pregnancy

Is the world ready for ANOTHER Carnes???

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Is the world ready for ANOTHER Carnes???

Carrie and I are pleased to announce that we are (okay, she is) fourteen weeks pregnant.  If all goes well, we will welcome our firstborn child into this world in July.  Like most expectant parents, I imagine, we are apprehensive as we have loved our freedom and our life together, but we are also excited for the experiences ahead.  We have been aunt Carrie and uncle Scott for several years, now, and we have been foster parents to an amazing young lady, and now we endeavor upon a new adventure, together.

New Seasons of Life

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New Seasons of Life
Yes, I’m a church nerd, but I always look forward to the season of Easter.  I look forward to a great Easter Sunday morning at church, yes,  but, then, I enjoy reveling in the ‘afterglow’ of the next few weeks.  I spend those weeks looking for signs of new life, reflecting on the experience of the cross, and expecting resurrection, not just because of old stories found in the Bible, but I expect signs of resurrection in the world around me.  I suppose signs of new life are always present, but I get excited about the season of Easter because it helps me to pay attention to the amazing things God is doing in this world.  This year, though, Easter wasn’t the season I expected it to be.
This year, I found myself tired as I came to Easter because I was doing a mandated (by the United Methodist Church) internship at BroMenn Regional Medical Center along with my full-time job.  Because of my exhaustion, I didn’t really take in Easter the way I ought to have, perhaps.  More devastating, however, was the abrupt end to our pregnancy after Carrie and I suffered a miscarriage.  A season that was supposed to draw my attention to new life became a season of loss and exhaustion.
Today, as I look toward Pentecost (this Sunday) and a new church season, I realize something, suddenly:  Even though I had a difficult season…there is hope.  I have an opportunity to let go of the troubled weeks of Eastertide and celebrate the hope of a new season in my own life.
You see, professionally, as I plan worship, I will set aside the themes and scriptures of Easter and I will prepare for a new season of different scriptures, songs, and worship themes.  I guess, in my personal life, I would do well to set aside the difficulties of these past weeks and months, in a similar way, and allow myself to focus on a new season and find hope for better weeks ahead!
For me, the hope that comes in a new season is:
  • the possibility of getting pregnant, again;
  • welcoming a new pastor to my church and fostering a new friendship;
  • renewing my own body and spirit this summer with exercise, right eating, and spiritual disciplines;
  • working on my relationship with my wife that the experience of this season would help us to deepen our relationship for the next.
As we leave the Easter season, we don’t leave behind the message of Christ or hope for the future.  Likewise, as we move from one season of life to the next we should never lose sight the experiences we have had, yet we have an opportunity to look for new life and experience resurrection.  Over these next weeks, I pray that we will continue to experience Christ’s resurrection and I pray that it will draw our attention to the resurrection all around us and help us to find renewal in our own lives!
blessings,

New Life

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New Life
babycarnes

My wife and I have been wanting to get pregnant since late last summer.  It was frustrating month after month without the results for which we yearned.  One morning in February my wife woke me up with the exclamation that she was pregnant.  I was glad, but it didn’t seem real.  The only indication was a stick with a symbol on it.  I waited for it to ‘feel real,’ but the feeling didn’t come, at least right away.  I went with my wife to see our OB doctor a few weeks later but wasn’t expecting too much.  I had seen many people post those black and white sonogram pictures on Facebook and I have never been able to make out anything that resembles a life-form.  My lack of excitement had been a let-down and I expected to be equally underwhelmed by that visit.

My experience at the doctor’s office was very different from what I expected.  As the baby became visible on the screen, I was mesmerized.  I could actually see the little heart beating!  My heart leapt.  The doctor put the heartbeat on speaker while she measured it.  I could hear and see the incredibly fast thumping of that little heart.  My eyes were glued to that screen and when the doctor told us that our baby looked very healthy, so far, and that its heartbeat was very strong, I felt pride and joy all at once: It flooded over me in a totally unexpected way.

New life comes to us in very unexpected ways and seldom on our terms.  When we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit we can experience a newness of life: we can experience God in all new ways.  But it can be frustrating when it doesn’t happen right away:  there have been times that I prayed…fervently…yet I didn’t feel God in the way I expected.  But, experiencing God requires us to learn about ourselves and practice faith.  Much like those months of trying to become pregnant, It can take some time to experience God more closely way, but, once we are open enough to God it will just happen.  And when it happens, you will feel it.

For me, I didn’t experience the joy of new life when I expected to: at that first moment of finding out about the pregnancy.  No, I experienced overwhelming joy much later in front of an ultrasound machine.  Yes, the joy of new life often catches us unaware.  Week after week and month after month I pray that you will go to scripture, join together with other people of faith, worship God, and be in prayer.  When we become committed to these practices we will eventually and unexpectedly experience a new life for ourselves and grow in faith and with God.

Blessings,