The Hedman Girlz

Hoo Boy!

Forgot to mention -
Ella and Lilly will be joined by a baby brother this winter.

Community Communique

I'll just be honest. After I spend time with people I sometimes find it harder to love them and easier not to love them. This makes me sound like a misanthrope. I am not. I like to make new friends, keep old friends, provide hospitality in my home in the form of meals or long stays. It would be safe to say I love it.
It is this very exposure that warms and chafes me at the same time. It warms not only my emotions, but that secret part of me where God's fire is growing. It chafes me at the flesh, at the corner of my brain that "decides" things.
Community is not only a grand thing for support, it might be even better for un-support. That is, I may find people who are like me and that is reassuring - but eventually I find that they do things differently, with different expectations and outcomes. This can have a deleterious effect on the order I have created in my mind and in my life, the definition I've built concerning The Way Things Should Be.
The really wonderful thing is that I am free to exercise my willingness to love my neighbor in community. I will fail time and again. But because I belong to Jesus who has the power to forgive and to heal our shattered sinful parts, I can keep trying with all good hope that one day I will fully relinquish my will for his. That will be a great relief to us all.

Woohoo Baby!

It's been a while. My computer broke in April. It has been on the to-do list to fix for some time. Meanwhile, I have missed blogging.
As you might know, I am pregnant with our third child. This has also contributed to some lethargy; it is remarkable to me how much physical energy it takes out of a woman to grow one of these things. Growing another human being! As if that doesn't sound science fiction. It was a wee bit of an "early" situation - about six months ahead of schedule on the list of events we'd planned for our life, but hey, #3 was a heartfelt wish anyway. We had to "work out" some faithless details on our parts - a two bedroom apartment, a scrape the bottom of the barrel each month budget, Nathan's Academic Year to Break Anyone's Spirit coming up with 70 hr. work weeks expected - and by "work out" I mean pray earnestly. We are happy and excited to welcome this new person into our family; we find out the gender this week. I think I had an epiphany when I imagined a friend telling me she was pregnant with #3 and she was nervous about how she would manage it financially and personally - and my response would be, I understand why you might be nervous, but you know and I know and the Lord knows it will all be just fine. The Ingalls lived comfortably with three children in a log cabin about 1/3 the size of my apartment. Families in India would fit 15 family members in a dwelling this size. So, when I am nervous about the size of my home, I think my Americanness is showing. How embarrassing!
One thing I know is true - children are a blessing from the Lord, nothing less.

One last thought. I don't usually plug products. But I recently purchased a pack of Big Red. It has been at least 12 years since I chewed Big Red. And I am here to tell you that if you're feeling blah and you need just a teensy bit of sparkle, get you some! It's zesty and it reminds you that you are too!