Carissa has been pregnant for years.  No, really… that’s what it feels like.  Some people say it feels like the last month drags by.  I feel like the whole thing has dragged on.  I love the milestones, like  the last ultrasound before we see him in real life, and seeing him move for the first time through her belly.  But I’m ready to see my son.  Which brings up a good point!

This has been an ongoing debate in the Graham household.  Carissa says she has a baby in her “stomach.”  I correct her every time.  You don’t have a baby growing in your “stomach;” A stomach is an organ that digests food after it passes through the esophagus.  You have a baby growing in your “womb”… or your “belly”… I mean, even “abdomen” works better.  I know, womb isn’t the prettiest word, (I put it in the same category as “bosom;”  only the Bible uses those words.) so I prefer “belly.”  I don’t care if it sounds childish, it works, and it’s appropriate use of vocabulary.

Anyway, as the title of the blog goes, we only have one month to go before Hunter is supposed to enter the world, as of today.  I’m stupid excited about it.  I just want to see what he looks like, and show him the cool things in the world he should know about, which I know it’s going to be a while before he can understand, but it’s one of the things I look forward to.  We finished his nursery, and it’s a safari theme.  If you know me well, you know I’m a zoology nerd, and nothing fits my son’s room better than safari.  I’ll post pics below.  Not too much longer before he comes!

On December 23rd I took a trip to Thailand with my pastor and his family.  I missed spending Christmas with Carissa, but I went to lead worship for a group of young missionaries that are located all over southeast Asia.  They have to leave their respective countries every 6 months to renew visas and it’s their only chance to worship with other people that speak their language.  They were awesome people, and they worshiped so loudly, because they don’t take it for granted.  They were a gift to me and I received more from them than I could ever give them.  

Thailand was really interesting.  It’s very western compared to most of southeast Asia, from what I understood, and it was a weird mix.  Bangkok is a big city with terrible traffic.  Lanes are a suggestion.  You feel like you’re in a New York style city until you are riding in your taxi and pass an elephant walking on the sidewalk.  There are tons of street merchants selling CRAZY stuff, and half the snacks you see are fish flavored.  SICK!  Pattaya City was where our conference was and it is the prostitution capital of the world.  Apparently, more people get sex changes there than anywhere else, and all of this is very evident.  There are lady-boys everywhere.  There were also a ton of otherwise very pretty REAL Thai women walking on the beach with HUGE, FAT eastern European men with thong speedos on.  No joke.  They were everywhere, and it broke my heart to think of the kind of life they live.

The time I got to spend with Buster (my pastor) and his family was great.  They are very gracious people and Buster taught me all about Thailand history.  He’s brilliant when it comes to that kind of thing.  I enjoyed their company very much.

I ended up buying a big wooden elephant as a gift for my wife (because she’s a die hard republican) and for my son’s safari room.  It’s really cool.

As for my job at the church, we just had a prayer service with our new congregation in the North Area.  I had a great worship team consisting of two guitars, two vocalists, and a violin.  It fit well, as we have a small congregation and I want to grow our worship team from what’s available in our church, rather than pulling from our large Mt. Pleasant campus.  We had a trailer that we used to transport all our equipment and the church members all helped diligently in the rain to get all our children’s ministry / music ministry equipment in.  I have a great church, and it’s exciting to finally do what I was hired to do: lead the North Campus in congregational worship.  Good times.  

To wrap it all up:

1) my wife is a beautiful pregnant woman

2) my son is coming soon

3) Thailand was awesome

4) my church started it’s north campus

5) I’ve gained 11 lbs. since my son was conceived (that’s just for fun, now I’m going to eat ice cream.)

This is Hunter’s nursery.  It’s hard to get a shot with my camera because I don’t have a wide angle lens, but you get the idea.  The rhino head is one of my favorites – thanks Dean!  Carissa did the alphabet with flash cards and string.  That is a very comfortable chair too.

Hunter’s elephant canvas.  It will go into my office when he’s done with it.  I think it’s too cool.

Hunter’s crib.  That’s the elephant I bought him in Thailand in the left hand corner.

A bad picture of Hunter’s Bathroom.  Safari, again.  Cool frog that picks up, drains and stores bath toys.

Hunter’s bathroom again.

Hot pregnant woman in a sassy pregnant pose.

This is the coolest looking fruit in the world.  It’s dragonfruit, and this photo does it NO justice, because it was almost neon white, neon pink, and neon green.  It tastes like spongy kiwi… sortof

Buddhist temples like this one were everywhere. This was actually a “miniature” replica of a historic site at a park called The Ancient City. We had a great time riding bicycles through it. The park was huge and shaped like Thailand.

A friend of mine, with whom I play guitar, asked me last week if I was leading worship the following Sunday at my church.  I jokingly replied, “Sure am.  I plan on playing a little Sandi Patti, maybe some Michael W. Smith, you know… some of the top 40 worship songs.  Let’s see if we can pull it off.”

This was his reply.  “Alright, I’ll start feeding my guitar meat through the pickups to see if I can make it defecate the sonic turds needed to play Sandi Patti’s tunes!”

Just thought that was funny.

Okay, so both of my sisters have blogs, Cindy and Becky.  My wife, Carissa, made a blog for our family (for when we have a child one day, it’s not done yet).  Some of my favorite famous people have blogs, like John Mayer.  Even some of my friends have blogs…. and then I have this one friend, named Travis, that has a blog.  Of all of the people to have one, Travis made me want one.  Why?  Because Travis says things that are meaningful, regular, everyday stuff that has significance to him, and I can tell that he writes it for himself whether people read it or not.  I’m sure there are plenty of people that do that – especially some of my family and friends, but I liked his because I felt he has no presuppositions as to what to get out of having a blog.  I wanted that.  A place to jot down thoughts. 

So, if anyone was to ever say, “Kelly, you will one day have a blog and it will not happen by force but on your own free will.  You will not have been driven insane by selling TV’s, but you will sign in to WordPress.com and make a blog on your day off.”  I would say that you don’t know me very well and I would go on oblivious to the truth.  I don’t care if anyone reads it, but if someone does… I’m sorry, nothing really significant here, just my normal guy thoughts, and they’re not for you.  They are for me.  They just happen to be in a place where someone can read it if they want.

Even I think this is a weird dichotomy that someone can have a blog and not even care if someone reads it.  Isn’t that the point?  Why don’t you just have a journal?  But I have decided this to be my fate and maybe I’ll look back and see that I kindof wanted people to read it.  Maybe I’m just making up reasons to justify a blog because I think it’s kindof queer and I don’t want to admit the real reason I have one.  If you thought that…you’re probably right, but I’m impressed with my friend Travis’ style of blogging.  Something is different about it.  I don’t think he would say there was… maybe it’s just that I know him, but I hope to emulate it somehow.

Feel free to criticise, it makes a person stronger and refines us.  Just don’t be annoying.  If my theology is not correct when I blog on religion, correct me.  I’m not Jesus and I’m not a seminary graduate.  I’m just a Christ follower and a worship leader, not Piper or Sproul.  If I give advice, it’s just from my experience and is probably not universally applicable unless it’s based straight out of scripture.  You don’t have to take it because I’m not your mama, so don’t think I’m being arrogant like I know it all.  I will say it right now, I DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING, and I’M WRONG A LOT.  That’s part of the reason I haven’t blogged before.  I don’t want to be wrong where people can see.  I’m tossing that out the window right now. 

Thanks for reading my first blog that I don’t care if you read.  Maybe you can come back and read what I don’t care if you read again.  That would be indifferent of you.