The Newest Sojourners

Last Halloween night at Sojourners Community, we were expectant in more ways than one. We watched for the trick-or-treaters who were sure to find their way to our home, while we awaited a brand new child. A week before, my household at 1208 Fairmont Street had invited Dawn Longenecker and Jim Rice from the household across the street over for Halloween dinner—"unless the baby comes." The baby was coming.

Perhaps it was just as well that our meal together never happened that night. The doorbell rang every few minutes during the dinner hour and kept one of us (we took turns) running to greet the parade of garrulous ghosts, boisterous beasts, and swaggering superheroes that made the long climb up our front steps in the rainy winds that preceded Hurricane Juan. We thought we were well-prepared, but in no time at all we had passed out to the children in our neighborhood 28 boxes of raisins and 12 granola bars, and we were well on our way to depleting the house's supply of apples. Popcorn was going to be our last resort.

A cadre of our community children arrived toward the end of the evening. Denali DeGraf came as a tiger that wasn't sure whether to giggle or growl. Annie Soley was an equally intimidating and endearing jaguar. Three-year-old Timmy McLaughlin followed their example and, dressed in soft pink pajamas and floppy rabbit ears, approached our front door and let out a big roar—exhibiting his own "tiger in rabbit's clothing" twist on a familiar biblical image. His three-month-old brother, Joey, came as a cucumber, dressed in green from head to toe in a dark green sleeper and lime green knit hat.

THROUGHOUT THE EVENING we received updates on the progress of the contractions across the street. We remembered an evening just three weeks earlier when we had dinner with Dawn and Jim and their household and some friends from the West Coast. The subject of names for the baby came up, and we decided to help Dawn and Jim with their dilemma of indecision. They rejected our biblical suggestions, feeling that Hagar, Hezekiah, Rahab, and Methuselah were out of the question and refusing to go with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, even if it turned out to be triplets.

Since their dining room holds the literature section of the Sojourners Community library, we thought we might find some inspiration among the books. For about an hour, we read off names of authors. One by one, Dawn and Jim rejected Fyodor, Aldous, Upton, Edgar Allan, and Ralph Waldo. They had the same reaction to Ayn, Agatha, Pearl, Flannery, Eudora, and Zora. We suggested that they try the mysterious route and consider D.H., T.S., C.S., or J.R.R. The conversation finally ended when Jim said, "I think we'll just come up with something on our own."

It was not just the first and middle names that presented a challenge. Having each kept their own last names when they were married, the last name for the baby needed to be decided as well. They alternated between deciding on Rice and then on Longenecker, quickly dismissed our suggestion of Ricenecker, but said they'd seriously consider our creative alternative of Long-grain Rice.

That Halloween night we also recalled an event a week before when Jim turned his ankle and went to sleep with a bag of ice on it. In the middle of the night, he awoke, felt water all around him, and sat up, exclaiming excitedly, "Dawn, your water broke!" She said she was fine. He then spied the torn plastic bag, lay back in bed, and muttered, "Oh. My water broke."

But now their anxious waiting—and ours—for their first baby was over. At 9:55 a.m., on November 1, Jessica Erin Rice Longenecker made an appearance. An All Saints' Day baby.

Word spread through the community. An announcement over the paging system at Sojourners' outreach building proclaimed, "It's a baby woman!" By 1 p.m. an update was posted by the front desk, with latest statistics from the proud father: "Weight: 8 pounds, 3 ounces. Length: less than 6 feet (they haven't measured yet). She has a wonderful personality, is politically correct, and has already professed Jesus as her savior. The first words out of her mouth were, 'U.S. out of Nicaragua.'"

Two days later, during our Sunday morning worship, we asked Annie Soley, Jessica's sister-in-residence at 1131 Fairmont Street, about the big event of the week. She announced proudly, "Dawn and Jim had a baby and named it Jessica and it was a girl." After worship we all paraded over to their home and witnessed the "premiere showing" of Jessica.

Jessica was our newest Sojourner for all of three weeks. On November 28, Katherine Elizabeth Spivey was born. Our Thanksgiving Day baby.

From cool cucumbers to roaring rabbits, when they're saints and when they're not, we give thanks for the young lives who are part of ours. They're a bright reminder to us to celebrate the precious gift of our life together.

Joyce Hollyday was an associate editor of Sojourners magazine when this article appeared.