Our Kenya girl turns 18 tomorrow (but it’s already tomorrow there so I guess it’s already her birthday.)

Here are a few pictures she’s sent along recently:

From the Assyrian International News Agency:

In a dramatic session before the revolutionary court this past weekend, documented by Elam Ministries, Maryam Rustampoor (27) and Marzieh Amirizadeh (30) were told to recant their faith in Christ. Though great pressure was put on them, both women have refused to give in. Maryam and Marzieh were originally arrested on March 5, 2009 and have suffered greatly while in prison, suffering ill health, solitary confinement and interrogations for many hours while blindfolded. In a dramatic court room, the deputy prosecutor, Mr. Haddad, questioned Maryam and Marzieh about their faith and told them that they had to recant in both verbal and written form. They responded, “We will not deny our faith.”

hat tip: Ted

Blogger Doc Zero has a short piece over at Hot Air today that attempts to explain to bewildered Washington progressives who all these strange people are who keep showing up in large numbers to give their congressman an earful about the Dems socialized medicine boondoggle. After all, what kind of crazy people are against “free” health care?

An excerpt:

We don’t like having to fight desperate battles to save our freedom and future from socialist politicians every ten or twenty years. We don’t like having our time wasted with trillion-dollar statist fantasies, when our government is already trillions of dollars in the red. We’re tired of checking the papers each day, to see which group of us has been targeted as enemies of the State. We’re growing impatient waiting for the Democrats to come up with ideas that don’t require their supporters to hate someone. We’ve had our fill of “progressives” who act as if we’re living in 1909, and none of their diseased policies have ever been tried before.

Read the whole, brilliant thing here.

I missed her arrival. Daughter #3 was two-and-a-half weeks early and I was 800 miles away in Minneapolis, house hunting, when she insisted on making her entrance. Or exit, I guess I should say.

From the beginning, the child never has been much for waiting.

In the Summer of ’93, we knew we were going to be moving from Oklahoma City to Minneapolis as soon as our house sold. I had flown up to look for us a house, confident that our third blessing would not be arriving for at least two weeks. After all, her older sisters had come right on schedule.

Around 2:00, on my first full day there, I got a call from my great-with-child bride. It sort of, maybe felt like she was in labor. Possibly. But not for sure.

What to do? It was vital that we find a house and we didn’t have the money for another trip. I was self-employed and without insurance so we were paying for this baby as we had paid for the others–that is, with cash. We agreed to wait a while and see if this was a false alarm.

Around 5:00 p.m., another call. It’s the real thing. I checked the airlines for a flight that would get me back to Oklahoma City that night. There was none.

A few hours later I sat in my hotel room with the phone to my ear. On the other end, my sister-in-law was holding a receiver up beside my wife’s beet-red face. Her mom was there, too. The old advertising slogan for the phone company told us that long distance was “the next best thing to being there.” Well, that may be true. But it’s a very distant second.

That was 16 years ago today. I was there by late morning the following day.

What a blessing to our family this final addition turned out to be. The entertainment value alone has been well worth the price of admission.

Mrs. Blather and I have always referred to her as “the baby.” Though it’s getting harder every year to make that euphemism make sense. “The baby” can drive now. And she looks like this:

My genetic imprint is evident in some way in each one of our girls, but especially in this one. Not in looks so much–she’s an even mix of Holland and her mother’s side. But in temperament and tendency, there is much of me in this one–God help her.

I have no sons, and that is fine with me. Being the father of daughters has been the finest and richest thing I’ve ever known. But as a Dad, there is indeed something inside that aches to know that someone you’ve poured your life and heart into wants to be like you.  When all the short people in your house are girls, it’s easy to wonder if that is ever the case. But I don’t wonder . . .

That’s her foot. That’s my footprint. And I’m a contented man.

Liberal Yankee-Land is being invaded and slowly subverted . . . by evangelicalism. So reports the Christian Science Monitor:

Evangelicals March North

Hallelujah religion is a-rising in Yankee country. As liberal congregations die in a secularizing region, conservative churches with roots outside New England are replacing them with a passionate brand of faith that emphasizes saving souls – even in a land where many think there’s nothing to be saved from.

(hat tip: Instapundit)