Formally Announcing...

Meet our newest family member...

Jacob Steven Lopez

March 24, 2009 at 5:24 pm

8 lbs., 8 oz. - 21 inches

To: Our Friends and Family

(Click letter to open as large image)

My Alma Mater Burned

Westmont College is my home away from home. It’s where I met some of my most treasured friends. It’s where I reconciled my faith with science. It’s where I experienced and tried to make sense of 9/11. It’s where I grew up. Now, it’s where numerous students and faculty are displaced because their homes have burned.

The Tea Fire started near a place Westmont calls The Arches, last Thursday. It tore through the Montecito, and then parts of Santa Barbara, destroying over 1,900 acres of beautiful land, and 210 homes. In just the Westmont community alone, fifteen homes in Las Barrancas (small housing development for faculty adjacent to the campus) were lost, as well as four buildings that were a part of the Clark Dorm, Bauder Hall, the physics building, the old math building and two Quonset Huts. The latter three were scheduled for demolition to make room for new facilities. Thankfully, no one from Westmont was physically injured.

To outsiders, Westmont is known for its beauty: the Birds of Paradise that looked out below Kerrwood Hall, the Wisteria that drooped from the lattice, the ponds that trickled with water and coy, and the well-groomed campus that elicited joy in the face of every visitor. All of that looks much different now.

But to insiders, Westmont is hailed for its community, one that fosters growth and relationships and learning. That doesn’t look any different now, as the news stations showed images of students huddled together, praying, singing, laughing, crying.

Days later, I ask for your thoughts and prayers for those it has affected, in the Westmont Community that I am so proud to still be a part of.

Photos courtesy of Brad Elliot, Westmont College

Off to Asilomar

Lopez Family blog will be temporarily dormant while Kim attends a conference at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA.

I'll be back Friday with a recharged battery and the memory of fresh salt air!

We're Multiplying!

We aren't exactly doubling in size, but we are increasing! We're expecting another precious baby next year! Our official due date is April 1st, but in my 'medical opinion, no woman should have to be due on April Fool's day. So, after consulting with our kind physician, we've altered the date by a day: March 31st. If you have your pregnancy calendar handy, it would tell you that as of October 14th, I was 4 months along...and only 6 more to go. So keep us in your prayers and we'll keep you in the know!

We are still introducing this news to Emily. When we showed her the pictures, she looked a little confused as she compared her plastic baby doll to this 'thing' we called Baby. Now, her reaction whenever we mention the word 'Baby' is "I BABY!" Okay, okay, you can be the baby for a few more months!