Look at this little Munch!!!!!

Happy Birthday to my most Favorite Boy in the World! I love you so much and here are just SOME of the reasons:

You love the Lord and love learning about Him. Your favorite part of the Bible is the OLD Testament and that is no small feat to not only KNOW the O.T. but to love it too.  You love me and tell me all the time.  You know which commercials make me cry. And when said commercials come on, you say, “Hey Bubbs! Watch me!” And you make me turn to you and you do fancy dance moves and kicks until the commercial is over. You have rockin hair. You have a rockin beard. Your eyes are a shade of olive green that I have never seen on anyone else.  You have awesome clothes. You love your nephews. You do amazing impersonations of celebs.  I thought Dave Muhumbi was in our bathroom this morning! You let me eat cherry sours. You buy me roses for no reason. You truly are a better cook than I am.  You instant-message me at work just to tell me you love me. You wiggle around in bed to warm up the sheets before I climb in. You’re  classy. You like small batch whiskey. You fill up the humidifier every night because I like it – even though you don’t think it works. You smell DIVINE.  You have sweet tattoos.  You are so excited to be a daddy. Of a GIRL! And you’re going to be an AMAZING daddy to a girl. You are uber-talented in the graphic design world so much so that a company is paying you MORE than you requested in order to get you to work for them. You take your glasses off the same way every night. And you didn’t even realize it until I pointed it out. So cute.  You play a mean guitar and Baby Girl LOVES it when you play! So does Mommy. Even in the dead of winter, you have the best skin tone.  You love to read books and finish them super quickly! err… You are okay with it when I tease you. ahem.  You love to drive in the snow.  You love veggies and fruit. And you also love McDonald’s fries. You know exactly that when we’re at Taco Johns, you order two bean and cheese burritos, only refried beans and extra cheese for me. And you don’t even need to ask first. You send me links to cuteoverload.com when I’m feeling blue.

I could go on and on…and on…and on….but I must digress.

He is my favorite, he is my love, he is my joy. And I am so thankful for him!

As the days leading up to fatherhood become fewer, I can’t help but think more and more about how our culture views marriage and parenting. Everyone has an opinion, and each opinion has a plethora of books written to support that view. We know, we’ve seen them on the shelf. One issue that tends to still be a hot-button is the decision for a mom to stay at home.

As a family, we have decided the best thing for us is for Katie to stay home, and that is usually met with one of two responses:

A) That’s cool that you guys want to do that
B) Won’t Katie be bored? / How can you afford that? / Doesn’t Katie aspire to other things?

We know that no decision in life is ever black and white, or easy for that matter. Even the decisions that seem blacker or whiter than others come with baggage. There are single moms that need to work. There are parents that decide the best thing for their family is for both parents to work. And that’s great, I’m not knocking that by any means.

What I am saying is that we need to be more supportive of moms who decide to stay home.

When Katie and I talk about raising our kids, we think the person best qualified for the job (and yes, it is a job) is Katie. We believe she has the gifts, skills, talents and emotional and physical connection needed to best raise our baby girl. And because we believe that, we’re willing to make sacrifices to make it happen.

People tend to ask if Katie will get bored staying home. Does the babysitter or daycare provider get bored? It seems like we have a double standard in not thinking it’s weird for someone to work in a daycare, but it’s weird for someone to stay home to take care of their kids. Plus, how can you get bored of spending time with your kids? Sure, some days will be more quiet than others, but if I could have my way I’d be there right alongside my girls every hour of every day.

Then there is the question of why doesn’t a stay-at-home mom “asipre” to anything. Aspire to what? To what end is the careerism rat-race? What could be a greater aspiration than making the sacrifice of time and energy to raise your kids? In my mind, Katie is the President of Child Development, and the COO of the Saldanha Corporation. The pay isn’t that great, but the reward sure is.

Like I said before, this is just one view. I’m not saying that other opinions are wrong, nor am I trying to bring people down if they choose to work. All I’m saying is that the other side of the argument should get some well-deserved respect.

To moms!

For whatever reason, there was a virus that decided to take down our blog this week. Maybe it’s the Blog Gods bringing punishment upon us for not blogging in a couple weeks. Maybe it was one of those smart and sexy Kiev girls that keep commenting on our blog.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t cool. But we’re back! And I’m sure that all five of our readers appreciate that.

Two and a half years ago, a lot was changing in my life. I had recently purchased a house, I had just married the love of my life and I started working at Two Rivers Marketing. Today, a lot is changing in my life.

On March 1, I’ll be starting my new job at iMed Studios in Ames. Very convenient, considering two months later we’ll have a little baby girl joining our family and Katie will be staying home with said baby girl. Now my commute will be cut from 40 minutes to five. Nice.

It is insane how amazingly orchestrated this opportunity was. It’s probably not appropriate to go into specifics, but trust me, there is a strong argument for divine providence here. The timing, the position, my qualifications . . . it all lined up perfectly. One of the best parts is that originally, iMed was looking to hire someone on contract for three months or so, and then possibly hire full-time. With baby girl on the way, I was unsure if that would work. I needed some kind of assurance that I would still have a job in three months. Instead, they flat out offered me a full-time position. Something tells me the Big Guy had something to do with that.

The hardest part is having to quit a job, especially a job where you genuinely enjoy the people you work with. It’s kind of like the feeling I get when I finish my french vanilla yogurt. Two Rivers Marketing has been good to me, and it’s tough to walk away from that. But this just makes sense, and feels so right.

Needless to say, I’m pretty excited. Oh, and my new office will be down the street from The Cafe. Not bad.

Well, not yet. Three weeks from today I turn 27. That number seems crazy to me, considering I still feel like a 14-year-old. But considering that these days, to me, college students look like high schoolers and high schoolers look 12 it must mean that I’m getting older.

Some time ago, I came across an organization called charity: water that was founded by a guy who wanted to make a difference on his birthday. He was turning 31, and he had realized that his faith had grown stagnant and his life was all about himself. So he asked his friends to do away with the gifts and try to raise money to deliver clean water to areas of need. In the last two years, they have raised over $7.5 million, funded 1,030 water projects in 13 countries and effected the lives of 500,000 people. Talk about putting faith into action.

This year, I want to do the same. Instead of gifts, I’m asking for contributions. $20 will provide clean water to one person for twenty years. If you think about it, $1 will give someone clean water for a year. A year of clean water for the price of, what, chicken nuggets? A third of a cup of coffee? The amount of change in your couch? For my birthday, I want to provide 1000 people with clean water this year.

The past month I’ve been part of a study through the book of Proverbs, and one thing has been staggeringly clear to me: God wants us to care about those who need help. In fact, He says it is an abomination to ignore the cries of the poor and needy. According to Merriam-Webster, an abomination is extreme disgust and hatred. I don’t want to be that anymore.

Please watch the video from founder Scott Harrison, it’s nothing short of inspirational. Go to charity: water and read about the organization. 100% of public donations go directly to water projects.

Then, please consider going to www.mycharitywater.org/chris. Every dollar saves a life.