Facebook for pre-borns? What? No.

A few nights ago, I realized that I had misidentified my dog as my son rather than my daughter. This was a mistake that she demanded that I rectify (or she was hungry – with dogs, it is hard to tell the difference). While editing our relationship, I noticed that facebook had finally added “-in-law” options. YES! With joy, I finally fixed my status with all my in-laws. And it was during that little journey that I discovered something disturbing: you can label a relationship between you and another profile as expected: child.

What.

I know, I know. I have heard, and seen, fetuses having their own facebook profiles. Mothers and fathers, in their excitement, quickly create a profile for their not-yet-born. They are excited and want to post their sonograms everywhere (changing their own profile picture to it isn’t enough). I can’t hate them too much for that. But…well…I can say that it’s a little strange. I mean, as a creature living in the digital age, all current children are going to be digitalized, photographed, iphoned, blackberried, smartphoned, tweeted, facebooked, and blogged for their entire lives. My parents have a suitcase in their basement containing photographs of me, my brother, and some documentation of our finer moments during our earlier years. My future kid is gonna end up having a digital suitcase online. It’s a different world and I think I’m going to let them have their own facebook, created on their own terms. I figure, with them being a future pk (pastor’s kid), they already have enough things counting against them. I’ll at least give them their own online identity – but they better friend me. That’s all I demand ask.

Merry Christmas, Merry Merry Christmas: Photobombing the CBS Christmas Special

So, on Christmas Eve Night, the CBS Christmas special was shown. It was actually filmed in early November at my seminary (General Theological Seminary). Even though I didn’t do anything during the service except sit in the audience, if you watch closely, you’ll see my lovely face all over the place. And, lucky for you, the entire thing is on youtube! We’ve still got a few more days in this Christmas Season so enjoy.

My Favorite Photographs of 2011

I’m not really a “year-end” kind of person but I do take a lot of pictures. I started this post as an experiment to see where I’ve been and what I shot (even though there are two weeks of photos that have not been uploaded yet). My first culling resulted in over 100 photos that I loved. Sadly, I had to condense. Here’s a very tight group of photos that are some (32) of my favorites from this year (in chronological order).


IMG_9117
Emily, Dan, Tim: Philadelphia

Chapel
LTSP’s Chapel: Philadelphia

Casey and Dr. Lathrop
Casey and Dr. Lathrop: Trappe, PA

Storm coming in
Casey and Nick: Trappe, PA

K and Maddie
K and Maddie: Ocean City, NJ

IMG_0244
Jeanne and Pastor Church: Trinity LIC

365.1 George Washington Bridge
George Washington Bridge

365.7 Plane on Runway at DIA
Denver International Airport

365.8 Little Bighorn
Custer’s Last Stand

Parents by Yellowstone Lake
My Parents in Yellowstone

365.9 Old Faithful Getting Started
Old Faithful in Yellowstone

Toot
K at my mom’s birthday: Cody, WY

365.10 Morning Reflection Off Yellowstone Lake
Morning on the shore of Yellowstone Lake

365.12 Flamingo!
VEGAS BABY VEGAS

365.24 Yeah, that's right
Koinonia, Highland Park, NY

365.37 Mexican Independence Day In New York
East Harlem, NYC

365.47 VICTORY
K’s bone marrow donation, Cornell Medical Center

365.57 Tree
Candidacy Retreat, Bethel, PA

365.58 Sparkler Send Off
K and Rebecca at J and A’s wedding: Dumbo, NYC

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J and Tex waiting: Dumbo, NYC

IMG_1372
At J and A’s Wedding: Dumbo, NYC

IMG_1549
K and Gabbi: Fishkill, NY

365.65 Apple Pickin'
K Apple Picking: Fishkill, NY

365.75 Symmetry
Chelsea, NYC

365.79 Happy Family
3 Girls: My Apartment

365.82 Sunshine
Twinkie in My Apartment

IMG_1901
Twinkie is silly, My Apartment

Chapel at GTS
Chapel of the Good Shepherd: General Theological Seminary

The Rock at Christmas
The Rock: NYC

K on a swing
K in Florida

Posing
Twinkie, Sarah, and Tebow:Florida

Boxing Day Dessert
Addi is a close talker

I’m gonna be a dad….can you believe it?

Late last night, my wife and I shared some news with the internet: we’re gonna be parents! Our first child is due the first week of July. We’re very excited and I think the internet world needs to know my experiences of Fatherhood. If I’m going to embarrass my future children, I should start now.

Anyways, here are some highlights of our spreading the news this Christmas season.

  • My mother continually is asking me if we’re really sure my wife isn’t having twins.
  • My wife’s grandmother almost fell out of her chair once we told her.
  • We shared the news on Christmas morning with my wife’s family by having her parents unwrap presents on Christmas containing “I love Grandma/Grandpa” baby bibs.
  • The love we’ve gotten on Facebook has been great.
  • The name suggestions we keeping getting is a lot fun, mostly because folks aren’t taking it too seriously.
  • Everyone who has already offered to babysit – watch out, we’re gonna remember that.
  • One of the first questions we usually get ask is “was it planned?” That’s a pretty terrible question to ask and I think Ms. Manners would not approve.
  • One of my wife’s aunts said “oh! it’s like the old days. I thought maybe you’d wait till Marc was out of school but you’re going ahead anyways without planning!” Uh huh.
  • The more I share the news, the more excited I get about it.
  • Mephibosheth is currently in the name lead.

Letters of Call

There isn’t a whole lot of religiousness in my family tree (except for a 16th century saint). The same isn’t true in my wife’s family however. Two of her great-grandparents were clergymen in the free-church/baptist traditions. And during this Christmas trip, I got to see their letters of call.

I’ll admit that, ever since I entered seminary, I’m a little nosey when it comes to letters of call. I’ve seen a few but I want to see more. I’m curious what the differences are between pre-ELCA letters of call and the current letters. I want to know if they change every year or if they are the same. I want to know how they’re formatted, what font they use, how easy they are to frame, what kind of paper they are printed on, what kind of inks are used, and how elaborate (or boring) they appear. I’m sure once I get my own (God-willing), I’ll have a few answers to share. But, for now, the letters of my ancestors-by-marriage will have to do.

The first up is my wife’s grandfather’s father. He was a preacher in England and was good friends with Billy Graham. He helped setup Billy Graham in England, organized crusades, and even answered some of Billy’s correspondence. In December 1933, he was added to the ministerial rolls of “The Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland”.

Letter of Call
Click the image to view it at a larger size

Next up is my wife’s grandmother’s father. He never received an M.Div degree, was educated at the Moody Bible Institute, and was called as a minister by 9 “messengers” from 5 congregations in December 2, 1921. I love the title of the piece “Set for the Defense of the Gospel.”

Letter of Call
Click the image to view it at a larger size

Although both letters are not part of my denomination’s tradition, both are letters of call issued by different bodies of the wider church. I find these pieces of paper, and what they mean and symbolize, to be just fascinating.

UPDATE: After posting, my father-in-law informed me that there are other folks in the their ancestry that were called towards authority in religious communities as well. My wife’s great-great-grandfather was a Yeshiva student in the Ukraine who was murdered (in front of his family) by a pogram in the 1890s.