and tortured soul full of killer insight and quotes that shot you straight through the heart. But you know what? He was a jerk. A selfish idiot. The kind of man with such low self-esteem from his domineering mother that the only way he could feel good about himself was by emotionally brutalizing others. He wasn't deep and tortured in the way I imagined. His mom beat up his ego and he went to war for a short bit and got injured like thousands of others have and he just milked that, pickled his liver with booze, and acted like a jerk but got away with it because he was "an artist." Hadley loved him through those first years and put up with so much crap from him that I don't know if I admire her or loathe her. He left her for some other woman, of course. Absolutely destroyed her. So basically I can't even look at any of his books on my shelf because I am mad. Maybe it is all an illusion. The whole "deeply tortured but brilliant writer" bit. Maybe they are all selfish idiots and I should start knitting instead of reading. whatever. So as you can see, that book left an impression on me. :)

Started Reading: The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership that Matters by Albert Mohler (American author, DD class 300) Still Reading: The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (American author, DD class 800) The God Who is There: Finding Your Place in God's Story by D.A. Carson (Canadian author, DD class 200) Finished: 4. The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion by Tim Challies (Canadian author, DD class 600) 3. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton (Australian author, DD class 800) 2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (English author, DD class 800) 1. The Dark Monk: A Hangman's Daughter Tale by Oliver Potzsch (German author, DD class 800)

I agree and they seem to live it. After bible study today they were all going to a local orphanage to do Sunday school with the children there! Prayer, praise, reading and hearing God's word, doing good to our fellow man... Sounds like they follow exactly that. We are going again next week.

Update: We went to that new church this morning and we brought one of the other Reformed families from our school with us. It was a really good morning! It is a very small church, about 40 people. But it was done very well. They read portions of the Heidelberg catechism each week, with scripture to back up and explain. There were traditional hymns, readings from Scripture, a solid sermon, wonderful and thoughtful prayer, even a time of catechism for the children. Everyone was super nice and welcoming. After the service they serve a brunch and we all sat eating and talking. After brunch they do a separate bible study for adults and kids focusing on systematic theology as it relates to Reformed doctrine. We didn't stay for that this time as dd was CRANKY but I hope to stay for it next week. So far it seems very promising. Even the drive wasn't bad which, on this island, is saying something!! Thank you for praying for this! On a semi-related note, DA Carson is coming to Penang in the fall!!! I'd love to hear how your Sunday morning went (once it gets here, of course! I am way ahead of you on time). What was preached? Ours was on keeping the sabbath in a non-legalistic fashion. It was quite convicting for me to reevaluate how we spend our time on Sundays. So how about you?