Watch this video with a box of tissues at hand. Watch the whole thing...it's worth it!






As I reflect on this amazing story, I can't help but wonder how many women have been coerced by their health care providers into ending the life of a baby who had "no chance of survival"--and how many more stories like this we might hear, if more of us had the faith and trust in God that this family has.

This week, Dr. R.C. Sproul's daily podcast, Renewing Your Mind, is featuring his son, Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr., discussing the ultimate purpose and goal of educating children. I have been listening in daily and, so far it is outstanding!

You can download the mp3's for free here: http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/renewing-your-mind/listen/broadcast-archives.html

Click on the tab for the series "Training Up Children". You do have to give some personal information in order to download, but I've been downloading from this site for over two months now, and I have never received anything "spammy" as a result.

I recently finished reading Dr. Sproul, Jr.'s book, When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling. As I read it, I kept thinking, "Why, exactly, am I blogging about homeschooling? This book says everything I've been wanting to say, only better!"


Listening to this series of podcasts has reminded me that I have been planning on writing a review of the book. Now that I'm admitting that in public, you all will have to hold me to it!

This is the second post in a series I'm writing on choosing names of significance for our seedlings. To read the first post, click here.

My firstborn was easy to name. By the time I was 8 weeks pregnant, we knew that, if our baby were a boy, Asher Joseph would be his name.

Had I been a boy, my name would have been Austin Joseph. August was my great-grandfather on my dads side of the family, and Joseph was my maternal great-grandfather. My parents, however, thought that "August" sounded a little too grandpa-ish for the late 70's, and Austin was considered a more "modern" equivalent.

Having had only one sibling, a younger sister, my parent never had the chance to use the name, and so as a girl, I always imagined that my firstborn son would be Austin Joseph. But by the time my turn to name a real baby came along in 2004, I found that Austin was not only perpetually overused, but also riddled with the baggage of several less-than-desirable namesakes.

Besides, we had come to the conviction that we wanted to give our child an name with a strong spiritual antecedent, so I found a book of biblical baby names, and headed straight for the "A's".

Aaron? No.

Adam? No.

Amos? Um...no.

Asher? Yes. Definitely Yes.

Not only was it an attractive Bible name that is not commonly heard, it also had a deeply profound, personal meaning.


After going through a year of infertility, I definitely felt happy and blessed to be having a baby!

Joseph still made sense as a great middle name. It reminds us of not just one, but two great men of the Bible, and it also honors my great-grandfather.


I didn't really think about it at the time, but Joseph also means "may He add".


Asher Joseph is now six years old and has two loose teeth. I love the name now more than ever, but I have to confess that I am a bit disappointed that it seems to have caught on and become popular, having made the list of "cool Bible names" at nameberry.com, as well as being mentioned numerous times in the latest version of Rosencratz and Satran's best-selling book, Beyond Ava and Aiden: The Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby.

Maybe I'm a trend-setter?

In Genesis 49, at the end of Jacob's life, he pronounced blessings upon his twelve sons. At first, I wasn't too impressed with the blessing given to Asher,

It's hard to believe that I am half-way through this pregnancy already! I had my 20 week ultrasound last Friday.


I am amazed at the quality and resolution of ultrasound pictures these days! Hello baby!

As I share pictures with friends, I'm having a lot of them asking me if we found out the gender of the baby.

The answer is, "no". We have never found out the gender of our babies through ultrasound. The only time I ever regret this decision is when I visit a garage sale that has, say, an entire rack full of adorable baby girl dresses in near-perfect condition for $1 each. (I resist the temptation to buy them anyway).

We much prefer the surprise--not just for us, but for other people, too. Somehow, I feel, the excitement gets lost when the whole world knows the baby's gender and name four months before he or she is born.

But maybe that's just me.

One thing we don't wait until the last minute for is to choose names for the baby. Although we generally don't share them with others until we're announcing the birth, we do ponder the decision frequently and, usually, make a choice well before baby's birth date.

I have been particularly fascinated with nomenclature ever since I was a young girl. Whenever my family and I would walk into a bookstore, I would head straight for the stacks of baby-naming books to see if I could find my name in any of them. I usually didn't. When I did, I encountered a variety of  meanings. Some books declared that Tiana meant "fairy queen" in Russian. Others said it meant "beautiful" in Chinese. Still others gave it a Greek origin, and a meaning of "princess".

While my name is gaining popularity (no thanks to a certain Disney character), today's baby name books now tell me that my name is a completely made-up name of American origin, with no meaning whatsoever. Nice.

Try telling that to my parents, who named me after Tsar Nicholas II of Russia's daughter, Grand Dutchess Tatiana Nikolaievna, (remember the legendary Anastasia? Her older sister.) They figured, probably correctly, that it was a little long for an American girl, and so "Tiana" I became.

I have recently learned that Sam Houston's second wife was a Cherokee woman named Tiana Rogers. While she doesn't seem to be as noble of a namesake as the Grand Dutchess, it is intriguing to me, since I have a Native American heritage that I know very little about.

Having spent almost my entire life pondering my name and its meaning, I have come to take the process of naming babies very seriously. An ordinary or trendy, "everybody's doing it" sort of name won't do, but neither will a completely newfangled, nouveau, totally-made-up name.

We want our children's names to give them a sense of identity, a great meaning, and a strong, honorable namesake.

So, we've turned to the Bible.

Picking baby names sends me to parts of the Scriptures that I might otherwise neglect--lists of names in Numbers and Nehemiah. Obscure, passing references to godly people in the books of 1 and 2 Kings, or at the ends of the epistles. While I have yet to choose a name off of one of these lists, reading these passages reminds me that God's redemptive history has included many more people than the "major players". Multi-generational faithfulness necessarily involves many generations of people who are called according to His purpose.

Over the next week, I'd like to share the story of how we chose the names of our first three children, and maybe even some of the thought processes we are going through as we seek God's wisdom in naming this fourth child.

How did you choose your children's names?

Be careful which sins you allow yourself to think you don't have a problem with...

I tend to think of myself as not a covetous person. After all, I don't crave fancy cars, high end jewelry, or a huge mansion. I certainly don't need the latest gadgets, the newest computer, or designer jeans.

But I have come to realize, during the wee small hours of this morning, that I still do have a covetous spirit...

I think of the strawberry and raspberry plants that I managed to kill, and I wish I knew how to garden.

My four year old daughter tells me that she'd like to make a little yellow jacket for the baby, with little canary yellow buttons sewn on, and I wish I was a knitter, a seamstress, or both.

I visit friend's homes that are beautifully well kept, with a place for everything, and everything in its place, and I wish that clutter wasn't a constant battle for me. I wish it would come to me as easily as it seems to come to them.

I think of women I know whose husband's have home businesses, and I wish we could spend that much time together as a family.

I wish the zoning board would allow us to keep chickens.

I wish I weren't allergic to cats.

I wish I weren't such an untrained housewife, having to learn so much of this as I go, reinventing the wheel along the way, and wondering if I'll even be able to learn how to keep order, and garden, and knit, and sew, in time to teach my daughter.

Not exactly the conventional definition of coveting, but coveting nonetheless.

I recently read a piece written by a woman, describing all the amazing things her mother did as a homemaker while she was growing up. The list was designed to show just how happy and productive a woman's life inside the home can be, but it put me to shame and brought me to tears. How can I possibly be a good wife and mother if I can't can vegetables, keep a beautiful flower garden, sew dresses for my daughter, and teach my children how to play piano, all the while keeping the house company-ready, just inviting opportunities for drop-of-the-hat hospitality?

I'm not good enough. How can I ever be good enough?


Then, it hit me like a train...


Comparing my weaknesses to the strengths of others, while neglecting to be grateful for the gifts and abilities God has given to me, is coveting at its lowest, and truly smacks of idolatry.

As a Christian parent, are your plans for your kids that much different from the rest of the world's?

...are you sure?

Okay, think fast...

What are your plans for your child's college education?

• Are you making sure he's taking all the correct academic subjects?
• Did you choose the neighborhood you live in to make sure you were in a good school district?
• How's that educational IRA looking? Do you have enough money saved?
• Do you think about which colleges would be best for your child?
• Is your child involved in extra-curricular activities that look good on college applications?
• Are you diligent in helping him with his homework? Do you drill him in preparation for tests?
• Have you talked to him about his areas of strengths--that is, what career field he should pursue?