Fortunately, the past thousand days have been much better, give or take a few trips to the emergency room. (Tip: If your child sticks an object up their nostril, hold the other nostril shut and blow hard in their mouth. If you are lucky, said object will pop right out and you will jump up and down as though you hit the lottery. If you are unlucky, you will spend no less than 4 hours in the emergency room waiting for 12 minutes worth of attention. We are batting .500 right now with Brooke.)
This is an important anniversary for us. While my employer thought of this as a permanent move, we always thought of ourselves as Texans on loan to New York for two to three years. We had no clue what would be on the other side of the 3-year hurdle, but we told ourselves we would only stay longer if we wanted to. We will always be Texans, but we ain’t ready to leave just yet. In fact, we just recently renewed our lease on the apartment. Our next hurdle is June 2009. Thanks to my skills as a master negotiator, I was able to convince our apartment management to only raise our rent 9.9%. Those crooks wanted 10%! You’ve got to get up early in the morning to pull one over on BG.
In thinking back to our list of pros and cons regarding a move to the city, I recall the biggest cons being the weather and the rude people. Thanks to global warming, heaters and coats, the cold isn't as bad as they say. We actually enjoy the winter here. As for the rude New Yorkers, of course you run into the occasional old grouch, but for the most part, the city is filled with genuinely nice, thoughtful, helpful individuals. The difference is that you are exposed to more people here. In Dallas, people drive from their office to their garage, having very limited contact with people. Here, we learn to live shoulder to shoulder with each other. Even though you occasionally bump shoulders with a crab, the increased exposure is good for us, I think. It’s amazing how you can live in such a crowded city and continue to see all the same people. This past Saturday while taking Sam for a much-needed haircut, I decided to sit facing the front window to see who I’d see. Sure enough, I saw friends walking by. I stopped them and they came into the Hair’s Castle for a chat. I like our little neck of the woods.
Update on our church: We started nearly three years ago as a church of less than 10 people. It wasn’t easy, especially when also trying to navigate a new city and a new job. There were more lows than highs the first couple years, but we’ve learned a lot about ourselves through that journey, and this past year has been wonderful. We’ve grown to an average of 200 people each Sunday, and count many of them as close friends.
Earlier this year, I was “ordained” as a “deacon”. I put those words in quotes because I feel silly even saying them. I have no business being “ordained” for anything. And the title “deacon”--- between us, I don’t know if I like it. It sounds so 1970’s churchy. I should be fatter with a bad suit to be a deacon, right? But I love the role and the opportunity it brings.
From my ordination a few weeks ago: “As a deacon in the Church, you are to study the Holy Scriptures, to seek nourishment from them, and to model your life upon them. You are to make Christ and his redemptive love known, by your word and example, to those among whom you live, and work, and worship. You are to interpret to the Church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world. You are to assist the elders in public worship and in the ministration of God’s Word and Sacraments, and you are to carry out other duties assigned to you from time to time. At all times, your life and teaching are to show Christ’s people that in serving the helpless they are serving Christ himself.”
A deacon must have a wife that is well respected, does not speak evil of others, exercises self-control and is faithful in everything she does. All those things are clearly true of Christine. She has a shirt that says “Smile. It confuses people”. It fits her personality perfectly.
So with our church, I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to make our children’s ministry a first class operation. Christine has been a big part of that as well. Outside of the children’s area, I think we both have the opportunity to impact younger people here. Compared to most in our church, we are old as dirt. We’ve experienced a lot they haven’t, and to the extent we can guide them through life’s tougher decisions, I think we can be very helpful. Yesterday, not in church, but in line at the grocery store, a guy looking roughly my age said “Yes Sir” to me. What’s that about?
Work is going well. I'm thankful for the job, the ability to work with great people, and most importantly, the flexibility to see my family each morning, and make it home for dinner with them each night. Having a boss that understands this desire is not to be taken for granted in this city.
No Pets Allowed. If not for that rule, our kids would want to live in the city forever. I made the mistake of taking them to a pet store in the mall recently. I thought I’d never hear the end of it. Each of our children has great friends. They are fortunate. They are learning a lot (mostly good, but some bad) through living in the city.
Christine calls those perfect New York moments “New York Moments”. Thank God she has more of those than “New York Sucks” moments. She easily has the toughest job, raising three kids in the city. She pulls it off with grace.
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Gotta Get Away: We've fortunately been able to travel quite a bit in the past three years. That's little more than a forced segue allowing me to quote Mark Twain: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." I love that quote. I love it because the same can probably be said for spending a few years of one's life in New York City.
Here’s to living one year at a time with absolutely no clue what the future brings. Happy Anniversary To Us!!
