Watching Dave Teach

It's come to our attention that very little of our family has had the chance to watch Dave do what he loves to do: teach the Bible.  So many of you have poured yourselves into this task and been a part of developing this boy into a man who loves to teach the Bible, but those taught him and those who hear him teach are two different people.  So, in a effort to help you see the fruit of your labors, we want to give you the change to see one of his lessons.  This particular one is as substitute for Sunday School at Eagle Heights Baptist Church, given July 19th of last year, on Exodus 32.  We hope you are blessed by it.

You may have to turn the volume up, as it is just recorded with a camcorder at the back of the room.  The play button on the bottom left should start it right up.  



Exodus 32, Sunday School, July 19, 2009 from Dave Cook on Vimeo.

Growing Quickly!

Emily and Baby at 30 weeks, 2 days.  As you can see, she gets prettier with each step. 

Thunder 2010

Pictures of fireworks need little to no introduction.  There were fireworks!  Here they are!

Spring Birds

One of the most surprisingly fun wedding gifts we received was a bird-feeder.  It made our apartment feel more like a home throughout the Winter, but now that Spring has come it has filled our porch with birds of all types.  It's caused us to put our telephoto lens (itself a gift to Dave some years ago) to good use, taking these pictures.  We hope you like them.  And if you know any of these bird types, aside from the cardinal, please let us know. 

Spring teaches us so much about our God.  Life blooms from dead, empty ground and is spread by the wind and the bees to all the soil around, much in the same way it came from a dead tomb and brought life to the world years ago.  Then animals come and we can see the wisdom of our creator in birds, rabbits, and insects.  The weather and the strawberries make you wonder if God really has saved the best for the new Kingdom.  It's my favorite time of year, and it moves my heart to worship our powerful and wise God.

From Dave on his Birthday

28 years ago yesterday, my Mother brought me into this world.  I'm told it wasn't the simplest delivery in history, but that we all made it.  The Lord used her and my father to make me into the man I am today, for better or worse.  When thinking of how to best celebrate this, Emily set her mind to a difficult and meaningful task: make the cake my mother always used to make for my birthday. 

Two layers of chocolate cake, some creme d' menthe icing, some chocolate icing, a pack of Andes candies, and a few stressful hours later, and we had this little beauty in front of us.  It was quite a work of art.  We shared it with some friends after a lunch at Chick-Fil-A. 

Now I sit the evening after and think through such a great birthday.  My wife's planning, baking, and thoughtful gift-giving have been quite the blessing, as have the gifts many of you have sent.  My life is different now than it was a year ago, and it will likely be very different when I turn 29.  But only death will stop the consistency of her love for me for the rest of my birthdays.  If I turn 100, I hope I to do it next to her.

Showing

We know we haven't updated in a while, but mostly because we can't think of anything to post.  But now we've found something, and it's something people have been asking for!  That's right, we have a picture of pregnant Emily, taken late in March.  Without further ado, here she is:

You can see a definite curve.  I (Dave) think she looks more beautiful than ever, and I'm glad everyone seems to be agreeing with me.

The only other news is that we have a 99% certain name for her, but . . . we're not telling anyone what it is.  It's staying a secret until she's born and we can be sure it fits her (and she's really a she.)  Then, when the time is right, we'll name her in front of whoever makes it up there. 

That's all we have for now.  We're sorry we haven't had much to post about.  We did intend to tell everyone about our first multiple-night house guests (Emily's parents,) but we never took any pictures!  Still, we had a great time showing Emily's parents the city and celebrating her father's birthday.  We look forward to seeing them again when this little miracle of ours is born.

Our Little Girl

It's A Girl

Our last appointment with our doctor being a success, we are blessed to have a healthy little girl inside Emily.  Just yesterday we got to see more images of it moving around, content and lively in the only world it knows.  Then they told us it was a she, and that everything was moving along just fine.  After spending the rest of the afternoon looking through children's books at consignment sales and Borders, updating Facebook (how else would our friends know?) and calling our families, we finally made it home and started looking at the pictures again. 

In this first one, you can see her doing a near perfect pike.  We have already made a down payment at the local gym for tumbling classes.

 

This second one gives you a better look at her profile. 

As far as names go, we have a few in mind, but we aren't sharing the final name once we arrive at it.  We made a list of seven names- some family names, some Biblical names, some of our favorite names.  Then, after a night of narrowing it down, we somehow got it down to thirteen names!  Still, we are starting to make some combinations out of those names and don't think we'll have trouble arriving at one soon. 

Still Looking

We do still ask for much prayer regarding our job search.  It's been well over a year that Dave has been looking now, as we still don't have anything promising.  There are many reasons it discourages us, from fear of how we'll provide for our baby to the desire to be useful to the church.  But we also believe that God puts us through situations like this one to teach us.  One of the things He teach us, we believe, is to pray.  So please pray, so that when He answers us we can know that He used our prayer to do so.