(Most pictures in this post are from Sunday afternoon Carter Blood Care’s appreciation event for blood donors. Josh is the blood donor – the rest of us (our family and the Rodriguezes) were able to benefit from Josh’s donation. It was a great event – with food, face painting, rock climbing, bounce houses, playgrounds, pictures, food, and lots more.)

If you’ve been wondering about the question in the post’s title (whether you’re a close friend/family member or just acquaintance) and can’t remember the exact the date we’ve said . . . it’s because we haven’t. When people ask about Josh’s Ph.D completion date, we really can’t give an absolute answer because we don’t really know. We have goals and hopes, but many different components play into Josh’s progress.

1.)    The nature of Josh’s research. Josh’s research is focusing on sentence structure in the Jarai language. How does he get his data for analysis? By spending time elicitating data from Jarai speakers. There are two main consultants: Hendy (who lives about 25 minutes from our home) and Lap (who lives 6 hours from our home and communicates with Josh via Skype). This type of data gathering is slow. Hendy can only meet with Josh once a week for a maximum of 3 hours and often has to cancel. Lap meets with Josh twice a week for about 2 hours a session. Gathering data from live speakers complicates research. It’s not like many seminary dissertations where all the resources are already in print in English and/or Greek and Hebrew. It’s not like Josh can lock himself away and work until he’s read everything out there. He’s dependent on the data he gets from his consultants and is at the “mercy” of their schedules. Also, it sometimes feels like the data is “changing.” In March Josh presented a paper on a particular function word in Jarai. He made specific conclusions about the word. Since then he’s been preparing the paper to submit for publication. As he gathers more data, sometimes he’ll come back from a session with information that confirms his theory and other times his entire session has contradicted his theory. This makes for very slow progress.

2.)    Other Department Expectations. Besides finishing his degree, the linguistic department also expects Josh to participate in and present papers at conferences. Josh has presented 10 talks, 2 of which were poster sessions. These take time to prepare, time to present, and are not always directly related to his dissertation research.

3.)    Other Work Responsibilities. Of course, Josh also has to work for money. Over the past 5 years, he’s done web work, worked for adoption agencies, and worked for the Linguistics Department as a teacher, lab monitor, web designer/manager, and research assistant. (The man in the picture – Nathan – is one of Josh’s former students and now fellow Ph.D. student and co-worker. Nathan joined us for dinner on Monday night and as soon as he walked in Becca said “would you like to read me a book, please?”)

4.)    Wife: Stay-at-Home-Mom.  Though Josh tells me that having a wife has made him more productive in his responsibilities, having a wife is also another aspect of dissertation completion scheduling. Josh is very careful to spend time with me and does not allow his other responsibilities to diminish our relationship. He’s also allowed me to be a stay-at-home-mom. Before Becca, I had a good salary as an elementary school music teacher. Now Josh lets (and wants) me stay at home, which means he has to work for money. When I do work (12 music lessons a week), Josh has to stay home and watch Becca for 9 of those lessons – more time. He has to come home early on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so I can go teach lessons.

5.)    Children. I am very blessed to have a husband who has allowed us to grow our family (i.e. with children) before he completes his Ph.D.  Let’s face it – children take time. Having a preemie took a lot of extra time.  Josh doesn’t want to be an absent father – the Daddy who always had to work on his research. Josh is very good about spending time with Becca . . . but it does take time. I’m particularly grateful that Josh didn’t want to wait to have Becca or Little Brother until after his degree.

There are a few of the reasons it’s hard to pin down the exact date of Josh’s completion. The major reason is the first, but all the rest contribute to dissertation progress. The current goal for completion is Spring 2013, but we’ll see what the Lord has in store for us in the next year. We are confidant Josh will reach the top in good time (like he did climbing the rock wall on Sunday afternoon).

Little Brother is now over 34 weeks! We have less than 6 weeks left (sounds soon!). I came down with a nasty cold last weekend and have decided that it should be against the law for mommies of toddlers and pregnant women to get sick. I told Becca I was sick and she said: “but you’re still happy.” I told her I was happy that she is my little girl.

Saturday we attended Arlington Library’s Teddy Bear Picnic and Parade. We brought 5 bears, although Flopsie was the “main bear.” Becca’s favorite part was the parade. She loved marching around in a line with all the other kids, holding Flopsie and Flopsie’s Little Brother. She has read a few books about parades, so I guess that helped in her excitement. Becca also loved playing with the giant parachute. I was delighted that Josh could go with us. Looking around, there were very few couples at the event. It’s nice to have a husband/Daddy who is not only willing to go to Teddy Bear Parades/Picnics but also enjoys them.

All continues to go well with Little Brother’s progress. Monday marked 33 weeks. I’m now visiting the doctor every other week (seems to make the weeks go by faster). My day and nights are filled with lots of Braxton Hicks, so hopefully this little one is getting ready for a regular delivery.

A few random bits of information on Becca. Weight: 26 lbs. Height: 33.25 inches. Her lower 2-year-old molars have come in (resulting in several rough nights for me). I suspect that the top two are getting ready to make their appearance. Becca usually wakes up somewhere around 6. She makes an effective alarm clock for us. The other day she woke up and called, “Mommy – Mommy – I can’t see!”

Phrases from Becca:

“But my hands are empty.” (she says this only at times when it is completely irrelevant to whatever else is going on; once she told me this at 3AM!)

Last week when Becca was praying right before her nap, I zoned out (since she tends to mumble during prayer) the next thing I understood in her prayer was “and this little piggy went wee, wee, wee all the way home.”

“Hello Kitty Cat – you are so beautiful!” (said to a stuffed panther)

“Mommy – you are wrong . . . that says Papa Bear.” (when showing Becca how to spell her name with blocks)

After cleaning up some water she spilled on my placement: “Mommy – I clean it up – I spent a lot of time (cleaning it up!).”

“You look kinda green” (said to me last evening when I came home piano lessons wearing a green shirt)

We had a lovely but busy Easter weekend.  (I was pretty worn out by Sunday evening.) Every time we have people over or have multiple events planned for the weekend, I think “this is the last time I’m doing this until the baby comes”. . . but it never works out that way.

Warning – there are 4 sets of photos in this post.

Photo Story: Friday Evening – Easter Eggs with Ahanna. We got together with neighbors from our previous apartment to color and hide Easter eggs. We did this with them last year. Both girls seemed to enjoy the activities.

Photo Story: Saturday Evening – Josh’s Birthday Cookout. Our original cookout plans were ruined due to the tornadoes on Josh’s birthday, so we postponed the cookout. Josh started the charcoals at 4:30, but we didn’t end up eating until 7 (due to malfunctioning charcoals, etc). Becca ended up skinning her knee, so we had an interesting (but tasty) dinner! (The close-up picture of me was taken by Becca, with help from Josh.)

Photo Story: Easter. We had René, Yani, and Amaris Rodriguez along with Barry and his son Joe over for Easter dinner. I made ham, sweet potato casserole, salad, and rolls for dinner. We had a great afternoon with our guests.

Photo Story: Easter Story Cookies.

(The following text is copied from the instructions we found online.)

Place the pecans in the zippered baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break them into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, he was beaten by the Roman soldiers. (John 19:1-3).

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 teaspoon vinegar in a mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, he was given vinegar to drink. (John 19:28-30)

Add egg whites to the vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life everlasting. (John 10:10-11)

Sprinkle a little salt into each child’s hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus’ followers — and also the unsweetness of our sins. (Luke 23:27)

Add 1 cup of sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of Easter is that Jesus dies because he loves us and is born again to watch over us from heaven. (Psalms 34:8 and John 3:16)

Beat with a mixer on high for 12 to 15 minutes, or until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity of those who have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus. (Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:13)

Fold in the broken nuts. Drop by teaspoon onto wax paper-covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus’ body was laid to rest. (Matthew 27: 57-60) Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven off.

Give each child some tape to seal the door. Explain that when Jesus was in the tomb, the world was dark and his tomb had been sealed. (Matthew 27:65-66)

Go to bed! Explain that they might feel sad about leaving the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus’ followers were sad to leave him in the tomb, too. (John 16:20-22)

On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface, and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter morning, Jesus’ followers were amazed to find the tomb was empty. (Matthew 28:1-9)

This past weekend I had the opportunity to lead the worship at the Dallas Theological Seminary Wives’ Spring Retreat (March 30 – April 1). I was asked to lead the worship when their original person found out she was unable to attend the retreat. I had about two weeks to prepare, and I spent much of my free time choosing music and practicing playing the piano and singing at the same time. Josh was a great help during the week before the retreat. He did all my PowerPoint presentation slides as well as communicated with board members about details concerning the retreat. AND he did a great job taking care of Becca while I was away!

The retreat went well. I appreciate all those who prayed for me during my time there, as I was nervous about leading the worship.  I used the following songs during our three worship sessions: Come Thou Fount, Come Christians Join to Sing, God Moves in a Mysterious Way, I Run to Christ, A Triune Prayer, You Never Change, Behold Our God, O God my Joy, The Power of the Cross. The two songs we sang at each service were God Moves in a Mysterious Way and A Triune Prayer (to close each session). I especially wanted the worship sessions to focus on the ways God is working in our lives even when it’s hard to see His hand in the process.

It was a special treat for me to be surrounded by so many women whose husbands are training for the ministry. Our situations are similar – wives who have come from many different states to support their husbands as they prepare for the ministry. But they have a strong support system and the availability of faculty wives to mentor them.  It made me a little envious of seminary wives and the community they have together. I especially enjoyed talking with the faculty wives and being in the presence of older women.

My dad is a Dallas Theological Seminary grad, and two of the faculty wives remembered my parents. The most surprising was Mrs. Toussaint. When she heard my father’s name she told me that she thought her husband really enjoyed my father as a student. I was a bit skeptical that a lady in her mid 80’s would remember my father’s name or that her husband was fond of my dad. However she went on to tell me that my parents were on the east coast and then named the exact city (Piscataway) where their first pastorate was. Wow – I hope my memory is that good when I’m in my 80’s!

As of yesterday, we are 2 months away from Little Brother’s due date. I’m now on the every other week doctor’s visit schedule. Tuesday we had another ultrasound just to check on things. All looks well. Little Brother weighs 3lbs & 5oz. and is 15.5in long. His head is down and very low. I’m feeling great (though a nap is needed to maintain this feeling as the day goes on) and am enjoying this new experience.

Photo Story: Josh’s Birthday (pt. 1). Arlington experienced a tornado on Josh’s birthday, which (due to the rain) ruined my cookout plans for Josh’s meal. We had our Tuesday salad instead and are going to do the cookout later this week. Josh didn’t want a cake this year and asked for banana splits instead – enjoyed by all.

Happy 31st Birthday to the most wonderful man on earth. You are a man of true excellence – excellent husband, excellent father, excellent friend, excellent student, excellent worker, and to catch all other categories, excellent man. You have been the most excellent blessing in my life these past 5 years.

One quality that makes you an excellent husband is the unity you share with me. I never have to worry about being made fun of by you or criticized by you in public. I never have to worry about what you say to others about me. Never have to worry about your casting me in a negative light. Never have to worry about you complaining about me to another person. We’re on the same team and I have complete confidence that I’m safe with you at all times. It’s one (of the many) qualities that make you my excellent husband.  Thanks so much for choosing me and loving me – for continuing to be an amazing husband who just keeps getting better.

Happy Birthday, my man! I love you more than life!