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Categories Family & Friends, Following Christ

What I pray for your children

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If you are one of my siblings or one of my bloggy friends, I pray for you and for your children. Approximately once a week, your name pops up on my phone and, generally while I’m cleaning the toys in my office, I pray for you. If you have expressed a particular request or if I’ve deduced one from what you’ve written, I’ll pray for that; but otherwise, I pray a very specific sort of prayer.

I do not pray for your children to be obedient.

Obedient, manageable children are nice to have, easy to care for. But that isn’t what I want for you or for them.

Obedience and manageability can mask inward apathy or rebellion. Obedience and manageability can convince a child that they’re a “good kid”. They can begin to rely upon their “good kid” status. They can begin to work hard to maintain their “good kid” status. Someday, they may rebel against their “good kid” status.

I don’t pray for them to obedient. They need something more.

They need Jesus.

Even so, I do not pray for your children to love Jesus.

Many a child who “loves Jesus”–who delights to sing Bible songs, who loves to go to Sunday School, who tells his friends about Jesus–grows up to be an adult who rejects the faith.

“Loving Jesus” is often a cultural thing, about speaking the lingo of the church, singing the songs of the church, acting the way church people do.

But just like the children of hippies turned yuppie and the children of yuppies turned hipster, the children of Christianity often turn atheist or agnostic or non-practicing nothings.

I don’t pray for the to “love Jesus”. They need something more.

You see, I don’t want your children to just love Jesus, like they love their favorite toy, I want them to know Jesus.

And I don’t want your children to just know Jesus, I want them to know Jesus savingly.

And if they are to know Jesus savingly, they must know that they are depraved.

For that reason, I pray that your children would recognize their sinfulness.

I pray that they would be acutely aware of their inability to live up to God’s standard.

I pray that they would recognize the futility of their works to ever change their status.

I pray that they would fall wholly upon the mercy of God in the person of Christ.

That, my friends, is what I pray for your children.

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: In various stages of completion

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Thankful Thursday bannerThis week seems to be the week for finishing projects, for making progress on projects, for starting projects. It has been remarkably productive (despite the allergies that have me hacking up a lung.)

This week I’m thankful…

…for Daniel’s project turned in
Have I mentioned how relieved I am to have this done and in? With that project done and his final taken in the other class, we now have two more evenings free–and much more time since Daniel won’t have homework again until fall. Yippee!

…for a book read, reviewed, and returned
I didn’t realize when I picked up A Year of Biblical Womanhood that it was only a two week loan period. Once I became aware, I dug into it with gusto–and managed to read, review and return it in just ten days (while trying to help Daniel with his project and keep the house in order–I may be returning to my reading groove.)

…for a crafted gift started during an afternoon with a friend
Ruth ended up being in town this weekend, thanks to schedule changes (she has a crazy insane travel schedule) and we arranged to get together. I brought along the fabric for a gift Daniel and I are making for one of our niece’s birthdays–and managed to get all the cutting done. The only thing better than having the cutting done (I *hate* that step) is having done it while chatting with a good friend.

…for progress made on my ongoing gardening project
I started making raised beds in our backyard for a vegetable garden, what? A month and a half ago? Now, for at least a couple of weeks, the concrete block bed has been sitting there waiting to be filled. This week, I finally had four cubic yards of compost delivered and got busy filling the bed.

…for small steps in settling the office
Since I switched the two bedrooms upstairs, Daniel’s old room (which we’ve designated the office) has been full of boxes and whatever else I didn’t have a place for anywhere. This last week, I’ve been able to make some small steps–finally combining some of our office materials (tape, staples, pens, etc.) into a central place. It’s small, but it is progress.

…for a basement transformation begun
The basement has two partitioned rooms (one which we’re designating as my craft room, another which we’re calling the guest room) and a large unfinished utility space. The utility space is currently filled with wood, tools, my Christmas stuff, an old ceiling fan, and countless other unnamed objects–in addition to the furnace, hot water heater, washer and dryer, and deep freeze. We also have a line hung across one side of the room for drying clothes. Unfortunately, there’s enough junk around that line that long clothes often end up getting dusty/dirty during the process. I’ve had a dream of transforming one barren corner into a laundry area–with a table for folding, my couple of drying racks for delicates that can’t be hung, and a couple of clotheslines placed so there’s little chance of getting things dirty. This week, I started cleaning out that corner, got the table and one drying rack in place, and removed a fixture from the ceiling that would be in the way of my proposed clothesline. Yay!

…for a promise of fulfillment

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

~Philippians 1:6

One day, the long work of sanctification, begun when Christ saved me, will at last be complete. On the day when Christ appears, I shall be like Him, having seen Him as He is.

In this, I have hope to continue on in this walk of sanctification.

Categories Homemaking

Settling into our room

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When we moved me down to Wichita, Daniel was sleeping in the bedroom next to the bathroom–the one with a door to the backyard in it. He had a queen sized bed, a chest of drawers that was missing most of its handles, a little plastic chest of drawers, and a laundry hamper.

We cleared the room next door for my scads of boxes.

We’d decided fairly quickly that we’d use that room, isolated from pipes that make noise and from doors to the outdoors, as our bedroom–so I made switching the two rooms one of my first priorities.

That put what furniture he and I had into position.

About two weeks before our wedding (when I started thinking about my move into the house), I decided it was time that I made the bed properly.

Now, four and a half months since my move to Wichita (and two months since my move into Betsy), our bedroom is starting to feel like a real bedroom.

Our bed now sports my hope chest quilt–the quilt I started when I was fourteen and didn’t finish until I was 24 (ish). The nightstands we purchased with wedding gifts are now positioned on either side of the bed. And the contemplated headboard has failed to materialize and spare dollars have been reallocated to paying back my school loans–which means I guess I’d better get searching DIYs on Pinterest if I really want a headboard.

Bedroom

The dresser I’d used in Columbus now sits next to my closet door–and contains Daniel’s clothing. At first, he’d asked me if I had any extra dresser space available that he could use–but the more I looked at HIS dresser, the more I became convinced that it should not be used in our bedroom. Half of the time I couldn’t even open the drawers.

Bedroom

I finally mounted the shelf my friend Kathy gave me at my shelf party a couple of years ago (back when I had determined that I was past hope of marrying.) Above it, I arranged my collection of blueware.

Bedroom

Against the next wall, my quilt rack boasts a quilt from my great-aunt (on the back), my “egg blankie” (a small crocheted blanket made for me by a woman from our church when I was a baby”, and the lovely quilt my Mom and sisters made for Daniel and I for our wedding. Since I have both my hope chest quilt and my wedding quilt, I alternate which one I have on the bed every couple of weeks. (Actually, the wedding quilt is currently on the bed-it’s been a couple of weeks since I took these photos.)

Bedroom

The final corner of our bedroom contains my dresser, with my jewelry board and our hamper beside it. The big bare wall will eventually hold something–but I’m waiting until we finish our entertainment center for the living room before I do too much hanging of pictures. Until that piece of furniture is done and in place, I’m not sure exactly what I’ll want where. So, for now, I wait.

Bedroom

It’s not completely done, but it is starting to look settled. Like a home instead of a dorm room. It’s wonderful to have a haven of rest in the midst of our still-settling-in-house.

Categories Book Reviews

“A Year of Biblical Womanhood” by Rachel Held Evans

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Since the publication of announcement of Rachel Held Evans’ year-long project attempting to live as a “Biblical woman”, criticisms have been flying strong through the interwebs. The evangelical camp to which I belong (complementarian Biblical literalists) has been highly critical of Evans’ project, and of her published book. They have argued that Evans treats complementarianism unfairly and that Evans’ approach to the Bible undermines the “truthfulness and sufficiency and relevance of the Bible”.

I agree.

Evans frequently mischaracterizes the complementarian position; and, while she critiques many conservative interpretations of Scripture related to womanhood, she never sets forth any system for properly interpreting Scripture–which means that she ends up encouraging the reader to take a lower-than-fully-inspired view of Scripture (Kathy Keller’s review addresses this in more depth).

On the other hand, I enjoyed this book and found myself frequently “Mmm-hmm”ing along with Evans’ conclusions.

How is this?

I knew from the outset that there were going to be plenty of disagreements between Evans and me. I knew that she has crossed the divide between conservative and liberal Scriptural interpretation. But I like memoirs, and I like projects, and I like reading things from perspectives other than my own.

I approached this book, then, in the same way as I approached A.J. Jacobs’ A Year of Living Biblically. I approached it as an amusement read, something which may be used to hone and deepen my convictions or may just be something to go “Huh” at.

While I disagreed with plenty of what Evans had to say, I found myself nodding along as she concluded each month of her year focusing on a different trait of “Biblical womanhood”.

At the end of the month on Gentleness:

“Mastering a gentle and quite spirit didn’t mean changing my personality, just regaining control of it, growing strong enough to hold back and secure enough to soften. What they forgot to tell us in Sunday School is that the ‘gentle and quiet spirit’ Peter wrote about is not, in fact, an exclusively feminine virtue, but is elevated throughout the New Testament as a trait expected of all Christians.

Within the chapter on beauty:

“Both husbands and wives bear the sweet responsibility of seeking beauty in one another at all stages of life. No one gets off the hook because the other is wearing sweatpants or going bald or carrying a child or battling cancer. Any pastor who claims the Bible says otherwise is lying. End of story.

At the end of the chapter on modesty:

“There are women for whom the bonnets and aprons foster humility and women for whom the same things foster pride. That’s because true modesty has little to do with clothing or jewelry or makeup. The virtue that is celebrated in Scripture is so elusive we struggle to find words to capture its spirit…

And so we codify. We legislate. We pull little girls to the front of the class and slap rulers against their bare legs and try to measure modesty in inches…. We cling to the letter because the spirit is so much harder to master.

More often than not, this backfires, and our attempts to be different result in uniformity, our attempts to be plain draw attention to ourselves, our attempts to temper sexuality inadvertently exploit it, and our attempts to avoid offense accidentally create it.

Perhaps this is why Paul encouraged women to ‘adorn themselves’ with good deeds, why he instructed all Christians, ‘Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ’, and why the valorous woman of Proverbs 31 is praised because she ‘clothes herself in strength and dignity.’

It’s not what we wear but how we wear it.

And like clothing, modesty fits each woman a little differently.”

At the close of the chapter on purity:

“There was a message behind these healings [in which Jesus touched unclean individuals], and it sounded throughout…the world: When God became human, when he wrapped himself in our blood and skin and bones, his first order of business was to touch the ones that we would not touch, to fellowship in our sufferings, and to declare once and for all that purity is found not in the body, but in the heart.”

In the chapter on fertility:

“As a Christian, my highest calling is not motherhood; my highest calling it to follow Christ. And following Christ is something a woman can do whether she is married or single, rich or poor, sick or healthy, childless or Michelle Duggar.”

Yes, I definitely agreed with a lot of her thoughts on the spirit behind the law–whether or not I agree with her on the value of keeping the letter of the law (or why one might be or not be bound to follow the law.)

Do I recommend this book?

Sure, but with the encouragement to read critically but not judgmentally. Enjoy Evans’ escapades, laugh at her turns of phrase–and critically evaluate her interpretations.

Rating:4 Stars
Category:Project Memoir
Synopsis:Evans describes her year of trying to take the Bible as literally as possible in regards to womanhood.
Recommendation: Go ahead and read it. Enjoy her experiences and critically evaluate her Biblical interpretations.

Categories My Beloved Daniel

In which I make my sister a liar

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This is the next installment in a rather long series about how Daniel and I met–and have become engaged. Click on the “Our Story” tag for context.

It being a Wednesday evening, my parents were busy with church. Which meant I couldn’t really tell them about my engagement any earlier than Thursday night. Which meant I couldn’t really tell anyone about my engagement until after Thursday night.

It wouldn’t be fair to have anyone else know before my parents.

As I was driving back to Columbus from Kansas City, I received a text from my friend Ruth. “Will you be at Bible Study tonight? I have something to tell you.”

I wasn’t sure what time I’d be getting back in to town, but I promised I would come as soon as I got there.

It turned out that I rolled into Columbus almost exactly at 8, when Bible Study began. I drove right to Kathy’s house, interested in hearing what Ruth would have to say.

Interestingly, Ruth was not yet there–but the rest of the girls were eager to hear my story.

One of the girls was new to our study and hadn’t even known I was dating anyone. One of the girls had only heard up to the point where Daniel and I were about to meet in person for the first time. And then there were plenty who knew the story up until my trip to Kansas City/Philadelphia, but who were nevertheless curious to hear what had gone down during my trip.

They insisted I start at the beginning, catching up those who needed to be caught up, while the girls who were further along went across the street to retrieve I-don’t-remember-what from our friend Jon’s house.

Eventually, the rest of the girls returned–and Ruth showed up.

As I told my story, several of the girls punctuated every paragraph with a question.

“So, when are you going to get engaged?”

I ignored their questions and kept blazing on with my story–sans the engagement part, of course.

My sister was less willing to ignore the engagement question and finally interjected.

“She isn’t engaged. She can’t get engaged yet. Daniel hasn’t even met our family!”

I ignored her comment and kept going with my story.

Ruth interjected her own question every couple of paragraphs.

“So, when are you moving to Wichita?”

By the time she got to her own announcement, I felt sure I knew what she would say–and I was right.

Ruth’s company had decided to relocate her. They wanted her to move to their main offices–in Wichita, Kansas.

I responded to her announcement awkwardly, unsure of how to respond exactly. She was moving, but she wouldn’t be moving away from me. She was moving the same place I’d be moving–but I couldn’t let anyone know that I’d be moving there because I couldn’t let anyone know that I was engaged yet.

And so I lied silently–and made my sister a liar as well.

Categories Family & Friends

Snapshot: Mothers

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My mother was indispensable in wedding planning. From the reception site to the cake to making salads to altering my dress, her hand was all over our wedding.

Nevertheless, I didn’t even think to have her there to help me dress. (Shame, shame.)

Thankfully, my photographer did think, so I gave my mom a call and she quickly got dressed in her fancies and made her way over to the church (she’d just been picking up the rolls from the bakery, of course.)

My mother helping lace up my dress

I’m glad she was there to celebrate with us that my brother and sister-in-law and niece had arrived. I’m glad she was there to help lace up the back of my dress. I’m glad she was there to show my sister (also my maid of honor) how to bustle up the dress.

But even had she not been there at those exact moment, my mom has faithfully been there whenever I needed her.

Me and my mother

I didn’t see my brother Timothy escort my mother up the aisle, but I have pictures to see my mother make the way up–her first time as mother of the bride.

My mother walking up the aisle

I also didn’t see my mother and my mother-in-law-to-be mount the stage to light their respective candles. But I have pictures of them returning.

My mother and mother in law lighting the unity candle

I do remember greeting my new mother-in-law with a hug in the receiving line. I remember hugging the woman who has welcomed me so well into her family.

My mother

This year, for the first time, I am blessed to have two wonderful women to honor on Mothers’ Day.

Both of these women have blessed me immeasurably–one in raising me in the fear of the Lord and the other in raising my husband in that same fear.

May we ever rise up and call her blessed.

“Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Honor her for all that her hands have done,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”
~Proverbs 31:29-31 (ESV)

We are their works, my husband and I. May we ever bring them praise.

Surely, they deserve it.

Categories Recap

Recap (5/11/2013)

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Nutrition and Health News:

  • Sucking on your baby’s pacifier might help him be healthy

    “Infants whose parents sucked on their pacifiers to clean them developed fewer allergies than children whose parents typically rinsed or boiled them.”

    This study adds to the growing evidence for the so-called “hygiene hypothesis”, the idea that protecting our kids from exposure to “germs” is actually counterproductive–leading to weaker immune systems and/or autoimmune diseases. Read more in the New York Times’ article.

Books added to my TBR list:

  • Hug a Bull and I Love Ewe by Aaron Zenz (reviewed by Carrie at Reading to Know)
    These children’s picture books that teach the names of male and female animals sound wonderful. Since my new library owns copies, I’ll definitely be looking them up!

  • The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith (reviewed by Seth at Collateral Bloggage)
    I’ve seen quite a few food fads go by in my relatively few years–but the most recent fads, whether “whole foods” or “paleo” are by far the most unique. Unlike the fads of the past, which were based on complicated (and often flawed) scientific/nutritional arguments, this latest fad is almost entirely fought using evolutionary and environmental arguments. This book, which appears to argue for a similar approach to food (and against vegetarianism), sounds like it could be an interesting read.

Recipes Tried:

  • Cheeseburger Crescent Casserole (from Pillsbury)
    Daniel bought some crescent roll dough I don’t know how long ago–and it’s been sitting in the kitchen ever since. Maybe two months? I don’t particularly like the stuff, so I hadn’t used it. But finally, I decided that it must be used, so I searched for recipes. This is a really simple recipe that I adjusted rather significantly. I added onions and green peppers and red peppers and jalepenos and mustard; and used minced dill pickles instead of dill pickle relish and swiss cheese instead of American. But it wasn’t half bad, tasted like a cheeseburger. If you happen to accidentally have crescent roll dough on hand, this is a good way to get rid of it (how’s that for a glowing review?)

  • Chicken Enchilada Pizza (from How Sweet Eats)
    This was a.maz.ing. No other way to put it. I enjoyed it fresh from the oven. I enjoyed it microwaved for lunch the next day. I enjoyed microwaved three days later. It was wonderful. I used 2 cups of white flour and one cup of whole wheat in the crust, used my mom’s homemade enchilada sauce for the meat, and skipped the avocado (mine went bad in the produce basket before I made this recipe, boo!) I also cut up whole tomatoes and shredded my own romaine lettuce to cut down on cost–I think this might also have been why even the lettuce wasn’t too gross on reheating. I can’t vouch for using a regular pan, but this cooked up great on my pizza stone.

    • Chicken Enchilada Pizza

  • Creamsicle French Toast
    Daniel and I decided to make French Toast this morning, since Daniel’s project is done (at last) and we had some bread in the freezer from last week’s Caprese Grilled Cheese. Daniel was looking at various recipes and found one that involved orange liqueur–which got me to think about oranges. I figured that I had orange juice concentrate in the freezer, and we had cream cheese in the fridge…why not mix the two together and use that as a filling for our French toast? Our bread was sliced thinly enough that we made them more like a sandwich, but they turned out pretty decent, if I do say so myself. Not like every-weekend-wonderful, but certainly a nice experiment.

Apps/Plugins/Technological Gizmos Used:

  • TWICCA for Android (linked to by LifeHacker)
    Apparently TweetDeck is going the way of GoogleReader–which means I needed a new Twitter Client for my phone. LifeHacker was so kind as to suggest Twicca. I’m liking it so far, although I wish it had the capability of running my Twitter feed and my Facebook feed side by side like TweetDeck did. Oh well, nothing has everything. Download Twicca here.

Videos that Made Me Laugh:


HT: 22 Words

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: Daniel

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Thankful Thursday bannerThis past week has been a stressful one for both Daniel and I. Daniel is nearing the end of his semester–with all the accompanying projects that go along with it. So he’s been busy with an economics project, building a model to predict entrepreneurial activity–and I’ve been…

I’ve been broken, needy, clingy.

I try to give him space to get his work done, but sometimes I forget. And sometimes he sees through my attempts to stay busy, recognizes the tears building inside of me.

And despite his own stress, he tenderly cares for me.

I don’t have an itemized list this week–not everything needs to be shared with the world.

But know this–I am so thankful for the man God has given me as husband.

He sacrifices himself for me. He listens to me. He holds me when I cry. He prays for me. He loves me.

In Daniel, I encounter a taste of the love my Heavenly Bridegroom has for me.

Thank You, Lord, for blessing me with this man, my husband. And thank You, Lord, for being the Perfect Husband after which every imperfect earthly husband is named.

Categories Everyday Life

The path they traveled

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When it got to be a week and a half after our photographer (The wonderful Chris of La Brisa Photography) told us he was sending the USB of our wedding photos and I still hadn’t seen them, I started to wonder.

I sent Chris a quick update. “Hey, we haven’t gotten the USB drive yet. Were you not able to get it into the mail as planned?”

Chris’s reply was prompt: “That’s strange. I received confirmation that it was delivered on the 25th of April!”

He went onto list the address he’d sent it to.

I read the address, looked through our pile of mail again.

Then I looked at the address again.

Just a second. Of course. That wasn’t our address. Two of the digits had been transposed–so that instead of sending our photos to 1243 Our Street, they were sent to 1234 Our Street (Not our real address :-P).

Daniel and I at our wedding

During our “first look” session

I’m sure it was my mistake.

If I weren’t so lazy, I’d look up the email trail to confirm that it was my mistake.

I’m sure I’ve done it before, if only in my mind–and once it’s wrong, it’s easy just to rush through the address for confirmation, see all the digits and transpose them in my own mind…

So, instead of being delivered to US, our wedding photos were sent to someone the next block over.

I was on my lunch break, so I prepared a letter explaining the predicament and made my way down the block to 1234 Our Street.

I rang the doorbell and waited. No one there. I’d expected that–it was the middle of the day. That’s why I’d prepared the letter. I opened the screen door to insert the letter and decided, on a whim, to knock.

The dogs barking indicated that the doorbell probably didn’t work (they would have barked at the bell, right?) and a few moments later, the resident of 1234 Our Street opened the door.

I explained my predicament in a single long incomprehensible sentence. Mr. 1234 rubbed his eyes and asked me to explain one more time.

I slowed down and tried to explain more clearly. “My name is Rebekah Garcia. I live just down the street at 1243 Our Street. I was supposed to have a letter delivered to me last week, but I believe it was accidentally sent to you. I was wondering if you’d received it–it contains my wedding pictures and I’d really like to have them.”

This time my explanation made more sense. Mr 1234 explained that he didn’t know, since he’s just back from traveling, but that he’d ask his better half when she got off work. I left my cell phone number with him and waited.

Walking to a vacant lot for photos

Walking to a vacant lot for more photos

I waited impatiently.

After two days, I checked back in.

“We’re still searching. The kids swear they got the mail.”

I assured him I knew how that went–and went back to my everyday life.

Finally, this Sunday afternoon, I was sitting in bed with Daniel’s laptop on my lap processing some data for one of Daniel’s projects when the doorbell rang.

Daniel got up to answer it, his textbook being easier to get off his lap than the laptop off of mine.

“Is this where Rebekah Garcia lives?”

I listened with growing excitement as Daniel received the package from our neighbor.

My pictures were HERE!

Daniel and I at our wedding

Categories Everyday Life

A Naming Exercise

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Working at WIC has introduced me to a whole range of names that I never would have imagined existed as names.

I have lived my entire life believing the Bible to be the best source for ideas in naming children.

After all, my siblings are Anna, Joshua, Daniel, John, Timothy, and Grace.

//On a side note, the boys in my family appear in Biblical order of appearance: Joshua comes before Daniel who comes before John who comes before Timothy–while the girls in my family appear in reverse order of appearance: Anna comes after Rebekah who comes after the first appearance of Grace. This was NOT planned.//

When trying to be unique, I still relied on Scripture for my names. I imagined daughters with Biblical place names as their first names: Bethel, Tirzah, Shiloh. (Davene has a beautiful Moriah.)

My second source of ideas for names was books, namely literature. Many of these names, of course, coincided with the Biblical names.

I could have a Jane, an Elizabeth, a William (I’m not pretentious enough to add the Fitz–and woe on the daughter named Kitty or Lydia.) I could have a Nancy, a Frank, or a Joe. I could have a Caroline, a Charles, a Laura, a Mary, or a Carrie. I could have Anne or Gilbert or Blythe (did you see what I just did there?)

The one book I never imagined getting names from was the thesaurus. But apparently, that is THE baby naming book of the decade.

Let’s give it a try. Start with a word, any word, and get looking.

I’ll start with HAPPY.

Thesaurus.com suggests “blessed, blest, blissful, blithe, can’t complain, captivated, cheerful, chipper, chirpy, content, contented, convivial, delighted, ecstatic, elated, exultant, flying high, gay, glad, gleeful, gratified, intoxicated, jolly, joyful, joyous, jubilant, laughing, light, lively, looking good, merry, mirthful, on cloud nine, overjoyed, peaceful, peppy, perky, playful, pleasant, pleased, sparkling, sunny, thrilled, tickled, tickled pink, up, upbeat, walking on air”.

Let’s get busy making naming trees now.

Blest would be a good name–but it would be even better if spelled B’lest. And its synonyms suggest: Adored (probably pronounced Uh-Door-AY-d), Divine (possibly spelled D’vine), and Celebrate.

Blissful’s synonyms are rich in possibility: Delighted (clearly the best way to spell this would be DeeLyte), Ecstatic (spell this Xtatik), Enchanted (probably pronounced “EN-shahn-T” with a silent “ed”), Heavenly (but this is too straightforward–best to spell it backwards as Yl-Neveah, pronounced “I-ul-Nuh-VAY-ah” or “Ill-Nuh-VAY-ah”), Rapturous (pronounced “Rap-TWO-russ”, of course.)

Give it a try. What names can YOU come up with?

Please note that all names are fictionalized. Any resemblance with actual WIC client names is entirely accidental. :-)