My Amazing Wife

I wanted to brag on my wife, who has done well in her career. She was recently featured on Broadman & Holman's blog, sharing her journey to how she got where she is.

Here is the link.

We were on TV!

Carolina and I just returned today from our 5th anniversary trip...to New York City! We did a lot of touristy stuff, which I'm sure I'll blog about soon. But a highlight for us was getting to go to the US Open on Friday. What made us even happier was finding on our DVR that we succeeded in getting our faces on TV! Here is proof...

Good Luck, Carolina!

I'm very proud of my wife. Today she begins a new job working for LifeWay Christian Resources. I must also brag that while most companies, including LifeWay, are having to do some downsizing because of the economy, Carolina was viewed as such a valuable asset, that they hired her anyway. It was a hire that had to be approved directly by the president of the company.

She will be a Bilingual Universal Representative. She's going to be working in downtown Nashville at their corporate building. LifeWay is ranked as one of the best places to work in Tennessee. I'm really glad that she'll be working in a Christian environment. And much like when she worked at Harding, LifeWay has an Aramark cafeteria! We went on Friday to figure out the train and bus system to make sure she can get to work without any problems.

Keep her in your prayers as she begins a new chapter in her life today.

Happy Birthday Carolina!

Today is Carolina's birthday. It's been a real blessing to have her in my life. We met in January of 2000, and it's hard to believe we've known each other for 9 years now!

This song goes out to you...

What I want most for my Birthday...

...is to see my wife. Lord willing, she'll be home tomorrow. I have missed her terribly these last three weeks.

Happy Birthday, Carolina!

Today is Carolina's birthday. I'm sorry that I can't be with her, as she is in Mexico visiting her dad, but I hope she has a great day. Feel free to send her an e-mail or drop her a message on Facebook.

Vicente Fox at Harding

Last night, former Mexican President Vicente Fox came to speak at Harding. Carolina has been so excited about this for a long time. I can't mention all of the evening, but I'll hit some highlights:

It began with a reception where he was more than willing to pose for pictures. He was polite, and his wife Marta was extremely personable. We got a picture taken with them that should come to us in the mail soon. We went to a dinner where they handed out reserved seats for the speech. I was in the 5th row, dead center (hence the good pictures I was able to take).


Fox's speech was not the typical American Studies kind of speech. I think it was really good for this particular crowd to hear some new perspectives. I remember several years ago when Barbara Bush came, I was really disappointed with how she handled hard questions. She would get flustered and try to turn them back on the one asking.

Fox didn't shy away, in my opinion, from any hard issues. He spoke about his views of the war. Namely, that we should already be out of there and that the Iraqi's need to decide to learn to fly on their own. He spoke in fatherly language about helping your children be able to make it on their own. He also made it very clear that he thinks the UN should have been much more involved in handling Iraq. What I liked about him was that he didn't sound like the average anti-war person you encounter. He was very respectful and intelligent. Whether or not you agreed with him, he actually presented his reasoning instead of just blasting our administration.
In regard to immigrants, he portrayed a better picture of them than what I think most people here are used to. He spoke about how much money they are sending in to Mexico from their jobs here, which far exceeds any other source of revenue that Mexico has. He said that the fact that they are sending so much back says (1) they care a lot about their families and (2) they want to go home when they can. I thought he made a strong case for a visiting worker program. He said, "They didn't come all the way here to eat hamburgers and hot dogs, because in Mexico, we have delicious tacos!" He lamented that in Mexico, there is still such a need for more jobs. He was more than happy for Mexicans to go to other countries to fulfill their dreams, but he doesn't want hunger or unemployment to be the reason why they go.

Something I had not really considered is how many of our products that Mexicans buy. He pointed out the millions of jobs created in the US purely based on Mexican consumers. When I thought about it, it's really true. Carolina's dad won't drive anything but American vehicles (especially GM). There is American stuff all over the place down there. As much as many Americans like to think we are some kind of big sugar daddy who props everyone else up, we really do benefit a lot from Mexico, though probably not as much as they do from us.

He was asked several questions about the border, and he said in very strong terms that he is against building a wall. He referred to the Great Wall of China and how ineffective it was in keeping out the Mongols. He talked about President Reagan who stood by the Berlin Wall and said "Tear it down!" Walls are in opposition to the democratic spirit. He really understood the value of networking and cooperating. He warned about the danger of China's growing economy and how we should band together to make sure that in North America we will have a future.

He really had an appreciation for teaching Christian principles, and saw them as key for a democracy to function. Democracies cannot be strong when the people are ignorant. He explained several of the things they have done to try and increase education in Mexico, which he sees as key to having a more solid economy. It was touching to hear him describe how under his leadership, Christian ethical teaching has been brought into Mexican schools. He talked about what a shallow life it is when all you are educated on is simply facts without any moral basis. It made me sad that in my own country, we don't have this freedom anymore.

For someone who speaks English as a second language, I thought he made a great presentation. His intelligence and talents for leadership were very obvious, and I can see why people would follow him.

I have to brag, too, because as I type this, Carolina is with President Fox and his wife Marta. She is one of two representatives from Harding accompanying them to Little Rock, where they are getting a VIP tour of the Clinton Presidential Library, then lunch at the Peabody down town. They're riding together in the Harding Security SUV. Not many people can say that they got to hang out all day with the President. I'm hoping she'll get me some good pictures to put up. She has been beaming ever since earlier this week when she found out that she would get to do this.

Do you ever start looking too much like your spouse?

Carolina and I keep having this thing happen where we end up dressed alike. This afternoon, we decided to take our dog for a walk, so she went out the front door to wait on us, and I threw on some gym shorts and a jacket to wear outside. I got Dora and brought her around to the front. Sure enough, we each had:

• Dark grey sweat suit jackets
• White shirts on underneath
• Light blue gym shorts
• Grey tennis shoes

It was kind of embarassing. We couldn't have dressed any more alike even if it was our goal. Not to mention the unlikely combo that I would have shorts on with a jacket.

Is that a sign of old age setting in? Something worse? ...or better? Do any of you ever do that? I'm hoping this just means we have a lot in common and that we're a good match.

Have You Tried Tara's Gold?

Let me set a scenario that I bet almost everyone has experienced before:

Your parents went to visit missionaries in Bogota, Columbia. While they were down there, another man from church got a large quantity of emeralds for a good price, and passed on the good savings to your parents. They purchased a moderate quantity of small emeralds and now want to give them to you to make into a piece of jewelry for your wife...

That's what happened to me, anyways. And what did I do? I went to Tara's Gold here in Searcy, Arkansas. I go to church with the owners, Van and Rachel Simpson, and they are fantastic people. They have a full-time jeweler named Enrique "Ricky" Colon who is also a friend of mine. I brought Ricky the emeralds to see if he had any ideas for what we could do with them. He came up with a design, and for a very reasonable price, he took the emeralds and made them into these beautiful earrings for Carolina. The gems are very small, and I was concerned about being able to make something where they are visible. I am extremely pleased with what Ricky did with them. If you live in or near Arkansas, life is too short to go see sissies in log cabins for fine jewelry. Check out Tara's Gold. The people there are every bit as high quality as the products that they sell.

One of the Many Reasons I Love My Wife

Every day I teach class at noon until 12:50pm. Under normal circumstances, that would be my lunchtime. Carolina is usually finishing her lunch in the cafeteria around the time I get out of class. I always go and wait by her office door so that I can see her before I leave campus. And the cool part?

She knows that I'll be waiting to see her. So every day she goes to the dessert line and picks out whatever looks best. Then she brings it to me, since she knows that I'm probably hungry. She does all this completely on her own initiative. I just think it's really nice of her to think of me, and I appreciate it. For the record, I'm really glad I married my wife; she's great.