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An Open Letter to My Husband

Dear Christopher,

I’m glad we got married 9 years ago. I couldn’t live without you!

No, seriously. If you weren’t in my life, who would pay bills and figure out a budget and all that? And who would take out the garbage? (FYI, the kitchen one is a bit full.) Who would open pickle jars and fix my phone when it’s not working? Who would get the oil changed on my car? (Actually, it’s saying it needs one.)

And who would love me unconditionally? Who would listen to me ramble and never judge me for silly stuff I say? Who would do that?

Who would think I was pretty without makeup on? Who would say I smelled good when I haven’t showered?

Who would discuss theology with me and set me straight when I’m off? Who would watch silly Sci-Fi with me and like it as much as I do?

Who would be my best friend?

I love being your wife.

Hannah

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San Francisco 49ers v Carolina Panthers

FIVE

So I have been married to the man of my dreams for 5 years, as of last Friday.  It’s amazing to think that I’ve only known my best friend for 6 years total.  What did I do before that?  Chris is an amazing man of God.  He has tons of wisdom and he’s someone I can trust completely.  Plus we like the same things, have most of the same opinions, laugh a lot, and make cute babies together… what more could you ask for?!

So for our anniversary we went to Kansas City for a couple days, just the two of us.  We haven’t had a trip alone since our second anniversary (and even then, I was pregnant), so this was a HUGE treat!  Kansas City normally wouldn’t be our city of choice, but neither of us has ever been to IHOP (International House of Prayer), so we wanted to see what that was like.

The city itself was actually nice in a different way from Pittsburgh.  Pittsburgh is old and rough and you can almost feel the generations that have lived there and made it historic.  That’s what gives it its cool factor as a city.  Kasas City (the downtown/shopping area) was more like a shiny new penny.  It was pretty and well groomed, which almost made it feel a little steril, but still enjoyable.  The drivers, however, were not enjoyable.  Kansas City drivers seem to be rude, aggressive and stupid all at once, which is pretty dangerous.

As for IHOP, we LOVED it!  I honestly had no idea what to expect.  We keep the live feed from the prayer room playing 24/7 in our house, and we have some of their worship CD’s, especially Misty Edwards.  But I’ve never read any of Mike Bickle’s books and have only heard him speak once at BRSM.  I didn’t really know much about how they run things, or who’s-who, or what their philosophies are.  So I didn’t have a lot of presuppositions.

When we walked into the main prayer room for the first time, the presence of God was so thick it was crazy!  The people in the seats were just quietly praying or worshiping.  The band was doing “Worship with the Word,” where they take a passage of Scripture and sing it spontaneously, and let the revelation of what the Lord is saying build through their song.  Super cool stuff.  I would definitely want to go back!

I find what IHOP is doing very exciting, because it is the kind of move of God that can last.  It’s not based on crowds coming, or people getting “blessed,” or a special speaker.  It’s all about prayer, worship and the Word, and as long as those things continue, the heavens will stay open!

We definitely enjoyed our trip and being away from the kids for a couple days (they stayed with Pastor and Clara).  Clara told me after we picked them up that she and Pastor didn’t know what to do with themselves.  She said When the kids were at their house they were always thinking what they needed to do next and saying, “you do this for this one, while I do this for the other one.”  Yep, that pretty much sounds like my life!

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Another blog, just for you!

Everyone has been telling me to blog. Chris even gives me suggestions about what I should blog about. We’ll be talking about something, like my opinion on the Emergent Church or why large grapes always have seeds, and he says, “You should blog about it!” To which I reply, “I don’t blog about stuff like that.” Someone else told me I needed to blog and I told them I probably would in the next week or two. “I feel a blog rising up inside of me,” I assured them. I have to feel it! Others think I should skip the blog step and just write a book. Find me a publisher and I’ll think about it.

So on to THE BLOG!

Leah has a tooth and a half. She’s almost 11 months so it’s about time. The half one is really not very visible yet, but the one you can see is the cutest tooth ever. She tried it out on mom a couple times. I didn’t appreciate it and it was one factor in the “it’s time to ween” decision.

The other factor is that Chris and I have an anniversary coming up. Last spring our Pastor’s wife did a Bible study with the ladies of our church. Since I’d already done the study in California, she asked me to do childcare. When she told me, “I owe you, Hannah,” I grinned evilly and said, “Watch my kids for our anniversary?” And so the deal was made. I have a babysitter for our anniversary. An overnight babysitter! And we’re not using her for a youth event! Oh yes, Leah will be weened by October!

Actually, she already is. My plan had been to transition her right to sippy cups, but Leah disagreed, so I finally broke down and gave her a bottle. She liked those a lot better, but I still always nursed her when she woke at 4:00 am. Finally the night came where I had a bottle all waiting for her when she woke for her nightly feeding. She took a few sips and then threw it on the floor. So I put her back to bed. An hour later she woke again and Chris decided to give it a try. She took one look at him through the crib bars and threw herself down in her crib, protesting intensely. She definitely knew Daddy didn’t have what she wanted! After we made it through that traumatic night, she has been willing to take her bottles. So I get to have an anniversary!

Leah has known how to clap her hands for a while, but the other night she learned to raise her hands. She claps a little and then if we say, “Praise Jesus!” she’ll lift her hands up in the air! The Sunday morning after she learned this skill, she saw people in church raising their hands, so she joined in. She threw her head back and her hands up as high as she could get them, much to the delight of those around her.

Chris just redesigned the kids’ site. When he was working on it, he showed Isaiah pictures of him as a baby. Isaiah thought about them and then asked, “What happened to me?” When we see how big he is, we wonder the same thing.

The other night, Chris came downstairs to find Isaiah hiding behind the couch, peaking over the top to watch Wallace and Gromit. Chris asked if he was alright and Isaiah responded, “Yeah, everything’s OK.” Chris asked him if he was scared. “No, not really,” Isaiah assured him, but then went on to tell him what was so “scary” about the movie.

As for the third child (the one that enables us to have 2.5 children… commonly referred to as the dog), he ran away again. Really, we’re getting used to it. The odd thing is that he escapes for a different reason every time. Never has the same part been at fault in our collar/leash/run system. So it is very hard to prevent these expeditions. We just left the door cracked open for him. An hour later he came in growling, with his fur standing on end. He’s such a big baby, something must have scared him and he came running back home to Mommy.

I always say Chester should be called Cinderella. He’s like the step-child that gets the second-rate treatment. When the whole family piles on the couch to watch a movie, Chester has to lay on a pillow on the floor. When we all go out for some fun activity, Chester gets put in his “house.” When family vacation time comes, Chester goes to the kennel. Poor guy… it’s no wonder he runs away.

If you want to check out the new design of our kids’ site, go to firstgrandchild.com.

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