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That’s the question that Ben[edited] asked me on the last post, and that’s the question that I’ve been asking God for the last several months.  The scary thing is, I don’t yet know the answer.

Perhaps I should explain a bit.

I really want to be a professor some day. I want to do research in topics that will make a difference in this world while teaching college students and have an influence with them.  I want to be a respected member of the academic community who can reason for Christ and the gospel in a increasingly secular profession. I want to be a part of exporting full life in Christ all over the world, and being a professor lends credibility and occupation for that mission.

The thing is, I don’t know how to do that in Ames. In order to take more steps down this road I need to do something called postdoctoral research.  Basically, I need to do more work under the supervision of a more established scientist and publish as much as I can in peer-reviewed journals, so that I can compete for a faculty job. The catch is that nobody in my current department at ISU will hire me for this. They’re wary of “intellectual inbreeding”. I’ve done both my undergraduate and graduate degrees at ISU, and they don’t think they’re doing me any favors to hire me for postdoctoral work.

So, why not just go? Well, the thing is, God put me here. I’m not saying that God’s not doing really amazing things all over the world, or that the only place to follow God is in my church, but I am saying God put me here, and I’ve got to figure out why before I leave. Before 1999, I didn’t live my life for anyone but me. Since that time, I’ve entered into God’s plan for life, and it was here, at Stonebrook, where He got ahold of me. So, because of that sovereign event, I have an obligation to not just do what I want, but what He wants. When those two things are incompatible, I need to bow to what He wants.

So, right now I’m in the process of figuring this question out. How do I satisfy my desires / dreams and still honor the local church body that God placed me in?  Good question.  I’ve spent some serious time praying, getting counsel, and listening to try and figure it out.
I’d really appreciate your prayers on this. Currently, I’m asking the brothers and sisters to whom I have an obligation to give me their blessing to go. I’m applying for postdoctoral positions in cities where there’s currently a Great Commission church, and I’m making decisions based on my convictions about how I will know if God wants me to continue down this path or stop.

Basically, besides applying to several good schools and continuing to pray, I’m waiting to hear.

And that’s what’s up.

Today was my final defense for my Ph. D., and I passed!

Save a few formalities, I’m a Doctor of Philosophy!

It’s done! (Mostly)

After 5.5 years of research and 6 months of finishing the writing, I’ve sent my thesis off to my Program of Study committee!

They will, of course, have changes that they’d like me to make (and I’d like to make them too, so that the thesis gets better). But the bulk of the work is done! The thesis goes to the grad college by the 28th of Nov.

Now, all I have to do is defend it. That’s happening next Friday at 2PM, and it’s open to the public, if you’d like to attend (seriously, only come if you’re interested, because otherwise you’ll be bored and you won’t even get to talk to me much until around 5 PM).

So, here’s the link to the thesis, just in case you wanted to read it.

Anthony Hill’s Thesis

We had our ultrasound today, and the results are in…

It’s pretty clear we’re having a boy! Everything looks great and he looks healthy so far.  We have a few still pictures and a video of the ultrasound if anyone is interested.  They also confirmed that my due date should still be right around March 22nd.

Our September and October photos (mostly of Madeline) are now up in the photo gallery. These include pictures of Madeline playing dress up, helping with leaf raking, dressed up for being a flower girl, her ladybug Halloween costume and more. Happy Viewing!

I’ve noticed that the top favorite questions people seem to like to ask you when you are pregnant seem to be “How are you feeling” and “Have you had any cravings”? Now, the first one makes a lot of sense — it’s a very nice thing to ask since many people aren’t feeling well while they are pregnant. (I’m generally feeling great, now, by the way. I only throw up very occasionally when I see or smell something that really grosses me out. Like yesterday, when Madeline pooped while in the bathtub).

I’ve always had a hard time knowing how to answer the cravings question. I assume that people want to know if you are eating anything weird, like pickles on your ice cream or something. For one thing, I have cravings all the time, even when I am not pregnant. I don’t crave weird things, I just have strong feelings of desire (which I would guess is how most people define a craving) to eat certain foods I like anyway.

The main difference between normal cravings and pregnant cravings is I listen to them a lot more when I am pregnant, and sometimes they last longer. I have never (pregnant or otherwise) craved anything really out of the ordinary when compared to foods I normally eat.

Normally, if I start getting the sensation that I would really like a Flying Burrito, I can just ignore it and it will go away…or I can just save it for the next date night and suggest we go there for dinner. Or, if it is a craving for something I prepare at home, I can wait until the next month’s menu or at least the next week’s grocery trip. However when pregnant, if I keep ignoring the craving for a couple of days it gets worse and worse and I usually find myself either giving in by all means possible, including making a special trip to the grocery store or finding any excuse to eat the fast food or whatever.

When I was pregnant with Madeline, I got on a few “kicks” where i craved something and had to keep eating it multiple times before the craving went away. I ate broccoli cheese soup every day for one whole week. I went though a couple weeks where Potato Oles from Taco John’s filled my thoughts and i ate them several times. I also went though a phase where I really desired seafood subs from subway. There was also the time during that pregnancy where I was making a chocolate-banana shake to satisfy a craving, and I broke the blender before I ever got the shake made. Deciding I wasn’t sure spending $20 or more on a new blender right away would fit in the budget, I hopped in the car and drove to Dairy Queen right away to buy a shake from them!

I haven’t had much for repeat cravings so far this time, and having a toddler makes it more complicated to satisfy cravings from fast food restaurants, so I try to find substitutes when I can. Luckily we each have a small “discretionary fund” in our budget to spend on whatever, so I can occasionally indulge. My discretionary fund used to go exclusively toward coffee almost every month when not pregnant. But since I have an aversion to coffee while pregnant (it actually taste different in a bad way to me) — all that money is freed up for satisfying my strong urges to eat various food items.

One thing i have noticed that is kind of like a craving is that I have bought two jars of prepared Alfredo sauce in the past few weeks and really enjoyed the dishes I prepared with them. I used to really dislike jar alfredo sauce. But, I can’t prove if it’s a pregnancy thing, a general change in my tastes or an improvement to the product since it has been a few years since i last had any as far as I can recall.