We’ve all been here before:
No, this is not a photo of Kevin McCallister’s eerie, snowshovel-wielding neighbor in Home Alone.
This is my great great great grandfather, Ira S. Hatch — a man with a very interesting past.
I have known for years that Ira served his LDS (read: Mormon) mission in the Navajo/Paiute regions of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona and New Mexico. His second wife was Sarah Maraboots – daughter of a Navajo chief. By all historical accounts (read: Mormon genealogies) his work and deeds–not just as a missionary, but as a frontiersman–were legendary.
What I have learned recently is a bit more disturbing.
On September 11, 1857 about 120 men, women, and children were killed in cold blood during the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The victims were members of a westward-bound wagon train from Arkansas. The culprits were unprovoked men from a local Mormon militia in Southern Utah. My great (x4) grandfather was apparently one of the key players in what is known in history as one of the worst incidents of domestic terrorism on American soil.
Gotta love history.
For a great video detailing the Mountain Meadows Massacre, click here (12 minutes).
I have really been enjoying spending part of each day reading the Bible and praying with Heidi. We started reading through our One Year Bibles on January 1 along with many people from Palm Valley Church, where I used to work. They started 2008 with a series called Route 66, kicking off a church-wide, one-year journey through the Bible. For Christmas, all staff and staff wives recieved an engraved, leatherbound One Year Bible.
To be honest, I have never been very disciplined at reading my Bible. Ever since high school, I have struggled with disciplining myself and making time to read scripture and pray. So far this year, Heidi and I have faithfully read our Bible each day — and I’m really enjoying it.
1 month down, 11 to go. God, keep me disciplined.
I hurt my back this weekend and Heidi suggested that I visit the chiropractor and see what he can do to relieve my pain. She has always enjoyed going to get adjusted, but I have only been to a chiropractor one time before. I don’t go often because, frankly, it freaks me out a bit.
To me, hearing my skeletal system snap, crackle, and pop like a bowl of Rice Krispies is disconcerting. It just seems wrong. I know that thousands of people a day go to chiropractors without incident, but I still have this feeling in the back of my head that my doctor is going to go all Bloodsport on me and accidentally end my life by snapping my neck.
The guy even cracked the cartilage in my ear — said it would clear up my sinuses.
What an odd field of medicine.
2008 is already shaping up to be a year of exciting change and new possibilities for Heidi and me:
Change #1: At the beginning of January, I will begin working as the Communications Coordinator for Christ’s Church of the Valley (CCV) in Peoria, AZ.
The choice to leave my current job at Palm Valley was one that I struggled with for a long time. I love working for PVC, I love the staff, I love the people, and I love the impact that this church has had on me and thousands of others in the west valley. Leaving such a great group of people will not be an easy transition for me or for Heidi.
Life never seems to turn out the way we plan; God brings opportunities in life that we never see coming. God has given me the great gift of allowing me to serve Palm Valley for a year and a half, but He is calling me now down another path. I’m nervous and excited at the same time, but I have learned that God is always faithful when we follow His leading.
Change #2: I blogged previously about the new fertility treatment option that Heidi and I are considering. We met with the doctor this week to get a bit more information, and it looks like it is a good option for us. The doctor told us that if this new treatment doesn’t work. that we are essentially out of medical options.
We are definitely going to pray about this decision a bit longer. If we choose to forego this new treatment, then we will most likely be looking in to adoption. While Heidi has already begun to research adoption agencies, we do not plan on starting the process for a while yet. We definitely want to talk to couples who have adopted and pick their brains about what they learned through their experience.
Please keep that situation in your prayers.
Change #3: My last post was about my brother and sister-in-law who recently announced their pregnancy with a due date of July 10. This will be the first Gray family grand baby and I’m sure that will mean a mid-summer trip to Houston followed by another family gathering next holiday season.
I have been an uncle for about 7 years now, but I’m interested to see if it feels any different to be the uncle of a sibling’s kid as opposed to the uncle of an in-law’s kid. Either way, I am so excited to be an uncle again.
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I’m definitely looking forward to these new changes with excited expectancy that God is going to grow Heidi and me, and that He is going to make ’08 the most exciting and memorable year of our lives.
God, thank you for your never-ending faithfulness. No matter what comes, we give all the glory and honor to you.
I’m giving very serious thought to canceling my XM Radio subscription.
Last Christmas, Heidi got me this really cool wireless XM Radio — its like an iPod, but receives satellite radio signals. We also got one for her car because traveling through the deserts of Southern Utah and still having over 100 crystal clear, commercial free radio stations pretty much rocks.
I love that XM has stations that you can’t really get with regular radio. My favorite by far has to be Cinemagic – Escape Into the Movies (channel 27). This channel plays scores from movies. All day long. From Lord of the Rings to Pride & Prejudice, from Gladiator to Karate Kid, this channel plays just about everything. I love it.
We also listen to comedy stations, Christian music stations, talk radio, top 40 tunes, music from the 50s, the 90s, and everything in between. Christmastime is especially fun because they offer 5 different stations dedicated to playing uninterrupted Christmas music.
Why then, you may ask, would I want to cancel my subscription? Well, I’m thinking of using the money I would spend on two more one-year subscriptions and using it to pay for a new infertility treatment regimen. I haven’t written in a while about the infertility circus that is my life, but the short story is that all the money we poured into the last treatment ended being a complete waste because all it did was make things worse. This new course of therapy is supposed to fix all that. In all honesty, my faith in modern medicine has taken a big hit, so I’m a bit leery of this new treatment.
I’ll tell you this — I would gladly trade my 100+ commercial free radio stations in for just 100 sperm that actually swim in a straight line. That’s a selling point I could get on board with.
Sometimes it can be hard to be content with the things that life throws your way.
Heidi and I have been struggling with getting pregnant for some time now, and it seems like each time we take a step forward in our attempt to start a family, we get knocked back two steps. Oftentimes, we wonder why God is allowing us to go through this trial. It can become easy for us to look at others who are successfully getting pregnant, and then begin to feel the discontentment with our situation rise up inside and begin to consume us. Feeling contentment in the dark shadow of unrealized expectations can be difficult.
Today God allowed me a six-minute reality check, and suddenly, this burden seems so light.
This Thanksgiving, Heidi and I get to visit my mom’s side of the family in Farmington, New Mexico (a 7+ hour drive from Phoenix). My grandma and granddad and my aunt and uncle live up here, and this is a good in-the-middle-of-all-the-families meeting spot.
As a kid, my family used to drive here and visit at least twice per year. I haven’t been back to Farmington for more than 8 years, and I am really enjoying the nostalgia of this place and of hanging out with family again.
One of the highlights so far is getting to listen to my granddad talk about WWII. He was a B 24 bomber pilot in the South Pacific, and he has some great stories. I’ll probably dedicate an entire post to this in the future — his story makes me swell with patriotic pride.
Whether you are away with extended family, or at home with your loved ones, I would like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Sometimes the hardest thing about interacting with people is not knowing what is actually going on in the other person’s head. People in today’s society have made an art form out of putting on a good face and trying to keep up pretenses. Someone can have it all together on the outside and be a complete disaster on the inside. The key is to develop your ability to see through the superficial, and recognize the significant. This requires practice.
I offer you the opportunity to practice today:
I recently came across this test that measures one’s ability to read faces. This requires that you focus intently on looking past the skin and staring into the soul. Can you spot the fake smiles? I was able to get 17 out of 20. That means that if you try to fake smile at me, I’ll know it 85% of the time.
So don’t even try it.
