Thank you to NayNay & Nana! (Faith's Grandmothers)

Faith asked (I know, a surprising act of maturity for a 10 day old) if we could make a special post today, a tribute of thanks to her wonderful grandmothers, NayNay (Jaime's mother) & Nana (Murray's mother). She said is extremely grateful for all of your help, and she is exceedingly (can't believe she used that word) blessed to have you for grandmothers. She can't wait for your next visit!

She reminded Jaime & I to especially thank you for...
the diaper changes
the home-cooked meals
the laundry service
the stork in the yard
the phone answering service
the errand-running service
the grocery shopping...

We really are very grateful to have such wonderful mothers, and to pass these mothers along to Faith as grandmothers. Usually, you pass faith along to your grandchildren. This time, we're passing grandmothers to Faith. (can you tell I'm sleep deprived?)

A Blessing on the 8th Day

Jesus was blessed as an infant on his 8th day of life, and Faith received a blessing today on her 8th day as well! Our dear friends John & Jena (John is a elder/shepherd at our congregation) came over today to read God's Word to Faith, and also to offer a prayer of blessing for her. It was an unforgettable moment, and a blessing to Faith's mom & dad that words cannot express. I can NOT believe Faith is ONE WEEK OLD today! God is so FAITHful.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!

GOD is SO good!

Faith Kinder Sanderson
Arrived Tuesday evening, December 20, 2005, at 7:45 pm.
9 lbs, 12 oz
21 3/4 inches long.

Mother & baby are doing GREAT!

"Kinder" (rhymes with 'tinder') is Jaime's maternal grandmother's maiden name. We love you Gladys, and are so thankful for the heritage of faithfulness and Christ-like living you now hand down to your new great-granddaughter Faith.

(That last pic is of Faith, Jaime & dear friend Emille, Faith's favorite nurse.)

Due Date Has Come & Gone

No baby yet. No downward movement, no engaging, no contractions. Only a scribbled ransom note: "I'm not budging until you guys promise to NOT feed me baby peas or squash or anything else that has absolutely no recognizable color with the consistency of something else I'll be very good at..." (We haven't yet taught him or her about NOT ending a sentence with a preposition.)

Jaime is doing much better today, almost back to normal after yesterday's fever scare. She started feeling a little ill right after KING KONG on Friday afternoon (that movie is EXACTLY why I go to see movies, I loved it. By the way, I love it when people say, the part about the giant pink worms was so not real...like ANY of it was real!) Dinner at Baja Fresh seemed to perk her up. But later Fri pm, she really wasn't on top of her game. Saturday morning, she & her mother headed off for Joann's Fabrics - they were having a sale. (If I ever get hit by a bus, and Jaime is feeling a little down, just tell her there's a fabric sale...it brings her out every time.) After they got back home about noon, Jaime started aching all over, with chills & nausea. Ok, I'm no ob/gyn, but this is not good. REALLY not good when you're 40 weeks + 3 days past due. She quickly developed a fever that escalated throughout the afternoon until about 6:00 pm. At one point, I looked over and I was beside myself. We called the doc several times who helped us get the drugs (legal) we needed. Her fever leveled off after reaching 102 and then started coming back down late Saturday night. Thanks for those of you who prayed feverishly. :)

Ok, so here's the story of precious Gillian from church. If you've read my blog, you'll see I'm on a rampage to get people to stop misusing God's name. In addition to the valley-girl "oh my God", I've even put "oh my gosh" on the hit list...for the same reason my dad & mom wouldn't let me say "crap" or "darn" when I was growing up. It's too close. So I hear about little Gillian, who loves God and who also loves to sing. She is a precious little girl. One day, she is walking around the house singing Matt Redman's "Here I am to Worship"...a modern day worship favorite. Mid-way through the chorus, she sings (and if you sing this line, it's better)...I'll start at the top of the chorus:

Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You're my Gosh!

Isn't that hysterical! I love it. She was trying to be reverent, as she knew she wasn't supposed to say "God". I just love it. I have gotten so many smiles from that story. One day, when she joins the worship team, I will have her sing that as a solo. Too cute. (Thank you Ellyn & Ramona & the entire family for raising such wonderful Godly kids, and for sharing this story with me about little Gillian.)

Keep praying for our baby to make its debut! There are several scriptures about labor/delivery/only God knowing the day of our birth...they have been very helpful. Your prayers are also carrying us through. Don't give up now! BLOG HUG.

DECEMBER 15TH IS HERE!

Everyone sing with me, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, Praise Father, Son & Holy Ghost! Amen!"

Beautiful, thanks for singing along. Today is our much anticipated due date. We feel so blessed to have gotten here safely. Our precious little bundle of joy is extremely happy, and appears very content...inside of Jaime. The doctor's words were, "I think he/she is somewhere north of your left lung now." :) Please continue to pray for us as we anxiously and prayerfully (can those two go together?) await our baby's arrival. It's snowing like crazy, and it's actually beautiful. The sleet/freezing rain is supposed to begin after the snow stops. So if the baby comes today, I'm hitching up the clydesdales & taking the covered wagon! Hey, a few bumps have been known to assist a laboring woman. Our sonogram scheduled for 3 pm probably won't happen today (they just want to make sure the baby is indeed as happy as he/she seems to be. The heartbeat is always strong.) Thanks for the prayers, and please don't let up now!

I just got back from Santa's workshop. Don't worry, I won't give the address....but it seriously was the most enchanted, special, joyful place I've been in a long time. You see, our church had a really fun talent show last Sunday night (see pics at www.fxcc.org ). For admission, we asked people to bring a book or a toy to give away. Paul B. (a regular 2nd miler) and I just got back from delivering the majority of the toys to the warehouse operated by "Our Neighbor's Child", a non-profit agency here in Chantilly. (Some toys will be given to families associated with our church through our holiday food baskets.) We drove up to the building, could see no sign of life or light inside. All the doors were dark, until we found one with a sign on it in the very back. It was a HUUUUUUGE warehouse. We peeked in the door, thinking we would see nothing but a dark empty room, and there were toys EVERYWHERE! Little elves (men, women & children) were bustling around, organizing toys into neat stacks & according to family wish lists. There was a station where 10 or so people worked on laptops hooked up to some kind of server, and they were printing out these wish lists of people who were in need. There was a long row of brand new bicycles...all of the toys were brand new, mind you. There were piles of books, and barbies, and trucks, and cars, and everything a kid could ever want. I SO WISH I had had my camera with me. For everyone who brought a toy on Sunday night, I wish you could've been there as well. It would've warmed your heart to see such a wonderful organization helping so MANY children get the toys they previously could only dream about. It's times like this when you realize that good will really prevail, that God is sovereign, that there are tons of really good hearted people out there helping others out. Totally cool.

Tune in tomorrow for little Gillian's version of "Here I Am To Worship", it's a must read.

Baby Watch, 1 Day & Counting! (and a story about God's Name)

First, baby news. No baby yet. Our due date is tomorrow, Dec 15th. My precious wife looks more beautiful every day, and is extremely ready to hold our sweet baby in her arms. I am as well. But these are precious days, and being pregnant is an incredible blessing. We are savoring every moment. Thanks SO MUCH for all of your prayers. Please pray that the baby will engage & that Jaime will get to have the natural birth that we have prepared for!

Thanks to all of you who weighed in on our Baby Sanderson Pool. Those of you who predicted the baby would come early have lost out, but take heart, you do receive a consolation prize... a birth announcement. :)

Separate subject...

As I've posted about before, it bothers me to hear people say "Oh, my God!" in careless conversation, or worse, in anger. I have done my fair share of slipping up, and none of us are without sin, but we can all do better with revering God's name. Just yesterday, our wonderful 'church mother/receptionist bar none' Lynn greeted the UPS man with a friendly greeting & pointed him to the MANY HEAVY boxes we were sending via UPS to kids in the Dominican Republic. He promptly and loudly exclaimed, "Oh, my God!" Without shaming or condemning him, she quickly and firmly said to him, "Let's not take the Lord's name in vain." She said this in her own way, with a smile and a wink, and then began to help him get organized with all of our boxes. So there's was nothing "church-lady-esque" about it. I overheard this from my office, and I was so happy! Someone standing up for the Lord and for His Name! How AWESOME. That UPS man may not change his language everywhere, but when he's here in our midst, hopefully he'll remember that this is a place where God's name is treated with the utmost respect & honor.

Tune in tomorrow when I share the most adorable story about a little girl from our church protecting God's name. She's 18-months old, and her version of "Here I Am to Worship" is altogether reverent in her own special way! (who knows, tomorrow's post could hold pics of a new baby! only God knows!)

Thanks for a great shower!

Jaime & I would like to say thanks to our church family for a wonderful baby shower. We were overwhelmed by your kindness & generosity, and we are humbled by your outpouring of gifts. Many of you know that we left a wonderful congregation behind in Dallas two years ago that we still love very much. (and who gave us a baby shower back in September!) We also left my family, most of which live in the Dallas area. We had been at Preston Road for a combined total of 15 years, so it really felt like home to us. To be embraced so fully by our new church family here in Fairfax is nothing short of a blessing from God. We love you, and feel very blessed to be working in the kingdom alongside all of you. You make this journey so enjoyable.

Thank you to all the hostesses, especially Nancy McKelvey, who hosted our shower after having cooked for 100 people at Camp Wamava all weekend, and who then turned around and fed 25 people at her small group on Sunday evening. A real 2nd miler!

(and yes, that's Marge Eyler at the top left picture...Marge doesn't get out for every church shower, and it meant so much to have her at ours! We love you Marge!)

The Power of Music / Christmas Recommendations

I get a daily email from "All Pro Dads"...today's underscores the POWER of music to minister to people, to help them connect with their grief (in this instance).

"The composer Ludwig von Beethoven was not known for his social graces. Because of his deafness, he found conversation difficult. When a close friend’s son died, Beethoven, overcome with sorrow, rushed to his friend’s house. While he couldn’t say how he felt, he did see a piano...and for the next half-hour, poured out his grief through the keyboard. No one else’s support meant so much."

Isn't that awesome!

A few recommendations about Christmas CDs...Steven Curtis Chapman's 2005 release is great, even though the duet with Vince Gill is a little like leftover casserole. Chapman's daughter's influence / involvement on the CD are priceless. Neat story. Try Andrew Peterson's"Behold the Lamb of God" (www.independentmusic.com) for a great CD telling the story of the birth of Christ...starts with the Passover, so it's quite comprehensive. He's a great writer. The song about the birth "Labor of Love" is especially poignant to us this year. And for the MOST INCREDIBLE VERSION OF "O Holy Night", try Selah's Christmas CD from a few years back. Their rendition begins & ends with chords of mystery & tension, which is truly what surrounded Christ's birth. Why Selah is not the best selling Christian group is beyond me, except that I'm 37 years old, and have no clue about what really sells.

We had the most fantastic baby shower from the Fairfax Church of Christ yesterday. Pictures & review tomorrow...a good place to start is THANK YOU. YOU HAVE BLESSED OUR LIVES SO MUCH. WE LOVE OUR CHURCH FAMILY.

It's snowing like crazy right now, we're expecting 3 to 5 inches...AWESOME! Let's just hope I listened really well in our childbirth classes, as I may be getting the sheets/towels/hot water ready for a home birth if we're snowed in & the baby decides it's time.

Cutting Down the Christmas Tree

Ok, thank you to the one person (Suzy G) who made a comment on my very serious blog from yesterday. Regardless of whether you take the time to read it, just know that God is doing amazing things through people still today, Rick Warren case in point. What God has done with Rick's affluence & influence is truly inspiring.

As promised, here are some pics from our recent Christmas tree expedition, with our dear friends Chris & Mindy Bedard. They totally rock. I'm also throwing in some T'giving pics as well.
Happy weekend!

World AIDS Day

I never knew World AIDS Day was December 1st. I vaguely rememer hearing about World AIDS Day in recent years. Today, I got an email from Rick Warren, the senior minister at 22,000 member Saddleback Church, which Rick started with his wife in 1980, about how I could help our government raise awareness of the AIDS crisis, and what I could do TODAY to help in the effort. At first I was like, oh yeah, another email from mega-millionaire Rick Warren...the guy who does cool things for God in a really big way, things I could never do.

Then I thought, GET BEHIND ME SATAN, I WILL NOT BUY THAT LIE. I'm a child of God, a disciple of Jesus Christ, who said that the Father would do even greater things through those that followed Him (Jesus). Why should I cower at what Rick is doing, and believe that kind of GOD-activity can only happen in Southern California?

After I read the email from Rick, I picked up my favorite periodical, Cutting Edge, produced by the Vineyard Church. It's an excellent magazine, always convicting. The feature article was on Rick Warren. I can't get away from this guy!

If you're not aware, Rick Warren authored The Purpose Driven Life, which is the best-selling non-fiction book in American history. He talks openly in this article about how he used the millions & millions that started pouring in from book sales to 1. repay Saddleback Church every dime of salary they had paid him over 25 years, and 2. to set up 3 non-profit foundations. He said he & his wife were determined not to change their lifestyle, or to spend the millions on themselves. Rick still drives a four-year old Ford truck. They did not buy a bigger home, nor a guest home. The Saddleback Church now has 22,000 members, and has PLANTED 34 CHURCHES. They have 2,600 small groups. This man is not afraid of letting God work powerfully in his life. Here are a few Rick quotes from the article.

About the church in a corporate world:

"In the body of Christ, we are a body, not a business. I'm totally against the corporate model of organization. We are an organism, not an organization. We are a family, and families aren't based on policies, but on relationships, and the greater the relationship, the greater the trust."

About what Americans need from the church:

What I think people in America are asking is "are Christians going to care about the things we expect them to care about: justice, poverty, illness, the works of Jesus. A lot of people want to study the steps of Jesus. I say, let's study the stops of Jesus. What did Jesus stop to do? What kind of things did He allow to interrupt His agenda? We need to have a kind of openness to 'Lord, what do you want me to do next?'"

About stewardship:

"When Kay & I got married 30 years ago, we started raising our tithe every year by one percent. So after the first year of marriage, we went to eleven percent, second year twelve, third year to thirteen, and so on. We did that because we found that every time we give, it broeke the grip of materialism in our life. It made us more like Jesus. It makes my heart grow bigger every time I'm generous. Well, now we've been married 30 years, and we actually give away 90 percent and we live on ten. And, honestly, that's just a whole lot of fun! And, really, I don't have a lot of needs. I just need to replace socks occasionally."

About the President of Rwanda:

"The President of Rwanda read The Purpose Driven Life a year ago, wrote me a note and said, 'It changed my life. I want you to come to Rwanda. We want to be the first Purpose-Driven Nation!'"


It's natural and easy to sit back and think, wow, God, that's nice that you did that through Rick Warren, but my circumstances are different. I could never accomplish those sort of things. So here's a final prayer-thought from me..."O God, I believe in You, and Your power to touch this world and interact with your people. I am thankful for what You've done in and through Rick Warren. I believe You can & will do powerful things in me, and through me, for a lost & dying world for your glory; help my unbelief!"

Tune in tommorrow for pictures from our recent trip to Lucketts, VA to cut down our Christmas tree!








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