Life as Mrs. Emerson

Ah springtime!  The time when my reading becomes mobile and I can be found reading in such a fun variety of places.  Once the weather warms up, the possibilities for outdoor reading never cease.  I spent a good amount of time reading from this stack outside watching my children giggle as they played.   The Pastor's Wife: Strengthened by Grace for a Lifetime of Love by Gloria Furman: As a fellow young pastor's wife I was thrilled to dive right into this book.  (I received it as a gift for my birthday this month.)  It is is unlike most "pastor's wives" books that I have read in the past but it does a fantastic job of encouraging the reader in what really matters: the grace that God has so graciously lavished upon believers.  In so many ways the book seems applicable to any woman in any season of life.  So much so that I am half tempted to pass it along to my friends who are not pastor's wives.  I do wish that the book was about twice ...

Evangeline in recovery after her sedated mri. Few things in my life have impacted me the way Eva's chiari and feeding difficulties have the past year.  It has been exactly 8 months since the day that my daughter was diagnosed with a Chiari One Malformation in her brain.  The past 8 months have challenged and stretched me in ways that I did not think were possible.  Not at this young age anyway when there have been relatively few true difficulties in my life. March 10th, the day of our much anticipated second neurosurgery appointment finally arrived.  This appointment had been on my calendar for five long months.  I don't think I started to feel really anxious until I turned the calendar to March and realized that this was the month.  This was when we would find out for better or worse what was happening with Evangeline's chiari.  Would her neurosurgeons continue with a wait and see approach?  Would they suddenly recommend decompression (bra...

The week I've been dreading most for the past 6 months is finally here.  It's the week that our sweet Evangeline will undergo another (sedated) mri and meet with her pediatric neurosurgeons.  In so many ways it feels like many of the emotions I experienced in August and early September are back in full force.  For those of you who may not know, Evangeline has a chiari one malformation in her brain.  It was discovered last July after she began experiencing feeding difficulties and no longer growing at a consistent rate.  A chiari one malformation is when the brain (cerebellum) goes down below the base of the skull and into the upper spinal canal.   Last fall when Evangeline met with the neurosurgeons I really thought that they were going to recommend surgery.  I was surprised when they said they wanted to wait six months to see how Eva would progress with feeding therapy.  Those six months have passed and now here we are preparing for a week...

Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love by Ed Welch:   I'm working through one of Tim Challies' reading challenges this year.  (It's such a neat concept that you must take a chance to check it out.)  One of the categories is to read a book that your pastor recommends and my pastor (husband) recommended this one.  It was wonderful!  Friendships (and especially Christian ones) have always been important to me but this book challenged me in a new way.  I'm ready to build more friendships and dig in deeper.  I was blown away at just how solid this book was while also being incredibly practical.  Welch gives the readers baby steps of what it actually means to walk alongside others.  He also includes a number of helpful "what not to say" sections.  As I was finishing up the book I felt such an urge to call up a number of my friends as I continue walking alongside them.  (I didn't at that exact moment since it was 11:30pm...