Lofbomm.com

Last night, the owners met us half-way on our offer, and we accepted. So, there has to be a home inspection and stuff, and if that’s all good, it’s ours!

Well, right now we’re watching “So I Married an Axe Murderer,” so I’m going to go now.

Ciao.

-Jessica

Happy Easter! This has been an unbelievably packed, long, busy, refreshing and great weekend. I told you about Friday’s goodness, and yesterday was great as well. We spent some time in the morning with Mom and Dad L. and then found some great deals at a garage sale up the street where, among other things, we found a lawn mower and a love-seat. “Why do we need these things?”you may ask. Well, we got to see the inside of our dream house in East Nashville and put in an offer yesterday afternoon. All signs point to us buying this house and moving in May. The house is great! I described the cute outside on Friday, and the inside is just as great. It will be the perfect place to live and host guests and have friends over. We’re anxious to hear tomorrow what the owners think of our offer.

Another wonderful thing happened yesterday. A man named Gary that was in our Perspectives class (see the link on our connexions page for more info) called Adam because he was at Caffiene and saw his paintings up. We had been intending to reconnect with Gary since the class ended in January, but this was our first chance. We met up with him at the coffee shop, and he told us about an opportunity this August to go to Saint Petersburg, Russia with a team to work with an orphans’ camp and lead special music educational programs. There is a whole lot more that we talked about, a lot of future possibilities to work with Russians, but as they become more of a reality to us, we’ll tell you about them. We had a conversation with Gary that filled us with joy and excitement and hope for the possibilities of service. He is very dear, and we look forward to working with him.

It’s interesting how we had such wonderful consecutive days, but last night Adam and I both had disturbing nightmares. I dreamed about us interacting with a guy who was ready to kill this girl, then we talked him down, only to have to watch him look for a new target. In my second dream last night, I dreamed that I predicted a fatal plane crash but had no way to prevent it or warn anyone. It was very disturbing. Adam dreamed that a man (a real person from his past that we hope to never encounter) wrote him a threatening letter and told him that he is now in Nashville. We were pretty wigged out that we both had such disturbing dreams, especially in light of the marvellous days we’ve been having. It makes sense, thought, once you think about it. We’re making progress in some huge aspects of life. We are buying a house, a home in which we will exhibit hospitality and the love of Christ. We are also continuing the conversation in some concrete terms about missions service. If we believe in God (which we do), we believe in his enemy, and the enemy’s job is to steal our joy and distract us from our task. Sometimes bad dreams come from eating before bed, but sometimes they come from the temptor.

We chose to let go of the dark night and live in the light of Jesus’ resurrection today. He is risen! Happy Easter. We had a glorious day, celebrating in church, napping at home, Adam played cards with our dear neighbor Andy (we’re going to miss Andy when we move, but he’s moving soon too), I called some family and friends to say hello and to touch base, then we picked KC and Gene’ returning from their honeymoon up from the airport. The rest of the evening was spent with Mom and Dad L., Granny Nita and her best friend Dot. Mom made an amazing meal, like she always does. We had a really nice time hanging out with them. Family is good. I missed my side of the family, but I know they’re all having fun. My parents went to visit Jeff and Meg in Southern California this week. Some people have it rough.

Altogether and in the details, it has been an extraordinary weekend. I can’t believe it has only been a few days. I read a quote today on a magnet for sale at Wild Oats. Abe Lincoln said, “It’s not the amount of days in your life that counts, it’s the amount of life in your days.” We’ve definitely lived this weekend.

By the way, I know these are long entries. I know that I hate to read long entries by people, so I understand. However, I’ve taken a liking to this, and I think I may continue processing in this way. So, read what you like, skip what you want, and I won’t quiz you on it. Take care and much love.

-Jessica

I just have to tell you that we had a great day. We’re sitting on the couch together with our clothes and hair smelling like campfire. A good end to a good day.

Adam got up for his early morning guys’ bible study in the living room (I slept in in observance of Good Friday). Around 11 we went to church for Adam to finish a couple of things around the office and then to go to the noon Good Friday service. It was a great service preached by four different ministers: our own Pastor Frank Lewis; the pastor of First Baptist Capitol Hill, a local black congregation; the pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista, a hispanic church that met in our building for years; and the pastor of a Japanese congregation. Members of each congregation were present, though it was mostly evenly mixed between our members and the Capitol Hill members. It’s great to cross cultural and ethnic lines, and I wish we would do it more as a congregation. Each pastor had his own unique presentation, and I enjoyed realizing how approriate each was for his own unique culture within our city. The Capitol Hill minister was dynamic with a rich, booming voice and swooping gestures. He spoke quickly with phrases packed so tightly, I wished I could see it all in writing. The hispanic minister had such a thick accent, I ached to hear him speak in Spanish. I love hearing Spanish spoken. I love hearing languages spoken by native speakers. He used examples from his culture about their religiosity that so often tries to keep Jesus on the cross, afraid to just accept the Grace that it offers. The minister to Japanese spoke slowly and simply but very emotionally, using stories of specific people. Pastor Frank spoke matter-of-factly, using contrasts and ironies to make his points. It was beautiful, and it made me so much more excited about foreign missions. I love to see how a message, the same Truth is communicated differently to different cultures.

After the service at First Baptist, we resumed our house hunt. May I also mention that today was gorgeous? We had bright blue skies, and (dare I say?) seventy degree tempuratures. It was a great day to drive around. We poked around about eight houses in East Nashville and found two great ones. One, I think we will buy if it all goes as I think it will go. It’s on a quiet street off of a really nice street, it has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a great big, fenced-in back yard, wood floors, a brick sidewalk and cute bushes and flowers. We only got to look through the windows, but we’re meeting with the realtor tomorrow to look inside. It seems like an unbelievable deal. And it’s one we could easily rent out when we leave.

Afterward, we went to another church service at Covenant Presbyterian, which is where Adam was going when we met. We met up with some friends there and enjoyed another great service that mostly went through the interaction and dilemmas of Pontius Pilate leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. He so nearly did the right thing, but then he backed down.

But Jesus had to die, and I am grateful.

We went to have an amazing steak dinner with friends from Adam’s bible study afterward, and it was, well, I can’t even say. It was a great meal. We ate on the back deck of Sloane’s house. It was lovely. Then we played a pool-table game called Splash.

Last on the docket was a bonfire at Daniel and Phelps’ place. It was the perfect scene to close a wonderful day. Lots of interesting people to talk to, some new to us, some we already knew. Andy and Cate are a couple that we enjoyed talking with that we’ve never really connected with before. They have a 2-year-old named Corrine that made me really want one of my own. Adam was beautiful with her. He’ll be such a great father. Good kids really make me want to have kids soon. But we’re waiting. After a while, Brent brought out the acoustic guitar, and we all sang country and folk songs, and a few of us shared some originals. It was a really relaxing and completely enjoyable time.

And now we’re at home together. I hope you had a good day too. Thanks for reading.

-Jessica

One of my closet fantasies is to be an amazingly erudite linguist. If I could be a superhero and choose my super power, I would be very tempted to pick the power to speak every language. How rockin’ would that be? More realistically (sort of) is my lifetime goal to learn Hindi, Chinese, Hebrew and Greek. If I could learn those languages, I could speak to the majority of other humans on the planet and read the scriptures the way they were written.

As far as the Chinese goes, I’ve got quite a ways to go, as in all the way. In the Hindi and Hebrew departments, I’m in pretty much the same boat, except for a few smattered phrases such as, “Muhje ek chai chahiyega,” or, “I would like one tea pretty please,” in Hindi, or “Lama kaha?,” or, “Why like this?,” in Hebrew.

I took four semesters of Attic Greek in high school and college, but I’ve hardly looked at any Greek texts since then. Lately, I’ve been reading the gospel of John with a small group of guys and I love it so much that I’ve been itching to read it as John wrote it. It used to blow my mind how much of the color of the original language is stripped when we translate the ancient Greek into English. Plato is brilliant in English, but the original texts are simply bubbling with triple entendres, cultural allusions and word play that could not possibly come across into our feeble translations. I know that John must be no different and I just can’t wait to peer under the hood. I’d like to go to seminary some day, but in the mean time I’ll bumble through it on my own. Which brings me to the point of this post, which is essentially a plug for one fantastic resource that I just came across:

http://zhubert.com/

It’s a Greek NT study powerhouse (at least for my purposes), and the most exciting feature for me is the Bible Browser that allows you to bring up any passage and bring up the definition and grammatical info for any word just by hovering over it with the mouse. Lots of fun. Hope you enjoy it.

—Adam

Working at EMI, I occasionally run into Jeff, a guy I dated for a few months in college. He works in Publishing on the first floor. I’m on the third floor.

This afternoon he passed my desk and stopped to talk. He and his girlfriend have gotten serious, so he was asking me about marriage. I shared my wisdom and enthusiasm about marriage. One thing he said was that married people seem so different from single people. I said that married people are just like single people, only they have a partner. I thought that was a clever statement, but thinking about it now, I was way off.

I am so different than I was when I was single. I would have to be. I think that divorce happens because people behave single when they’re married. It’s like the illustration of Jesus being the groom and the Church being the bride. It wouldn’t do for the Church to go on doing its own thing, just knowing that Jesus is out there rooting for her. There is an intimacy, a focus, an outward vision, a constant reevaluation in marriage that doesn’t exist in the same way when you’re single. In marriage, we move as a unit, decide as a unit, and really grow (or not) as a unit. I was always reevaluating myself but coming up with the same things when I was alone. Now that I’m Adam’s, I’m really growing, seeing new things, learning new things.

This isn’t nearly as eloquent as I thought it would be, but I just thought I’d say that I’m growing and changing. And that’s a good thing. Marriage is great. I recommend it.

-Jessica

Speaking of weddings, we’ve posted a few pictures from our wedding on the images page.

-Jessica

We went house shopping yesterday. Yeah, more roots (c.f. “A Lot to Tell” paragraphs 4-6). We saw the greatest little house in East Nashville. It’s little and mossy green with yellow and cherry red trim. It has a porch that would totally fit a porch swing, and the yard is already set up for some simple flower gardens. The whole house has wood floor with nice tile in the kitchen and bathroom. The kitchen is huge. It has a laundry room, two bedrooms and a living room with several windows. There is a nice-sized back yard with 3/4 of a fence up. We could finish it off for a dog, no problem. A sticker on the window in the laundry room says, “This house protected by faeries”, which might explain the bohemian nature of the previous inhabitants. Funny. Also, the price is very right. Adam left a message with the realtor.

We looked at another house that was really good too. A little more expensive, a little more space, a little more work. We’ll see about them. It’s exciting to see that we have the same taste in houses, neighborhoods and the like.

House shopping was not at all the biggest adventure of the weekend, however. Our friends Gene’ and KC got married on Saturday. We were both attendants in the party, so it was an all weekend event. We had a great time, and it went beautifully. Gene’ looked beautiful. They had a full house, the flowers were georgeous, they both cried at the right times, the music was played by an exceptional jazz trio, they said “I do”, and they glowed. The party was great. A little dancing and a lot of hanging out. I love weddings. I love the promises made and the friends and families all mingling together. I love it. I helped Gene’ with planning some of the logistics last week, and it was really fun to see all of it work out even better than I planned. I love how their wedding was so “them” just like our wedding was so “us”. The nicest part was to pick them up on Sunday from their hotel to bring them to the airport and see them with all of the stress lifted, just happy to call each other “husband” and “wife”. Very cool and all worthwhile.

Ooh, Vanderbilt radio is playing something from the newest “Iron & Wine” album. Great stuff.

Tonight is the first evening in I can’t remember how long that we don’t have to be somewhere. I’m sure we’ll go somewhere, though. Maybe we’ll get ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Mmm, ice cream.

Have a good night. Much love.

-Jessica

Now we know. It feels terrible. For some reason Outlook here at work just kept spitting them out without clearing the Outbox. We’re sorry for swamping your inboxes.

—Adam

You should check out Anne Lamott. I’ve been listening to her book Traveling Mercies on tape as I drive about the last few days and I have been totally captured by tale she tells about her undulating life of divine hide-and-seek. Totally, totally reccomended. Her story is raw and real and so insightful. She does what all good writers do- she speaks the words our hearts have longed to speak, but never had the patience, or strength, or insight to do it right. I’ve been struck by the fact that Anne couldn’t have come from a more different origin- her parents Northern California, liberal itellectual atheists, mine Bible Belt, conservative, evangelical artists and yet so many of the twisty, gnarled pathways she walked are mine too and I can’t help but feel a visceral heart-kinship with her, like a dear, older sister that I’ve just found again. Come to think of it, I guess that’s exactly what she is.

—Adam

Currently Reading Traveling Mercies : Some Thoughts on Faith By Anne Lamott see related

So, cool. We seem to be settling in to Lofbomm.com. It’s fun to have our own space here. If you have any input, please let us know.

A lot has been going on lately. Two weeks ago, my Ford Probe died, so we’ve been in pursuit of a new ride for me. Last weekend, we went to Illinois to see my cousins Becky and SC in Beauty and the Beast at my old high school. They were awesome. I’m so proud of them. While we were up there for the weekend, we found my new car, a ‘97 Jetta pictured below that we named Gretchen. It’s my first female car. My first car was Andy the Escort, then I had Odie (Odysseus) the Probe. Gretchen fits me. She’s a cool car with lots of perks, including heated seats! She does have a somewhat tempermental alarm, but hey, we live in the hood.

Sunday, we road tripped it back to Nashville to arrive late and get up early for work on Monday. Monday evening, we saw the movie, “Sideways” which I will highly recommend. It has great characters, and they have great conversations. Then we went to see Gene’ and talk about wedding details because I’m helping with her logistics timeline. She and KC are getting married on Saturday. It will be lovely. Both Adam and I are attendants in the wedding. I love weddings.

Tuesday was work, then studio for me, then we watched the kids of Tony, Adam’s boss. We ate lots of cookies. I can’t wait for my album to be done. It should be done this summer, by the way, and you can get all the latest news about it right here! :).

Yesterday was crazy Wednesday again. I had an awesome time in conversational English again. Serife, Sajee and I sang songs for each other from our culture in our native tongues. I sang “Great is thy Faithfulness”. Serife’s was a soulful Turkish song, Sajee’s was a lilting prayer from Sri Lanka that reminded me of Indian music that I have heard. Serife gave each of us an “Evil Eye” keychain that traditionally Turkish people carry to protect them from people’s evil eye. She also gave me a charm that she has had for years that she said that she loves very much that has a picture of the Virgin Mary and her home on it. She said that she wore if for years but then decided she shouldn’t anymore because it wasn’t a symbol within her faith (she’s Muslim). She said that she has loved it wand wanted to give it to me because I’m a Christian. It was a beautiful gift, and I am honored by it. I’m wearing it now.

The rest of this week will be filled with Wedding events for KC and Gene’. Today is a Bridesmaids luncheon, tomorrow is the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and party, Saturday is the wedding and everything, and Sunday we’re taking them to the airport. I’m excited for them. It’s going to be great. I’m honored to be a part of Gene’s girls.

Feelin’ good, can you tell? I hope you are too. Have a great day!

-Jessica