Skip to content ↓

Quelle Surprise!

Aileen gave herself the best birthday present ever. On her thirtieth birthday she gave birth to our daughter, Michaela Joy. It was a great day, even if we didn’t get around to having Aileen’s birthday dinner that day. Now that it is my thirtieth birthday I have proven unable to deliver such a great gift for myself. Thankfully, I’ve got family on my side.

This morning at around 10 AM my biggest little sister (Maryanne, for those of you who are trying to piece together a family tree) gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Emma Claire Helms makes for a pretty good birthday gift. From the hospital I received the following text message (presumably via my brother-in-law’s Blackberry: “Dear brother, Happy 3oth birthday!!! We bought you a niece for the big day, but we are keeping her until she becomes bad! I love you, old and wise one. Love, Maryanne.” So there we have it. Aileen shares her thirtieth with our daughter and I share my thirtieth with our niece.

Emma weighs in a 7 pounds 5 ounces and is a little sister to Anna and Josh. I now have two nieces and two nephews. This Challies clan continues to grow! And happy birthday to Emma. December 2 has proven a good day to me and I’m sure it will suit you fine too!


  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (October 16)

    A La Carte: Speak with a Christian accent / The land of many meetings / Hedges of protection / The pastor and AI / What happens at home / What complaining does / and more.

  • Reading fresh

    10 Ways To Keep Your Reading Fresh

    Most of us want to read more than we do. Many factors can interfere, whether the busyness of life, the allure of our devices, or the limitations of our budget. But I find that as often as not, we stop reading becauseF our habits have grown stale.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (October 15)

    A La Carte: Influencers and imitators / Autism and God’s purpose / We need to talk about jealousy / God sees your secret sin / Evangelism and cynicism / A Christian deathbed / Kindle deals / and more.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (October 14)

    A La Carte: The mother I meant to be / A theology of preaching / Forgiveness / Resist the machine / Evangelists with cheerful confidence / Kindle deals / and more.

  • The Paradoxes of Christianity

    Learn how to engage with cultural issues in a deeply countercultural way. When we embrace the paradoxical character preached by Jesus in the Beatitudes, we experience rich and surprising blessing.

  • Foggy future

    On the Far Side of Obedience

    To be human is to be finite—to be limited in our knowledge of past, present, and future. We exist within strict boundaries of time and space, so that we cannot see beyond our present location or beyond our present moment. This is a feature of our humanity and not a bug…