the unlikely orange

i'm very excited to share this saturday song with you, as it is now quite a special piece of music to me.  during shannon's long day of labor we listened to a variety of music (owl city, she and him, bing crosby with rosemary clooney, and then, as it appeared things were getting closer, i switched my ipod over to a playlist of more relaxing classical music.  this continued right up to the birth, and for the most part it was just background noise, until right as Quinton was emerging into this wild wide world.  just as shannon was doing the final push, the ipod went to this part of peer gynt, called morning mood.  and i'm not making this up - i promise - that just as the piece entered its crescendo, quin was fully born and laid on his mother's chest while we all cried like babies (except Quin).  it was a beautiful moment that was given its own beautiful natural soundtrack.  the moment of his birth occured right around the :50 second mark.  enjo...

just an update here from the milinovich house.  the mighty quin is doing great in his new home, sleeping, eating and pooping (the big three).  his one set of grandparents just left and his other ones just arrived, so he is getting held all the time and if i had even a penny for every kiss he's received so far, i'd be very rich.  of course, not really as rich as i am, what with three beautiful sons.  the older two have done well with the adjustment so far, but i'm interested to see what kind of roadbumps we run into once the novelty wears off.  thankfully, this is vbs week, so it's giving them something to do away from the baby-kissing zone.  just wanted to say thank you again to all of you for the many prayers and well-wishes you've sent our way this week.  we've been so touched by all of them, and feel very loved and supported as we begin this new journey.  and it really is a new journey.  i figure that when you are raising two children y...

 well, christmas in july was an understatement.  actually, yesterday felt more like advent than christmas because it was mostly just waiting.  it seemed like everytime the midwife left the room she would say, "ok, i'll check on you again in two hours."  TWO HOURS!?!  C'MON!!!  at some point i resorted to putting my face inches from shannon's belly and shouting, "it's okay to come out now, buddy.  seriously.  let's go."  i think it worked because, just in the nick of time, after a day full of all sorts of medical words that would normally make my stomach turn but which huge amounts of adrenaline rendered powerless, the midwife said the magic words: it's time to push.  there's nothing technical about that.  we all understood and jumped into position, which is to say they assigned two nurses to shannon and two to me to make sure i didn't pass out.  i'm only kidding, of course, but only a little bit.  the point is, i didn'...

well, the day is finally here.  Christmas in july?  yes, but that's not what i'm thinking of.  today is the day our baby boy will discover both the shock of air in the lungs and the comfort of a warm embrace paired with a million kisses on the head.  today is birth day.  today i'll be doing my best not to pass out in the hospital while shannon tries to give birth to a human being.  hey, we each have our mountains to climb, right?  anyway, we hope to have some pictures and stories to share with you soon, but in the meantime i'll use twitter or facebook to keep you updated, so stay tuned if you really want to know how many inches shannon's cervix is dialated and other bits of TMI.  happy christmas in july to us, as we recieve the greatest gift we could possibly imagine. 

well, for your saturday song on this day - our official due date - i give you a song with the title that describes our reality right now: baby baby.  if you're an old school christian pop fan then this video is more than just a simple love song in which amy grant looks like she raided the wardrobe room of "friends."  it is actually an important part of the process of "crossover" not just for amy grant's career, but for Christian pop music.  depending on which side of that you are on, this is either groundbreaking or the start of a slippery slope.  either way, nothing beats watching her roll an orange across the floor (is there anything more romantic than that?) and wear knee lenngth, shoulder-padded jackets.  baby, baby.  ps.  if we don't go into labor this weekend, the induction is scheduled for monday morning, for those wanting to know. 

well, today is the 22nd of july, which means, first of all that it is my gorgeous neice's first birthday (happy birthday, amelia!), but it also means that we are expecting a birth in our family anytime now.  our due date is tomorrow, july 23rd, and so we are ready to roll.  we've got our bags packed.  shannon found a helpful list that had all the things for the parents to bring to the hospital.  the list for the woman was about 47 items long.  the list for the daddy?  deodorant.  toothpaste/toothbrush.  that was it.  not even a change of clothes.  i guess the dad is an afterthought by this point.  but we've been thinking plenty about all of this.  we say we're ready, but as i sat here in a dark and quiet house last night after everyone else was sleeping, i wondered if we're really ready for the screeching sound of a screaming child to fill our hallway.  ready or not.... here are some recent pics of the glowing mommy: ...

this sunday i preached on part of romans chapter 8 in which paul talks about how even though we do suffer now, it pales in comparison with the glory that is to come.  actually, he says, "i consider that the present sufferings are not even worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us."  i love that. one thing you probably can't accuse paul of doing is candy-coating reality.  and i love that about him.  in many of our churches today paul would likely have some trouble fitting in.  i just don't think he'd be willing to play the game where we all pretend like everything is wonderful.  paul was very familiar with suffering, and he wasn't interested in hiding it.  he wasn't one to paint on a good Christian smile while his pain lurked behind the curtain.  "everything is wonderful," that guy says, while he spends his days in a stupor, just looking for the energy to get out of bed each morning.  when someone sees a clue or a hint of t...

you finish the last page, and then you put a book down and get back to the things you've been neglecting since you started reading.  that's usually how it goes when you finish a work of fiction.  if you weren't particularly impressed with the book, you're likely glad it's over.  if you hated the ending, you're angry for awhile.  if you loved it, you wish it didn't have to end, but life beckons anyway, and you can't keep staying up until 3am reading "one more chapter" when you have to get up for work the next morning.  in any case, you finish a book and take it back to the library or put it on the bookshelf and that's basically the end of it. at least for me.  in fact, if you're anything like me, it's even worse than that.  i have an overactive forgetting gland,so give a me a month or two and i will likely completely forget the plot and the characters. it will almost be like i never read it.  this is one of my least favorite featur...

now that i'm back in the swing of this blogging thing, i'm back to offering up some saturday songs.  this week, since we are in the thick of july, i thought i'd share this song called "july" from a great band from pennsylvania, called the innocence mission.  they are one of my favorite artists to chill out to, and i think you'll see why.  once again, this video is just something that someone put with the music and put on you tube, so it is not an official video.  just some weird looking waterfalls flowing backwards.  but the song is excellent.  lyrics below.  This barren July We both wake up so dry That no more tears can leave us. And all we've found Are roads we can't go down, Eyes on a day we can't see. I hope it comes. I hope that water comes And drenches us in our clothes. The world at night Has seen the greatest light. Too much light to deny. You never know, You never really know. And you can't have peopl...

yes, another baseball post.  but this one is really fun.  i'm not here to defend my favorite player or celebrate the accomplishments of the richest team in baseball.  no, today i simply want to put down my cracker jacks so that i can stand up and applaud the pittsburgh pirates, those most unlovable losers of recent memory.  i want to let my words shout out, "LET'S GO BUCS!" i grew up in western pa, listening to pirates broadcasts and praying for hits from rafael belliard, andy van slyke, r.j. reynolds, sid bream and tony pena, just to name a few.  i went to three rivers stadium and cheered for barry bonds before it was cool (and then uncool).  and the pirates were competitive then.  i have fond memories of their playoff runs in the early 90's, even though by then i had moved to kentucky and had to deal with nominal reds fans.  by 1992, i had already begun to foster a deep appreciation for the history of the new york yankees, as well as a great a...

i'm about to become a father for the third time, and it reminded me that i should share with you my own father's day joy from this year.  i love being a father.  there's no question about that.  i hope it works out well for my kids, but it sure has worked out brilliantly for me: i have learned so much about myself, my God, my belief in love, my hope for the future, my wife, my parents and this world we live in just from trying to be a dad to these two boys.  it is truly an adventure, and while there are moments when i really wish i didn't have to deal with some of the details of it, there are other moments that just take my breath away with their holy grace and their unexpected joy.  father's day, then, is a nice little day not only for me to reflect on all of that, but also for my kids to do something to say that i'm not the worst dad, after all.  it was icing on the cake that this year father's day was during our vacation to cape may, nj.  we had a...

for those of you who don't care about baseball, or who watch so much HGTV that you don't even realize you have ESPN, something exciting happened in baseball this week.  no, i'm not referring to last night's all star game in arizona, which had all the excitement of watching a cactus grow.  no, this was something far less pedestrian.  on saturday, derek jeter picked up his 3,000th hit.  (also his 3,001st, 3,002nd and 3,003rd, actually).  now this may not mean much to you, if you are not a follower of baseball, or of sports at all.  and even if you are, you might be one of those who hates the "damn yankees" and thinks that derek jeter is conceited, spoiled, entitled, privileged and overrated.  or you may just be a casual fan who doesn't care all that much but grew quickly tired of all the media coverage this milestone yielded.  i don't blame you.  but i do think it was appropriate for baseball fans to stand up for derek jeter and tip thei...

well, just as i was "rediscovering" my voice last week, life hit me with a curveball right in the larynx, and i lost it again.  ouch. thanks for the patience. this has been a strange summer for me, and it doesn't figure to get any more normal with the birth of our third son two-ish weeks away.  it's been a blast, don't get me wrong, but there's also been no routine to it, and i feel like i have some sort of schedule vertigo.  i barely know what day it is, and when i do look at the calendar it appears to be spinning in circles around july 23rd (the due date).  maybe august will be a bit more regular?  probably not. in the meantime, i keep trying to maintain as many of the rhythms of my days and weeks as i can.  i preached this week, for example, which is a good thing since it is my job!  i preached on the parable of the sower from matthew 13.  i preached on an angle of the story that i hadn't really invested much thought in before: the sower...

i originally intended to take about a week or so off from blogging.  as it turns out, i guess i needed a little longer.  part of the reason, as some of you know, is that i was away on a vacation to the jersey shore, and then a short camping trip following that.  still, i had my blackberry, so i could have easily updated the blog (and facebook and twitter), but i was resolute in my feeling that i needed some time off the grid.  i needed to shut my mouth for a moment and just listen.  i don't want to blog just because i always have.  i want to have a reason, and i wasn't sure anymore what that reason was.  so i needed some time to listen again and remember why i started in the first place.  sure, part of why i blog is just to stay connected.  it is important to me to stay connected this way.  i hear so many people complain so much about staying connected in our day and age.  i hear complaints about facebook and about smart phones ...