I got to hold Jake on Sunday!

HA!  Gotcha!  As you may know, my son’s who is going to arrive on the scene in less than a month, name is Jake.  I cannot not tell you how much I am looking forward to holding him, but I still have to wait a little longer for that.  All that being said, I did hold Jake on Sunday!  Albeit not my Jake Some good friends of mine and my wife’s just had their second child on October 16th, and his name happens to be Jake!  We went over to visit them yesterday and I got to practice just a little.  I have to say that it was a truly amazing experience.  I can’t even imagine how I am going to feel the first time I get to hold my own son.  I just held him in my arms and watched him explore the world.  His arms were just moving around in a seemingly aimless fashion, but I can only imagine what he was feeling.  What seemed to me as random movement, was probably his way of saying “wow!  I have room to move around!”  It is so hard to imagine everything being completely new.  Everything in our world that we see everyday and take for granted is something new for him to discover.  Even his own arms, legs, fingers and toes!  I could talk all day about how the entire concept of a baby still blows my mind, but the most amazing part was just how beautiful Jake is.  Everything about him was so beautiful.  I just cannot understand how anybody could hold a newborn baby in their arms and simultaneously deny the existence our Almighty Creator.  This beautiful baby boy was formed in his mother’s womb by the hands of God.  There is absolutly no other adequate explanation.  To suggest that he “just happened”  is completely ludacris!  I am so happy for Jake and his parents.  They are wonderful people and they have 2 beautiful children.  Jake’s mom was a little apprehensive about the daunting task of balancing the 24 hour care required by a new born with the equally important needs of her three year old daughter.  I don’t know if she will ever read this or not, but I must say she made it all look easy.  I think she is an amazing mother, and my wife and I can learn a lot from her.  We definitley have a lot to learn, and our baby Jake is going to be here so soon!  I am so excited!  God is so good, and he has a sense of humor!  While I was enamored by Jake, I didn’t even notice that he had peed on me!  I didn’t care though:)  So much to look forward too!

Harmonious Bliss

To say that life has been turbulent lately, would be the understatement of the century.  The world is a mess.  I have been very busy in my personal life too.  Getting ready for a baby seems like a full time job sometimes, and I know this is only the beginning!  I had the wonderful opportunity to put all of this aside a couple weeks ago.  I sang in the Berry College Alumni Choir.  I’ll give you a little back ground on myself to help illustrate why this was such a big deal for me.  I am blessed to be a fairly talented vocalist.  I don’t really think I’ll ever be a superstar, but I have been singing almost as long as I can remember.  I have always sang in my church, and I started singing in school in the 7th grade.  I never really had any idea that I was any good until the 10th grade though.  10th grade was the first year that I ever tried out for all state choir.  I went into the first audition and came out with a score that was 2 points shy of a perfect score.  It was at this point that I realized that I may be pretty good at the whole singing gig.  That day led to a series of events that eventually led me to major in music in college.  At the “peak” of my singing days I was singing about 4 hours a day, 5 days a week.  I have been involved in some pretty amazing performance experiences.  The most memorable of which all occured in my college concert choir.  In college it became pretty clear that a career directly related to singing may not be the best option for me.  I didn’t want to give up on music though.  Consequently I changed my major to music business.  As life would have it, I have a job that is very much business and not at all music.  I did maintain my music involvement at my church for a few years after college though.  We have since changed churches, and though we love our church for many reasons, there are very few opportunities for me to sing.  Not being able to sing on a regular basis, makes my heart hurt.  It has been such an intergral part of my life for so long.  Two weekends ago I got to sing once again in an alumni gathering of the Berry College Concert Choir.  Words cannot not fully express the good it did for my soul.  The night of the first rehearsal I had had a very long week at work and I was running on about 4 hours of sleep. None of that mattered at that moment.  The music we made in that chapel that night was so wonderful, and I had missed it so much.  I know I may be sounding a little dramatic here, but imagine that one of the things in your life that you are truly passionate about and you truly enjoy slowly gets all but eliminated from you day to day life.  How would you feel if that thing was once again brought into your life?  Even if it were only for a few brief moments, I know you would be excited about it.  Maybe soon I will be able sing on a regular basis again, but until then I will hang onto these moments and look forward to the next one.