R a i s i n g C a n e y . c o m

According to Boolean Logic, my title is (at least partially) incorrect.  None of the content of this post relates to Needles AND Signs AND the Mid-West.  However, most of the post is about one or the other at any given moment.

Before the actual content of the post, I want to point out an awesome new feature here at RaisingCaney.com!  One of our most loyal fans (she’d be the president of our fan club if we had one) can’t see the pictures we put up on Facebook.com, but she CAN see pictures we put on Flickr.com!  SO, if you look to the top of our page (under the banner), there’s a link titled “Photos”.  The Photos page will host our photo albums that are automatically imported from our Flickr feed.  Check it often!

Needles…

My friend, Jon Copeland, has an extreme aversion to needles.  In fact, he was pretty freaked out to be in the hospital at all when Caney was on her way, mostly because of those red boxes the walls…full of needles.  Apparently, Canaan isn’t a fan of needles either.

Canaan got her shots the week before last.  She had one in each hip (ok, butt cheek) and one in each thigh.  She also got an oral vaccine.  When we got into the office, I suggested Tasha hold Canaan while she was getting her shots.  She refused, and now I know why!  When Canaan got her shots, naturally, she cried.  However, worse than that, she looked me in the eyes, quivered her lip, and gave me a heart-breaking whimper that definitely meant “Why would you let them do this to me, Daddy?”  Annnd so, I almost cried.  Ah well!  Hopefully the shots will scare away any mean, nasty illnesses that come after my daughter.

Signs…

Happy (Belated) Mother’s Day!  Tasha’s been asking for a “Baby Sign Language” book ever since she was pregnant, so for Mother’s Day I bought 4 different books, and Caney picked her 2 favorites (the 2 she seemed most interested in).  I took the others back.  I personally bought Tasha the final Twilight book that she had been begging me for for 2 weeks (she read those books in 2-3 days each…crazy).

The night before Mother’s Day, I put a Mother’s Day Card from me to Tasha and the Twilight book on the bed.  The card showed the bottom of two grown up sets of feet and one set of baby feet between us.  It read “Lately, something has come between us…”  The inside continued “…and I’m cool with that!”  When Tasha went to get ready for bed (after midnight) the gifts were waiting on the bed.  She loved it, but she assumed that was all!

The next morning, there was a gift bag waiting in front of the swing that I had put Canaan in.  Tasha looked in it and found her Baby Sign Language books (one has flash cards in it!) and a card.  The card was a nice card about her being a first time mother.  More importantly though is what Caney wrote in it… I gave her a pink crayon and held the card up to it.  In her natural swinging arm motions she scribbled on the card…  I looked at it, and it looked somewhat like a turtle, except it was missing some pieces so I drew those in with a pen.  Tasha cried when she saw her turtle drawing .

Mother’s Day at church Canaan was dedicated (as well as Sally and Chad’s kids, Biddy and Gabe) to God.  For those of you who don’t know, there are no implications of Canaan’s personal salvation in her dedication.  Dedicating our child to God is simply our commitment (along with the commitment of our church) that we will do our best to raise her in a Christian home and environment.  Further, it is our admission that we are basically just “adoptive” parents of Canaan.   She’s on loan to us.  Her REAL Father is her Creator, God.  Tasha’s sister (Aunt Sissy) and brother-in-law (Uncle Bubba) and his niece, Cheyenne came.  My Mom, Dad, Nanna, and Niece (LaTrista)  also came.

These are the pics from her dedication ceremony (also in a photo album on the new Photo tab), and of course, we’re all “pretty in pink”:

Pretty in Pink

Us again!

PawPaw acting silly, of course!

The video is pretty long (almost 10 mins), but if you want to see it, here’s the video of the dedication ceremony:

Mid-West

So, we haven’t seen “Lovey and Duke” (Tasha’s parents) or Caleb and Sidney (Tasha’s little brother and sister) since the week after Canaan was born.  We haven’t seen our good friends Brian and Amanda since this summer in DC (after our wedding and honeymoon).  They all live in the wonderful world also known as the mid-west.  Kansas to be exact.  We will be going to see them this weekend because I get a 4-day weekend because of Memorial Day.  Her parents will be moving to Oklahoma soon, so this might be the last chance we’ll get to see them before they move or before I leave for my South Africa mission trip.  This will be the longest trip Canaan has been on since she was born (8 hours).  Although, technically she’s been on a longer trip.  While Tasha was preggers we drove from Maryland to Louisiana.  We are all very very excited to see all of the wonderful people up there in the mid-west.  Hurry up, weekend!  We will be sure to post pictures (in the new Photo tab!).

As most of you know, Tasha and I live in Ruston, La. As you also probably know, we are members of Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship. Having said that, we have considered Chi Alpha our “church” for quite some time. The love, fellowship, and community of college-aged believers here is incredible. The campus pastors truly have a heart for reaching the students on this campus. We love it. While we value Chi Alpha and it’s place in our life, we also want to be a part of a traditional church that reaches out to a broader community than our campus. Also, Chi Alpha encourages it’s members to participate in and find a “home” church.

Tasha and I have visited First Baptist – Ruston, South Parkway Church, Crossroads Baptist Church, Warrior School (AoG), and Jonesboro AoG over the past two years. We’ve met terrific people from/at all of the churches, but we never truly found a “fit.”

When my Mom gave her life to Christ several months ago and asked me to help her find a church family, Tasha and I went round and round trying to decide where to take her. She thought I should take her to her old church, Fellowship Baptist. I thought that I should take her to my old church, First Baptist. The night before she was to come to church with us, I stayed up until around 3am…praying that God tell me what to do…where to go…what to do.

Finally, God spoke… He told me “It doesn’t matter where. You bring her to church, I’ll bring her the message.” Wow. That having been said, my decision was made. If God would truly bring her a message regardless of where she went, then I might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I could bring her to Fellowship (making my wife happy), and I would be bringing her to church (making God happy).

After service that Sunday, my Mom asked me “did you tell the pastor I was coming?! It was like he was talking SPECIFICALLY to me!” I laughed, because I knew that while I hadn’t told Brother Don anything, God had (given him that message).

Since then, every time Tasha and I have been in town, we go to Fellowship. If my Mom is off work she usually comes with us. I had never been to Fellowship, so I had never given it a chance! Basically, I’ve fallen in love with this family of believers. They are sponsoring me in my mission trip to South Africa this summer. They are allowing us to host our baby shower in their reception hall. They have a true heart for outreach and service to our community, and they have a strong heart for young believers (as well as reaching young non-believers). The preaching and the teaching is relevant and powerful. We went to Sunday night Bible Study there for the first time this weekend, and it was awesome.

Tasha and I both have a strong desire to invest in this church’s ministry. My biggest fear about this right now is the fact that our future is so uncertain right now! I really hope I get a job in Shreveport-Bossier so that we can continue to grow and invest in this wonderful family of believers after I graduate. It would truly be a blessing to be able to raise our daughter in a church family with the love of this church.