Happy New Year!

Here is a little video that I shot last night in our neighborhood. We were warned that one of our neighbors does an annual "show", and this year, the neighbor behind our house got into the act, too.

Amazingly, Davis slept through it all, but Scruffy was a bit nervous!

A Big "Thanks"!

Thanks, everybody, for all of the congratulations and well wishes.  Ever since the earthquake off the coast of Taiwan (http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/internet.asia.reut/index.html), we haven't been able to leave comments on the website, so I hope this will suffice!

 

Davis is doing really well--hard to believe his almost a week old.  Scruffy is a great big brother and comes trotting up to take a look at Davis every time he makes any noise.  A great guard dog!

Davis's Birth

Here's the video that is out on YouTube!

Welcome, Davis!

On Christmas Eve, Davis Jonathan Brooks was born here in Manila. He weighed 6 lbs, 8 oz, and was 19 inches long.

December 24, 2006, 12:13pm. First picture--only seconds after delivery.

Getting cleaned up right after delivery.

Me, Ellen, and Aunt Anne watch his first feeding.

Davis's first portrait. Taken on Christmas Day.

Mommy and baby's late night feeding.

Mom and baby are doing fine...but we are ALL a little tired. Aunt Anne has done a great job in helping where needed. Fortunately, the nursing staff let her stay in the delivery room, so she was able to get some really great pictures. For the grandparents and relatives, these are pictures of (mostly) Davis. In the coming days, we'll tell more of the story of this Christmastime birth!

Annie has arrived!!

Last night at 12:08am my precious sister arrived to come and visit us! I was counting down the days and hours and she finally arrived!! I am so excited! We had a full day with shopping and visiting with some friends. Now it is almost 7pm and we are all about ready to go to bed. Only Annie has a valid reason with jet lag. :)

Wiki-based Bible Translation

Well, here's a cool idea: One of our translators is currently asking for the web community to help him with his translations. How? By having them to go over the "back translation" of the scripture that he and his team have already worked on. The "back translation" is when the text has been translated back into English and then proofread for accuracy.

Want to help? Go over to http://www.abellen.org/wiki to get started.

Be sure to click on the "How can I help with translation if I don't speak the language?" link before digging too far into it!

Congratulations, You.

Congratulations, You.

(Needless to say, I'm a bit jealous. But congratulations, anyway.)

The Giant Lantern Festival

Each year at Christmas, the city of San Fernando, Philippines conducts their Giant Lantern Festival. Over 12 barangays (neighborhoods) take part in the competition.

For those of you keeping track, San Fernando is the same town where Larry and I went to see the live crucifixions.

Surprise Shower

Little did I know that just days after I threw a surprise party for Dan, that I would get a huge surprise of my own! My precious friends had a shower in honor of Baby Brooks's arrival! It was so much fun and very special!

Here are all the ladies that came out to celebrate! With so many there, I couldn't quite figure out how I didn't know about it!!

Abbey, Kristen and Wendy were the masterminds behind this one! I loved the poster and am hoping to hang it in Baby Brooks's room soon!

Happy Birthday, Dan!

"Huh? Happy Birthday? Uhh...my birthday's in January. What are all you people doing in my apartment?"

These were the first thoughts that bounced around in my head after I opened the door to our home. More than 40 people had shoved themselves into our little apartment and we celebrated my birthday more than a month before the actual date (it's Jan 16, if you're wondering). My wife (the devious little socialite) had been planning this for months, knowing that she wouldn't be able to give me an "adequate" party when I turned 30 because the baby is set to arrive around the same time. I've never had a surprise party before, and don't know if I can handle another one.

This is me, being filled with shock and awe.

Score! Chocolate Pecan Pie! (a brightly lit chocolate pecan pie...)

Brookses? Brooks's? Brooks'? The Brooks?

OK, I'll admit it. I GREW UP with this name Brooks, and I still don't know how to correctly pluralize or make it possesive. It seems that a lot of other people have stumbled on this too, so here, in the spirit of helpfulness, is the guide to Brooks style (obligatory suit and tie sold separately).

Plural: Just add -es.
Let's call the Brookses on their Vonage phone. It's very inexpensive and easy.

Singular Possessive: Just add an apostrophe -s.
This is Scruffy Brooks's Christmas list. His penmanship is quite poor.

Plural Possessive: Add -es, and then an apostrophe.
Let's go the Brookses' house. They love having visitors.


Need more explanation? Here's the information that I got from Capital Community College, a place I never heard of before Google took me there.

Plural: "When a family name ends in s, x, ch, sh, or z...we form the plural by added -es, as in the Marches, the Joneses, the Maddoxes, the Bushes, the Rodriguezes [the Brookses]. Do not form a family name plural by using an apostrophe; that device is reserved for creating possessive forms."

Singular Possessive: "By adding an apostrophe and an -s we can manage to transform most singular nouns into their possessive form [as in] the car's front seat, Charles's car, Bartkowski's book, a hard day's work [Matt Brooks's shoe]."

Plural Possessive: "When we want the possessive of a pluralized family name, we pluralize first and then simply make the name possessive with the use of an apostrophe. Thus, we might travel in the Smiths' car when we visit the Joneses (members of the Jones family) at the Joneses' [Brookses'] home."

So there you go. Now you have all the information you need to send some beef jerky and Cinnamon Altoids to the Brookses' mailbox. (hint, hint)

Elementary Staff

Over the last year and a half I've had the privilege of teaching with an awesome elementary staff here at Faith! This year we are from the USA, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, & the Philippines. Last week we all had our picture taken together, so I thought I'd share it with you!

Memories of Nana

Saturday morning, my Nana passed away. She went in for a triple bypass heart surgery and due to complications did not recover.

Being far away from our family has been really hard, but it has really given me a chance to reflect on so many childhood and adult memories that I have of her! Here are a few...

She raised a wonderful Mommy to raise me, Anne & David.
She potty trained me (M&M's are good motivation!)
She got me to stop sucking my thumb (the bribery of getting my ears pierced was great!)
She remembered every birthday.
She always traveled to see us several times a year when we were far away.
She showed me that it is OK to love my dog tons!
She always showed interest in what was going on with me.
She valued every moment of time that she had with us.
She could always make us laugh.
She was at every Christmas. (This will be the first Christmas to not be with Nana.)


I miss her already, and she will be missed by many. Thankfully, she is now out of pain and in Heaven with the Lord!

Tour for Philippine Seminary

Our center hosted a group of students from a nearby seminary who wanted to find out more about Bible translation. So we gave them tours of our facilities, read through some translated texts, and talked about the needs around Asia. Then they did some cultural demonstrations for us and we ate a lot of food. (Membership has its benefits.)

Here I am, looking good in my newly-pressed barong! Not only am I giving examples of how they can get involved, but I am also showing off my new magic trick where I make 3 of my fingers disappear...

Typhoon Durian

Thanks to everyone for your emails checking in on the recent typhoon that came through the Philippines. The typhoon was set up to make a direct hit on Manila (where we live), but it made a sudden shift to the south, and so all we got was a little bit of rain. It also appears that none of our translators were effected, either. We were very fortunate.

For local coverage of the typhoon, you can check out the Manila Bulletin, or the Philippine Daily Inquirer.