a truly amazing race

One of my bestfriends, Elizabeth Scaife (pictured above), left at the beginning of the summer to become a part of a ministry called the World Race. It functions much like the show on primetime called the "Amazing Race" but instead of beating each other to a goal destination they spend 4-6 weeks in each country ministering to the people there. Right now, her team is in Swaziland, South Africa. They will continue on to so many exotic and yet hurting regions. She has always had a heart for missions and, appropriately, a talent for foreign languages. Prior to this adventure, she spent more than a year in New Orleans organizing teams to help bring native folks get back on their feet after Katrina. I love this girl. We've been apart of each others lives since elementary school. She is gone for a year and she is the second friend that is leaving this summer for long term missions. (The others are the Slawsons and can be seen on their link at the top right called 'Siberian Grits'). I admire their calling but am sad that they aren't close to home for awhile. I am going to add Elizabeth's new website for the world race.

Elizabeth, if you are reading this: I pray for you often! Love you!

cora's first bath

This poor thing hates taking baths. She whined her little heart out as we bathed her and David thought it was SO funny that he wanted to remember it with pictures. After her bath, the ONLY way she would be comforted was wrapped in a towel and held like a baby. She continued to whine (which sounded so much like a human cry--it was hilarious. Enjoy the pics!

PS. Can you tell we are proud parents? We've taken SO many pictures of her. We're smitten. Thanks for humoring me.

PSS. I wrote this when she was about 3lbs...now she is almost 20lbs. :)

puppy love

The new addition to our family is chocolate lab appropriately named Cora Godiva Hogue. When we brought her home she was 5 wks old and a precious lil' thing. She pulled at all my motherly heartstrings. She pulled at David's first, who didn't originally want a big dog. But when she came out from under his parents' house and walked right up to him as if they were old friends, David fell in love right there. And well...anyone who knows me knows that I was an easy sell. We took her home and had a taste of babyhood. She kept us up, tired us out, and yet we couldn't help but love her. I was surprised to learn how much of a softy I became and how much David became the primary disciplinarian. Have I become a pushover? Perhaps. Another revealing facet of myself that was uncovered-or at least made more clear-is that the burden of being responsible for caring for someone or something is overwhelming for me. I think that is why marriage scared me so much--it is a big deal. I know enough of how fallen and selfish I am that I could potentially destroy even the best of relationships. I got over it with marriage, especially as time went by and David and I worked through our conflict and remained close. I got over it with Cora after I realized that she would eventually not wake up 3x/night and need constant attention (as an aside, I don't do well without sleep!). I assume I will eventually be ok with babies too, but that I will have an initial response of burden, fear, and helplessness. My friend, Rachael, tells me that she felt that with her two children too, but that the love you feel far outweighs the overwhelming sense of responsibility. I assume that all mothers and fathers feel it to some degree. It is such a discipline to surrender these fears to the Lord whose promised to care for us. He's promised to care for the generations of those who love Him. We can't protect our loved ones from everything. We are without this power but we are united with One who does. Praise the Lord.