PIERSON EVERETTE HALL

Less than one week ago we were huge together! This is our only pregnant picture together and we took it three days before Pierson was born! Melissa is a little over 38 weeks here and I am 24 weeks. You might be thinking that I am quite large for 24 weeks, don't worry. There is only one baby in my belly - I just have what they call a "tilted uterus" - so fun.

Here he is!! My nephew!! He is SO precious. He makes the cutest faces when he's sleeping and loves to be held.

Nate's features:

- long fingers

- long feet

- light hair color

Melissa's features:

- thin lips

- maybe her eyes

The other features are hard to tell - but these two make a pretty cute little boy!!

It starts...

So, we picked out our baby bedding!!! I am so excited to get settled in to our new little place and start decorating a nursery! The wall that the crib will go on is going to be the green color in the bedding! I am currently working on painting "the letters" that will go over her bed - I'll put a picture up of the finished product!

An update on how she's doing: she's going to be a handful! She kicks CONSTANTLY which I have decided is a blessing (because I always know where she is and that she's okay), and something other than a blessing (she wakes me up at night to let me know where she is and that she's okay). Anyways, it's big fun because I already play games with her. I push in on my stomach and she gives me a "high-five". We have started testing her by pushing in different places and testing her reaction time. She's about 90% on her accuracy so we are very proud parents!!

YEAH - she's coming!!!

It's a...

GIRL!!!!

Jay and I found out today that in January we will be having a little girl! We couldn't be more excited and are anxious to see her!

Please excuse the lack of a profile - she wouldn't stop moving long enough to get a good shot! We've got an active little thing!!

More later...

Life at Break-Neck Speed

So, I’m pregnant. Jay and I recently celebrated the date of our first meeting, July 16, 2005. Exactly three years ago, I was introduced to the well-respected and good-looking man that would very soon become my husband.

In the past three years:

-We met and started dating

-Megan started dental hygiene school

-We booked a church to wed in after only 3 months of dating

-Jay graduated from Texas A&M WHOOP!!!

-Jay started dental school

-We got married!

-Megan graduated from Texas A&M’s dental hygiene school WHOOP!!!

-By this time, Megan has moved 3 times - Jay has moved 2 times

-Megan gets a job and starts working

-We win the game of “pee on a stick” …we’re pregnant.

We’ve decided that two people who used to be “planners” and the “think things throughers” have turned in to “fly by the seat of our pants – my goodness our britches are on fire” kind of people. I don’t know all of the lessons that the Lord will teach me through this experience, but I do know that I’m learning perseverance and the definition of blind faith. We recently found out that because we have been blessed with a precious little one, we will begin a search for place to live December 1st. We have been living in a back-house with an older couple here in Dallas, but little ones are not allowed. The Lord has provided more than we ever thought to ask for in the past 3 years, and know that He still has us in His hands and will continue to carry us through this life no matter how fast we seem to be moving! He is faithful and gracious and gives us just enough to make it through a day at a time. He is seldom early, but never late. His timing in all things is perfect, and we couldn’t be more excited about the adventure and the new life He is giving us.
Now, pregnancy is a new kind of trusting in the Lord. My hair is falling out, my face is covered in acne, and I frequently need to lie down for “just a minute”. No worry, the second trimester is just a week away and there are promises of more energy and less nausea. HALLELUJAH!

Learning life through Amish lenses

Not sure if you watched the special on ABC last night about the Amish teens, but ABC followed 6 of them for a year and watched as they ran away trying to decide if the Amish faith was really for them. It was intriguing to follow these young people on their individual "right of passage" toward personal enlightenment and cosmopolitan discovery. At the same moment the documentary provided a tragic reflection of the two extremes of American Christianity.





By this I mean the perceived polar opposites I've noticed - the baseball, Americana, homemade apple pie, American dream, church as a hobby, "my daddy was a deacon" Christianity; and the buckle of the Bible belt, unfun-damentalist, tee-totaling, legalistic, by the book of the law Christianity.





Both forms are toxic to the Church as a whole and misrepresent what Christ established the Church to be in a broken world. I saw myself to an extent in these teens, who for the majority of their life had lived by the book of the law always trying to follow the rules and make their parents proud. Without the true experience of God's grace as a driving force this lifestyle can leave you feeling burned out and weighed down even with the strongest of family-systems.



And then you see the curiosity rise up - questions are raised - is there more to life than this yoke I have placed on my self, this set of rules and restrictions I have bought into? Sadly many American Christians also reach this breaking point with their faith - they've tried to do all the right things and follow the rules their respective church has laid before them, yet their tank is empty doing what they think in their minds in Christianity. Many give up at this point and explore other things much like these teens did looking in the world to give them that joy and fulfillment that is only found when the vast expanse that is the soul collides with an eternal all satisfying God.



When its finally time for the teens to make their decision about leaving all they've come to know in the Amish faith or venturing out to a new world, a few choose to go back hoping that families receive them with grace and love while a couple others decide to never again live under that lifestyle. It was truly heartbreaking to hear the interview with one of the guys who rejected the Amish faith and was asked what his greatest dream was; he said, "All I really ever want in life is a wife and kids, to live in a nice house and work a good job."

In truth we are all searching for wholeness down deep in that gnawing part of our souls - we can fill it with being a "good" kid, diving into all the appetites of the fun and extravagances this world can offer, or simply pursuing the American dream. When each of these become ultimate to us it distorts our view of reality and our heart knows it! Just take a look at the rat race that is our culture - it proves it - more and more has never equaled true joy. I live in one of the richest areas of the country and yet secretly it could be one of the darkest and most depressed.

It is only in letting go and holding loosely in our hands the things of this world (house, car, family, health) and trusting your everything into the Hands of the One who set our being into motion and breathed the life into us that we now take for granted, that we truly live freely. When nothing is actually your own and you realize God has given you what He wills for you to steward for His Glory and your joy in Him, I can't begin to tell you how life fills with meaning and purpose. True peace finds you in that place. Its this life in Christ, this Christianity, that Jesus preached and lived, that I'm committed to sharing with all who will listen - sometimes the truth can even be seen in the t.v. we watch and the culture we live in if we're willing to look a little closer.

Buying the Field?

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." Matthew 13:44

Or, as Paul would say, "that I may know Christ and the power of the resurrection in the fellowship of His sufferings" referring to the fact that ALL things are a loss and meaningless compared to this.

Life finds meaning and flows in rhythm when this parable is applied. The world finds us crazy that "in joy" we would gladly lose everything to follow Christ - that nothing compares to Him. The human soul is a limitless expanse made in the image of our eternal Creator. He is the only "thing" that doesn't lose its luster - how often do we try to satisfy that aching emptiness in our own souls with wandering eyes and temporal pleasures that leave us empty and broken down. The cycle continues until disrupted by our soul's collision with its own brokenness reflected in our desperation for Divine intervention.

When the grand scope of eternity is laid before our minds you'd think we would take the decisions of this short life with a bit more weight. What if everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is ultimately for the Glory of GOD - good, bad, indifferent, they're all meant to bring Him praise? He is outside and beyond all of our trivialities - a month of heartache is but a nanosecond in His reckoning if but to bring us closer to Himself. In this sense its worth it...

And it is here that Megan and I find ourselves on this journey of life. We, like most newly wed couples, have plans - really, we had the next 3-4 years mapped out pretty well in our minds, but that was before God changed things. Nothing huge, but to two people living on dental loans and 1 spouses salary, at the time it seemed like the end of the world.

About a month ago we found out we're "expecting"?!? We were floored - it came out of left field for us and frankly feels like it couldn't be worse timing. Once the shock wore off, we understood it as Grace - even if its that grace that you don't want at the time - its still grace all same and one of the greatest gifts God could ever give us as a couple. Being parents really makes you stop and examine things and ask the hard questions - am I competent to be a dad? Will I be as good a parent as mine we're to me? Will my kids inherit all my faults and afflictions? Without the assurance of God's sovereign plan in all this, there is no way I'd be getting any sleep right now. Truth is, this is why we decided to document this journey - if for nothing else but to be able to look back and see the Hand of God in this unfolding adventure in which we find ourselves.

The deepest desire of our heart is to be that servant who sells it all to know Christ - to truly experience the abundant life He came to give. If it means surprises, uncertainties and desparate faith to know Him more, than we welcome it, knowing the Surgeon's hand that cuts is the same hand that heals.