falling softly

Start spreading the news (da, da da da daaah)...

2007-06-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

... I'm leaving today... I want to be a part of it, New York, New York!

Okay, so we're moving to New York City this August! Peter, Katie, the new little one (to be arriving soon - due date in 10 days!) and I will be flying out of this Nordic city and arriving in Manhattan, where we will be starting a new chapter, so to speak!

I'll be starting as a Ph.D student in political science at Columbia University! Wow, I'm intimidated, but I'm also so excited - I've got to kick my brain back into gear and get ready for some serious studying!

Meanwhile, Peter is preparing for his new stay-at-home-dad role, which he is looking forward to! I'm thinking it's going to be hard to start studying full time when Bjorn (as he's going to be called) is only 2 1/2 months old, but I know his daddy will be taking fantastic care of him while I'm over at the library. And, we'll be living in university family housing, which means I will have all of 5 minutes (walking) commute time!

We're excited - now, aside from our impending birth, there's just a few details we're sorting out here... our apartment's been sold (we're so thankful this has gone so smoothly!!), and now it's just immigration and a trans-atlantic move to wrap up! :)

And the verdict is

2007-02-06T12:37:00.000-08:00

It's a boy! He hasn't come out to meet us yet, but we could tell quite clearly on the ultrasound - the tech could see it, we could see it, another tech could see it, so we're pretty darn sure! We've decided his name will be Bjorn (Bjørn with Danish spelling) - which actually means "bear" and is from Peter's family. So, we've got a little bear! I'll post his new ultrasound picture soon.

And our other news is, that I've applied to several American and Canadian PhD programs in Political Science - this isn't a new development, since I've been thinking through my own research interests and researching programs for almost a year, but I was debating with myself about whether I want everyone to know I'm applying if it turns out I don't get in anywhere! So now it's out there, and if my applications bite the dust, well, you already know I'm not perfect. While I'd be very disappointed, I'll get on with life and find something I'm interesting in doing as I start my career.

How do a new baby and starting a PhD program fit together, you may ask? Good question! I'm sure it will be challenging, but here I'm incredibly blessed, since Peter wants to do the stay-at-home-dad thing for one or two years while I get started. This was a big obstacle for me when I began to think of it, and then I realized that lots of men have started careers while their wives were at home with the kids, and since Peter is such a fantastic dad and wants to do this, why shouldn't I go for it?

I'll keep you updated on what happens - I believe there is a good place for us to be, and that God does have a loving plan for our family - we're just eager to see where the next year will take us!

Some news, and waiting for more

2007-01-27T07:19:00.000-08:00

Yeah... when I last blogged in September I was pretty determined to keep my blog up ... and now it's been 4 months! My old friend Mike, I've just seen, sort of apologized for slacking in keeping up his blog - and he last wrote 3 weeks ago! Well, I won't even try to promise that I'll update it really often, but here's to hoping it becomes a little more regular!

First, the big news (and yes, I'm terribly late in posting it): we are expecting our second child, with a due date of June 18 this year. (I'm betting on the 15th - it's not scientific, but if you want an explanation, I figure that 2nd children come a little earlier than first ones?)

Here's a picture of the little guy/girl at our ultrasound on December 14:

We're hoping to find out if it's a boy or girl at the next ultrasound next wednesday, Jan. 31! And are also looking forward to seeing the baby again - it's so much fun to see them moving and see that they are healthy! So we're feeling happy and blessed.

Some pictures of Katie...

a serious reader

With her girl cousins here in Denmark

and with her favorite Christmas present!

so it's been awhile

2006-09-19T01:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I pretty much set the record for shameful lapses in blogging - but really, in the scheme of things, who cares?

We have enjoyed a fabulous summer in the US - we spent a lot of time at the Oregon Coast and in Portland, and made it up to Seattle and Vancouver a few times. We took a great camping trip in Central Oregon, which was gorgeous. We got to see a lot of friends, though we wish we would have gotten even more time with them! And had lots of time with family. We even made it over to the East Coast for a couple of weeks, which was really fun. We hit Toronto, Boston, New York and Washington, new experiences for both of us: even though I was in New York and Washington on a school trip as a teenager, it was pretty different seeing it now, of course!

Katie is growing so fast - she hasn't started walking on her own yet, but would like to walk everywhere if given the chance - she needs to work up some more confidence, I guess!

Peter and Kathryn in West Seattle, in June.

In West Seattle enjoying the breeze, in June.

First time in the sand! In Pacific City, Oregon, in June.

I can see that I'm going to need to add some of the pictures later - not sure which file they're in!

It's nice to be home now, and I've just started studying arabic in the evenings! Don't know if that was a dumb move, but I'm certainly enjoying it!

So I can ask things like,
ما سموكا؟
(what is your name?), which I'm sure I spelled wrong - have no idea how these arabic letters work on the computer keyboard...

So, a resolution - will try to keep up with the blogging now that I'm home. :)

starting civil wars

2006-03-27T07:11:00.000-08:00

Today's New York Times reports that Bush was so determined to go to war in Iraq in early 2003 that he even proposed sparking a confrontation by painting "a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Mr. Hussein."
Not a big surprise: anybody paying even moderate attention to diplomatic signals being sent publicly from early 2002 could see that the US Administration was doing everything it could to discredit the possibility that UN inspections could work (and in so doing, made it less likely that Iraq would cooperate in the first place). But that's over and done with now. Now, with the major ethnic groups fighting one another more and more brutally, it's clear that the war we did go into was - hmm, how do I put this? - not very well thought out. We're now on the brink of civil war.

So what do we do? I think a lot of anti-war people in the US have it wrong when they want to pull the troops out immediately - we may not like having our troops occupying Iraq but seen internationally, it would be completely irresponsible of us to pull out now, leaving a huge mess we helped to create.

In the long-term, we have to ask ourself what we want our government to care about most in the Middle East: 1) democracy as each country's voters decide it, 2) our special brand of secular (at least, non-islamistic) liberal democracy or 3) secure oil reserves. Even when I was living in France (and you know most of the French think) I have always doubted very much that our government really put #3 ahead of #1 or #2, no matter how misguided and arrogant their policies are. But more and more I'm convinced that the old boys club of oilmen that have enormous influence in the current Administration just can't ever get it out of their system. I've been convinced Bush is a disaster for a long time, and a dangerous one, but now we've got to start doing something about it - the next election is only 2 years away.

She's growing fast!

2006-03-25T12:21:00.000-08:00

Wow, being a parent is incredible. I feel like I have received such a wonderful gift, being able to watch a sweet, joyful little person live and learn and grow. Katie is sitting up by herself now, getting frustrated when her plan for a toy doesn't work (though we can't always tell what it is she wants to do...). I do feel too, like being a parent is a very real reminder about God's parent-love for us - only so many more times more understanding and all-encompassing than I can imagine extending to another person, even Katie. And I guess I am even more dependent on Him than she is on me... even when I don't see it myself.

Some pictures of the little one:

"Gotta show Mommy how this writing thing's done... babybloggers unite!"

Sweet Katie!

"Berkeley, here I come!"

Another new development - drinking from a sippy cup by herself!(Unless she's tired - then she needs some help from Mommy or Daddy!)

"My parents have totally fallen for me, and I know it!"

a change...

2006-03-20T12:57:00.000-08:00

It is so wonderful to see the seasons beginning to change... finally. The last snow is melting now, and though we've still got freezing weather at night, the days are beginning to warm (slowly!) up. Even more promising, the days are quickly getting longer, sun now comes through our living room window for 15 minutes each afternoon, and trees and flowers are beginning to bud!

I've also just changed the name and description of my blog... I suppose most as a challenge to myself. When I started it, I tried several names but couldn't for the life of me come up with a good name. I may very well change it again later, but this reflects a little better the fact that I can't seem to stop mixing discussion of politics with my everyday ramblings, and to challenge myself to give my political diatribes a more constructive direction!

Hope that spring is coming where you are too - it feels like hope and warmth, two things we could use a little more of in general.

singing the wrong song!

2006-03-14T02:44:00.000-08:00

"The sun is shining, the grass is green...." Actually, the sun is shining today, but the grass isn't green, not yet, more a shade of gray, due to lack of light this winter... hmm. But the point is, these are the first words in the very unseasonal song I have in my head: "White Christmas!" Why am I humming a Christmas song in the middle of March? Not just humming it, in fact, but singing it out loud to Katie while doing things like getting dressed, washing dishes, etc. Well, I've always loved Christmas music - like to start playing it in early November, if I can get away with it. But now it's almost spring (or should be), and I need to get myself together... what are some summer tunes I can hum instead - any thoughts out there? I'm thinking that Carlos Santana song (you know, the one they play a million times on the radio every summer - "give me your heart, make it real, or let's forget about it"?) would be a start...

Katie and I will go babyswimming today - she loves it! She's a little fish as soon as she gets in the water, kicking and splashing. The mommy thinks it's a bit of work doing all that changing, washing, and so forth, but we get a nice walk out of it, and we both do enjoy it a lot.

Well, that was a bit of nothing I've just written, but some days that's the way it goes.

still winter, and getting tired of the stale debate!

2006-03-08T13:34:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's right, it's March 9 tomorrow (Katie's six-month birthday!), and we are looking at least another week of winter weather!! Still white on the ground (well, as white as it can be in the city), around freezing during the day and down to -5 to -10 C at night! Wow, am I looking forward to some spring and summer weather.

Meanwhile, Denmark is trying to catch it's breath from this whole fiasco with the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that were published in Jyllands-Posten (the country's biggest newspaper) last fall. (If you haven't been following the crisis, basically it revolves around the decision by some newspaper editors (either dumb, naive or looking to pick a fight) to publish some drawings of Mohammed that depict him as a terrorist, etc., etc. After the prime minister refused to meet with 11 (11!!) ambassadors from Muslim countries in October, and some Danish Muslims spread the word about the insulting drawings among leaders in the Middle East, the Danish flag is being burned all around the Muslim world, embassies have been attacked and burned, and it is now even more dangerous to be a Dane in many places around the world than to be an American!

And, to top it all, the far-right Danish People's Party (anti-Muslim fascists in nice suits and, in the case of their leader, pink lipstick) is picking up a larger % of support in the polls than they've ever seen before! Before long, the ruling party (Venstre, center-right) may be able to form a government with the Danish People's Party alone - an even scarier prospect for the country than what we've had so far....

On another note, a few pictures of the little one...

always winter and never Christmas!

2006-02-05T06:18:00.000-08:00

Okay, just kidding, it's not really that bad. It is cold here, though. We have had the same snow on the ground for two weeks, and here in the city that means lots of piles of brown-gray slush everywhere (lovely). Today is bright and sunny, though, so I can't really complain. There is one danger to living in a winter-clad city with lots of tall, steep-roofed buildings, though: falling ice. Many places you walk, and there are sections of the sidewalk roped off; if you look up, you'll see pieces of snow/ice laying partially over the edge of the rooftop, just ready to fall. and sometimes particularly dangerous-looking icicles. Last year I had one fall just to the side of someone I was walking with. I guess it's "living dangerously"... in a really mundane way.

And looking back at my last post, I can see that my waxing political was a little out of sync with the rest of the blog so far - so I wonder, should I make another blog that is just political? Hmm, don't know. I know that my political mumbling tends to bore a lot of my friends and family, while a special few of you share that particular interest with me (i.e., if you've ever logged onto the FoxNews website just to see how mean Bill O'Reilly has been to his guests this week, or because you're curious to see what a fairly big minority of people in the good ol' US of A are actually watching to get their news...). All that to say that I doubt there are many that would care at all to read my political rantings. It's something to think about, though.

Oh, and as a follow up to the post on Hamas, looks like now Israel's just going to have to 1)deal with them, or 2)resign itself to many years more of conflict. It looks rather glum for potential negotiations at the moment, but we dumb optimists of the world can hope, can't we?

the war on terrorism not always black and white

2006-01-13T02:47:00.000-08:00

Now to the more political... Today's NYT reports that Israel's interim PM says peace negotiations cannot succeed if Hamas is politically involved. This is more tricky than it sounds, I think. Yes, Hamas is most definitely a terrorist group (i.e., a group that has uses terrorist methods--in my view defined by targeting civilians--to send a political message); but are they not also, in large part because of the absence of a responsible state in the occupied territories, esp. Gaza, a social work and local governance organization? If, as such, they are really recognized by a fair number of Palestinians as their political representatives (this point is of course debatable), how can a sustainable political solution then be negotiated without their involvement? Hmmm.

While we're on the topic, I still cringe when I hear the phrase "war on terror"? It is first of all an even scarier way of saying "war on terrorism," which is in turn just a fight against a method of conflict. Shouldn't the U.S. government say what it really means, which is a war on armed islamism?

still recovering

2006-01-10T01:15:00.000-08:00

We had such a great end of December - with my parents here for Christmas, Katie's baptism, Christmas with Peter's whole family here in Denmark - that afterwards I got sick and am still trying to get fully up to snuff again!

Some of you may be surprised that we had Katie baptised as a baby. Peter and I had talked about whether to baptise our kids since we were engaged, since it is part of his tradition, but not mine. But in the end we decided that since we right now are active in the Lutheran church here, where it is normal, and I came to believe that there are grounds for it in Scripture (with whole households being baptised together) as well as for adult baptism, we would go ahead with it. It was a really joyful occasion! She was baptised and formally named in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and welcomed into God's grace in the faith community. And it was also our chance as parents to commit to raising her in the faith. We also enjoyed having family and friends there with us to celebrate the day and her!

a real neighborhood

2005-12-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

I live in a real neighborhood, which is a delight. Having grown up in the suburbs, I feel like I am still having 'aha' moments where I just enjoy it.

First of all, we walk or bike everywhere. Having no car, this is both a necessity and often an enjoyable aspect of life, though on rainy days when I'm fighting with the shopping bags and the stroller it can suddenly be really tiring. But it does mean I get to experience things in a more colorful way than when in a car - I stress around less too, I think.

Examples of neighborhoodness here in Vesterbro (on the west side of Copenhagen) I've enjoyed lately: The other day I went to a Moroccan sweets bakery a few streets away, and while there I asked the man if he knew of a drycleaner nearby. He asked me to wait, and called into the back of the shop. An older man came out, and asked, 'you have the jacket with you?' He told me he had a shop around the corner, and since I wasn't ready to just give Peter's suit to a stranger, I said I'd just go to his shop. (I thought he would have somebody working there while he was at the bakery.) But no, when I got there, a friend of his watching the store for him told me to wait. And sure enough, there he comes across the street with his sweets in his hand - waving to me. It wasn't even a full cleaner's, a sort of jack-of-all-trades shop where he fixes shoes, makes keys, etc. Made me smile.

Then I walked to a bagel shop to see about ordering some cakes. I was going to buy a muffin but didn't after I heard that they don't take debit cards. The owner said, 'Just take it, and pay for it next time you come.' Made me smile again.

dentist visit...

2005-12-06T04:18:00.000-08:00

So now I've created a blog - kinda fun. I've wanted to for awhile, just never got around to it. But thanks to other enterprising people I no longer have to let my embarrassing lack of webpage know-how keep me back.

I've just laid my nearly 3-month old daughter down for a nap (and can now hear she's not so convinced she should keep sleeping), before our walk through town to visit the dentist this afternoon. Always feel a bit sheepish at the dentist, when we go through our usual routine of them reminding me that it's best to floss, and me giving a very penitent look about it (which I really feel at the time!). And now there's extra fun involved, where I try to figure out which Danish dental words mean things like cavities, fluoride, "next time we'll drill a hole" and so forth. Naw, it's not so bad, really - if I could get through giving birth to a child without breaking into English, I can do a dentist visit!