Thanksgiving... for Covenant Life Church

There are many reasons why the Wilcox family is tremendously grateful for Covenant Life Church. To read about one, check out this testimony that I wrote recently to express my thanks to our pastors.

Self Portraits

For a church event that took place this week, Dave and I had to submit a nice, recent picture of ourselves. This presented a small problem for us, as we don't have any nice, recent pictures of ourselves. We have our formal wedding pictures, which are okay but not something I want the whole church to see, and then we have one somewhat hazy shot of ourselves on top of a mountain that we hiked on our first anniversary, and then we have nothing until Meg was born. (Then we have about a million pictures of our baby in every conceivable state and pose.)

So we did a photo shoot. Just Dave, me, and our camera on the timer setting. ("Beep... beep... beep... beep... clicka-cliiiick!") Since it was late at night, and since we are still getting acquainted with our camera, we took a very long time producing anything of value. We also argued a lot over whether to pose "formally" (Dave's vote) or "naturally" (my vote). Dave said that if we sat up straight and felt formal, then the pictures would turn out looking natural. I said that if we posed so we felt natural, the pictures would look natural.

The final result? A whole bunch of bad shots, a whole bunch of funny shots, and a whole lot of laughter. Oh, and a nice, recent, submission-worthy picture. One. Finally.

Here are some of our varied attempts:

And at last, the winning entry:

Why I'm Proud of My Daddy: #1

Hi, everyone. This is Meg.

I just wanted to tell you about one of the reasons I am proud of my daddy and glad that I'm his girl. There are a whole lot of reasons, but I'll save most of them for another time.

A few months ago, our church started a new meeting called The Family Room. One Friday night of each month, all the husbands and wives and daddies and mommies in the whole church get together and learn about how to be better husbands and wives and daddies and mommies. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, it is, and the families in our church are being so blessed by it. Just imagine all the little babies like me who will have parents who are better at loving their children because of these meetings!

My daddy works so hard to make The Family Room happen every month! It's a really fun meeting, with lots of videos and skits and funny songs--all things that my dad is responsible for in one way or another. If it's a video, he has to make sure it plays at the right time. If it's a skit, he has to make sure that the lights are right and that all the microphones come on at the perfect time. And most important, he helps make sure that the pastor who is preaching God's Word can be heard! Of course, God is the only one who can really make it all happen, but He sure uses my daddy to do it!

This meeting means extra work for my dad: he has to work two extra nights a month and do lots of extra emails and paperwork for it. Plus he doesn't get to sit down and enjoy The Family Room because he's behind the scenes pushing buttons and helping people. But you know what? Daddy doesn't complain! He loves working for our church because he loves God and he believes that God loves His people through local churches. And that's why I'm proud of my daddy.

The Last Days of Summer...

Yesterday the weather took a decided turn for the wintry, but before that we were enjoying some perfectly gorgeous, unseasonably warm days. Meg and Mommy took advantage of the fair skies by taking some long walks. One day we spotted a small group of deer hunting for food in a wooded area, and later Meg spent a long time looking up at a flock of geese flying in formation. I guess the animals knew that the real fall was on its way...

Meg still fits in her Baby Bjorn, which is great, since walking while carrying an extra twenty pounds should do wonders to help me work off the last of the baby weight! Here's a picture of us cheesing it up on our way out for a stroll:

Meg on the Move

We've been having a tough time getting good pictures of our little one lately. For one thing, she doesn't spend a single waking moment sitting still. She also doesn't see the camera as something to pose and smile for. To her, it's this bright, shiny object that beeps and whirs and flashes and needs to be touched and explored. We thought we'd share some of our recent portrait attempts with you in hopes that they might elicit a smile.

Welcome to our new blog, dear friends and family!

This is our attempt to keep those of you who are interested up on some of the (hopefully) more interesting happenings in our lives. It will be a place where you can get news and anecdotes about our family life, see updates on Meg and enjoy pictures. Maybe you'll even get to know us better as you drop by on occasion!

We are so grateful to God to have such a warm and caring circle of loved ones with whom to share our lives. Thanks for reading!