Faithchick

Follow That Dream

Well, I got it done.

Do you have something you’d like to do—just for yourself, for no other reason than to prove you can do it?  I have a short list of things I would love to say I’ve done.    I, for example, always wanted to ride my horse Cocoa in a parade.  She wasn’t accustomed to parades and neither was I so I put it off too long—she died last year without ever carrying me in my cowboy hat down Main Street.

I am, however, now able to check one thing off that list—I graduated from college again, this time with a Master of Arts.  For some reason, I always dreamed of getting an MA (weird, I know, but I was an academic teenager.)  There was no doubt in my mind that I’d go through the graduation ceremony or take my family out for dinner to celebrate.  It was the exclamation point at the end of the sentence.  As I was hooded and walked across the stage, I didn’t feel pride or elation.  Just a sense of Ahhhh….I did it!  There was a surprising amount of personal satisfaction in following this dream to its conclusion.  It was also a huge amount of time and work but it was a gift I gave myself.  There was no other reason to do it than I wanted to.  God blessed me with it too.  He gave me an amazing Christian woman as an advisor—having the opportunity to get to know her was reward enough.

It may not change my life.  I have no idea if I’ll put the degree to use in any special way although it did greatly enhance my writing, but simply having accomplished it feels great.  Plus, I can check it off my list.

If you’ve ever had something you always dreamed of doing but put it off, something you believe God would bless and encourage, don’t wait.  Sign up and get busy. 

I’ve got a younger horse now.  Her name is Skye.  She’s not used to parades either but maybe someday….

Judy Baer, author of Oh, Baby! (Steeple Hill Café, June 2008)

Baby Business

            I’ve had babies on my mind for months.  My new September book, The Baby Chronicles, the sequel to The Whitney Chronicles, is about three women who want to have babies and the antics, anticipation and anxiety that accompany the process of getting and being pregnant.  My next book, due out in 2008 and tentatively called Oh! Baby! is about a doula (a birthing coach) and the doctor who disapproves of her and her profession.  What’s more, my own family will expand by four new babies in the next six months.  Talk about relevant research!

            This weekend, I had the privilege of spending time with one of our new moms while she was in labor.  I found myself watching and listening, not only for this new baby to enter the world, but also checking my facts and observing how things played out.  I viewed an epidural being given and re-learned to read the print out of the fetal monitor.  It’s certainly easier to be objective when you aren’t the one giving birth!  It’s also clear that the writer/editor/researcher part of me never rests.

            The good thing about birthing pains is that there is a positive product at the end of the road.  In this case it was baby Kendall, 6 pounds, 12 ounces, 18 inches long and perfect.  It’s mind-boggling to think that every baby born is a brand new soul that will exist not only on this earth but into eternity. 

            I’m journaling the book of James right now. James 1:17, Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God above, who created all heaven’s lights, struck me as apropos for this time.  God, who hung the stars in heaven, also crafts each and every child in its mother’s womb.  Wow.  And He puts that sort of care and detail into each of our lives as well.  As James 1:18 says that We, out of all creation, became his choice possession.

Another miracle--how blessed we are!

Judy Baer

The Eternity Thing

            I’m tip-toeing back into my blog space (I hope this is the right week) after an absence four months.  Beginning in December, we experienced the death of three beloved family members in only eleven weeks and everything else fell by the wayside. My husband and I sat with his brother in hospice care until the end.  We spent time with his uncle, also in hospice care, until only two hours before his passing.  Before my close-as-a-sister-in-law cousin left us we had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day together, the memories of which will always warm my heart.

            As sad as I am about losing these three wonderful people, one thing stands out in my mind.  They were all believers.  They trusted God for their futures.  And what a comfort that is to those left behind.

            My sweet brother-in-law, who died of chronic pulmonary disease, told us only a week before his death, “I’ve got this eternity thing figured out, but I have to quit smoking.”  (That smoking thing is probably an entirely different blog so I won’t go there.) But he had the “eternity thing” figured out.

            As writers, that’s what our books are about—helping people to get the eternity thing figured out for themselves, to introduce to or to support them in their faith. Just imagine! 

            Sometimes when I’m under a deadline, no one would know how I blessed I feel to be allowed by God to do what I do.  But I am blessed.  One of the things I’m going to keep at the top of my mind when I write now is that one of my jobs is to, in some small way, to help others with this “eternity thing.” 

Blessings,

Judy Baer