Days 6 & 7

Days 6 & 7 are very slooowww days for us as we've just lazed around and enjoyed being together with family and catching up on some personal projects.

I'm getting a lot of ME work done, the kind of things you don't take the time to do when in full gear at work but truly need to be done sometime soon. It's been great to review and revise my Horizons of Focus and get started on a more pristine method of tracking goals and objectives. My Projects and Next Actions lists have gone a little wonky on me while I've been focused on the issues of the day-to-day. So I've had time to drill down into the maze of thoughts and ideas and shape things up. This will be a great help to me next week when I return to the office.

I've particularly enjoyed podcasting these two days and being able to grow intellectually through listening to some very good information.

It probably goes without saying that I've been deeply thankful for time with my daughter and her husband and with my beautiful granddaughter, Michal. I even changed my Facebook photo to reflect one of our times together just getting to know each other better. I sure wish my "baby" was here with me but she's in Halifax being the top-flight medical professional that she is. I'm so very proud of her but do miss her dreadfully. Christmas!

Soon the house will heat up again with activity so I'll close for now. I'm having a really good vacation.

Vacation Day 5

She's in!!

We waited for seventeen months for an interview, filled out paperwork, and prayed a lot before finally meeting with an immigration consellor this morning in Montreal. After some questions, points of clarification, etc,. Rosalie's application for permanent residence in the US was approved. It was such a powerful moment when the lady said, "Rosalie, welcome to the United States of America."

I am a happy boy tonight!

Vacation Day 4

We're off to Quebec for retrieving doctor's tests for our immigration appointment tomorrow. After all this tme, Rosalie will finally get her appointment for possible immigration to the US of A. Yeh!

We'll look forward to blogging about our experiences once we get back to NB on Friday night.

Enjoy this day filled with many exciting opportunities to do good in your corner of the world.

Vacation Day 3

We spent the night away and enjoyed just being in the same room with each other and watching TV together, enjoying a delicious NB meal, and then catching up on our reading and emails.

It's great to be back in Canada as this was home for soooo many years. The sights and sounds and personalities are familiar and welcoming. I've especially enjoyed CBC Radio as it's the national news broadcaster here in Canada and keeps the entire nation informed of national, provincial, county and local news. I find I have to work harder to stay up on world news in the US as much of it is primarily US-centric in nature. This is not bad, just different.

Tonight we celebrated US Thanksgiving: all the turkey and fixins one could eat. My happy moments are watching my granddaughter lay on her daddy and sleep. So peaceful they can be at this age!

An out-of-pattern exercise for me was reading 2 computer magazines from cover to cover in one sitting. Ah, to do nothing is so much fun and restorative to the soul!

Day three is coming to a close and I can truly say it's been a great day.

Vacation Day Two

I drove for 12 hours yesterday to get from the states to Canada. At about the 9 hour mark, I was weary of being in the car but pushed on the final three hours so I could be with family for the week. Good choice! Ryan made lasagna and it was SUPERB!

Slow day today - a welcome change from the last few months!

Blessings!

Gettng Back to the Right Road

As I strive to become all God would have me to become, this quote speaks into my life today:


"Thinking and doing, doing and thinking – these are the sum of all wisdom. Both must move ever onward in life, to and fro, like breathing in and breathing out. Whoever makes it a rule to test action by thought, thought by action, cannot falter, and if he does, will soon find his way back to the right road."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Being Purposefully Lazy

After a morning appointment and some heavy counseling responsibilities this afternoon, I've decided to become purposefully lazy for the rest of today as it's my day off and I should have a few hours to myself anyway. I've been facebooking, readings some sites, and talking on the phone.

I saw snow flurries this morning in the western sector of our city. No!

I've been a bachorlor for a few weeks and will for another week or two as the grandbaby takes precidence over everything else. I just wish I could be there with baby and not here with my HP laptop and ADM. Mike Mullen on C-SPAN.

Got some housework to do so should do that, I guess. Yuk, I hate housework like I love the plague.

Another Monday comes and goes!

I'm One of Those People

While I still shake my head in disbelief, I'm now one of those people:

I will now talk incessantly about my grandchild, showing you pictures from my wallet (well, Blackberry!), regaling you with stories of her first sneeze, her long and lovely fingers, her obvious intelligence, and her stunning beauty. I will be energized by her picture even after the longest and most grueling of days. Why this funny behavior?

I'm one of those creatures called a grandparent!

Michal Marie

She's here!

My beautiful granddaughter, Michal, was born today at 3:30 pm (Atlantic Time). She weighed in at 7 lbs, 9 oz. and was 21.5 inches long. My daughter's labor was very short (for a first baby) and she delivered in just 2 or 3 pushes 45-minutes after her water was broken by the physician.

My mother-in-law and I could not go into the delivery room but we stood right outside and heard it all. Tears streamed down my face as I heard Sarah struggle but those tears turned to joy as I heard Michal's first cry!

The baby looks a lot like Sarah did when she was born with the addition of a few of Ryan's handsome features to add to her beauty. I see a bit of red in her hair.

Tonight she received her first bath (with her daddy helping the nurse) and two needles. She did okay with the first, but didn't like the second one at all!

I was enveloped with a powerful sense of God's abiding presence as I waited for Michal to be born. Tonight, with the Psalmist, I'm asking, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His goodness to be?"

Thanks for your prayers, everyone. Pictures to come as soon as we get them.

The Election of a New President

Tonight we elected a new President of these United States. He is a man of color, an amazing thing really when you consider that just a few years ago this would seem to be an impossibility based on the prejudice and blind hatred of lesser persons.

As a church, what is our view of the outcome of this election? While we may hold our private opinions, we are now called by God to pray for those who lead us and give them our prayerful and civic support. This is God's call to each and every one of us and our challenge is to fulfill it without guile.

Please join me in praying for President-elect Obama and his family as they will surely need our prayers as the months fly by and he stands before the world to take the oath of office and enter the most powerful seat of influence in the world.

Pray, too, for God to bless America so that good will rise on the wings of the prayers of a nation that longs for good to prevail and spill over into the world we share.

Almost Through

I'm waiting now for my last meeting of the week to begin. It'll be a prayer gathering to pray for the US election taking place on Tuesday and for the special offering we'll be taking on November 23rd for a small building renovation project.

I finished up my time at the District office on Thursday. I ended up staying on after my original completion date (9/5) because of the need for continuity until the new DS got settled in. He's in office now so I'm all through. New options here at my local church as I fold those outside hours back into the ministry.

My Mac has been giving me troubles after a software update on a third party sync program. I'm back using my PC laptop and making the adjustment until I hear from tech support.

Great church service today - so good to see some friends whom we haven't talked with for a while. I finished up my holiness series, too. I know I learned a lot more than what my people did as I studied this fall. :-)

Gotta run - my day is almost through!