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.

Tasha and I go to Fellowship Baptist Church in Benton, La most weekends (whenever we’re in Benton). They are a small church, but they have tremendous hearts. Tasha was a member of the Fellowship youth group when she was in high school (her Dad was the youth pastor), but we just started going back there this year. I got saved at First Baptist Church just down the street from Fellowship, but I had never gone to or known much about Fellowship. I’ve got to say, that we really appreciate the love, support, and encouragement that we’ve been shown at Fellowship. Fellowship agreed to partner with me on my mission to South Africa, and they are making a sustained effort to gather financial support from now until the time I leave for the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (UKZN). They took up a love offering today, and while I have no clue yet how much it was… I feel as though that church has showed me and my wife an invaluable amount of compassion, love, and support. Tasha and I went to the VA hospital to visit her Grandpa who is there for surgery for blocked arteries in his legs and an aneurysm in his aorta. I had the opportunity to have some quality conversation with him about his relationship with Christ, and his heart and his life experience speak volumes about his character. He’s an Army veteran who spends a great portion of his free time, dedicated to continuing to serve other American veterans through the American Legion. I truly respect him and am honored to be a part of his family. Please, keep him and his family in your prayers as he goes through his surgery and medical process. Tasha and I, still in our church clothes decided to take a few pictures tonight…because, let’s face it, we’re one attractive couple (and baby bump)!  So for your viewing pleasure…some pictures of us at 34 weeks pregnant!

My beautiful girls...!

Check out that belly!

I love this one...

and this one...

and especially this one... (I love the smile on her face!)

There were regional experiences representing the missionaries all across the world.  Europe and it’s harsh post-Christian culture, Africa and the AIDS epidemic and poverty and education crisis, China and it’s unreached masses.  There were even sessions on reaching Muslims and Hindu people here in the United States.  Every meal we had the opportunity to sit with missionaries from various places around the world.  At these meals, we got to learn about the personal struggles, motives, experiences, and excitements that these people face every day.  I ate with missionaries from China, Algeria, Lithuania.

There were some amazing times of prayer and worship at the summit…

When we found out about the trip to South Africa for this summer with our Chi Alpha group I felt God calling me to go.  The trip is 3 weeks long in late July-early August.  Canaan will be about 3 months old…  So I thought, and everyone I spoke to agreed, that this was a legitimate concern and reason (excuse) for not going on the mission trip.  Also, Tasha and I are on a pretty tight budget as a young married couple going through college, about to have a baby, and taking the world by storm.   People also agreed that this was an acceptable reason to not go on the trip.

This was all wrong though…

God spoke to me at the summit…  If GOD tells me to go somewhere, there is NOT legitimate excuse not to go.  If GOD tells me to go to Africa then God will make a way for me to afford getting there.

So while my selfish desires and conventional wisdom say that I had a pretty sound reasoning for NOT going, God has made it clear that as the Bible says… His foolishness is above man’s wisdom.

So I’m going to South Africa this summer.  So, many of you may be receiving (or have already received) letters requesting financial support/sponsorship to help me pay for this trip.  This will actually be my first mission trip…

I’m scared and sad about leaving my girls, but I’m leaving the camcorder with Tasha so she can record evvvvvery waking moment that I’m gone.

I know and understand that not all of you that I’ve contacted for support will be able to support me financially.  Where this is the case, I ask that you support our family and the mission team in prayer.  We believe that God will be faithful to provide, and we believe that your prayers help.

-Cy

So, as most of you know, Tasha and I are members of Chi Alpha. Chi Alpha is one of the campus ministries here at Louisiana Tech. The body of believers in Chi Alpha varies greatly as far as the background denominations of its members. The organization itself though, is sponsored by the Assembly of God (AG) church. AG hosts the World Missions Summit (WMS) every 3 years.  At WMS, Missionaries from all over the world come together to recruit, train, educate, inspire, and minister to (primarily) college students interested in being missionaries (long term, short term, etc.).

Over New Years holiday I had the opportunity to go to Cincinnati, Ohio  for WMS with a group of people who are in Chi Alpha with us.  Unfortunately, Tasha could not come, as her doctors advised her not to do any extended traveling as long rides and such can cause blood clots in her legs (and would be uncomfortable in general).  Soooo, Tasha and I spent our first married New Years apart …  The bus ride was about 13-14 hours I think, and I slept probably 12 of those hours.

There were big praise/worship and informational services and skits throughout the WMS.  In between these services we had breakout sessions and meals.  The breakout sessions were AMAZING.  The most popular one was probably the Eurasia Experience.

The Eurasia Experience is a tour of a fake “country” called Eurasia (referencing the geographic region, of course). Each visitor is issued a fake “passport.”  As we waited in line, customs workers came and separated us having men stand on one side and “women and the unclean” on the other.  Also, we were required to remove our shoes.  We were warned not to have any religious materials for distribution and that in Eurasia cameras and videos were not allowed.  As we waited to enter, the customs agents came through interrogating people about their religious materials and “arresting” people who had materials for distribution.  You enter the room, and men are issued a traditional ethnic hat from various Eurasian cultures.  The women are given scarf head-coverings.  You begin by walking through a “bazaar” where vendors are shoving “fresh meat” in your face.  The skinned goat’s head reeked, but it looked…plastic.  I touched it thinking it was fake.  It was real…and gross.  There were people “pickpocketing,” and there were so many people that you couldn’t tell who was doing it.  There were people selling women into prostitution/etc.  Then you get to a big room where we all sit on the floors.

People who are arrested are placed in a guarded mock jail-cell to the edge, but when everyone is seated the show begins.  There’s a man dressed in religious Hindu attire who dances through the crowd placing a red dot on the forehead of the women.  There’s a Buddhist who goes through the crowd performing a religious ceremony.  There’s an Orthodox Jew who goes through doing a ceremony. There’re Muslims on the center stage praying toward Mecca on mats.  Then, person after person comes through describing the violence, aggression, persecution (reasons NOT to go into missions) and finally, the breakthroughs (the reasons WHY to go into missions) that they experienced in different cultures or parts of the world.  These people are making a huge difference in the Kingdom of God, reaching people who would never have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, were it not for their selfless sacrifice.  It was…amazing.  The reason why cameras weren’t allowed was really “for security purposes.”  Some of the missionaries are in closed countries, places where they would be kicked out if discovered to be missionaries.  Even more unsettling, in some of these nations, missionaries can be arrested and ultimately executed.

It was…an amazing experience.  Also, we got to keep the hats!

This is only the beginning of the amazing things God did during this trip, but I’ll save that for the next post.

-Cy

Here’s something new! The first video on RaisingCaney.com:

Don’t laugh (too much) at my singing… !

What's Tasha's dad doing to that reindeer?! (Marshall, Tx)

Tasha and her Mom at the Marshall, Tx visitor center (it was cooooold!) Tasha and her Mom at the Marshall, Tx visitor center (it was cooooold!)

Tasha and I at the Marshall, Tx visitor center (see my new favorite hat?!)

Making peanut butter rice krispie balls for the cookie competition at the Sumralls

Tasha and I have made a gingerbread house for the past 3 Christmases now. Nice, huh?

More peanut butter rice krispie balls...

Peanut butter is messy...

...but yummy!

Nanna watched us make the gingerbread house and peanut butter balls

She's an angel in disguise...

I should begin by telling you all that there are something like 41 pictures in this post. So the pictures will probably go on after the text is done. Also, the pictures are smaller for the same reason.

Soooo, Tasha and I had a very exciting and busy Christmas! If you’ve seen the movie “Four Christmases” then you know (sort of) how our Christmas was. Here’s how it happened:

-On 21 December we went to Marshall, Tx to see the lights and to ice skate (Tasha is pregnant and my knee is hurt so no skating for us) with Tasha’s family and some family friends.
-On Christmas Eve Eve Tasha and I had our Christmas for each other (and Christmas with my Momma and Nanna).
-On Christmas Eve afternoon we did Christmas with Tasha’s parents and brother and sister.
-On Christmas Eve night we did Christmas with the Sumralls (my Mom’s boyfriend’s family) and my Momma.
-On Christmas morning/afternoon we did Christmas (including lunch) with Tasha’s grandparents.
-On Christmas Evening we did Christmas with Tasha’s extended family at her Nanna’s.
-The Saturday after Christmas we did Christmas (including dinner) with my dad and his girlfriend and my brother and his family.
Soooo, as you can tell…we were quite busy!

We got a ton of smaller gifts/stocking stuffers. I got a bunch of tools and an awesome tool box. Tasha got a digital camcorder (30GB hard drive). We got a ton of clothes and a front-to-back baby backpack carrier for Caney. I also got a new bottle of Armani Acqua di Gio cologne (my favorite cologne which I had run out of). Annnnd we got a $100 bill.

We had an awesome Christmas. We really did get some really cool gifts, but more importantly, we got to visit with both of our families and loved ones.

Opening her first gift!

Trying to figure out why her husband wrapped old CDs with her present (so she couldn't figure out what it was by feeling it, duh!)...

A magnetic cork board/whiteboard for the fridge

Warm hands! (Can be worn with my ROTC uniform too!)

Another gift disguised with something random (the flashlight). Awesome!

Baby Scrapbook Paper

Annnnd...a scarf (a really nice one, actually)!

+2 beanies AND (a much needed) child-protected surge protector. The power is MINE!

My awesome toolbox and my level!

Our Christmas kiss .

Caleb opening his present from us.

Caleb the Pirate!

A new Richard Scarry book!

A princess tiara!

Makeup?! Oh nooos!!!

He had to close his eyes for an unwrapped gift. Cute picture.

A poodle doll for Sidney

and a white tiger for Caleb.

A pirate and his dad...

Arrrrgh!

A Saints football that plays music and makes noises when you hit it!

A bunch of screwdrivers in a utility toolbox. The small ones are perfect for operating on my laptops!

Tasha has to share all of her presents with Canaan so she says she's not eating this chicken noodle soup until after Canaan is born. Hehe.

A big framed picture of our wedding for the house and a small one for her desk!

Every LSU fan needs one of these for the front of their house, right?

I think he's got the pirate look perfected...

Loooots of beautiful Caney clothes!

Another pirate picture.

hehe...2 pretty girls.

Annnnd the princess/diva arrives!

As for our first New Years married, we spent it apart … It was sad, but I got the opportunity to go to the World Missions Summit 2 in Cincinatti. Tasha couldn’t go because the long bus ride would have been terribly uncomfortable for her. I’ll try to post pictures (and maybe some videos) of the WMS2 tomorrow along with a post explaining how awesome this was. God is great.

We love you all. Merry (belated) Christmas, and happy (belated) New Year! Go out and use 2009 to bring glory to God.

-Cy