e-ink

Memorial Day weekend

On Wednesday and Thursday this week, a convoy of bicyclists and emergency vehicles passed through our county. They started in NYC at the Fire Academy and were headed to Roanoke, VA for the National EMS Memorial Service on Saturday.

While we remember our armed services on Memorial Day weekend, let's also remember our EMS workers and the many who've laid down their lives for others.

I spent some time this afternoon reading about some of the people on this list. If you get a chance, you should do the same. It's filled with ordinary people who've done extraordinary acts, often as volunteers.

Chief, if you read this, thank you.

A fire photo

While I'm busy posting, here's a photo from a house fire a couple months ago. Five people narrowly escaped the burning house, which was a total loss.

The fire itself was one of the most intense I've seen in a long time.

Five years

Recently in our birthing classes, my wife and I had to independently fill out a questionaire and then compare our answers. Not surprisingly, we know each other pretty well -- right down to putting the same funny answer on the same question.

Today is our fifth anniversary. As cliched as it might sound, we can hardly believe it's been five years. A lot has changed since the wedding day, but it still seems like it just happened.

We've moved three times -- enough already! -- and seen the Lord's hand guiding us many times.

We wanted to do something big for the milestone, and we're full of excitement and anticipation as we await the birth of our first son. He passed his due date yesterday. If he's born soon, I think that's quite a momentous anniversary celebration.

After five wonderful years of learning each other's thought processes, we look forward to many, many more years together.

Overdue

What a whirlwind the last three months have been for us. Though busy, the time has been overwhelmingly exciting for us as we prepare for our baby, who passed his due date yesterday, still enjoying the warm darkness of mommy's tummy.

Our preparations have been far from simple, and there's been no shortage of wonderful posts that could have been made if there'd been time and an Internet connection. (Maybe I can go back and share some of the stories...)

Our most major step in the baby preparation was to buy our coming son a room for his nursery -- in fact, we bought him a whole new house. About the time of my last blogpost, we moved out of our apartment and spent a couple weeks living in my grandmother's house while we prepped our new house for moving in.

We used my grandmother's furniture in the interim and kept our belongings packed in a truck that we had free access to for the prolonged move.

On April 1 -- no joke! -- we moved in and we've really been happy setting up home. It's the first time in our marriage we've been able to paint and have walls that aren't white.

The house is on three quarters of an acre in a quiet neighborhood in a small town closer to work for both of us. It's in the county my newspaper covers, and it as three bedrooms, including a neat half-story bedroom/foyer/attic. There's an attached carport, a full basement and plenty of storage.

For those who travel I-81, you're not far away, so let us know you're coming through.

Until then, stay tuned for baby news and join us in praying that our son will be born safely and soon.