Queso Quote: What We Believe

“What we believe is revealed by how we live.”

—Nancy Leigh DeMoss

My Favorite Inventions Of The Year

Last week TIME magazine featured “The 50 Best Inventions of 2009”. TIME awarded the top spot to NASA’s new Ares rockets. Tough to top that. But I'm listing some of my favorites:

#5 Controller-Free Gaming – Microsoft’s “Project Natal” brings TRON to reality. And you thought your Wii was cool.

#6 Teleportation – OK, so really it’s just quantum information processing. University of Maryland’s Joint Quantum Institute successfully teleported data from one atom to another in a container a meter away by having one atom transform the other so it acts just like the original. Beam me up.

#9 Tweeting By Thinking – A University of Wisconsin doctoral student tweeted characters by focusing on each letter while wearing a specially-made electrode cap. (See picture.) Top speed achieved so far: 8 characters per minute. What message did he send? “USING EEG TO SEND TWEET."

#10 Electric Eyes – MIT researchers help blind people regain partial eyesight by implanting a microchip incased by titanium onto a patient’s eyeball. Way better than Geordi La Forge’s visor.

#34 The Human-Powered Vending Machine – A Barcelona man attached a stationary bike to a vending machine so a customer who wanted a product would have to pedal a certain distance to get it. Brilliant.

To read the full list, plus descriptions, click here.

No Martha Stewart Thanksgiving

I love having people in my home. But a domestic goddess, I am not. My style of entertaining tends toward the “Make yourself at home” kind. As in, “You’ll have to grab your own beverage from the fridge. Feel free to either drink it straight from the can or pour it into a plastic Rudy’s BBQ cup from the cupboard.”

I also love Thanksgiving. And so I used to make an effort toward fine dining and décor on this one special day. I would lay out beautiful table settings of china and crystal on crisp crème-colored linens, including real cloth napkins folded into interesting shapes and secured by silver napkin rings. But since we added three small kids to our family, I’ve reverted to my unsophisticated comfortable and inelegant practical ways. (And let’s be real: even before kids my cornbread dressing came from a box and my pie crusts were compliments of Pillsbury.)

So I’ve always appreciated this old email meme called “No Martha Stewart Thanksgiving”. I hope you enjoy it too. May your holiday be filled with joy and gratefulness!

"Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. I'm telling you in advance, so don't act surprised. Since Ms. Stewart won't be coming, I've made a few small changes:

The dining table will not be covered with expensive linens, fancy china or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and everyone will get a fork. Since this IS Thanksgiving, we will refrain from using the plastic Peter Rabbit plate and the Santa napkins from last Christmas.

Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration hand-crafted from the finest construction paper. The artist assures me it is a turkey.

We will be dining fashionably late. The children will entertain you while you wait. I'm sure they will be happy to share every choice comment I have made regarding Thanksgiving, pilgrims and the turkey hotline. Please remember that most of these comments were made at 5:00 AM upon discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds.

As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play a recording of tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I don't own a recording of tribal drumming, or that tribal drumming sounds suspiciously like a frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them. They are lying.

We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional method. We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement. When the smoke alarm sounds, please gather around the table and sit where you like. In the spirit of harmony, we will ask the children to sit at a separate table. In a separate room. Next door.

Now I know you have all seen pictures of one person carving a turkey in front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers. This will not be happening at our dinner. For safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private ceremony. I stress "private" meaning: Do not, under any circumstances, enter the kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children to check on my progress. I have an electric knife. The turkey is unarmed. It stands to reason that I will eventually win. When I do, we will eat.

Before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice between 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with whipped cream and small fingerprints. You will still have a choice: take it or leave it.

Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. She probably won't come next year either. I am thankful."

(Source unknown)


This is a picture of the actual centerpiece we will feature at our Thanksgiving table this year. My 4-year-old daughter made it. I think it's perfect.

No Better Time To Support Foster Kids

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. This post is part a series about adoption and related issues, from my perspective.

Check out this great video put together by Tapestry, the adoption and foster care ministry of Irving Bible Church. For those of you in the Dallas area, please consider partnering with these folks. The video features several stories of how every day people are changing the world through supporting foster kids.

No Better Time Than Now from Tapestry on Vimeo.

If the video doesn’t show up in your browser, just click here.

My Favorite Board Books

I love, love, love good children’s books. I constantly fight the urge to pull my minivan over at every garage sale or thrift store to rummage through their used books, trying to discover some hidden treasure of a tale I haven’t seen before.

And while I actually relish the search, at times I am dismayed at the amount of bad children’s books out there. I don’t necessarily mean inappropriate books. Just poorly-written, badly-drawn, boring books.

So I’ve set out to write a new series on my favorite children’s books with two goals in mind.

1. To help those of you who want to provide good books for your children, but don’t like digging through the drivel. Hopefully these lists will help you head straight for the gold.


2. I know I am missing some really great books. I would love if you would add your favorite books to my lists, for my benefit as well as others reading this.

I'm starting with one of the greatest inventions ever: board books.

I determined early on in parenting that developing a love of books in my kids was more important than worrying about my kids “hurting” their books. I always store their books at eye level, where they can be easily accessed. Much better to have dogged-eared, taped-together, chewed-up, well-loved books than perfectly pristine books sitting on a shelf, their spine hardly loosened. But I have to say, board books really help with this effort!

My daughter is really the only kid left in my house who “reads” board books. These are the most beat-up books on her shelf:

Dr. Seuss
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
There’s a Wocket in My Pocket!

Sandra Boynton
Blue Hat, Green Hat
Hippos Go Berserk!
Snuggle Puppy
The Going to Bed Book
Belly Button Book!
Barnyard Dance
Moo, Baa, La La La!
But Not the Hippopotamus
Hey! Wake Up!

Sam McBratney
Guess How Much I Love You

Eric Carle
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
From Head to Toe
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Nadine Bernard Westcott
The Lady with the Alligator Purse

June Crebbin
Cows in the Kitchen

Margaret Wise Brown
Goodnight Moon
The Runaway Bunny

P.K. Hallinan
How Do I Love You?
ABC I Love You

What are your favorite board books?

10 Ways To Care For Orphans And Foster Kids

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. This post is part a series about adoption and related issues, from my perspective.

When we hear of plight of orphans worldwide, one reaction many of us have is, “I want to go adopt one (or some) of them!” But adoption isn’t always the best solution.

On the other hand many of us also have a reaction like, “The needs are so overwhelming…I don’t even know where to start. How can I—one person—make a difference?”

Hope for Orphans, a ministry of FamilyLife, has put together a helpful list of practical ways everyone can be involved supporting orphans and children in foster care. Click here to read or download the .pdf file entitled 10 Ways Every Christian Can Care for the Orphan and Waiting Child.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans…in their distress…” (James 1:27)

Thoughtful Adoption Language

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. This post is part a series about adoption and related issues, from my perspective.

Words carry power.

Our choice of words reflects our biases and our values. Our choice of words can also shape the opinions of those who hear them.

Although adoption practices have evolved greatly in the last half-century, much of our common adoption language is still rooted in out-dated or inaccurate ideas. As you interact with others about adoption, may I encourage you to use the following language?

(Inspired by a Lifelines article by Mary Ann Valenti Boyer.)

Queso Quote: To Really Live

“Every man dies. But not every man really lives.”
—William Wallace, in the movie Braveheart

“To become like [Jesus] is what it means to really live.”
—Edwin McManus, from Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul

What Is The Meaning Of "Orphan"?

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. This post is part a series about adoption and related issues, from my perspective.

Part of the controversy surrounding Madonna’s adoption of a boy and a girl from Malawi in recent years centered on whether the children should be considered orphans, because they had a living parent or relative.

I found a recent article from Lifelines, the quarterly report from Bethany Christian Services helpful. Here’s an excerpt:

“According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, “orphan” is defined as follows:

or-phan n. 1a. A child whose parents are dead. b.A child who has been deprived of parental care and has not been adopted…3.One that lacks support, supervision, or care.

Most Americans think of orphans as children whose parents (both) are dead. But today the international community often uses a broad definition of ‘children without parental care’ when they refer to orphans.”

By the way, I can’t think of a finer organization to invest your time or money in than Bethany Christian Services. My husband and I first interacted with them when we adopted our oldest child. I love that they not only are a top-notch adoption agency but they are also heavily invested in creating solutions for orphans that are even better than adoption, including tackling the systemic problems that create orphans in the first place. Again from the article:

“For Bethany, orphan care is first about supporting families who care for orphans—it is about finding effective ways to prevent children from going into orphanages…and it is about finding appropriate ways to remove children from orphanages and to return them to a loving home environment.”

Today Is Orphan Sunday

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. This post is part a series about adoption and related issues, from my perspective.

The Christian Alliance for Orphans has declared today—November 8th—“Orphan Sunday”. The CAO was created to spotlight the needs of the more than 130,000 orphans around the world.*

To learn more about the Christian Alliance for Orphans movement, click here.

To learn more about Orphan Sunday events, including a live concert webcast featuring Christian musician (and adoptive father) Steven Curtis Chapman, click here.

I’ll close with a video the CAO has created for the day:

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

(Click here if the video doesn’t show up in your browser.)

*Many organizations cite the 2006 UNICEF number of worldwide orphans of 143,000. But their most recent research—from 2008—puts the number down to 132,000. Regardless, the number is staggering.

Adoption And The Heart Of God

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. This post is the first in a series about adoption and related issues, from my perspective.

Before my husband and I first entered the world of adoption, it seemed like a fairly simple concept:

We were unable to have children of our own.
Lots of children in the world needed someone to take care of them.
Perfect match.

But of course adoption—like the rest of life—is never that simple.

We first adopted children because of our own needs and desires: we wanted to have kids. But God slowly opened our eyes to show us adoption—again like the rest of life—is not about us. It’s not even just about the children. It’s about having a unique avenue to touch and heal the broken world around us.

Everybody has an opinion about adoption these days. High-profile adoptions by celebrities like Madonna and Angelina Jolie have raised awareness of many of the controversies surrounding adoption. But adoption is a far more complex issue than most people realize.

I certainly don’t have all the answers. But I do have a unique perspective on the issue 1) because of my own involvement in different types of adoption and 2) because of my Christian beliefs.

I’ll close this first post with a short video from John Piper. (Piper and his wife adopted a little girl over a decade ago, after giving birth to four boys.)


(Click here if the video isn’t supported in your browser):

“God the Father chose us before the creation of the world…In love He predestined us to be adopted as his children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of His glorious grace…” (Ephesians 1:4-6)

A Schism Within Atheism

A recent article by NPR religion correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty entitled “A Bitter Rift Divides Atheists” describes a growing schism within secularism.
What’s causing the split? A debate over the best way to proselytize.

“Classic” atheists believe religious people should be treated with respect. For instance, old-school atheist Paul Kurtz founded the Center for Inquiry three decades ago to offer a positive alternative to religion. However he intentionally seeks common ground with religious groups, building alliances with them to tackle issues like climate change.

On the other hand, “neo-atheists” advocate a more in-your-face approach. For example, God Is Not Great author Christopher Hitchens recently had this to say to an audience at the University of Toronto:

"I think religion should be treated with ridicule, hatred and contempt, and I claim that right."

September’s Blasphemy Day celebrations created a flashpoint for the brewing controversy. But Stuart Jordan, a scientific advisor at the Center for Inquiry, says the argument goes way beyond that day. He believes this issue will decide the future of the atheist movement:

"It's really a national debate among people with a secular orientation about how far do we want to go in promoting a secular society…”

To read the article in its entirety, click here.