Gifts

I just returned home from delivering some coolers to the camp site of our youth ministry summer retreat. What a great group of kids we have; not just our bio's, but so many sweet kids that God has blessed us to minister to! They set everything up and didn't complain about the temp, though it was not as warm as we thought it was going to be.

Kimmy is in charge of her small group, getting them all together and coordinated. What an awesome daughter God has given Teresa and i. So mature, so organized, so full of life and so full of love for her Lord.

Grant is teamed up J Sarr and they have 8-9 guys in their site. Grant is getting to be such a man. Giving directions, smiling more, growing in the Lord. How can this man be my son? He is too kind to be mine. He must be Teresa's.

Garrett went over early with his friends and I was anxious to see him. He walks into the camp site with no shirt on, touting his double six pack abs. How did he get all those muscles, brains and a great personality? He is such a leader.

What will our new son be like? What will he be known for? Will he be able to fit right in with this kaleidoscope of a family? Will he be a little bit of each of us, or a completely new thread? Regardless, our love will take him in. We are dreaming of what that will be like.

Teresa; what a mom! It will be no time and he will have her heart like the other 3; tears streaming for the smallest of successes. She is an amazing woman is so many ways; none traditional; all unique to my completer.

How is it that God has given me all these gifts and crowns them all with the gift of His Son. Wrapping me in His righteousness; Love has taken me in. Adopted into His family; totally undeserving, bringing nothing of value to Him that He has not first given me. How can this be? I belong to Him, the loneliness ends, the new life begins for me; for the kids; for Teresa; for our new son. The miracle starts- Love will never let us go. Thanks SCC.

Hot

Yesterday was a record breaking day in the Puget Sound. Temperatures over 100 degrees don't often happen hear and especially when they get over 105. People were huddled for "meetings" in Starbucks; I'm sure the fact that inside it is air conditioned had nothing to do with those meetings. I heard people were happy to be called in to work b/c work ahd a/c and home didn't.

Yesterday, at a meeting outside of Starbucks, in the shade I was thinking about the people around the world who never really get relief from heat; maybe they have to walk a few mile in the heat just to get to the next shade. We drink water like it is gong out of style and so many have to walk 2-3 miles to the well just to carry it back with them. We walk into any number of rooms in our house and there is water when we turn the knob.

The youth ministry is going camping this weekend over in Sun Lakes. It is supposed to be 100 everyday and there is very little shade at he camp site, but there is a lake and showers. Imagine having to carry all your things, everything you own to move your family to a place that has a lake, just so you can have water. We are so spoiled.

I was also thinking about refrigeration. We freeze our gallon jugs of water to be ice and then water to drink and many people in the world never have access to refrigeration or have never had ice.

What are we complaining about? We have the hope that in a couple of days the weather will be back to normal and we can relax and sleep better at night. We will be able to walk between our a/c'd car and the office w/o breaking a sweat. WOW, how shallow we have become; me included. Let us be thankful in all things, including hot weather for all that Jesus has provided for us, namely the hope of glory.

Can I really Make a difference?

I think that often times we are stuck thinking that we just are too far away to make a difference, or that what can my little amount of time or money do to help people so far away? But we can make a difference.

Meals in orphanages often times are only cents per meal. We go out to eat and spend $20 for 2 people and think we just ate pretty cheaply, and that same $20 could possibly feed the entire orphanage for a couple of days.

God has blessed us with so much and we need to be good stewards of all that He has provided. Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone just has one less meal out and shared those funds with those who really need it? Can you imagine that literally the difference between life and death could be as little as $5? For us it doesn't seem possible, but it is true in so many cases.

Don't change everything you are doing tomorrow morning when you wake up, just make a small change and see what God does with the change, both for others and in you.

Tapestry

I don't normally go to movies since I just wait for them to come out on DVD and then watch them at home, so I am not too excited about what the latest and greatest new release in the theater is. But I am concerned about the new movie "Orphan", even when I first saw the trailer. We were not even thinking about adoption then and I told Teresa, "This is ridiculous. Nothing like painting the most vile picture you could paint so people are pushed away from adopting even more". I will not be watching this movie.

I do want to say that there is a little boy in China even right now who is truly changing my heart, and our entire family's heart. To think that from eternity past God has been knitting into the most beautiful tapestry another member of our family that will either complete the picture or help to complete it. I know that in a matter of months we will be saying, "Our family was not complete until this little man came to us". How exciting to know that God has a perfect plan and He is making a fabric of all the strings of each one of our lives. Without even 1 of those strings the fabric will not be the same.

I would encourage you to read the book Scared. I also would encourage you to visit Tom Davis' blog for your reading and heart encouragement.

profitable sermon

I must recommend this sermon to you. It can be read or downloaded but I have listened to it multiple times and it is changing my prayer world. I hope we are all praying for the things that concern us in this way and I am praying that God would use us to change the world.
Sermon

Massive and Personal

We have our home study scheduled for next week. This is new territory for us, but apparently the home study worker comes out and helps us through the paperwork jungle but also evaluates our family and tries to determine if we are a good fit for the adoption process. We have a busy few days ahead.

I would ask you to pray that doors would continue to open; or close if that is His will,
funds would continue to be provided,
God would work in all of our hearts that we might know this is His perfect plan for us,
God would be working in "Vince's" heart even now drawing him to Himself,
we would delight in God alone and trust Him to do what is best,
He would make it clear to us what our next step is.
He must get the glory in all this, as He is the One who has put all things together.

It is so good to be under His care, to know that He is sovereign and He knows what is best for us. I can't imagine not having this fortress to run to, not having the Fountain to be cleansed in and drink deeply from. He knows I am dust, He has knitted all that I am together with all that Teresa is and each one of our children and now He is apparently knitting another young man into our family who will bring his own strengths and weaknesses, his own fears and experiences into the mix and all together we make up 1 family that God has chosen to minister to the world. How can we not be excited about something that big and yet so personal?

It just came to my mind that I have been consciously trying to write this blog more generic, not so spiritualized. The reason I was doing that is that I know there will be people who read this who are not believers and I want them to go through the process along with us. But I can't do that; it just comes out. I think that is a good thing.

I was just going to say that my heart has been so overflowing with excitement as I watch Him direct each step, each sermon I listen to, each person I talk to; it's awesome how good He is.

Comfort Zone

Have you ever done something, for the first time, and wondered how it is that you have just found it? Sometimes it seems that we were meant to do this thing but we don't come across it until it is too late.

I have a friend who is a race car guy. He has a fast car and is a very good driver. Maybe if he had found racing 20 years ago his life would be totally different; who knows, but he didn't and so it is like it is.

I guess I am just thinking about "finding" adoption right now. It isn't like adoption has not been around for thousands of years; it isn't like it's new to me, I even have some friends who are adopted, but I have not really been thinking about it until just recently.

It really can be life changing when we allow ourselves to think outside the box we are in and want to move to maybe a less comfortable box. By "less comfortable" I am not so much suggesting that our lives are ruined when we adopt, or that even our lives will be unrecognizable from what they previously were, as much as I am saying that we have a comfort zone and this is not in most of our normal comfort zones.

Maybe it is because I remember mostly the good and not the bad, but I can't remember a time when I moved out of my comfort zone and, in the end, it ended poorly. When we move out of our small painted little boxes and stretch, it seems the stretching is really beneficial and helps us grow.

Remember the first time you had to get up in front of the class and give a speech? For many people this was the most terrifying thing they had ever done, but just think what it would be like if everyone stayed in their seats. We would not "Gettysburg", we would not have "what you can do for your country", we would not have"have a dream", "fear itself" or "their finest hour". Those men stepped out of their boxes long before those speeches and the results have been ringing in our hearts and minds for decades.

My "job" is often to be an encourager to others and I am hoping that this blog and these posts will be an encouragement for you to do something that maybe you wouldn't normally do, but in doing the hard thing you would find that you are blessed.

If we didn't do the hard thing, we wouldn't have business, communities, cross-country friendships, kids-labor and delivery, raising and paying for their needs are hard- pyramids, coliseums, or anything else that takes thought and risk to do. But we have taken risks and the outcome has often been awesome.

There was a guy, a long time ago, who took a risk to build a big boat. For 120 years he built this boat and the entire time he was building it people were telling him that he was stupid. Part of the reason they were saying this was because no one had ever seen rain. Why would you need a boat if you had never seen rain? But he took a risk that God was right and I think that if we could ask Noah if the reward was worth the risk he would say something like, "Duh".

Think outside your comfort zone. Think today about how your life could be different if you moved just a little bit. What comfort can you do without, so someone else might be more comfortable? It will cost you, but I think, in the end, it will be a small cost considering the gain you get in return.

Exciting Weekend

It's been a fun and busy weekend. Teresa and I were privileged to take a seminar on adopting older kids- as I mentioned in the previous post about the date.

What a great time it was learning and spending time with others who are in the process of adopting, albeit much farther along than we are. We met 2 families that are adopting 2 boys each from Ethiopia. 1 family has 2 biological daughters who are grown and out of the house and this is their first adoption; they are very close to bringing their 2 boys, 6&8, home. The other couple has a grown daughter, 22, and they tried to have more children for 12 years. They were not able, and so they adopted domestically and very soon after that they conceived- so now they had 3. They then were drawn to adopt 3 more kids domestically, and so they did. Now they are in the middle of their first international adoption. So they will have 8, but "only" 7 will be at home all the time.

We met the director of Kingdom Kids; they have 12 kids, 3 bio and 9 adopted. What a sweet family. We met a family that has 12 adopted. I asked them both how they were able to pull all this off, since each one is so expensive. It seems that they all say about the same thing. "Well, we're certainly not rich, but we evaluated our life and decided this is a way that we can help to change lives and so we just dove in. We often get to the end of the process and are not really sure how it was entirely paid for, as often we are not exactly sure where all the money came from".

We, as Americans, have a great privilege, responsibility and opportunity to change lives by some sacrifice on our part. I think in the end many people would say that it is not actually a sacrifice for them and much as a blessing. I watched a family of 12 kids, most of which are excited about their siblings, talk and hang out. They have such a large world view compared to most people. The kid's perspective on life and possessions is so much different that most American people. How would they ever come to this conclusion if they were like every other family? They probably would not.

Think about having a brother from India, a sister from China, 2 brothers from America, a sister from Russia, and 6 brothers and sisters from Ethiopia. They came from so many different places and with so many different cultures. Sure, there will be issues, but what an opportunity to bring the world to your family. What an opportunity to share in our abundance with those who have so little, and in the sharing comes the great blessing of knowing we are helping these young people become adults who are ready to make a difference in the world.

The oldest boy of the family with 9 adopted, is a bio. He is 24 and has spent 15 months in Ethiopia. He has returned tot he States to earn his masters degree and wants to then return to Ethiopia to stay and help the people of the villages. He is not looking to use his masters to create a giant bank account for himself, rather he wants to help others. There are so many others who would like to do something similar.

If we are not willing, or in a place to go, then we should adopt. If we are not willing, or in a place to adopt, then we should be willing to support. If we are not willing to support, then we should be evaluating our lives. We can all do something to help. $50 can buy a goat to give milk to a family. $50 really can change their whole world. I am not sure of the cost of a donkey in Ethiopia, but we were told "When you hand the rope, tied around the neck of a donkey, to a man in a village, this is like giving the keys to a new car to someone in America".

What can we do? I think first off, we need to start to look at our lives differently and decide what we can do without. We have so much abundance and there are so man who have such desperate need. The way we are able to help will look different for each one of us, and that is great, because the needs are so diverse; but let's start finding out the needs and meeting them.

God has blessed America so much. We should be thankful for that blessing and willing to share the blessings with other people around the world.

New Date

I was on a site that supports adoptive parents get through the process and understand what may be coming along the way.

I was looking at the support courses and noticed that they have a seminar to aid in adopting older children. I thought this would be good to take but since it is in Spokane, the other side of the state, and I don't get there very often, this would be difficult.

My parents are getting older and it is difficult for them to do all thy would really like to do with regard to work around their home. My sister has arranged a work party to go help them and it is this coming week. They live just north of Spokane. This party has been on my calendar for quite some time.

So as I am reading about this seminar and seeing that they only hold it 4 times a year I just briefly prayed, "Lord, if you want us to go make it coincide with when we will already be in Spokane or I will take that as a open door for this seminar".

I go to the page that has the dates for the seminar and in red letters, "new date". The new date is this weekend. Literally the only time that we could be there. I asked about the new date and they told me that the old date conflicted with a big event in the Spokane area and so they changed it to this one.

We have seen God work personally in so many areas of our lives. It is amazing that He can control every rain drop, every breath of wind, gravity and the galaxies and yet He intimately cares for our every need.

So we are off to Spokane for a seminar. Pray that God would continue to work things out along the way, as there is a long way to go from where we are.

Better to Give than to Receive

I met with a friend of mine, my insurance agent, who "happens" to be an orphan herself. I had no idea. I was telling her of the process we have started and of course she was really excited. But it doesn't stop there.

She left my office and a couple of days later I received an email from her. She was so encouraged by the process that she went back to her office and sent out an email to I think her entire data base about what we are doing and asked for others to participate along with us in the process in any way possible. What a blessing.

It is better to give than to receive, as we can all attest. A couple of days later I got a check in the mail from her and then just a couple of days later I received another check from someone she had contacted and I have never met this person. What a blessing.