Ultrasound says...It's a Boy!!

Fun at Disneyland...we love the Christmas decorations! (Above is the CU-UCLA game at the Rose Bowl)

Bella's favorite - Minnie Mouse - her prize for consistently going #2 in the potty!

Esther's best friend at Preschool - with the blonde hair

Sorry about the distance between posts - school got really crazy for the past two weeks!  We still have classes this week of Thanksgiving, but it feels a little lighter.  It is really the calm before the storm of the last two weeks. So I'll probably be posting again after December 9 when finals are done.

The biggest news for us...Janelle had the ultrasound and we got the news that we are going to have some more testosterone in the Buckner family after all!  I am SO thankful for two amazing little girls, AND I'm not going to mind having some colors besides pink in the mix!  Janelle is doing well, she is feeling much better now that the 1st Trimester is firmly in the rear-view mirror.  She also started working a seasonal job at Lululemon (an athletic clothing store) a couple days a week.  It has been good so far (especially the awesome discount), and she has been an amazing hard worker adding a couple 8 hour days on her feet into the week.

Money is an interesting thing when you don't have a job.  We are so thankful that we have savings to get through the year, but finances become another challenging area to walk in real relationship with God.  When is it ok to spend?  When is it not?  How do I handle myself when I start getting overwhelmed with all of the monetary flow going out?  I guess those are questions we should always be asking but usually aren't forced to ask.  I'm taking a Wealth and Poverty in the New Testament course this quarter.  It has been a great class.  The simple answer to wealth and poverty is...there is no simple answer.  The only handholds we have found in looking at the New Testament as a whole are:  don't get anything through unjust means, share your stuff (because it is really all God's stuff), money issues should be discerned alongside others (in community).  I don't know how those three actually happen in real life, so if you do know...let me know!! As are a lot of things in our lives with God, maybe it comes down to walking with God.  I hope to grow in trusting God and honoring God with finances this year. 

The other wonderful news in the Buckner family is that my brother, Sage, just got engaged to Whitney Hight!  We are so thrilled that Sage and Whitney are taking this step of commitment, and we are super-excited to share life with Sage and Whitney!  Esther and Bella did a "Whitney is going to be our Aunt"-Dance last night to celebrate.

Hopefully you could see the video at the top of the page - CU-UCLA football at the Rose Bowl.  Lame game for the Buffs but awesome experience for Dadda and his girls!  We live about 1.5 miles from the Rose Bowl, so we just walked out our front door in the running stroller and were there about 15 minutes later.  A lifelong dream of seeing a game at the Rose Bowl - check!  And the general admission seats we got allowed us to sit about 20 rows up from the field - how awesome is that!

We hope you are well.  As we enter this week of Thanksgiving, we are truly thankful for the community of people in our live whom we love and love us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
The Buckners

Seminary Can Be Hazardous to Your Spiritual Health

Lombardi Pumpkin Patch

That's some good dancing!!

Two little princesses off to the Harvest Festival at Fuller

Belle and Sleeping Beauty!

 God is so good to us!  The girls continue to do great, and Janelle seems to be past the early-pregnancy nausea.  School is a lot of work, and I am learning some really wonderful things (like what does the Bible really say about wealth and poverty?  I'll give you a hint - there isn't a super-simple answer to that question).

Here are a couple early thoughts about seminary:
During Orientation week, one of the professors told us, "Seminary can be hazardous to your spiritual health."  I can see that.  It is a strange deal because all of my professors seem to really love Jesus; they desire for our classes to help us grow with Jesus; we pray at the beginning of most classes; the classes are full of wonderful people; the seminary offers many options for spiritual health - chapel, spiritual direction, service opportunities, a prayer garden, and more.  Yet, it is not  easy to be growing with God.

Why not?  I'm not sure.  Maybe it is the fact that studying the Bible and theology and other Christian writers is homework, so it is hard to do that on your own.  Maybe it's because "everyone" is a Christian so people just get complacent and are not challenged by being around people with different views.  Maybe it is because people come to seminary to prove themselves to God or others.  Maybe it's because school is a lot of work and people get tired.

It could be all those things, but here is my top theory - people come to seminary for the wrong reasons.  I wonder if people come to seminary to figure things out with God and end up with more questions than they when they began.  I also have found that many people don't seem to get connected to a local church, which can't be good if God made us to live in community and worship him in community (especially in my opinion, an intergenerational community - the Body of Christ!).

Here is my current summary:
If you want to figure things out with God, Go to church.
If you want to get equipped and challenged academically and theologically, Go to seminary.

I'll let you know how my analysis progresses as the year goes on.  For now, you could pray for me, that I (and our family) would keep growing in our relationships with God in our time here.  While you're at it, you could also pray that I could get my PhD applications done for Scotland and we would trust and follow God with this PhD process.  Thanks!

May you know God's abiding presence in Christ by His Spirit today!