Because it's both cute and hilarious

P.S. - Thanks again, Marian.

Pictures at the Park

Marian Coleman is an awesome friend and photographer! Here are a couple photos she took of us last Wednesday at Tanglewood Park:

Pearls Before Swine and Comic Mornings

Janelle and I read the comics together every morning over breakfast. "Pearls before Swine" is one of our favorites, along with "Get Fuzzy" (Janelle's is a big fan of "Dilbert"). To make the hilarity more concentrated, the Houston Chronicle has obliged us by putting all three of these right next to each other. Here are a couple of my favorites from the last few weeks; they all almost caused me to lose whatever breakfast happened to be in my mouth at the time:

Scholars at Work

We hope to instill in all our children a love for reading. No time is too early to start!

Mourning for Maria Chapman and Praying for the Chapman Family

In a terrible accident yesterday, Maria Chapman, the youngest daughter of Steven Curtis Chapman, died after being hit by a car driven by her older brother. You can find the story here.

Steven Curtis Chapman has been such an inspiration in my life. A godly man, an excellent musician, a thoughtful songwriter, and a leader in promoting adoption. His daughter Maria is one of three girls he and his wife adopted from China. He formed an organization called Shaohannah's Hope with the purpose of helping families financially in adoptions. I know he's meant much to many others as well, including many who read this blog. Please be in prayer for him and his family.


Regarding prayer in times of tragedy, we should also be praying for Senator Ted Kennedy. Regardless of our political affiliations, Jesus commands us to pray for our leaders, whom he has placed in office. I've been really convicted over the last couple days about this subject.

The Names of Jonathan

For the Franklin family, our children's names are (and will be) meant to convey all sorts of important things: relationship with God, family heritage, hopes for the child's life, and giving honor to important people in our lives.

So, here are Jonathan's names, along with the reasons why we chose them:

Jonathan
- from the Hebrew for "Yahweh has given."
- The main reason we chose this name was to honor two people who have been primary instruments in my spiritual, mental, and all-around formation as a human and Christian: John Piper and Jonathan Edwards. In addition, we have some wonderful men for us to point toward as models for Jonathan as he grows up: John Ferguson (a missionary and pastor who sacrificed much to go where the Lord called), Jon Anderson (an ever-present pastor, encouragement, and friend to us), and Jonathan from the Bible (a bold man of God who was faithful to both his family and his friends at all costs).

Russell
- from the French for "red" or "little red one."
- We chose the name Russell in order to honor my father, Russell Franklin, and to name him after me (my middle name is Russell as well). If Jonathan grows to be half the provider and protector my father is, he will have achieved something great in the eyes of God. We think it will be neat for Jonathan and I to share several things: the middle name of Russell, that we're both firstborns, and that we're both adopted.
- The description "little red one," incidentally, fits well; if Jonathan is in the sun for more than five minutes, or if he is angry, his whole body turns bright red!

Alex
- from the Greek for "defender"
- Alex was one of Jonathan's given names upon his birth. In honor of his birth family, with whom we are still in contact, we wanted him to maintain part of his past. I pray that he will grow to be a big brother who protects and defends his younger siblings.

Franklin
- from the middle English for "freeman"
- Of course, we don't normally have much to do with our surnames. So, I'm glad that our name carries such significant meaning. As a child of the covenant, a child of Christian parents, the Bible tells us that Jonathan is in a special covenant with the Lord. He is set apart, considered holy before God. Although he is born in bondage to sin, like all of us, by virtue of God's placing him within a covenant home, he enjoys some of the privileges of being a free man already. In a few weeks, we'll all get to see a beautiful picture of that covenant as Jonathan is baptized. We pray that he will grow soon to a point of maturity when he can express for himself his trust in the Lord, and his understanding of the freedom that comes with that confession.

I'll Make a Musician of Him Yet!

Just some fun pictures for everyone:

Jonathan loves to play guitar with me. I just have to remind him every time that we gently strum the strings, not slap them.


He also loves to put things over his head, especially his toy-bucket. Every time he lifts it up, it's like a whole new world. Ahhh, simple pleasures. I need to remember these things amidst my ridiculously busy and overcomplicated adult life!

"Goodsearch" for a good search

I'm encouraging eveyrone to share in my discovery of a great way to raise money for a wonderful charity. All you have to do is continue doing something you already do, but in a slightly different way. Intrigued?...

www.goodsearch.com is a great search-engine, powered by Yahoo. When you go the webpage, you'll see two blanks for typing. In the second, you type in your charity and submit it. Once it is entered, every single search that you do will donate one penny to that charity. I know that one penny isn't a lot, but seriously, how often do you google things? And what if thousands of people searched once/day - that's a lot of pennies.


Last, the charity that I support through this is called Prison Fellowship. This is an organization run by Chuck Colson that is dedicated to sharing the gospel with inmates through preaching, teaching, and literature (You may remember that Colson was imprisoned for his role in Watergate). They also do lots of classes and training in prisons to help prepare inmates for returning to life in the world - all gospel-centered. The rate of re-incarceration after release for those who go through Prison Fellowship's teaching and training is ubelievably lower than the average U.S. rate. Go figure - the Gospel changes people.

So, all you have to do:

1. Go to goodsearch.com
2. Type in Prison Fellowship (select the one in Merrifield, VA, if it asks) (or, the charity of your choice)
3. Search away, just like you always do, and raise money for them.

Happy searching!

April Book Log - Taking a cue from Jon

Just to let you know the things I'm thinking about that are not necessarily related to a rambunctious son!

- Cather, My Antonia - excellent. One of the best fiction reads in a long time. I'm really digging novels set in the West, with a real sense of people and place (also see Stegner, Hansen, Steinbeck, and Enger)

- Crane, The Red Badge of Courage and "The Open Boat" - great, for a while. Then, his constant use of color-adjectives just get annoying. "The Open Boat" was much better.

- Canizares-Esguerra, Puritan Conquistadors - Can you say, "Totally rethink the way you picture American colonial history?" Spain as norm, English as periphery. Good stuff.

- Pestana, The English Atlantic in an Age of Revolution, 1640-1661 - good, just good.

- McConville, The King's Three Faces: The Rise & Fall of Royal America, 1688-1776 - Excellent. If you thought that pre-revolutionary America was just a budding republic waiting to happen, this book might convince you otherwise.

- Weiss, Ideology of Death: Why the Holocaust Happened in Germany - So good at helping you understand that it wasn't merely anti-Semitism that caused it...and that it wasn't only Germany who participated in such acts in history (Austria and the Holocaust, Britain in India, Soviet Union in Ukraine, U.S.A. in the old West...).