Category: Personal News

First the baby update: Dana is doing well. My mom (who is currently visiting) has dressed her in an outfit that I apparently used to wear, and that’s rather charming. Anyway, there are new photos online.

Now for the personal news: Monday evening at 6:30pm I’m going to be ordained as an Assemblies of God minister.

In case you’re curious about the administrative backstory, this means that I’ve now maxed out my ministerial certifications. I’ve been a licensed minister for a number of years, and I’m now being upgraded to full ordination. It’s like going from a master’s to a Ph.D., except that I didn’t have to write and defend hundreds of pages of academic drivel. 

Instead, I merely had to defeat three ninjas in armed combat. Pretty standard stuff for a college minister, I have to say.

Ordination doesn’t really change anything for me as far as my ministerial functions (the Assemblies of God has been eroding the distinctions between licensing and ordination) or legal standing (I could officiate at weddings, for example, before this), but it is pretty cool. 

Getting ordained reflects a sort of commitment to the movement. It’s not the same thing as going from being engaged to being married, but that’s not a horrible analogy. Continuing the metaphor, it’s a bit unfortunate from a commitment perspective that the Assemblies of God can be a bit of a tart…

Seriously, it’s a great movement (with some admittedly deep flaws) and I’m proud to be receiving my ordination from them.

I stumbled across this earlier today while getting a satellite photo of my apartment. It’s a demographic summary of my zip code. You can do one for yours as well. Interesting stuff.

First: Paula’s in charge of uploading pictures now, so if there’s a delay in new photos be sure to send her an email to keep her on track. 🙂

Second: We’re very fortunate: Dana was born over Spring Break, so I was able to completely devote myself to helping Paula that week. After that, we had guest speakers scheduled for the first two weeks of the Spring Quarter, so I haven’t had to obsess about message preparation. Most people don’t realize this, but preparing sermons takes a LOT of time. I’d say I spend 15–20 hours a week polishing up my message for Chi Alpha, and I should probably spend more. Anyway, the bottom line is that I’ve really been available to help Paula out and still keep on top of all my ministry responsibilities.

We’re very blessed to have Dana–she sleeps a lot and doesn’t cry too much. Somehow I wind up getting the sleep that I need. Woohoo!

On a completely unrelated note, this comic made me laugh out loud. I rarely read Get Fuzzy, but on a lark I swung by their website today. I’m glad I did.

I got out my webcam today and shot a few seconds of Dana wiggling, and put together a short video: Dana — Boogie Queen (WMV file, 1 MB). Yes, it’s cheesy. I’m her daddy and I’m allowed to do that! As I’m sure I’ll have to explain to her when she’s 16 and finds this while doing a vanity search… 

One of our Chi Alpha students, Andrew Wright, said this in an email about Dana: I went to Oxford today. I’m still speechless; never been more impressed in all my life. Send Dana there, but only if her beauty fades. It’s an awesome school full of ugly women and I’d hate to see all the men fighting over your daughter.

That just made me laugh.

It reminds me of a joke I’ve heard about MIT. The male/female ratio is pretty tilted there, so if you’re a gal “the odds are good, but the goods are odd.”

Contemplating my newborn daughter today, I had an epiphany: you know life is good when you have people competing for the privilege of wiping your bottom…

UPDATE: while up late with Dana, I decided to put this insight into haiku form

• chair the free download

.

Version A:
Concerning newborns
I reflect: Life is good when
people wipe your butt

Version B:
Concerning newborns:
they lie screaming as servants
vie to wipe their butts

Just a quick update–we got Dana home today in the midafternoon.

Thanks for the TON of emails–for once I had more legitimate messages than spam! It feels good to get 90 or so congratulatory missives.

Now that Dana’s home we’ll be sure to dress her up in some cute outfits and post pictures online. I’ll try and do a short little webcam movie, too.

For the baby-unitiated (i.e., all the collegians I know), I’ll be very tardy in responding to emails, phone calls, and smoke signals. I’ll post short little updates here as oft as I can, but expect them to be few and far between. If they’re more frequent, consider that lagniappe.

Our first child, Dana Marie Davis, arrived March 25, 2004 at 4:03pm PST. She was 6 lbs 7 oz, and 18″ long. Ten fingers, ten toes, the whole bit.

Delivery was actually very easy for Paula. From the time she started pushing until the time of delivery took less than an hour. To top it off, Paula felt relatively little pain throughout. We’re still counting our blessings and thanking everyone who prayed in that direction!

See photos of Dana in our gallery.

That’s the essential outline–if you want the blow-by-blow, read more.

I actually wrote most of the following at the hospital (yes, I brought my laptop with me–it amused the nurses, I think), so please forgive the verb tenses.
Continue reading “D‑Day (Delivery Day)”

In case you’re curious, we have pregnancy photos from beginning to end.

Keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow! In just about two hours Paula will call the hospital to confirm that she’s to head in, and then they’ll being working their medical arts upon her.

Paula goes in to the hospital tonight, and baby should appear sometime tomorrow afternoon (around 5pm is what the doctor estimated).

Woohoo!

By the way, a few days ago I mentioned that an alumna from our Chi Alpha group at Stanford is a finalist in the Miss Singapore Universe competition. Nathaniel Rice (one of our current students) found a blog that mentions Adeline’s involvement twice (on March 12 in a spiritual sort of context and once on March 21 in a fun friend kind of context).

an excerpt from the Friday March 12 entry: One of the girls, Adeline, left the deepest impression in my heart… [skipped some stuff] i respect her and look up to her.. she got this spark in her eyes when she was sharing her experience.. as if she was living life with such passions~! I told her i was feeling pretty nervous, and she said..“remember i said beauty is a quiet and gentle spirit?” I said “yeah” as her group’s topic was about what beauty means to them(everyone had to intro themselves with name and age, and a few words about their topic in front of the judges). Then she smiled and said to me, “You have that beauty i was talking about — a quiet and gentle spirit.”. I was pretty touched, i smiled and said Thank you and hugged her, and i was close to tears.. it’s just amazing! She wasn’t like most of the other contestants who could be pretty selfish at times, or hypocritical, or bitchy. She is so sincere.. and true.. and so positive.. and she is just a few years older than me and already living life the way she wants! She just touched my heart in a way.. =)

I’d like for Chi Alpha to take credit for Adeline, but she was already pretty mature before we even met her…