bad haircuts (for a laugh)

expecting.

as you may (or may not) know, shannon and i are expecting. so this is a post about the last few days of my life, and how they have been full of expectations.

wednesday night, shannon and i drove into manhattan to attend a worship service at the marble collegiate church on 6th and 29th. norman vincent peale was the pastor of that church for many years. i had heard that they were doing a wednesday night worship service that was (quote unquote) emergent, and i wanted to check it out. i also happen to know that guy that is in charge of the music for this wednesday night service, and i wanted to hear what he was doing. so, we drove up the nj turnpike, through the lincoln tunnel and into the city.

i love the city so much. it is so alive and awake. i feel my pulse rise to match the rhythm of the footsteps and flashing lights.

the worship service was really moving, and reminded us of the apocalyptic nature of the beginning of advent: that although we are waiting in expectation for a little bethlehem baby, this small-town event is the hinge on which the whole matrix of time and space turns. this is no ordinary hope of ours. in advent, we dare to hope, we dare to expect, that one who will absolutely change everything, will arrive. we dare to expect an end to suffering and pain and grief and despair. its audacious, i know, but that's advent.

jack was taken with the city. he was wide-eyed and still: trying to see every movement and hair color and neon light. knowing that he would enjoy the window displays at macy's, we walked the few blocks uptown to see the miracle on 34th street. after looking at the incredible window displays, we decided to take him to the eight floor, to santa-land, where there is usually a 3 hour wait for children to sit on the lap of a man dressed as st. nicholas. however, on this night, there was only a 20 minute wait, as most people were up at rockefeller square for the lighting of the tree. so, we waited in line and, fully expecting jack to scream in terror, placed him on the formidable lap of the faux father christmas. i managed to take two pictures before my digital camera complained to me that its disk was full. and we couldn't afford the $25 picture the macy's elves took (i looked and looked for will farrell, but he must not have been working on wednesday), so, here's as good as it gets:

amazingly, we pulled out of our parking garage at 10:00 and were pulling in our driveway before 11:00. all that city less than an hour from my front door. i should go there more...

thursday morning we awoke and took a family trip to the ob/gyn to see these:

so, this advent, we are expecting a boy. i guess there is no mistake about that! i won't expect him to be shy, that's for sure.

after finding out this awesome and exciting news, we took our other little boy to a local farm to cut down our christmas tree.

we got ourselves a nice white pine, that is already sitting in our family room, strung with lights and hung with little reminders of advents and christmases and births and expectations past, ones that have made us who we are this year. and who we are is people who walk in darkness, but who have seen a great light, and who are expecting great things. we are expecting people. we are advent people. we are pulsing with the rhythm of hope. come, baby boy, come.

greg.