Locked In, Locked Out, Mid-Terms, & Finals Too . . .

Here I am on a Friday afternoon and still sitting at Nazarene Theological Seminary (NTS) and wondering if I felt this tired 10 years ago when I first attended NTS. In any case, my exhaustion is most definitely being fueled by the fact that Natalie is still having sleeping problems at night which obviously cause her father to not sleep as well . . . but somewhere in the midst of the things that seem to make me tired there is a thrust of adrenalin, and excitement that at the same time brings a vibrant energy to both D and I as we adjust back to life in KC. So, enough about my theorizing, how about some current events?!

Natalie hit 9 months and we found a new doctor in the area which we (at least after the fist visit) seem to like very much. She is healthy, not wealthy, and growing to be wise! She is also doing a fabulous job at daycare as well. Just yesterday heading back home in a car full of kids you could see her - in her 9 month old attempts - demonstrating a friendship with one of the other little boys, Watson. It was great to see her offer her toy when, at least in my mind, she thought Watson was wanting something, and therefore, offered the toy she had in her hand! Hopefully, that "sharing spirit" will stay?! Anyway, here she is at 9 months!


After working with some college students for the past couple years, D and I noticed, that "trends" never die, they just evolve into "new trends". One of the funniest ones for us was how a lot of the college guys loved to "snap" their fingers. However, this is no "ordinary" snap of the fingers, it's more like an "arm/finger snap". Well, D and I found that our daughter is in with the coolest crowd, because she has the "arm/snap" movement and we are sure soon enough will have the "snap" added to it as well. Check this out:


This week has been FULL of interesting moments, as well as school. Mid-terms ended on Friday of last week, and so we packed in another half of a semester this past week as well. Our final project isn't do until November but in a sense today was final day, and honestly it was sad to say goodbye. The reading, conversations, grappling with ideas, and questions all contributed to one of the most enjoyable classes I have ever had. Thank you Dr. David Wesley! While trying to finish out our module I guess we (the Whetstone's that is) felt it necessary to try and squeeze in some more exciting events.

• This past Saturday we took a day of rest and went bike riding at Loose Park in KC, with some old friends from college and some new from KC! It was an absolutely beautiful day spent in God's creation.

• We had our first prayer cell group meeting at our house this past Wednesday night. It was a blessing to enter into prayerful solidarity with some of the other intern missionaries preparing to leave for numerous parts of the world. While also enjoying some of Danielle's infamous baked goods! It was peach cobbler this time! Check out some really cool pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nanpitts/WednesdayGroup
  

• Natalie decided to have some fun with the car keys last night. After doing a little low income grocery shopping at Big Lots, Danielle took Nat out to the car to get a little head start on feeding her. Well, Nat decided that she liked the keys so well that she grabbed them and in the process of D shutting one door and opening another, Natalie locked herself in, and D out! Well, we called the police right away to have them show up almost 30 minutes later and let us know that they don't carry "slim-jims" and in turn, ask us if we wanted them to "break our window?" The police officer said he was joking of course, but I really was in no "joking mood", but we (and especially I) kept our composure, and a "good Samaritan" drove by no more than a minute later and asked if we would like her to call AAA. So, 10 minutes later AAA was there, our car was opened, I had an opportunity to share what it's like to be a missionary to one of the police officers who grew up not far from where I grew up in Queens, NY and we did not have to pay someone $75 bucks to open our car- AND, Natalie was fine.

I guess we have had an eventful week and I am sure that there will be plenty of more stories to share in the near future. Therefore, until then, have a great weekend and remember,

"The compassionate love of Jesus at work within us is an empowering to suffer with, endure with, struggle with, partake of, be moved in the depths of our being for the hunger, nakedness, loneliness, pain, squalid choices and failed dreams of our brothers and sisters in the human family. . . The passion of Christ is being played out in our own communities, perhaps in our own homes, in anyone who is in agony of flesh or spirit. Jesus is there. . . for what we do for the least of our brothers and sisters, we do for Him." - Brennan Manning