Open Doors Open Arms

Citizenship and Border Patrol

2010-05-18T17:42:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the department of home land security and John was sworn in as a US citizen. While this is exciting to many, he doesn't seem to really be excite about too many things- including this. Maybe he doesn't fully comprehend what went on, maybe he just doesn't care too much about it and maybe he doesn't realize all the implications right now. Maybe I can draw a parallel with some other things.

We, those born in America, often take our own citizenship for granted. Who will defend America's borders? Who will speak up when everyone else is against us? Who will fight for religious freedoms when it is not popular? Who will stand up against killing unborn children when many look the other way? US citizens. You and I are supposed to do the work. With citizenship come privilege and responsibility; they go hand in hand.

Though John doesn't really understand the impact of his new earthly citizenship many of us are in a similar situation when it comes to our Heavenly citizenship. We quickly adopt the language and mannerisms of those who call themselves Christians but lack the commitment to carry out the responsibilities.

When it comes to the defense of our faith, who will be those who are the soldiers? Who will be the ones to speak out against sin, even when it is not politically correct? Who will defend the fatherless and widows? Who will raise the next generation to do the same? We want the comforts of "fire insurance" but leave the responsibilities to others. We want the promises of Scripture without the persecution.

Are we the ones who dole out Truth without love? Are we ready to fight the sin but love the sinner? Are we ready to contend for the faith without being contentious?

The saying goes that "You can tell the success of a nation by the amount of people who are trying to get in and by the effort of those who are trying to leave". The US has no earthly equal when it comes to people trying to get in. The Kingdom of Heaven has no equal when it comes to the forces of evil trying to keep people out. Satan has a master plan for border patrol and it includes many good things and many evil, but as citizens of Heaven we must be convinced and convincing in our love for our true Home.

How are we doing in our promotion of our Homeland? Are people convinced of the value Heaven by how excited we are to be citizens? Or do we just love the privileges and not take the responsibilities seriously?

Exciting News

2010-05-14T22:12:00.001-07:00

I'm going to post this on both blogs, since it has to do with both.
This afternoon John and I went to watch Garrett compete in districts in track; yesterday was his district golf day. On the way home I decided to ask John some questions.

He had told me that he got a 97% on his last Bible test and so I would like to know where he is coming from.
Q#1- Do you think the Bible is true? A#1- Yes.
Q#2- How do you know? A#2- Because God wrote it. I like that answer.
We talked about Heaven and Hell and what would happen if he died tonight on the way home, about having to be perfect to get into Heaven, that there is only one perfect person, and he said it is Jesus- who is God- I think the Trinity is a bit hard for him to fully grasp right now, but I guess that is kind of the case with us all. I asked him what Heaven is like and he didn;t really know much about that or anything about Hell. I explained bodies that doesn't die and living either in eternal pain of no pain and he certainly seems to understand all that. I asked him again what would happen if he dies tonight and he said he would go to Hell.

Then I asked him if he wanted to change that and he said "yes". I tried to take it away a bit and told him he needed to come home and talk to Teresa about what he was thinking about doing. He really seems to know what I said and of his need of a Savior. We talked about praying to ask Jesus into his heart, how Jesus could make his heart clean and how being a Christian means you read your Bible and obey it as the Holy Spirit works in each one of us to make us love him more. I think he gets it.

we prayed together and he asked Jesus to come into his heart and make his heart clean and to help him obey. He thanks God for his new family and he is a new person- as easy as that. I then asked him if he dies today what would happen. He said he would go to hell because he is not perfect. It's hard to imagine that the redemptive work of Christ can take place in 1 minute and w/o a bunch of work, but that is God's plan- how awesome is that?!!!

God is so kind to us. He brought us a new son, and then as you all prayed for him He answered those prayers. What an awesome day!!!

How's John Doing?

2010-05-06T04:46:00.000-07:00

John is preparing for the Jr. High Fair- meaning he is making a story board about himself and I think he is getting excited about displaying it.

Last night I asked the math teacher after our youth ministry how my math students were doing; Garrett and John. He started with John and said that there is an ACSI-Association of Christian Schools- math league test that apparently the 9th grade math class has just taken. I am not sure who else has to take it. In a 5 state area John got 2nd and one of the other kids form Grace Academy took 3rd. All the Christian schools in 5 states and John got 2nd. His math teacher said he thinks he would have done better if he could understand English better- only one place for sure. That is pretty exciting.

Since John doesn't read the blogs I'll give you some more. One of the parents of one of his classmates was standing there, to hear all of that inter change. He said that his son is in the 8th grade and that he really thinks John is a good guy. The dad said he was not sure why his son liked John so much and I said it was because he is really nice, he works hard and he is just full of life; and it doesn't hurt that he is a cute little Chinese kid. He truly is a sweet guy.

Kimmy went to So. Cal. yesterday to watch Ian graduate from the Master's College. When she told John that she was going to be gone until Tuesday he said "NOOOOOO". He really likes having her around. He is going to cry when she moves to NC.

Oh, the math teacher said that big brother Garrett is also doing amazing, he catches on to calculus very quickly and is able to help others as well. 2 math brains to add to the biggest brother's math brain. I have a whole house full of math men- except me. It's fun to have really smart boys who are nice too.

Are you coming to the fund raiser on the 15th? It's gonna be fun!!

Open House for John

2010-04-19T04:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after church, the Sarr family, with help from a bunch of people I'm sure I am not aware of, threw an open house/party for John and our family. What a fun afternoon.

The weather was perfect- I think it was around 75- there were a bunch of people there, probably about 100, and I think John had a good time. Our body is so generous and they lavished their love on us as is their custom. The fellowship was sweet, there was lots of food, God allowed us to be able to use the out door living area ALL around the house and people seemed like they had a great time.

"Thank you" to the Sarr family, and all who helped, in order to make that all happen and thanks to all who came to support our of adoption of John. BTW- I think that is the first shower I have been to in years and it was very enjoyable.

Who will be next?

Ethiopia Slides

2010-04-16T06:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Sean Higgins here are a couple of slide shows for you to watch.

The first one is a

Weinberg Ethiopia Trip Slideshow - One from one28 on Vimeo.

">"Thanks you" to all who gave so generously to the widows and orphans in Ethiopia.

The second one is a call to action for those of us whom God has so abundantly blessed, that we might be good stewards of all He has given and bless those who are less fortunate; namely the fatherless.

Weinberg Ethiopia Trip Slideshow - Two from one28 on Vimeo.

Thanks to Steven Curtis Chapman for the words to "When Love Takes You In". May we be moved to do the part that God has given for us to do. What's your part?

Fundraising for Families

2010-04-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

Please go to this website and give me your thoughts on doing fund-raising for families who are in the adoption process.
Please post your comments in this blog.
To answer some questions posted. This event is for everyone who is wanting to come and have fun and help to fund getting some kids into some families. Exciting stuff.

John is Doing Great!

2010-03-21T03:15:00.000-07:00

John is finished with 3 weeks of school, 4 hours of the dental Hygienist, his first Jr. High lock-in, first gym jam and I continue to say that I really can't imagine it going much better.

The hygienist asked Teresa if he is always this good natured and she said, "He is always like this". People say, "It seems like he is really fitting in well with the family" and that is so true. He is always trying to play some trick on Teresa and he loves to laugh. His favorite subject in school is immediately "PE" even though he is ridiculously good at math.

Each day, and I mean everyday, he seems to speak better English- though there is a long way to go here. We had a staff meeting scheduled for last Tuesday night and Teresa was trying to explain that there would be people coming over so he would have to go up with the kids or hang out in his room. He told her very matter-of-factly- "Yes- 6:30- people coming over". He had listened to the announcements and understood what was happening.

He is becoming a Weinberg both practically and positionally.

Garrett and Grant both took their college algebra CLEP- a way to challenge the course so it is not necessary to take it in college, and they both passed. What awesome boys God has given us.

One GIGANTIC doctor's appointment

2010-03-16T06:37:00.000-07:00

I will try to make this quick and to the point.

A full day of Dr. appointments leads to a group consultation in about a month. The direction they are currently thinking is that some time- sooner rather than later- John will have hi lip repaired and at the same time have a couple of teeth extracted. The "easy" way to have dental work.

Then some time following that there will be a surgery to open up the bilateral clefts on his gum line, followed, sometime later, by a bone graph surgery, taking marrow from his hip and planting it in the open clefts, to enable his gum line to be one continuous bone.

After this there will be a couple of sets of braces, possibly a palate extension surgery and maybe a speech surgery as well.

All this is to be determined in the coming months but for now we need to find a speech therapist close to us that will work with John and take our insurance- so that's first on the docket.

It is amazing that they can do all these kids of things and they are excited about what they can do for John. The doc asked if the lip repair was something that he wanted to have done and he said "yes", so we are going the right direction. He is a real trooper.

Children's was great to work with-again- and it will be fun to see what God does through all these visits and new relationships that are forming. He is good, we muxt praise Him for His excellent works.

2 weeks of school

2010-03-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

John has finished his 2nd week of school and seems to be gaining ground on verbal English each day. I talked to the math teacher and he said that John has some very amazing math skill-naturally. Teresa said that watching him do his math is actually fun because his pencil doesn't really stop.

He seems to be happy here. The social worker came for the post placement visit- number 1 of 3 and I think he was pleased with what he saw. I old him that I really can't imagine this whole thing going too much easier since we have been home. BTW- we really were not expecting to get a $350 bill for that visit and the next 2 are then reduced to $300 each. Keeps on giving, but it's God's money we are spending so oh well.

We have an all day appointment at Children's tomorrow with about 6 different doctors and hopefully we will know where we are supposed to go from here, with regard to his surgeries and the rest. John is really a trooper when it comes to stuff like this- maybe he is just happy to be getting worked on.

I'll post more when I have info- but life is starting to get really normal and it doesn't seem like I should be relaying this kind of everyday stuff- but here it is.

It is really fun- through all of this- to see God's hand in each and every step of the way and even as He brings people into our life that we would never have met with John's adoption. What will He do through all of this? Only He knows.

Scaredy Cat

2010-03-05T04:26:00.000-08:00

John likes Steve- our cat. Yes, our cat's name is Steve. That is another story for another day.

Steve is a large cat- more than 15 pounds. He might be where they coined the term "scaredy cat". He is afraid of lots of things- in fact right now he doesn't even want to go outside, even when it is nice out.

Apparently John was chasing Steve around the house yesterday after school and Steve ran up the stairs on the bonus room side of the house. They had been playing for quite some time and Steve was tired- it's hard running around when you're fat and out of shape(a little biographical comment there).

So Steve is recovering from all this running around and John sneaks up on him and yells really loud. Steve jumps up and poops all over the floor. John scared the c--- out of Steve. Teresa thought that was hilarious but told John that if he was going to scare the cat from now on that he would have to clean up after him.

Just another day in the life of our crazy family- John is fitting right in.

1 School week almost complete

2010-03-05T04:18:00.000-08:00

John finishes his first week of school today. He has had lots of testing and he seems to be alright with pretty much everything.

The math teacher caught T and informed her that he had given John an Algebra test on Monday and that he did "amazing"- in fact he used that word multiple times in their conversation. He is not easy to impress so John must be pretty good at math for his age. We asked him if he likes math and he said "no". Even though he is good at it he said it is hard and that is why he doesn't like it. He'll get over that someday.

Many of the other courses he does pretty well in, but his challenge will be- for a while- verbal comprehension. I am not too concerned with this because as he integrates into student/friend life he will have to speak English more and they will be speaking back to him and he will be a good English comp. person in no time. In fact he already speaks considerably more than he did 4 days ago.

It seems like most of the kids are taking a liking to him- he is fun to be around and has a mischievous sense of humor. T walked into the PE class to see how he was doing and she couldn't find him in the game they were playing. She said she looked around for a bit and then noticed he was standing off to the side- kind of hiding- to see how long it would take for her to notice where he was. Those kinds of things make him laugh.

School

2010-03-01T06:31:00.000-08:00

John starts school today- he is in the 7th, 8th and 9th grade. He did very well in all his testing except for verbal comprehension, even in English and grammar when it was written down he did well. He is more than a grade ahead in math, so he can relax a bit on that one and work hard on English Comp.

It seems he is excited to go and I am pretty sure it won't be long in this environment that he will be speaking English pretty quickly.

He is adjusting well to living here and being part of our family. Teresa told me that he came up and gave her a hug the other day- so we are making progress. It still is a little weird having someone that is so different from us being part of our family, but I think in a few months it will seem like he has always been here.

I'll let you know how school goes.

Update

2010-02-23T07:46:00.000-08:00

A quick update on where we are in the process.

T took John to the dentist yesterday and she was told that they are pretty sure he has never had any work done on his teeth. There is a lot of bacteria in his mouth and this could lead- if not checked- to heart disease. That seems strange to me.

The hygienist was excited about all the work needed and they gave him some gas to relax him for the long procedure- he is going back this morning at 9 for stage 2. The dentist family has a history of CLP so she is familiar with the issues and excited to work with John.

On the 15th of March we are going to Children's to spend the day with a group of doctors who will see him, each with their own specialty. I think it is something in the order of 8 doctors in a row. This will be good so we can get an idea of what needs to be done and in what order.

Many unknowns for us and him along the way, but God is faithful to have us meet the right people at the right time, so we will just trust in His leading.

John is doing well ad adjusting to being in a noisy family. We will probably enroll him in school very soon so he can get his feet wet with verbal English. It seems he has a good grasp on everything else.

I'll keep you posted as things progress

Do you Hear God calling you?

2010-02-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

Please read this link and look at your life and examine if God is calling you to something like this ministry. We must be about our Father's business and for some that may be doing something very different than they are currently doing.

The Father and His children

2010-02-13T07:41:00.000-08:00

For obvious reasons it is hard for me to determine which blog to post this under, but for one of those obvious reasons I chose to put it on this one.

Behold, what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called the sons of God. This is why the world does not know us. It is because it does not know God, and we are His sons.
--I John 3:1-2

"We know that we were born into sin, and even now we feel the inner corruption that remains with us. It is no wonder, then, that we amazed by our adoption as sons into God s family. But the Scripture says that we are called "the sons of God." What a high relationship is that of a son, and what privileges it brings! What care and tenderness the son expects from his father, and what love the father feels towards the son! But all that-- and even more than that-- we now have through Christ.

It is easy to say that "we are now the sons of God," but it is not so easy to feel. How is it with your heart today? Are you in the lowest depths of sorrow? Does corruption rise within your spirit and grace seem like a poor spark trampled under foot? Does your faith almost fail you? Don't be afraid! It is not your graces or your feelings on which you are to live; you must live simply by faith in Christ. With all these things against us, it is now--in the very depths of our sorrow, wherever we may be-- now, as much in the valley as on the mountain "now are we the sons of God."

"Ah, but," you say, "look at me! My graces do not shine brightly; my righteousness does not shine with great glory." But read the next part: "It does not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He appears we will be like Him." The Holy Spirit will purify our minds, and divine power will refine our bodies. Then, we will see Him as He is."
Morning & Evening, by Charles H. Spurgeon
Revised and edited by William C. Neff, ©2003-2009

This single M&E could be the springboard of a very long post, or numerous posts, but I will try to keep it short.

I am not sure that John yet feels like he is a son, nor do I think he even knows the blessing, privilege and responsibility that comes from being a son. He is starting to understand what it means to be a brother, which is fun to watch. With that said I am not sure that I have fully accepted him as much as I do my bio's- which I think will take time- we have much to work on. Unlike our heavenly Father my love is not unconditional and it takes me a while to get in the groove, but it will come. It actually took me a while with Grant and Garrett as well, but it didn't take but a minute with Kimmy- something about a little girl and her daddy.

With each of our bio's it was different and it will be different with John as well. This is a great excerpt from morning and evening and if you are able you should read that section of this post again and think about all the ramifications it has for you today.

May we know the Father's love for us as His very blessed children.

Circus Act

2010-02-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

I am back full swing into work, after 20 days away there are plenty of emails and phone calls to catch up on. The kids are either working or in school, so that leaves T with John together most of the time.

She is trying to get him into a routine doing things like unloading the dishwasher and helping around the house. All this is probably pretty new to him, as I can only imagine that life in the orphanage was much different than it is here, but he must integrate into life in our family.

Many kids are in the house, so it will not be too long and he will be seeing people for the 3-4th time and hopefully get used to talking with them- right now he has to be coerced into engaging in pretty much any communication unless it is with his friends on the computer. T is going to start giving him a time limit.

Yesterday Kimmy and Garrett were going to work on a puzzle before dinner and I had not yet come home. They invited John to participate and he reluctantly came to the table, but then Grant, unknowingly, came to his rescue. Remember John and Grant are kind of alike- though there is 16" of height difference- in that they both would rather not say anything. Grant ordered some throwing knives last week and he has a little target set up in the back yard. He decided to go out and throw and as soon as John saw an opportunity to get away from either doing the puzzle or being around the 2 chatter boxes, or both, he was quickly out the door and throwing with Grant. That may not be what the social worker would want to hear, but this is the life of our family:) Are we training a future circus performer?

Teresa is trying to get appts. set up, insurance updated, and a myriad of other paperwork issues taken care of, while still trying to catch up on letters and bills and housework after her being gone for 20 days as well. We are trying to decide what to do on the school front and so we have some calls to make and people to consult to make sure we make the best decision for all parties involved.

Another pretty boring day, but I guess we need some boredom on some front.

Family Life

2010-02-09T07:25:00.000-08:00

John and Teresa got the bikes out of the garage and went for a bike ride. Then a few of the guys and Garrett and John went to the golf course and chipped and putted. John's first attempt at golfing.

For dinner the family got together and we all helped make fried rice and stir fried beef and then sat down and ate with chop sticks- no forks allowed. It is interesting that John doesn't really like to use chop sticks and he doesn't like tea.??? I then wrote on a pad of paper English words and had him write the Chinese word for it and we practiced a bit of Chinese and he English.

Then we gave him a bit of a break and he spent some time on the computer- I think visiting with some friends in Chinese- it's difficult to tell what he is doing since it is all in Chinese.

After that I had Grant look up some Algebra problems on the computer and then give them to John- trying to figure out where he is. Algebra I was no problem for him, but we gave him an Algebra II quiz and he didn't do as well on that one. At least we know he can do math above his grade level.

SOrt of a boring post but wanted you to know what we were up to.

First Church Service

2010-02-08T05:21:00.001-08:00

My postings will be diminished as the days go on because it will soon be that we are just participating in life as usual rather than watching God do some amazing miracles each day.

Yesterday I spoke about the process and shared some of the miracles of what has taken place along the way. Here is a link to it if you are inclined to listen to me ramble about it. SKH has cleaned the audio up a bit, so at least you won't have to listen to all the "umm's".

There are a few things that I want to encourage you with. Yesterday was our first day back with our church family at GBC and that went very well. We had a potluck after the morning services- scheduled for this time every month- and so there were some who were able to talk with John one on one. Before we went up to that John was able to talk to 2 sisters- 1 is currently a student at GA and the other is an alumni- who speak fluent Chinese. This was really great for John as they encouraged him with the fact that just a few months ago- for the current student- she was speaking English not too much better than he is right now and she is doing fine.

In the evening service he was actually trying to sing along with the music and so he is getting the Gospel and singing it, in English. God uses all kinds of ways to bring His children into His family.

At the end of the day he told Teresa that he wants to go to school soon, so we will be working on a plan to try to make that happen. He will need to be tested to see where he really is, but we might be surprised at how much he actually knows. It seems like he knows quite a bit if it is written out for him. He just has a hard time with understanding what we are saying and then communicating it back to us. The girls said that the faced the same challenge, as they learned a lot in English class but they just didn't hear or speak it very much until they got here. The older sister was actually having a hard time starting the conversation with him in Chinese because she speaks English so much now and it has only been 2 years for her.

God has a plan for this son of ours and I have no idea what that might look like- but He does. We want to be good stewards of what He gives and pray that John would be drawn into the Kingdom of His marvelous light and that sometime down the road God would chose to use a "small, weak, special needs", Chinese young man to make the big, strong, powerful people of the world scratch their heads in wonder at where this kind of thing comes from. I am praying that God would do exceedingly, abundantly more than I can ask or think in John's life. I am thinking pretty big so it will be fun to see what He does.

One stage completed.

2010-02-07T04:09:00.000-08:00

I hope my clock is set back to my normal early US schedule, but time will be the teller of whether this is true. We did stay up until 8 last night, so that should help.

Today- Sunday- we have the privilege of being back with our full family in a service to openly worship the King of kings and Lord of all lord. We can celebrate His leading us to this place of adopting John David and changing our lives and his in this horizontal picture of what He has done for us vertically. There are some stages of earthly adoption, much like there are stages in our Christian life.

If the process is his vertical adoption, then John has just been accepted into the family and now there is a long road of sanctification to be conformed to the image of a child of the Family he has been adopted into.

We have completed the transaction of paperwork between 2 nations that don't necessarily see eye to eye on many things, but it has been agreed that John can be a US citizen and a member of our family. That is pretty amazing in itself. But there is a lot of work that needs to happen so he will be recognized, by others, as both a US citizen and a member of our family. The "formal" part has been done, but the inside change that needs to take place for him to be recognized as who he truly is will take time.

I am so thankful that God takes His time on us as He shapes and hammers us into the children He has called us to be. He adopts us into His Family to be productive members of His Kingdom, making us into vessels He can use to do His work, even though He could do it much better on His own.

Please pray for John and our family as we work through the next few months. We need wisdom to know how hard to push and how much to let him go through this process. He is missing all that has been taken out of his life- though in the end he will be much better off. For one who likes change, this is hard for me to accept as less than a poor attitude- so I need to be careful. For T this hits close to home, since she doesn't like change. God has placed us in this place for a purpose and we want to continue to follow where He is leading.

Thanks again for all your prayers and comments along the way. May He continue His working in our lives and in John until we are all complete in Him.

We Are HOME!!!

2010-02-06T12:11:00.000-08:00

flew starting today- 15 hours ago- and landed before we left, which really plays tricks on your mind. We actually landed at 7 this morning but didn't get out of the airport until around 8:30, since we were getting all the paperwork and customs finished, but no issue sand it is nice to be sitting on the couch blogging. The only issue in the flights was from Beijing to Tokyo the weather coming into Tokyo was pretty bumpy and many people were throwing up, which is always fun.

I would say that John is missing China/friends a lot. He is more reserved today than he has been but we think we can get him through that. We have him out shooting hoops with some of the kids and trying to keep him awake. He is not liking it too much right now but when his "clock" adjusts more quickly than if he were to sleep right now.

Tomorrow at church it may be a little tough for him. He is really reluctant to speak and going in with all those people will be hard. If you are there try to say something like, "We are glad to have you here and have been praying for you to get here" and leave it at that. This way he will not have to speak too much.

There are big changes for him in the near future and he needs to adjust to the changes and I will make sure he stays the course but for right now He may just need a bit of space. It will be fun to see how long it takes to be in the grove.

I'll post more later. Thanks for all your prayers. BTW- it looks like I will be sharing about the trip and more of the whole adoption story tomorrow AM in 128.

Great Expectations

2010-02-02T15:31:00.000-08:00

Last night we took the river boat cruise with our new friends from Colorado and a bunch of their agency group families. The night was fun, the weather was perfect-70-ish.

As I look over this kaleidoscope of parents and children I am amazed at how God has uniquely place each child in each family and has prepared each one for the future- whatever that may look like- and some will be very different than others.

I am not going to put any names in here because I don't know many of the people and the names can probably be switched out from month to month. Here is what I am talking about.

There are "old" parents here, and not so old, there are first time parents and veteran parents, there are kids with no "special needs" and some with severe special needs, there are happy, quickly attaching kids and grumpy, miserable kids.

I must confess that the quickness of our process has not allowed much time for me to think about all the possibilities of what might go wrong, and I often mull those kinds of things over in my head before making a final decision. This time I really didn't have time to waste thinking about what might go wrong- and something can always go wrong.

So at the start of our process we just started walking and I figured that God would give us exactly what we needed. With each dollar that went out I was more and more convinced that God was going to allow us to get John, since it didn't seem like good stewardship of God's money to put it all out there and not return with him, but even in that there was some questioning whether God would really allow us to complete the process- and it looks like we are almost there. I tried very hard to not get too attached to the idea to then have those hopes dashed on the rocks of God's providence.

As I watch some of the parents interact with their kids I can't help notice that some must have some pretty large expectations of what the process will be like. This in no way is intended to be a slam on anyone. Most of the people around us are rookies, just like us, in this process. Some have bio's and some do not. What will it be like? Will my new child actually like me; will I like them? What if I really love them and they are non committal? What if they are just mean and angry? "I have spent a lot of time and money to make this happen and they don't seem to care about that at all. In fact I have just spent all my life savings and all my vacation and sick pay to make this happen they don't seem to be thankful at all". Those kinds of thoughts surely are running through some minds- not all and maybe not out loud- but watching some body language this seems to be the case.

With our biological children we may not go through those kinds of thoughts, immediately, since we get them when they are tiny and can't reject us right off the bat, so there is time to work through the idea that your kids are angry and they don't like you. Much of the deficiency I see in them I can blame on myself and poor parenting, where with these new kids we may not have earned the level of separation they are giving.

Expectations, for sure, play a large part here. When we are expecting our bio children, we think they are going to be the cutest babies on the planet and they are going to change the entire world, for good. What happens when they arrive strange looking and turn out rebellious? They are still our kids and we still love them, it's just harder to have it all make sense. Good parents are supposed to get good kids- right? Just because we do the right thing doesn't mean that good is always returned. It doesn't take too much Bible reading to see that. Which leads me to my point.

As I watch a couple- none actually pictured in my mind right now- who seems to be very kind, trying to connect with their new child and the child is angry, for some unknown reason, it has to hurt. Thinking about all the planning, time and money that has gone into coming half way around the world to be treated this way by a small child is heart breaking and frustrating. Maybe this is a good reminder of how our Heavenly Father feels so often. The distance He went, the cost He paid, the time He took to make our adoption happen and how often do we act like angry little children? We think we know what is best for us when we don't have a clue. We cross our arms and don't want to talk to our Father, or any one else for that matter. It's a good thing His had perfect expectations of what would happen. It's a good thing He is long suffering with our hard hearts and unloving attitudes. It's a good thing our adoption does not depend on our own goodness any more than our newly adopted children's process depends on them. WE are His kids because HE said so and they are our kids because He allows it to happen.

The expectations are human. Each child is different and every family is also different. I don't want to bring grief to The One Who had such a cost to bring me into His family. I want to help others work through the process, if this is what He has called them to, and be ready to take what He gives. I want to be ready to accept what He gives, but my fleshly desires get in the way and cloud the view.

Trying to be an encouragement to some here who really need it and trying to help you all think through the process that may be coming your way in the future. God is Good- All the Time.

Shopping in Guangzhou

2010-02-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went into Guangzhou proper and just checked things out. We took a short cab ride- maybe 15 minutes- and our first stop was "Wedding Dress Street".

So after getting to go with Kimmy and the girls wedding dress shopping in the US, this makes that look very tame. In the US we went to what seems to be the 2 places where people look for dresses. In GZ there is literally a street that is about 2 US blocks long with dress shops on both sides and in every little back street that could be connected in any way. Then at one end of that street there is an international wedding shop that is 5-6 stories high and probably close to the size of a regular Nordstrom and the only thing in the entire building is wedding dresses and things connected with weddings. In all those shops we still could not find 1 veil that we thought Kimmy would like. Their style is very ornate- to say the least. Amazingly beautiful, but very ornate.

From there we took another short taxi ride to "Beijing Lu"- this is where many of the locals shop. Craziness. Since it is only 2 weeks until the start of the Chinese New Year, and one of the traditions is that you must have new clothes for the New Year, there were so many people out. Some of the shops you could hardly move around in. It may have been like this at the outlet the on "Black Friday".

We did find some good buys for John- pants for $12 and that included having them hemmed- which took 15 minutes. Because of the currency exchange it makes you feel like you are spending more money than you are, so it helps to make me more thrifty. 100 RMB is about $15usd- so when I give T a 100 it seems like a lot and yet is it less than a $20.

We came back from there- T was pretty spent- and watched TV for just a bit and then set out for dinner. We went off the little island and over to the main city side. That was a bit scary. We were in the market area, where all the locals bring in their frozen fish... It's probably like the docks in the US. WE pretty quickly decided that there was no restaurants we wanted to eat close to that area so we went back and had Thai food next to the hotel.

The island is really torn up. Last night walking I told T that it is probably very beautiful when it is not under so much construction. There is dirt on all the plants and you have to really watch where you walk. The weather is perfect right now.

The phone just rang in the room and we have to go and get John finger printed this afternoon, since he is over 12- this is a new announcement to us. Oh well, it's always something new here.

We are really trying to get John to talk more- as his normal tendency is to just nod rather than to speak. That won't help him too much in America. I think he understands quite a bit of what we are asking or telling him, but doesn't know exactly what to say in return. We are starting to play some word games at the dinner table, like, "what is this?". Glasses and glass, window and plate- all made of glass- so shouldn't they be the same word?

We are intending on going on a boat ride tonight for dinner with the people from Colorado. I said it would be interesting to see if God allowed us to meet up with them again and we did 2 nights ago. We spent a few hours in their room just visiting about our experience so far. Colorado mom is type A like me and dad is like T. They are close to 50 and have a very pretty 6 year old girl, who is really working them. They have no bio's so there is a lot of new things for both the parents and the daughter to learn. Hopefully we can be of some encouragement to them.

Anyway- enough boring stuff from here. Sorry the crazy exciting, stuff is under the bridge and now I am just rambling about things that are really not very important.
Only a few days left:)

I forgot to say that if you need to email me I can only be reached at chuckweinberg@gmail.com

Sightseeing in China

2010-01-31T22:14:00.001-08:00

Random

2010-01-30T23:31:00.000-08:00

This is not necessarily- ok not at all- about this adoption process, but it has happened on this trip.

As many of you know Kimmy is getting married in June and I have been thinking quite a bit about both the day and the process- as we have looked at things related to the wedding and purchased a few things for the day/people.

When I return I think I am going to start a blog about what is going on in this process from a dad's point of view. I'm sure there are many moms and brides who have blogged about what is going on in their minds in this process.

On the plane ride here I was thinking a lot about the music. What a day to look forward to.

Sunday Night update

2010-01-30T22:15:00.000-08:00

T had a funny. We were trying to tell John where he is going to live- Washington State- and it is difficult for him to say. T then said to me, "The 'th' sound is difficult for him". I laughed so hard. She said "what is so funny?" I reminded her that the is no "th" in where he lives:) She keeps it light.

A lot has transpired since the last post. We have taken an airplane- John's first- to Guangzhou, we have checked into our room, checked back out because of a minor flood in just our room, had medical a check up, a few shots, TB test, met a bunch of Americans adopting, gone on a safari and toured the local "pharmacy".

Starting with the flight. We came here on Friday- as I originally thought we were doing- and only after being told we were coming on Sat. did I think that was going to be the case- but I am trying to go with the flow. We arrived an hour late- we didn't know what time we were supposed to arrive anyway- and the driver took another family from the airport to the hotel and had to return for us. We checked in at around midnight.

In Beijing and Tianjin the temp outside was cold and it was very hot in the room. Here it's the opposite. It is nicely warm outside and very cold inside. I had to turn the system totally off to make it the right temp. Such trials-NOT.

We woke up on Sat. am to go to the clinic and heard the construction guys working outside our window- we have a view of the tarp. I went to take a shower and T said, "there is water coming in through the window". How much water cold it really be? A lot. We were trying to be on time for the clinic but now we needed to change rooms. So we packed our bags again and moved. More about that later.

Everything was fine at the clinic- John is healthy- and he only had to get 3 shots, so that's not too bad. We did notice along the way that he reads very close to the page so we thought we might need to have his eyes checked. Come to find out he has good eye sight in his right eye but has a stigmatism in his left and could only see the first symbol on the chart. No problem there that glasses won't cure.

We went across the "moat" to the main land and walked down the block. We went through this local market trying to figure out what all these things were; food maybe? There is everything from gigantic toad stool, tea, saffron, dried mushrooms, snakes, sea horses and all kinds of things we didn't have any idea what it was. T went out later and explored and found out the entire thing is the pharmacy for local medicine. I'll try to get some pictures for you.

When we returned to our room our proximity sensor would not open the door and it took 3 trips back to the desk to convince them that it was not me but the door. The repair man came to repair it as we were out.

We went for dinner last night to a local place. At the restaurant there were live eels, turtles, fish in many tanks, all kinds of other sea life alive in tanks and even a couple of baskets with frogs in them. You place your order, the wait staff talks into their head set, a guy grabs whatever you have ordered from the appropriate tank/basket and off it goes to the kitchen. It isn't much fresher than alive.

Today is Sunday and we went to the safari park. It's sort of like the zoo only in part of it you can get on the train- like Disney- and it drives right through all the animals.

So- it has not been the best last couple of days. I have not been excited about what is happening and being so out of control of this whole thing. I now am reminded why I don't take tours with a bunch of people, but rather go on my own. Standing in the clinic with 50-ish other couples, and their entourages, with little kids who have no idea what is going on with them and getting shots- making them even more grumpy- makes me very much appreciate the fact that we have John, who can do all these things by himself. For much the same reason as I like being a HS leader- I like having older kids.

John is going to fit into our family well I think. He gets bored pretty easily and is ready to go through what ever it is and get on with whatever is next. He is really trying to get his new language. He is kind, patient and likes to be on the computer.

As I was saying- I am ready to be done. I find it difficult not to be doing productive things this long. I have slept enough this 2 weeks to last me a month and we are not even done. I am tired of hearing the same stories and being asked the same questions. I am just not very fun to be around right now. I don't enjoy this bad attitude and need God to change it to a good one.

T had another good one tonight. She was showing John the US flag and she said, "How many stars are there? Do you know? There are 52." I said, "Really? 52?" She thought a minute and corrected herself. One must always be on their toes around this girl:)

Tomorrow is mostly free and then on Tuesday our guide will go to the embassy and apply for John's visa.

One last very important note. I sent Gale an email asking if she could somehow get in contact with the airline and get John's name changed on the ticket home. This was not helping my attitude- knowing that I bought the ticket in the wrong name and it was going to be difficult for me to change it. So I had no choice but to let someone else help me and that was Gale. She got the airline to change the name- gratis. Thanks for your help Gale. It literally would have taken me hours to do that here; if I could have done it.

Forbidden City

2010-01-28T17:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we toured the silk factory, the Forbidden City, had a tea party, ate lunch at a local Chinese restaurant and ordered John a suit for Kimmy's wedding.

The silk factory is very interesting and there are notes on the pictures to explain. Much of the work has to be done by hand because machines don't have the delicacy that a human can feel when unwrapping and stretching a fabric that is not the same any two times. The single thread type of silk comes from the cocoon that has a single worm, but the cocoons that have twins produce a mucous that interacts with each other and it is softer and more like a mat than a thread; this is used for blankets.

The rugs are made from the thread type and each knot has an exact place for it to go, per the pattern, and each is hand tied and then cut of to be the exact right length. The small pictured rug is about 4 s/f and took 2 years to make. The larger one, on the loom, take about 1 year.

WE then went to Tienanmen Square. It was very windy and cold, but beautiful. From there across the street to the Forbidden City. What a place, consisting of 9999 different rooms, so the emperor could never sleep in the same room- for safety. It was built in 1406 and took 15 years to complete and is reported to have 1 million workers. It is a crazy sprawling complex of temples, out buildings and court yards. So much worship of men, tradition and superstition. Satan is working hard to confuse the minds of his followers.

We had lunch at a local Chinese restaurant and it was really good. They actually bring all the place settings in shrink wrap- the dishes are cleaned off site. We had "pan cakes" which John really likes, deep fried pork meat balls with a salt mixture to dip in, pork intestines, which was very spicy and I didn't care for the actual flavor- even before I knew what it was- a beef dish of some sort- was pretty good, and my favorite is pork with Beijing sauce. It reminds me of a soy sauce reduction- a little like the PF Chang sauce- served over sliced green onions. YUMMM! No wonder I am getting so fat.

We then went to a tea room and had a tea party. Tasted, learned, laughed and tasted some more. Our favorite is oolong- which is black tea with ginseng. Next is the jasmine tea. The flowering tea was very fun to watch and we bought a couple to have a show with.

We then went to the silk market to order John a suit for Kimmy's wedding. I figured tat it will be difficult to get one his size in the US and it is so cheap here. About $100 gets you a suit out of nice fabric and 2 custom made shirts. He has never had a suit before. Another first.

Strange People- we are

2010-01-28T14:31:00.000-08:00

Walking down the street in Beijing-probably anywhere in China, for that matter- 2 American's with one pretty short, CLP, older boy brings some attention. The Chinese don't just look over and go back, they don't even just stare for a bit, they stare and then stare some more. In fact at times I am not sure they are not going to fall over since they are not watching where they are walking because they are looking at us. I actually think they are looking directly at John. Why is that?

There are many adoptions taking place as we visit tourist destinations. Yesterday, at the Forbidden City, we saw the family from Colorado again. What are the chances of us seeing the same 3 people in Tianjin and in Beijing amid the hundreds of thousands of people we are around? I think God will arrange for us to see them in Guangzhou as well- we'll see if I am right.

Why is John getting so much attention? Is this the same reason he is reluctant to speak to so many of the Chinese? He is Chinese, like they are, he is visibly normal in every way, except for a scar under his nose- so why all the stares?

Yesterday, again walking down the street, this nice looking young man- 20-ish, was coming toward us and just stared all the way past John- I wanted to put my hand in from of his face and say, "Hey- look at me. I'm the strange one". I restrained myself.

I immediately thought about our Father who adopts us into His family and then people look strangely at His children, persecute them and even sometimes kill them. How He must want to put out His hand and say, "I could smash you like a bug for treating my kid like that", but He restrains His anger. He allows His children to go through these types of trials for their good and His glory. He will not always hold back His anger. Someday- and maybe soon- He will right all wrongs and bring His "scarred" children to His perfect presence and there will be no more stares- except at the Lamb.

One day we will be able to throw off our sinful, scarred tents and will put on our royal clothes- clothes befitting the children of royalty. There will be a time when, with our "adoption papers" in hand we will take the ride of our lives and arrive at out Heavenly home- what a day that will be.

But what about what happens between now and then? What is our job? As adopted children of royalty, what does our ambassadorship require? Isn't it heralding for the King of kings? Isn't it telling others about the "not forbidden city", where everyone is welcome to come as long as they have surrendered to the King? What a glorious job- heralding. We don't have our own message and we are taken care of by the King. Simple job- when we believe the message.

More Pictures

2010-01-27T15:59:00.001-08:00

Chuck passed on more pictures and you can go to Great Wall, Cloisonne and Beijing Olympics to see them. Enjoy!!

Goofing Off in Beijing

2010-01-27T06:27:00.000-08:00

Today we pretty much goofed off all day and just hung out with John.

I think he had his first ever milk shake at McD's, we went to the "silk store" which is less of a silk store and more of a bargaining experience- it was fun once we understood the basic ground rules.

We came back to the hotel, rested our feet for about a half an hour and then headed out to the subway to catch Avatar.The subway was pretty entertaining by itself. I remember my mom telling me that when she rode the subway in Tokyo, growing up, that they had "pushers" who actually helped push people into the cars and when she was in the car she could just let go of her books. I couldn't help but laugh all the way into the car- the pushers were there and we couldn't get onto the first car because there was no room- even with the pushers.

We had to switch lines and then go a few more stops, but we rode the subway because the front desk told us that traffic would be too bad to go when we needed to go. It was fun and adventurous.

The movie was the 3D version, so for sure it was his first 3D movie and maybe his first real movie- it's hard to really know for sure. The "weather" in the theater was the warmest we have ever experienced- like close to 80. He is getting better at helping us communicate with the locals.

Any word from the SR? Looking forward to hearing good reports of God's grace in everyone's life.

Beijing Olympics

2010-01-26T05:08:00.000-08:00

On the way home from the Wall we drove by the Olympic facility. Here are just a few shots. You can see it much better by just looking on line, but I guess it is more fun seeing it through that lens of someone you actually know.

The pics are the Olympic Village, where all the athletes stay, the "Birds Nest" and "The Cube". The Cube is especially for Mo- it's where they did all the swimming events.

Cloisonne

2010-01-26T04:40:00.000-08:00

We also went to a cloisonne factory today. I was not expecting this at all. I will give you more of the details when I have a faster internet connection, but it was amazing to see how much time it takes to make this beautiful artwork.

Before we went to the Wall we stopped by a jade factory and took a tour. Very interesting- I really like rocks.
A 1000 degree Centigrade furnace fueled by charcoal heats the copper and solders the small pieces of copper onto the vase. If you get close to the vases in the later pictures you can see the detail of each piece of copper. These "slots" are then filled with enamel and baked on. Each piece of art goes into the furnace 7 times before it is finished.

Red hot vases coming out of the furnace to go to the next stage. So many hours.

These are vases that are cooling before returning back the the artists. Look at them closely to see the detail.

I can't help but be reminded of the furnace of trials that each believer must go through before we are complete in Christ. We must share in His sufferings before we can reign with Him. The fire is still hot but when we realize the purpose then we may find delight in knowing we are in a trial so that the outcome of completion is all the more close.

Mary told me that there have been cases where house have caught on fire and everything was completely lost except for the cloisonne- because it has already been tested by fire.

1 Peter 1:6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Teresa told me that it was ok for us not to be in trials every minute of every day and that maybe God was allowing us to rest from them for a time. OK- I guess that's ok too.

Great Wall

2010-01-25T21:09:00.001-08:00

We went to the Great Wall today and the weather could not have been nicer. From the parking lot it looks like it is just up the hill- Mary said she would stay with the driver. After a little hiking I realized why she stayed in the parking lot.

The date of the wall ranges from just around 200bc to about 1500ad. There have been major rebuilding going on along the way and for sure many people lost their lives to its building. Mary said it is about 5000 miles total- I have not confirmed that number, but it is big.

I will say with AB that I did not bring my climbing belly today. Man that thing is steep and it just keeps on going. I was tired after about 3 look out towers and there were about 8 we went through. Going up is much harder than going down, but my legs were totally shaking when we finally got back to the van. The steps are all different elevations so going up is challenging, but coming down is tricky because you really have to look at each step as you walk. John- with his 14 year old legs and lungs- acted like it was nothing; oh to be young again.

We did meet some people on the wall who are from the Tri-Cities and I had on my "Sterlings Restaurant" shirt from the there; small world. They have just adopted their 3rd child to add to their 6 bio's. That was kind of fun.

Here are some pics from the Wall- It's amazing that we were here and it was such a beautiful day. Enjoy and I'll add comments where it is necessary.

Tuesday Morning

2010-01-25T14:08:00.001-08:00

Last night we played pool and darts and from the look of his play I am sure John has never played either:) He does respong to "John" since that is all we call him. He came along nicely in pool. I was showing him- you know I am an expert:)NOT- how to hold your back arm and just let it hang and move the bottom part very smoothly back and forth and so was holding his shoulder- he is thick and very firm.

Mary and I had a debate yesterday in the car as to how tall he is in cm's. I had to do the conversion and then we were both simply guessing his height- she is bringing a tape measure this am. My guess is that he is 4'10". Do I know someone who is 4'10"? He is about 8" shorter than T.

Today we are going to the Great Wall- he has been there before, so it's new for us and not for him. T went and got food last night and brought it to the room- Chinese take out. It is so cheap. She got me Kung Poa chicken and it was HOT! John thought it was fine, and I like a little spice, but there was a lot of red peppers hidden and they were eating me up- it was very good though.

We went to TJ yesterday and did our paperwork and were back by a little after 11. Apparently we are not going back to TJ, Mary will go and pick up the passport on Friday so we don't have to go. Now we are flying to GD on Sat. so we get there at a normal time rather than late at night.

OK- not following blogging etiquette here; John- No problem using the bass- that's what it's for. Did he use the 4 or the 5 string? It is a little weird using the 5 when you're not used to it. Welcome back Chris and Zoom!! What does He have planned for you now? Hard to be in the middle of, but fun to watch Him work.

The bass player at the International church was actually a bass player- he was really good. We are not in any trial here other than I always want to be doing something and healthy enough to go out and do it and my shoulder is slowing me down and we are bored. There is not much spiritual growth taking place with wimpy "trials" like that. Thanks for your prayers though.

We did read to John and have him read back to us, in the Bible story book. He is a little, either lazy or reluctant to jump in. I am not sure if it is the Bible story part that he doesn't like or the fact that we are making him read to us and he doesn't like it, but since I am bigger I win:) He must be able to work through his dislikes and discomforts because even though life in America is going to be an amazing opportunity for him, it is still just an opportunity- which means he must take it and run with it. Please pray that God would be working in his heart, even through children's Bible stories- it is His Word and His Word does not return empty- that is so encouraging.

The SR is under way- pray that even now God would be pounding some hearts. I guess this is a trial, in that we so much want to be there with, not only our kids, but our extended family of kids and adults- but by all His working we are convinced that this is where God would have us to be right now and so we are resting in His plan. I think we will also miss Garrett's last BB game, and that is sad. We, T and I and Garrett, certainly knew that if God allowed this to take place that we would probably miss a good batch of his games and he was so unselfish in telling us that we must do this if God allowed. God is so gracious to have given us 3 great kids- in spite of not very good parenting.

We, more me than T, missed so many opportunities to really impact the lives of our kids and yet He still worked to bring them not only to Himself but to make them passionate about His work. This is proof that it is only God can bring about change in hearts. Hug my kids when you see them.

One last more emotional thing. Until you have been there, you really have no idea how lonely it is, spiritually, when you are away from your home church. GBC is not perfect, and when I am there it is less perfect, but that is our family and I really miss worshipping with our family. I hope this encourages you to be there when you are able and celebrate God's goodness in placing each and every one of us there for a specific and unique purpose. I want to be and do what God has for me to do there, even if it is just going to China for a few weeks and posting back what is happening. If that encourages some towards higher affections, then God is good to work through a boring, old, beat up clay pot. I shake my head in wonder at why He would use someone like me to do His work- but I am thankful He does.

Thanks again for your encouragement and prayers. Our God is awesome!!!

Passport Prep

2010-01-24T21:54:00.000-08:00

We went to TJ on the fast train- 200mph/i334kph fast. We took a van there and back last time and it was about a 2 hour drive and the train ride was 26 minutes. It is so smooth and much like an airplane inside. It is not available everywhere you go, but BJ and TJ each have over 10 million people so it leaves every 15 minutes during the day- pretty nice way to travel, at 9 USD each way.

We caught a taxi to get to the passport office- which took about 5 minutes- and were dropped off in a sea of Chinese waiting for passports or visas. It was like the China Embassy in SF but bigger and crazier. We met a young man there who walked us through, with a few other families who are adopting. 2 families from Australia getting 1 CLP son each, about 1 year old. It has taken them 5 years to complete this process. We met a French couple who were picking up their 5 year old son to add to their 7 year old daughter, who they adopted 5 ears ago and this one took 5 years to complete as well. Now they have 2 Chinese children, living in France and no bio's. We also met a lady from Colorado who picked up her daughter 1 hour before we met her. John, for sure, is the oldest we have seen being adopted, but I guess that makes sense since he is the end of the line. He is still very quiet about the whole thing.

I was able to purchase a ticket for him, this afternoon, on the same flight as we are on- I am not sure why it would not give me those options this am, but maybe it is just because you were praying that this would happen. I will believe it when we arrive and there are no issues, but I purchased the ticket with FF miles, so if everything goes as planned we will be getting his flight with no cash out of pocket- now that would be a giant answer to prayer- God is so good.

Tomorrow we are going to tour the Great Wall and a jade factory- that should be fun and very cold. Tomorrow evening we are doing the acrobats.

Mary- our guide- says that she thinks that John is happy, he is just really hard to read. We are teaching him important things like always putting down the toilet seat. I think we will start reading with him and let him follow along and read it back to us. T is a little over whelmed with how much English he doesn't know, but it is much more than many know when they arrive.

Line to catch a taxi at the train station.

Chinese Dairy.

A little building going on in China.

More Cranes.

Tianjin.

When the trains comes to the end of the line someone goes in and switches the seats around. Notice the ones behind her, on the right, are facing the other direction.

China Farmland at 200mph.

China City at 200mph.

That's Fast.

Mary, our guide, and T in the train.

Dad and John.

Mom and John.

John's BD Wrap up

2010-01-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was probably the most uneventful BD day John will ever have. We did go to church and that was really good, since there were many people there who spoke Chinese, in fact they even sang part of the songs in Chinese and we were in the English speaking service.

Before we walked into the service- we were early- I tried to find an Chinese speaking SS teacher or youth pastor and God led us to this very nice young lady who spoke to John, made him laugh just a little and was just very kind to him. We purchased a set of books in Chinese and English that tell the story of the Bible in very simple language. I think he can use this as a translation stepping stone. Learning English through Bible stories was how my grandma taught so many Japanese children about Jesus- maybe this will work on John too.

After church we went for a walk- we were a 20 minute taxi ride from the hotel, which cost $6 each way- and in our walking we came upon a very good Italian restaurant, next to a German bakery- we had good pizza for lunch and bought some breakfast rolls next door. John ate a lot after not eating too much breakfast. He ate plenty for dinner as well. At lunch T told me that she thinks the last year has probably been the best that we've had. After 30 years she said that she thought I was finally getting funny- I think she is just being nice on that one. After the "best year" comment I told her that I should try to arrange for a year like this last one every year, so she likes me more. She quickly told me that she was ready to have a "normal" year- whatever that looks like.

From there we walked to the Lufthansa center- which has a bunch of European shops- it really feels like Nordstrom. When we walked in T said, "This is your kind of shopping". Well, I did like the more western feel, but I didn't like the fact that there were neck ties- always looking- for $400UDS. I have never paid that, or even close to that, before. High prices always take the fun out of shopping for me, just about as much as low quality. We didn't purchase anything.

We caught the cab back and walked around here some more. We have been trying to find John some more clothes, since original equipment/standard issue is one change. He is a bit difficult to fit because he must be 4'8"-ish and he has a 27" waist. He reminds me of the guys on Oceans Eleven that gets in the box. When I can get the pictures on you will see that he makes T look like a giant. All his pants are about 6" too long. He is also hard to read in what he likes to wear, so that was a good exercise in telling us what he likes and dislikes. We might have made some progress, but we've a long way to go there as well. We found him a pair of pants he likes and took the ones T bought back in Washington and had them hemmed- for $1.50. I hope the hem stays at that price, but oh well, they are shorter.

We felt bad not really getting him a real present, but he is in that stage of not liking toys and not really an adult, made much more complex by the language barrier. I told T that even though he doesn't realize it yet, he has been given the best BD present we could ever give to him. Maybe someday he will figure it out.

We ate dinner at a restaurant of his choosing and I got to have some really sushi:) T thought I would get sick, but so far we have not even felt a little sick and we are 1/3 of the way done. It seems like we have been here at least 2 weeks already, so hopefully the balance goes more quickly.

We take the fast train to TJ today to start the passport paperwork, and they have told us that it can't be picked up until Friday. It really doesn't get us home any sooner if we can't have it before end of day tomorrow, so if we are waiting until Friday, were are still waiting until next Sat. to fly home. T is a home body and this is a long time to be away. Tomorrow we are scheduled to see the Great Wall and Wed. we are going to the forbidden city and a Chinese acrobat show- after that all our days are free.

Guangzhou is much warmer, though it does seem to be mid 30's here, so that is nicer than mid teens. It will be interesting to see who God brings to us to meet in this trip.

I would like to leave you with a very earthly prayer request. I went on line yesterday to check flights back to Seattle for John. We are on NW from Seattle to Narita and Narita to SEA. NW is in the middle of a transition to Delta and I am not able to even find our flight, which is booked, to see if it is full and if we can get John a seat at is reasonably priced. I didn't book his flight because I was not 100% sure when we would be returning. I would rather not spend $2-3k on a one way ticket for him. God has it under control, so I am not worried, but I'm not sure how to move forward from here. My internet connection is really slow here compared to previous hotels, so that makes it a little tougher.

Have a great Sunday worshipping. Don't miss out on the opportunity to worship in a place where the Word is taught and you can fellowship with your church family- we miss you all. Thanks for all your prayers, encouragement and comments.

Happy BD to John

2010-01-23T15:19:00.000-08:00

We were awakened early this morning by the sounds of many car horns. We are situated across the street from one of the main train stations and it seems that a full train came in and their families came to pick them up. There is no organization to the pick up/delivery system that goes on in front of the station. It literally looked like there were 15 car wrecks on the right hand side of the street, but I think people just drove up, parked their cars, got out to find their friends and returned when they were good and ready. The term "Chinese fire drill" takes on a whole new meaning.

Today John is 14. This was the day that they gave him as his BD, though there is no way to know for sure if it really is even in January- but this is the day we are going to celebrate it as such. We are going to try to find a cake and celebrate as best we can with someone who barely speaks English, since we don't speak any Chinese.

We are going to go to church at 11:30 and then we have no plans after that, so if you guys want to come over and hang out with us that would be fun- in our 350 s/f room:)

Sorry, I can't load any pictures right now because I can't open my PG email. Always something- but oh well.

We met 2 sisters yesterday from England who are here for 2 weeks. It was nice to talk to someone who spoke our language- though with a pretty heavy accent of course. The younger-22- sister is traveling for 7 months all over the world. Her next stop is Australia. She actually has one blue eye and one that is blue and brown combined- like an Australian shepherd. T got pretty choked up telling them why we were here and the older-24- tried to comfort her. I don't know if this would be one of the first stops on a trip around the world, especially arriving here in the winter. It is probably 10-ish degrees warmer here than it was in TJ.

I will post pictures later but the view from our window is crazy. They must have a optimum apartment level building because pretty much the entire landscape is filled with apartments that seem to be almost the same height and color. It is non stop buildings, but I guess if you're going to get 15 million people in one city you have to stack them up.

So many souls deceived by the prince of the power of this age, but he will lose in the future- unfortunately he will take many of these souls with him. The harvest is great- pray that The Lord of the harvest would send workers.

I'll post later today. BTW- the mandarin oranges are really good here.

Hey 128 staff- R U Ready for the SR? I can't believe we are not going to be there. We want a full report on how the meeting went.

Travel Update

2010-01-22T18:49:00.000-08:00

We are on our way from TJ to BJ. We will stay there for the weekend, and then ride the fast train back on Monday to apply for the passport, back to BJ for the week and then to GZ on Friday night.

We arrived at around 1 back in Beijing and checked into a different hotel. We went out and had lunch- all we do is hang out int he hotel and go to eat somewhere- I am going to explode- it's like Thanksgiving weekend- turkey dinner, turkey soup, mashed potatoes and a little more pumpkin pie and then lets watch some football and have a turkey sandwich- but all in China and with Chinese food. I know- hard life.

When we returned John pulled out a note book full of letters from his friends, 44 of them to be exact. He has a list of phone numbers and has been on the phone to different ones, boys and girls, for at least an hour. He laughs and talks and talks and laughs. It's good to see that there is that in him- he has been pretty stoic. I thin he is a pretty social guy when he gets used to people. We-all of us-will have to hone that skill to be used with everyone.

Tomorrow, D.V., we are going to go to the International Church in Beijing. One of Dawn's friends told us about it and so we want to be there. We already missed last week at GBC and so I am feeling a little less than full. Should be good. Their doctrinal statement is right on. It will also be interesting to see what John thinks about all this. He needs to get used to being in church. Pray for him that God would even be working tomorrow.

I still am working on T and I think she is getting close. We miss you all so much and can't believe we have so long to go. I'll let her talk about that.

Adventues in Tea Parties

2010-01-22T03:52:00.000-08:00

We decided that doing nothing is difficult for us- in our ADD state:) No gardens to weed for T and no one to find work to do for me.

We went out for dinner, since we can't really do dinner in, and headed to KFC. It's sort of like our KFC, though I can't remember the last time I went to one in America. We had chicken "burgers" and a chicken wrap thing. The mashed potatoes are kind of like ours and Kimmy will be happy to know that John likes mashed potatoes.

From there we went to the mall wanna be and looked for some clothes for John, but he is not a kid and not an adult so they have been hard to find. He wears a size 5 shoe, they had him in a brand new pair of 6-1/2's- almost his size.

Around the corner from that store was a tea shop- we had fun there. They gave us a little tea party, trying different teas and tea sets. We bought a jasmine-green tea. It smells like a beautiful woman, but you can drink it and it keeps you awake- like a woman:) Just trying to get myself in trouble with my beautiful woman.

I don't think John knows what to think of his parents- we are not reserved or shy and we are trying to get him to try everything. He said he doesn't like tea and I told him "you're Chinese, you have to like tea", the girls at the tea store thought that was very funny. He will have to get a little more adventurous around this family.

Just sharing some of our wild adventures in the mall- NOT.

Encouraged in China

2010-01-21T22:17:00.000-08:00

I am overwhelmed in so many ways today. God is so good- all the time. I am so undeserving of His amazing blessings and yet He lavishes blessing upon blessing. Praise be to the Creator of all things for His infinite power and love. What does He have in store for us tomorrow?

I read the comments back to us and can't believe all these people are interested in our situation- I hope and pray that we are an encouragement to you in some way to help you live out all that God has planned for you and yours. What will it look like in a year or 10 if we follow our Savior where He leads without reservation? Can we do this- certainly not in our own strength- but in His strength we can be and do all He has called us to.

Are we ready to let go of your kids to wherever He calls them? Are we willing to do the hard things, even when it doesn't seem too practical? Ready to step out, in total faith, to walk where He puts our next foot down? It is so hard to do and yet what He wants and requires of those who call themselves His children. Who said the Christian life was going to be practical?

I look at where we are RIGHT NOW and think, "How did we get here?", "What are we doing here, in China, with a new son?" I could not have planned a path like this for our family, both church and biological. This is so much more than I could dream up, but I do think this is exactly where He wants us, even if it is hard to understand what He is going to do with the whole thing. I am encouraged by so many who have been bumped just a bit into a little more uncomfortable place by where God has moved us.

Let's commit to do the hard things that God has planned for us, without complaining, because it is so freeing to be where He puts us, knowing He will provide for our every need when we are willing to follow Him.

We have a new son, something we weren't looking for 9 months ago, but while we pray for this young man, and the rest of our students, let's wait with great anticipation to see what He is going to do with them. But we must not pray for Him to work and then hold them so tightly that we don't allow Him to do with them as He wants.

Could he be doing all this to place John back into a house church in China, with government persecution? Sure, but what a great use of a life. Could He ask you for your life, or luxury, to minister to others far away- sure. Maybe He has that in mind for your children- don't hold them back. Talk about what it might look like if He calls them to something hard. Prepare them today for what might come in 10 or 20 years. Tell them of the joys that come from following Christ to where He calls them.

As I read about Joseph's roller coaster life in Genesis, I think about what God might do with one of my 4 boys- I have another one coming in June. Will He spend them quickly or slowly? Will He allow them to be influential, or plain vessels used up over a very long period? Those answers I may not know for a long time, but I rejoice knowing He can use even a short, fat, broken down pot to encourage others to be used more effectively for His Kingdom.

Let's start to live a little more radically out of our comfort zones and see what He wants to do. Even praying in public in China seems a little strange, but I told T, "If this gets us in hot water, then I'm up for it". I'm not ready to be persecuted, in my mind, but maybe God has something different planned for us.

Thanks again for your comments. I am doing this through my virtual network at PG, so I seem to be able to write whatever I want and it gets through, so if you want to reply Scripture back to me I think it is ok. I know it's ok with me.

Keep the heat on T- she will be ready to post pretty soon, as long as you don't let her off the hook- Kim Young:) She said, "See, Kim said it was ok if I don't".

Blessed in China

John David Weinberg

2010-01-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

John David is officially in our family.

John for the disciple whom Jesus loved that seems to have been quiet in nature.
David for a man after God's own heart who also didn't come to his own defense but allowed God to work on his behalf.

Our guide- Mary- told him that the paper work was completed and he was in our family and it hit him pretty hard. During all the office visits they were asking us questions like, "Do you promise no to abandon him?', "Why did you choose to adopt him from China?" and I was wondering how he was taking it all. He broke into tears in the van after Mary told him and cried for 20 minutes or so. The lady from the orphanage called the nanny and she talked for a while.

I'm sure it is hard. Not knowing these 2 old people, where am I going to live, I don't speak the language, my friends will all still be here... Though today was probably the widest opening of opportunity that will ever come to this young man. It is hard to imagine what John David will be, who he will become, when he is older. Will he be back in China as an English teacher? Will he help the orphanage with translation/promotion work? Will he be a business man who speaks awesome Chinese? Will he be a pastor in a Chinese church in America or China? So many possibilities he didn't have even yesterday. Hard to imagine at his age and w/o ever understanding what is available.

Pray for him that he would feel loved. Get ready to make him feel a part of our "much larger than normal" family. He will need some friends who look past is different smile, small dimensions and lack of communication skills right now- but he will be a good friend to someone.

Friday Morning

2010-01-21T14:36:00.000-08:00

OK- here's the deal- I will tell you the name of our hotel BUT you can't send us anything. If you break the rules you will be prosecuted! Those in 128 staff will smile- since I actually said it right this time.

We are at the Golden Ocean Hotel- room 1503. Anyone- PERSON- you want to send to us we will make feel at home and we will go party with them. Our friend Lavonne has given us a huge list of things we might do while we are here waiting and for the younger one in the group a little "same age" conversation might be good.

He ate like a horse last night, so that was good. All the newness and trying to be polite has him more reserved than he may normally be, but we'll get him through that in time.

His lip and palate have been repaired, but as our agency said, "not as well as they would have liked". It is still pretty cleft on the outside and we were told that they did the repair in one visit, early on, but they just don't have the quality here to repair it as well as in the US.

While we were out yesterday I couldn't tell if people were looking more at us than at him. I haven't seen anyone else here with a CL and since I can't understand anything they are saying, they may be talking about him. He seems to be a little more reserved out in public, but he is pretty reserved anyway. I hope we can get his lip repaired really well so the stigma goes away. He has a bright smile, but will have a really bright one when he is all fixed up.

I am pretty sure we are not leaving here until early next week- so we'll have the weekend here. Some of the things just "can't be done" in one day and so this is where He wants us to be, for whatever reason, and we will try to shine for Him while we are here, whatever that looks like. It certainly could be worse.

Thanks for all your comments- it really is encouraging.

Hanging Out 15 floors up

2010-01-21T01:11:00.000-08:00

We are hanging out in the room- having a difficult time finding things to do. It's really cold outside, so walking around is a short adventure, we didn't bring anything for him to do, since we didn't know what he would be able to do. T is giving him some math questions and he seems to know how to do math problems.

He really likes music and I think he might sit and watch an MTV type program all day. He likes to listen to classical piano music so Grant's key board may get some time. He is really quiet, but has a nice smile, his face lights up when he is successful at something. He doesn't eat very much and doesn't like sweets, so far- if he hangs out with Kimmy, Garrett and I that might change.

At this point I want to say how thankful we are for such awesome bio kids. Without their support this would be much more difficult, if not impossible to pull off well. They are all so excited to have their new brother and have been so welcoming to new ideas and additional family members. They have not been selfish, since it is Garrett's senior year and we are missing his BB games and Kimmy is planning a wedding and all that comes with that and she is quick to include him in all the plans. No selfishness from any adult children is pretty awesome. God has been gracious to us to allow His love to pour into their hearts and change them.

I was thinking this afternoon what would happen if our new son is too far behind in school to catch up by graduation, or.... There are so many "what-ifs" and no immediate answers. I was quickly- almost immediately- reminded that spiritually I will never catch up to where I "should be" but God has me exactly where He intended me to be- writing and you reading, not doing anything productive when there is work to do, thinking about things that have no clear answer when I want to have everything clear. He doesn't punish our lack because He makes up for every lack in the fullness of Himself. I'm so glad He didn't make a choice based on whether or not I would quickly figure it out- since there is no way I will quickly figure it out.

Wrestling with the name selection and still trying to get T to post something. Maybe later. Give her some encouragement and she might.

We Have a NEW SON!

2010-01-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of the first few minutes. Surprise- notice T is in tears. Right now she is listening to him read a book about a missionary to Brazil. He writes neater than our boys do, but he seems to get a bit frustrated- only a little- by not being able to communicate as well as he would like. Teresa is very relieved how much he understands- she thought it was going to be no English at all. He is shorter than we thought but seems to be healthy. The orphanage gave him a good batch of photos from as early as maybe 3-4, so that will be nice for him.

He seems to be very eager to please and very kind. I'm not sure how much he knows about life outside of this general area but he has been able to travel on field trips around here. I think he will be up and running sooner rather than later.
He has had one surgery and they repaired what they could at that time, but there will be more surgeries down the road and he seems to welcome any attempt to make it easier for him to fit in. I think we will have him attempt to send out a post here soon, so watch for that.

He has no idea what he has just gotten into- coming into this crazy family with the extended family that goes with us.
Missing you all and wish we could grab and go, but that's not the way it works so we will try to be patient and relax. Maybe both our ADD symptoms are flaring up.:)

8:20

2010-01-20T13:05:00.000-08:00

We are supposed to leave the hotel at 8:20, travel a short distance to the orphanage and meet "Vince". Apparently after we meet him we will go do some paperwork and from then on he is with us. Wow, what a transition.

We found out yesterday that the travel approval- TA-is in and so Sara booked our consulate visit for the 2nd- which means we should get to fly home no later than the 6th. We are always asking if it can be done faster but that doesn't seem like it is going to happen so we are just trying to go with the flow. Mary will try to help us decide if we should stay here over the weekend or go back to BJ. I think we are leaning to BJ- as there is more to do there.

I looked out onto the busy street below us and there is not one car on the street at times. Apparently the locals all work at about the same time. It looks really strange.

Tianjin Exploration

2010-01-20T10:49:00.000-08:00

We got to the hotel and decided to go out- twice. The first time we went to the "mall" which is literally right next to us. It is more of a supermarket than a mall- maybe a little like Fred Meyer- no "S".

We went at about 2 and stayed a bit more than an hour. There was a KFC- that Mary told us was good- so we went there for lunch-ish. The kids were sleeping on the tables so there was hardly any room to eat. We haven't done anything aerobically so I can feel the weight climbing off the plate and sticking right to me and we've only been here 2 days; they may charge me an overweight fee to get on the plane.

Here are some pictures from that adventure.
The ladies pick through every nut before they put them into their bag- making sure it is good.

If you want to take coffee to work this might give you enough.
I hope nobody has anything sharp around me or I might pop.

Bulk chicken necks- hand selected by each customer.

Then we went out and thought we would explore some more "off the beaten path" kind of places while it was still light out. We went over 1 block and just started to walk down the street- visiting each other, not the Chinese- and taking pictures as we went. Here is what the streets look like-

We stepped into a local market just see see how the locals live-

Notice- one is a rooster.

Back out on the street it is bitter cold- the wind is pouring through the tall buildings and funnels down to the sidewalks and it is really cold. Here is a typical meat market on the street. Notice I got dreads since coming here- it was Teresa's idea, she did always want me to have a pony tail like her dad- not kidding about that one:) Good things I was at LS so I had to keep my hair short.

Even though we were only 1 block over, and I didn't want to see the same thing twice- so no backtracking- the sides streets don't often connect with the main street so we had to walk a long way around to get back to the hotel. It was starting to get dark, making it harder to figure out the landscape. I had the room key- with the hotel name on it- so I knew even though we can't speak more than 2 words of Chinese we would somehow get back, but that we interesting. Americans stick out on the back streets of Tianjin. I hope to stick out that much from being a vertical foreigner. The traffic doesn't especially stop for pedestrians, so getting to the other side of the street, especially after dark is a bit of a thrill.

Thanks for all your comments. I can't believe you actually like hearing about this boring stuff. T said, "Our life is kind of crazy I guess compared to some people. We just go half way around the world and it's not that big of a deal, but for some this might be really crazy". I hope if you're not this adventurous that all this boring stuff will make you feel like you can travel, or maybe you are traveling vicariously through us- which is fine.
I did wake up at - I have no idea what time- and almost choked to death. I must have swallowed wrong and it was sort of like getting the wind knocked out of you- I knew I wasn't dying but it takes you by surprise. Strange addition to the post.

Up and Down

2010-01-19T21:21:00.000-08:00

This is what you do when you're bored- hang out under a 300 year old tree.

You asked for pictures- isn't she lovely- isn't she wonderful!!!

So we met our new guide today and we quickly asked her if we were meeting Vince today- she said, "No, tomorrow. They didn't have enough time to get the paper work together at the orphanage for us to pick him up today".

We are in Tianjin now, in a new hotel room for maybe a week. A very nice room on the 15th floor in a city with many tall buildings. It is a really nice room, maybe too nice for us.

We are finding that the Chinese really seem to like their cars and houses very warm. We walked into our room and it must have been 80- so I quickly opened the windows- outside its about freezing.

We were looking at each other and Teresa said "We are going to have another person in our room tomorrow who we don't even know". That does seem a bit strange. I guess I don't really think about things like that- just go and do it.

The guide- Mary- said she thinks they may have told him yesterday. I wish I could have been there to see that exchange. It is so fun to be doing what He wants us to be doing. I still feel like I am just along for the ride and don't really have too much to do with what is going on- even the fact that I have no idea what the itinerary is must be testimony to that- I normally have to know what everyone is doing and right now I don't even know what I am doing.

I will try to post some pictures on here when w return from bumming around. thanks for watching what's going on- it doesn't seem like much. Kind of boring still, which is -I think_ how my life is normally. Maybe you wouldn't say that.

Thanks for all your prayers. Teresa said that she doesn't think many people ask to be prayed for and I think she is right. That would not have been high on my list of Christmas presents before this year- but from now on if you want to give me a box with a year full of prayer every day I don't think I could ask for a more valuable one. You can use me as your guinea pig next year if you want and see how I react:)

Does this look like someone we know?

Ominous

2010-01-19T17:30:00.000-08:00

I just found out our Travel Approval has come in- this is what we have been waiting for. thanks for praying.

Sitting at breakfast- eating pickled ginger, which wasn't there yesterday, a very nice beef steak, some sauteed vegetables, more steamed rice- Teresa and I were talking about how much different the end of today will be from the beginning. I'm not nervous but it should prove to be interesting.

One of the things we have not decided is what to name him. Some of the names on the docket are Hudson- for Hudson Taylor, John- God is Gracious, Moses- returning to get his people and Timothy- young disciple and my middle name. From here on we are up for suggestions.

We were also talking about what God has in mind for our family. Where will He takes us from here? Will He takes us anywhere or are we supposed to stay where we are, doing exactly what we're doing and help others adopt? What will our new son do and be like? How will us adopting him effect the other kids in our family and in 128? Will he teach some Chinese and thus enable them to go to China as missionaries? So many questions we have not even the slightest answer to- but isn't that how our lives always are? We don't know what is coming tomorrow so we had better do what we're doing today with all we have- thanks Garrett:)

We are just waiting for our guide to call and we will be on our way to pick up our new son. Ominous!!

Day 1 Adventures

2010-01-18T22:35:00.000-08:00

It's 2:30 pm on the 19th here right now. Yes- it is my BD and yes I am old. Thanks for your BD greetings:)

We got out of bed and ate a great breakfast. It is interesting to have rice, dumplings, a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, pastries and even California rolls. I basically ate lunch rather then breakfast.

The day is foggy and gray, pretty cold- maybe 30-35- and it doesn't seem like it has rained here in a while because the snow on the sidewalks is all covered with dirt- like eastern Washington gets in the winter. The city has the appearance of being dirty when it may not be. The fog gives the appearance of being smog- but I think it may be just socked in???

The smells remind me of a cross between India and Ethiopia- kind of diesel mixed with kerosene. I was really hoping for the food to be wafting out into the streets but they may be locked down tight because of the cold.

We went with our guide to see the Temple of Heaven and took a tour.

It is a huge expanse- I think he said it was around 600 acres. The locals and non locals come out between 6a and noon and visit, sing, pray-maybe- and visit some more. Apparently when you retired this is a place to hang out and visit with your friends. They are doing things like line dancing, waltzing, a salsa like thing and playing hacky-sack with something that looks like a birdie. We jumped in and the old people are way better than we are- they had a good laugh.

We went to lunch at a dumpling place and are stuffed. Compared to what we ordered the locals must not have to eat for a coupe of days. They ordered at least twice what we did, finished it all and we left a good batch of ours. I am way bigger than the next closest person in the restaurant- so size is not the issue here.

I think we are going to take a nap- as you need to keep up on your rest in situations like this or you add to the chance of getting sick and I don't want either of us to be sick. So we'll catch up on some reading and rest- that's something we don't do a lot of. I wore my sling today because yesterday with all the airport stuff I left it off and I was pretty sore.

BTW- we miss all of your spiritual conversation. It is difficult to not have that type of conversation- and we are on day one. History is fine, learning about past rulers and why they built this temple and use this color and that number just doesn't have much interest to me. I am not being disrespectful- I guess I am just wanting more eternal things.

Why did He choose to save some and leave so many in darkness? Why was I not born here? Why do we get to have "Vince" but so many kids will remain here? So many hard question that I have no answers for.

Living on unseen things. Tomorrow is the day. Couldn't go today- we tried.

Awake morning 1

2010-01-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

it looks like I may be able to post from my computer but we'll see as the time goes on.

No issues traveling yesterday- other than it is a long day, but compared to how long it used to take by old boat, this was really fast. Teresa really had the amount of juice needed to get here and as we were going up the elevator for our room she was getting pretty white- she did really well.

The guide was waiting for us outside of baggage claim and so we hopped into the car and headed directly to the hotel- checked in and he gave us orders fr today. We are to meet him- after breakfast- at 9:30 and then we are going into BJ and have a look around. He said we will go to Tianjin tomorrow am and meet "Vince". Of course we will try to talk him into doing that today- but we just met him last night so we don't want to be pushing Americans. Maybe if he gets the orders from the agency that would work better. Those of you who know Sara could maybe put in a call.

Right now my email doesn't work on my phone- but this works so that's nice.

I will try as best I can to keep you updates but for now we are here, I have slept and T is still dozing- and we will see what God does today. Thanks for praying.

China

2010-01-18T06:10:00.000-08:00

We just arrived in Beijing- snow on the ground fog in the air and 30 degrees. The guide is supposed to pick us up and take us to the hotel- we will be ready to sleep for sure. Another empty flight;)

Tokyo

2010-01-17T23:37:00.000-08:00

Thanks for your prayers we are in Tokyo now-arriving a full hour early and flying on a plane not even close to full- That was very nice.
God gives us special mercies even in the seating capacity of an airplane.
You will be sleeping while we finish this journey and then when you wake up we will be sleeping. Currently it is 20 to 5 Monday afternoon here and we will chase the sun and land at 11 Monday night.
Please keep praying as we have no idea what is in store for us and the best and most we can all do is pray for Him to work. He is doing that.
We are at Narite airport- which in Japan is pronounce Nod-e-ta.

Teresa's quote of the day: "I didn't get anything out of what she just said" after the flight attendant gave a list of instructions in Japanese. She is a fun one to travel with- Never a dull moment.

God be with you all

2010-01-17T09:08:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here waiting for my beautiful wife to embellish herself- which is totally unnecessary- since she is already beautiful- and quite futile when embarking on a trip like this, but I appreciate that she looks so amazing after hanging around me this long.

We got a surprise this morning- SKH came and brought a Bunyan book by for us to read and before he left he prayed for us. I miss our family here before we even leave. You are our family and I can't wait to see what it is like for "Vince" to be added to this kaleidoscope of people. I can't wait to see his face and try to understand his explanation of what it is like to be really loved by so many people.

It is about midnight on Sunday in China right now and when he wakes up on Monday what will he be thinking? Last week, last Monday, last Sunday in the orphanage- what next, what will happen when this week is done? How hard it must be to wrestle with such difficult things at such an early age. How difficult it must be to see your friends leave with a family and how hard it must be to see them leave w/o one. Oh- please let his heart be soft and trusting- please let him have faith in a Father he never knew existed. Please let him put aside all the hurt and be able to come to Jesus.

We have taken for granted our kids growing up around godly people and the influence they have on them until we find we have a young man in our home who doesn't know about the love of a family or about the Father.

I was thinking about taking a "family" picture of our 128 staff, the GA students and staff, our PG family- those are really his family. He isn't coming to America to live with 5 people, he is coming to America to be carried along by that larger family. Please pray for his heart- for his hurts and concerns. Pray that he would love Jesus soon. Pray that he would feel the love of Christ in and through us. We are so unworthy to be the vessels bringing the Good News to him and yet we are the chosen ones- at least this time. Are you next? Are you learning anything from our mistakes? Are you encouraged by all our falling down and all God's picking up? Do the miracles make your faith stronger?

I don't know that I will be able to post for a day or so- you never know what you're going to run into in airports and airplanes. As soon as I am able I will up date you all. Know that we miss you before we are even gone and that our prayers are coming back to you. Pray for the snow retreat- that lives would be changed- both in new life and further sanctification. Pray for SKH's preparation.

God is sooo good to us.

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Grace be with you.

We have tickets

2010-01-16T21:59:00.000-08:00

We fly out tomorrow around noon and arrive in Beijing on their Monday night at 11:00. Tomorrow will be crazy, wearisome, exciting, filled with hope and unknowns, sad that we miss church and full of travel, all the way across the Pacific.

The trip from England to China took Hudson Taylor 6 months the first time he did it and we are going to be there in 18 hours of travel; 11:30 hours to Tokyo and 4:30 hours to Beijing.

Pray for us as we go. Pray for "Vince's" heart and that he would not be too stressed out about the future. I still can't imagine what must be going through his head right now.

God is Good- the journey begins soon and I need a really good night of sleep.

Timely Encouragement.

2010-01-16T06:05:00.000-08:00

I read Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening" each day and it has been an amazing and timely encouragement to me as I wait for what new and appropriate truth was written down so long ago and it seems to be exactly what I need for that day. His mercies are new every morning. Today is no exception.

“I will help thee, saith the Lord.”
Isaiah 41:14

This morning let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us: “I will help thee.” “It is but a small thing for me, thy God, to help thee. Consider what I have done already. What! not help thee? Why, I bought thee with my blood. What! not help thee? I have died for thee; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help thee! It is the least thing I will ever do for thee; I have done more, and will do more. Before the world began I chose thee. I made the covenant for thee. I laid aside my glory and became a man for thee; I gave up my life for thee; and if I did all this, I will surely help thee now. In helping thee, I am giving thee what I have bought for thee already. If thou hadst need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it thee; thou requirest little compared with what I am ready to give. 'Tis much for thee to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow. ‘Help thee?’ Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of thy granary asking for help, it would not ruin thee to give him a handful of thy wheat; and thou art nothing but a tiny insect at the door of my all-sufficiency. ‘I will help thee.’”

O my soul, is not this enough? Dost thou need more strength than the omnipotence of the United Trinity? Dost thou want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring hither thine empty pitcher! Surely this well will fill it. Haste, gather up thy wants, and bring them here—thine emptiness, thy woes, thy needs. Behold, this river of God is full for thy supply; what canst thou desire beside? Go forth, my soul, in this thy might. The Eternal God is thine helper!

“Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismay'd!

I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid.”

Head Shaking day

2010-01-15T22:48:00.000-08:00

I am home- got here at about 5 this afternoon. So let me update you on what happened the last couple of days.

As I posted previously- no visa, no plane ticket, no completed docs yesterday at 7am. I got on the plane- which was delayed and I truly don't think I would have made it in time if I had been on the later flight. I was able to have Kimmy return the ticket we had just purchased for a complete refund. Didn't have to rent a car in SF, walked a bit, had some "Not as good as Grant's" Chinese food in China town, was in and out of the embassy in 15 minutes this morning, got paperwork through a few agencies in the US and China in one day and returned home in 30 hours. God was busy working on our behalf!!

I talked to my agency gal this morning and she said all the posts I gave you all last night about the paperwork going through is as close to a miracle as she can believe. She told me that she has not ever seen that paperwork go through in one day- thanks for all our prayers. It is really humbling to be the recipient of all this prayer. Someone came up to me and told me that she was enjoying watching the ride from the sidelines. Humm!

Teresa told me this morning that we had to do a better job of not letting our emotions go up and down so much- HA. I don't think that many would say that I like drama, but this is pretty crazy from where I sit. WAY too BIG for me. I'll work on it.

I am not going to purchase the tickets until tomorrow since the plane is pretty empty- maybe something crazy will happen there. Why don't we pray that God reduces the price of the ticket- wouldn't that be just another crazy thing? I shake my head all the time.

Well, I'm pretty tired from the last couple of days and I need to be well rested before we embark on this journey. Pray for all the requests previously and that the Lord would allow us to get in and out quickly. The agency lady told me that 10 days is really fast, 2 weeks is normal and 3 weeks is long, so I really hope He allows us to be back in 2 weeks but right now that seems pretty unlikely. I have plenty to do here rather than be out of country for 3-4 weeks, but I must be flexible.

I'll try to be open and give it to you as it happens, both fun and not so fun.

God's Promises

2010-01-15T05:49:00.000-08:00

I get Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening" delivered to my phone and so far God is encouraging me with it. Here is today's and how appropriate it is.

"God’s promises were never meant to be thrown aside as waste paper; he intended that they should be used. God’s gold is not miser’s money, but is minted to be traded with. Nothing pleases our Lord better than to see his promises put in circulation; he loves to see his children bring them up to him, and say, 'Lord, do as thou hast said.' We glorify God when we plead his promises. Do you think that God will be any the poorer for giving you the riches he has promised? Do you dream that he will be any the less holy for giving holiness to you? Do you imagine he will be any the less pure for washing you from your sins? He has said 'Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' Faith lays hold upon the promise of pardon, and it does not delay, saying, 'This is a precious promise, I wonder if it be true?' but it goes straight to the throne with it, and pleads, 'Lord, here is the promise, ‘Do as thou hast said.’' Our Lord replies, 'Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.' When a Christian grasps a promise, if he does not take it to God, he dishonors him; but when he hastens to the throne of grace, and cries, 'Lord, I have nothing to recommend me but this, ‘Thou hast said it;’ then his desire shall be granted. Our heavenly Banker delights to cash his own notes. Never let the promise rust. Draw the word of promise out of its scabbard, and use it with holy violence. Think not that God will be troubled by your importunately reminding him of his promises. He loves to hear the loud outcries of needy souls. It is his delight to bestow favors. He is more ready to hear than you are to ask. The sun is not weary of shining, nor the fountain of flowing. It is God’s nature to keep his promises; therefore go at once to the throne with 'Do as thou hast said.'"

This morning, and last night, I found my arm to be pretty sore- I think from running in the airport and then walking a bunch in SF, but it could be worse. I did get to fly for the first time after surgery so that is a brief glimpse into what is to come-very brief. His mercies are new every morning- great is His faithfulness.

More Info- this time it's better news.

2010-01-14T22:41:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of emails I just received- this looks better. You must be praying like crazy!! Please keep praying.

"Things were not looking good but we just received notice that the case had been downloaded to our systems. We just printed it out. If all looks good, we can have the Article 5 and signed LSC ready in a few hours. Is there any chance you could have a facilitator pick it up before close of business?"

"More good news: the paperwork is in order and the documents are signed and ready to be picked up. We contacted your facilitator and she says she will be here before 4pm to pick the LSC and Article 5 up.

The next step is to work with your facilitator/agency to get the LSC and Article 5 to the CCAA as soon as possible."

Here is what you can pray for with all this. We need God to get the paperwork into the right hands and finished so that we can get our travel approval sooner rather than later. If it comes even a day too late that will mean we have to stay in China for more than 3 weeks and that's a lot of hotel dollars.

What happens is that we are not able to leave Tianjin until 5 working days after the TA is completed. That means we are not able to get to Guangzhou- to get his visa- until we have that time under our belts. They only do passports on Tues and Wed. in Guangzhou so if we miss it by a day that easily adds another week. Then if the TA is not there in time we may not be able to get an appointment in GZ until the following week. We have to stay in GZ 48 hours after the visa is cleared. You can see how the time can really snowball. God can work and He must to get this done- so please pray to those ends.

What next?

2010-01-14T20:39:00.000-08:00

I am a little discouraged right now because of an email I just received from China. I know God is big, He has carried us to an amazing place and He is in control. Here is the email and those who have been here before can post their thoughts. I was thinking about ordering airline tickets tonight but I'm not sure what to do at this point.

"The Adoptions Unit is prepared to expedite your case as quickly as possible. We currently have the DS-230, Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC), and Article 5, but the case has not been uploaded to Sharepoint by the National Visa Center. I contacted the NVC today on your behalf with an urgent request to upload the case today (Friday). Unfortunately because of the time difference, if they upload the case Friday, we will not be able to download it until next week.

Once we are able to download the case, we will issue the signed LSC and Article 5 to your adoption agency's facilitator immediately. At that point we suggest the facilitator fax the documents to the CCAA and send the originals. In emergency cases the CCAA has been willing to accept the faxed documents to more quickly issue the Travel Authorization. Because Monday is a holiday- MLK Day in China, for Americans_, we have one less day to work with. We will check first thing Tuesday and as I said, issue the LSC and Article 5 immediately.

I sincerely hope we don't run out of time!"

Please pray that we would have wisdom to know what to do. I'm over my head as usual.

San Fran

2010-01-14T16:10:00.000-08:00

God had it planned a very long time ago for me to come to San Fran today and spend the night- so that is what I am doing.

I was able to get the visa apps in to the embassy and will pick them up tomorrow morning at 9 and head back. I am sitting on the bed in my hotel room and thinking about where I want to go for dinner- many choices here. Maybe sushi???

Today is definitively God directed. I literally got on the plane- since they were calling my name over the PA system- and they closed the door behind me. I am not sure if I would have arrived on time catching the later flight- but I don't need to know that.

I did talk to the adoption services person at NW airlines and they do have a really nice program for purchasing tickets when there are dates that are questionable- but they are twice the price. They can be changed or canceled any time. I think we are going the cheaper way, but I haven't locked that in yet.

Even with all these crazy things we are doing I can't help but think of the lengths God went to in order to adopt me- this is nothing.

I'm going to explore a bit.

BTW- there is a much easier way to ge your visas then the way I just did it:)

Crazy morning! Probably crazy day.

2010-01-14T11:47:00.000-08:00

I got up early this morning because I couldn't sleep and I feel like I have been sleeping too much lately. It wasn't anything special going on in my head, just a little reading and praying that God would direct in this crazy time. I looked at a piece of adoption paperwork and decided just to look over it quickly to make sure there was nothing there I hadn't overlooked. There was and it is something very BIG.

In many other trips to many other countries there are certain docs that need to be in hand before you leave, but with the world shrinking many are in the airport upon arrival- some are not. For example- in Ethiopia you can get your visa at the airport when you land. This is NOT the case for China. OH NO- we don't have our visas yet.

So right now-literally right now- I am inputting this in to the blog from 20-30k feet on a plane to San Fran to go to the Chinese Embassy. Wi-Fi on the plane is nice. They close at 3:00 and the site is about 20 minutes from the airport. I will get off the plane and catch a cab there and I hope there are many praying that God would once again over rule my ignorance and foolishness and allow me to both arrive in time to get them and also that they would be kind enough to allow me to pick it up today- not the norm. If either one of those 2 does not happen it might be a mess- but there is more to the story.

When I realized I hadn't done my work, I told Teresa and we took digital pictures of each other, Kimmy printed them off our computer and sized them for us, I filled out the docs while Kimmy and T were looking at flights and I headed to the airport. There was a 10:50 flight on VA and I left the house at 9:50. Ok, look at those times. No possible way that is going to happen, right? I had Kimmy book me a flight on Cont. at 12:08 but that was going to be cutting it really close- closer than it already will be- but I needed to be able to walk up and get a seat.

I figured I should at least check- at 10:45- if there was any way to get on the VA flight. Well, God delayed the flight and we took off at 11:30. OK- how can this happen without God slowing down the flight. It will be interesting to see what He does to show off when I land. I have no idea what's coming.

I do have to ask forgiveness for impatience and unbelief from my girls- as I didn't think there was any way I would be on this plane and I was not happy with their calmness in the moment. I guess this is "F" number 1 for me and we haven't even purchased the plane tickets. Thanks girls.

I'll try to keep you posted. I don't deserve this much grace. I guess that's the point of grace.

Reality Video

2010-01-14T05:40:00.000-08:00

I understand that I will probably not be able to post easily on the blog while we are in China, so I may set up a plan to email the daily postings and have someone here add them to the blog. Will work on that today.

I was asked to video tape the process- like a reality show- and am wondering if this would be something that many would be interested in viewing. I don't like to see or hear myself in this kind of a setting but if it would be helpful/encouraging to others I would make the effort to do this. I would have to put this together after we return.

Bear in mind this would be real life- the good the bad and the ugly- so you are going to see us in some ugly moods and hard situations and you will also see us in some amazingly happy times as well. International travel is tough going, especially with a bunch of government paperwork to do, and so you will probably see us in some very frustrated and boring moments.

I will look for your responses to determine if this is something we take the time to do. I have not asked Teresa yet, so I may be in trouble already. Again, if you think it would be helpful we will do it. I'm not sure what to think of this myself.

Update for today

2010-01-13T20:08:00.000-08:00

So today was interesting with more phone calls and emails.

Here's what I know and unfortunately it's not too much:) We need to fly soon, we haven't purchased tickets yet, I am not sure what do we really need to be there, and I am not sure when we are going to return. Most of our hang-ups are on the American side, but some may be hang-ups when the American side is completed.

We know we have to get our Travel Approval(TA) before we can have some of the dates- like the reservation at the NVC- getting "Vince's" visa. So we can't get a reservation until we have the TA and we won't have the TA until we are in China, so when do we get to return?

I think we will know much more tomorrow and I did talk to a reservation specialist at NW airlines and she told me that they have an adoption program for flights. I don't want to schedule a ticket and then have to change the date and get charged another $1000 just to change that date- apparently they have a program for people like us. I will keep you posted on this, as this may be a good program for other adoptive parents to use.

I also talked to a family today that picked up their "aging out" son from the same orphanage as "Vince" is from. He is 14 now and deaf, so that had to be a challenge. I asked when the orphanage told him he was being adopted and they said they thought he was told about 2 days before he was to age out. When his dad came up to the orphanage he ran out with his back pack on and hugged him and didn't want to let him go. The mom also told me, "Your life will not be the same when you see the look in his eyes at all the 'firsts' in his life".

It looks like we also have a lot of first time things coming our way as well. Thanks for all your prayers and postings, suggestions, emails and the likes.

What's happening?

2010-01-12T15:27:00.000-08:00

The email comes in, the phone rings and what is the news on the other end? What are they going to say? Is the paper work done? Did the right people call the other right people and get the info there in time?

I talked to the agency today and we are going to China!!!

So here are the "specifics". We are going to China, and the paperwork is not completed. We are traveling and the paperwork will be done when we are either traveling or when we are there. If we wait until we have final papers then we may not have time to go. The agency said that there is always a possibility of not getting our son but they are confident that this will happen. They are 3 for 3 in situations like this and they feel like this has a better possibility of going through than they have on some of the others.

So what does that all mean? We are going out on faith- as the entire process has been- and if God wants it to happen it will. We haven't had any guarantees to this point and there are still none.

So what can you all be praying for?
1. Paperwork to get into the right hands and back out of those hands into the next.
2. Travel would be affordable at this late hour.
3. We would walk by faith and trust that God is sovereign.
4. "Vince's" heart to be tender to the Gospel.
5. Our hearts would be tender toward each other and the Lord's leading.
6. Our pots would be full of grace, as traveling is both exhausting and frustrating.
7. Funds for the trip and all the associated costs that are coming up.
8. Wisdom to know what to try to include and exclude on the trip.
9. Snow retreat without us:( First time in 10-ish years.
10. Did I mention that our hearts would be tender and our pots full of grace?

Thanks for all your prayers and please don't stop now. There is still a lot of things that need to take place.
I did ask the agency if he knows he is this close to being adopted and they are not sure. I also asked if he knows he will age out and they thought he probably did know that. I really can't imagine what must be going through his mind right now.

How much does it Cost to Adopt?

2010-01-12T04:56:00.000-08:00

A thought I had this morning and much of yesterday afternoon has to do with the cost of adoption. I talked to a lady, who- with her husband- has adopted 6 kids from China. I am pretty sure they are just "normal" people, making a median income. She is a home school mom. I asked her how she afforded to adopt all these kids, knowing personally how much it costs- especially when you are trying to do it the fast way. She said "Well, God has provided along the way in amazing ways and since we just have brought 2 more home in the last month we are now in pretty serious debt".

There is a great financial cost to adoption. Cost is what keeps many from even starting the process. And since we are still rookies we don't even really know the true cost yet. But this is not the cost, nor the adoption, I have been thinking about.

As I think about literal, physical costs that we are incurring and about the limited resources that we have as a family, God directed my thoughts in a different direction.

His resources are unlimited. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He knows where every vein of gold is, where the biggest diamond lies, where the field of platinum sits waiting to be discovered so is it fair to say that He is not worried about the cost for our adoption? He can pay for it without any effort at all.

But since He has unlimited resources then the barrier to entry, for Him, is no barrier at all, right? If adoption makes no impact on your budget at all, then how many people are going to adopt? Many more. There are other costs, such as time, attention, health and social concerns, unknown history with the child, others sibling issues. All of these can be barriers to entry for many people- but look at them from God's perspective. There are no budget issues, no divided time problems, no medical or emotional circumstances that He does not know and for Him, we are all siblings anyway.

So I go back to the cost concerns that many have. If none of these are an issue to Him He should be quick to adopt-right? But He didn't take the easy way out in adopting us. He could have made the price for our spiritual adoption anything He wanted- He sets up the rules. But to show how much He really loves His children He made it so the cost could not have been higher for Him. He could have bought us with hundreds of pounds of silver, gold or platinum, but that would have been too cheap. He used the most expensive currency He had. He paid for our adoption with the only "thing" that really had value to Him- His only Son. He didn't spend one of 2000 sons to purchase us- His cost was one of one.

Why would He devise such a plan, when He could have done it so many others ways and still been God? Why such a great cost to Himself? Why such a great cost to Christ? To show His amazing love for us. We are not worthy of ANY redemption cost and He redeemed us at the highest cost- to show how much He loves us. Our adoption is much more expensive than any human adoption will ever cost- may we remember the cost and rejoice in it, praise Him for it and be loud exclaimers of what has been done on our behalf.

Amazing Love, How can it be, that You my God would die for me?

Outside Help??

2010-01-12T04:38:00.000-08:00

I was lying in bed this morning and thinking about a few things concerning where we are in the process. I am not really worried about any of these things, though there is certainly enough unknowns to help me realize once again my utter dependence on my Heavenly Father.

I have made some contacts with some people, one of which is Paull Shin, whom I have already mentioned on the blog. I have also initiated contact with both Patty Murray and former governor Gary Locke. Patty Murray is currently in China and Gary Locke and his wife both have Chinese ancestry. Why I am mentioning this? Though these people have some political connections I am concerned that if I push to open the lines of communication too hard that if they get something done then the spotlight of the story would go on them rather than God getting this done.

Can you picture the news story now? Senator, former governor makes adoption of Chinese boy possible. This is God's story and I don't want any of the credit to go to anyone else. So unless God makes it plain to me this is how I think it should go.

These people get emails from so many people every day that sending an email is like throwing a needle into a hay stack to be found. I have sent emails to them and have not heard back from their offices, and up until now it really has not been necessary for them to get the email. I am going to send another email with where we are in the process and let God answer the emails by having them actually get to the desk and eyes of the people He wants them to get to. If He doesn't want to share the lead role in this story then He will not let them see it. I think calling their office is too proactive on my part. He started this, literally from day one, and He can finish it by Himself if this is His desire. So please pray to those ends.

Update

2010-01-11T20:24:00.000-08:00

It's 8:30 and I talked to the agency a couple of times today, got a few emails, sent off some paperwork to China and I don't know any more than I did this morning. They are still optimistic, but I think that until we have all the "Peking" ducks in a row we can't get too carried away.

Bottom line- God is on His throne and if this is what He want to happen then there is nothing that can prevent it from happening.

I did talk to a lady who has adopted 6 children from China and she said she was amazed how much faith and courage we had to start with a child this old. I guess I hadn't really thought too much about what might be coming after we pick up our son- if God allows that. I said, "Well, maybe it is not that I have so much faith, maybe I'm just ignorant". She said- "That's how God shows He is using us- using the simple to confound the wise". I guess that's me.

I'm excited to be used in whatever simple way God wants to use a simple guy. Maybe this is why He gave us Grant's event and the whole of 2009- to build our faith in order that we would just start walking in faith, knowing that I certainly don't have any of the answers and in fact I haven't a clue what the questions are going to be. It seems that is what faith is- walking when you have no idea what will come as you walk and where you will end up, but the answer to that doesn't matter; what matters is Who we are following.

So here I am waiting to see what He will do and thinking about all the implications of where we are walking- both for us and for "Vince".

Spectator in your own life

2010-01-11T06:25:00.000-08:00

This weekend and right now we have a feeling of guarded excitement. I think we all want to be excited about what might happen today or tomorrow, but we don't want to get our hopes up and have them dashed on the rocks of bureaucracy.

We are supposed to find out today what is really happening. Truthfully and humanly speaking it seems like God would allow us to bring this young man into our family, since there is a lot of money out now and if we don't get him much of that money is not coming back, so it seems like a waste of His money, but there is not much humanly going on in this process anyway. I want to be content in whatever God brings and maybe being guardedly optimistic is my way of protecting from disappointment if it doesn't happen. I'm not sure that this is what God would want me to be doing- does that show little faith? Not sure.

Teresa and I, and really many from the church family, have been talking about what will happen if we don't get him and how different his life will be if we are allowed. Does he know what's going on? Does he have any idea about us yet? How hard would it be for him if he does know and God doesn't allow it all to go through? It's coming down to the wire and as usual I don't have any control over much of what is going on, so God will have to work- the great thing is is that He has already worked to start this process and has carried it all the way. I believe that the process we went through over the few working days between Christmas and New Years is listed on our schedule, in normal time, as being 4-5 months- so God got a 4-5 month process done in about 4 days.

There is much to be praying about- and we cherish your prayers- and there is already much to be thankful for. We have learned much and have met some people we would not have met if He had not placed us in this process. What does He want us to learn and what will He do next? It's fun to be a spectator in your own life- something I am not used to being.

Update

2010-01-07T15:29:00.001-08:00

I talked to our adoption agency today and they told me they are "net-daying" more paperwork to us, we will need to sign it and send it "next-day" to Texas. They should have it in their hands on Monday, input it into the system, scan it and send it to China and they will report back to the agency then.

She told me that we would know something with regard to flights and travel on Monday, so maybe Tuesday.

Kind of crazy, but God is in control and I can't wait- though I must- to see what He is going to to with all this.

Just trying to keep all you "pray-ers" up to speed.

An Adoption Advocate

2009-12-30T10:39:00.000-08:00

I thought you would like to read this story and to know that there are people in our state who are willing and able to jump in and go to work for us when we need help. His office has told us that if they can help in any way to bring "Vince" home they are happy to do that. This is a nice story.

"Sen. Paull Shin is a name you don’t hear much around Olympia. As a legislator, he doesn’t speak very much on the floor of the Senate, but when he does it’s with a calm and assured demeanor. Never inflammatory, he’s rarely mentioned in the press. Nevertheless, Sen. Shin is one of the strongest voices in Olympia.

Sen. Shin’s journey from his native Korea to the halls of government is one of the most unlikely and amazing stories in Washington state history.

A childhood none of us could imagine
Shin was born in Japanese-occupied Korea in 1935. His mother died when he was four years old; shortly afterward, his father abandoned him in the streets. With the brutality of the occupation and the world at war all around him, Shin grew up in conditions that even Charles Dickens couldn’t imagine. Eating spoiled food and wearing filthy clothing, he had no relatives and no friends. Shin survived in the open elements through Korea’s sweltering summers and frigid winters. Just surviving until the next day was often a struggle.

“I remember at night, crouching down in the street and looking up at the stars,” said Shin. I would start tearing up and crying for my mother.” When he tried to go to school in Korea to improve his situation, they kicked him out on first sight.

In 1950, communist North Korea invaded South Korea. Under a United Nations directive, the United States led an international coalition to defend South Korea. Many residents of Seoul fled south to Pusan after U.N. forces were able to secure the area on the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. Shin joined the exodus. He was almost halfway there when news arrived that Gen. Douglas MacArthur had captured Seoul. Shin headed back to the capital city.

In their hasty retreat, both the U.N. forces and the Korean People’s Army had knocked out all the bridges crossing the major rivers. Walking north, Shin came upon a United Nations pontoon bridge crossing the Han River. Unable to cross (soldiers guarding the bridge gave priority to military vehicles), Shin begged the passing soldiers for food. Finally, one day an officer grabbed him and put him in his truck. The officer was part of a U.S. Army medical unit. The soldiers instantly took a liking to Shin, offering him a job at their base and making him a houseboy for the officers. For the first time in his life, Shin was able to bathe, wear clean clothes, and eat on a regular basis.

Even at the base, Shin felt alone in the world. Like before, there was no one he could talk to or be friends with. At night, he would sneak outside and look up at the stars, crying, thinking of his mother. One night, one of the officers from the base came upon Shin.

“I looked up at this man who was looking at me,” said Shin. “The next thing I know, he was hugging me with his big, powerful arms. That was the beginning of my new life.” The officer was a dentist named Ray Paull. Through the remainder of the war, Shin and Paull developed a close, father-and-son relationship. When the war ended, Paull adopted Shin.

Coming to America
It took nearly a year for the adoption paperwork to go through the system before Shin could start his new life in the United States. In 1954, he met his new family at their home in Salt Lake City. In honor of the man who gave him a new life, Shin changed his first name to Paull. Once Shin was here, he didn’t waste much time. He had always dreamed of getting an education, and now he had the opportunity.

At an age when most American children were finishing their primary education, Paull Shin was just beginning his. There were a few problems starting out. All of the schools in the area rejected Shin because of his age, his lack of previous education and his lack of English skills. However, this didn’t deter Shin. With the help of his new family, Shin started a GED program.

“I remember only getting three hours a sleep a night while I was studying, trying to memorize the English dictionary,” said Shin. “My new father and family were there supporting and believing in me.”

In less than 18 months, Shin finished his GED. He then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brigham Young University. After a brief spell in the U.S. Army, he went on to get his master’s degree in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh, and another master’s and a doctorate from the University of Washington.

While at the University of Washington in the Korean Studies Program, Shin rediscovered himself. “I had terrible feelings. I felt rejected by Korea,” he said. “When another Korean person would come up to me, I felt embarrassed because I didn’t know how to speak and read Korean.” Through the Korean Studies Program at UW, Shin was able to rediscover the country of his birth — something he has always been grateful for. Many years later, when the program faced the budget-cutter’s axe, Shin led the effort to not only fund it, but also set up a permanent endowment so the program could continue as a vital link between the two countries.

After teaching in Hawaii for a few years, Shin decided to move back to the Pacific Northwest. In 1969, he took a job at Shoreline Community College as a professor of history and East Asian civilization. He taught there for more than 26 years.

Into state politics
Paull Shin got involved in politics when, in 1976, Gov. Dan Evans called on Shin to help him increase trade with Korea and Japan. Through many changes of administration in the governor’s office, Shin served as a trade ambassador to the state, a role in which he continues to this day. By 1987, both parties were actively recruiting him to run for office. Secretary of State Ralph Munro tried to get him to run as a Republican, while Gov. Booth Gardner tried to get him to run as a Democrat. Gardner won out..."

Daniel Brunell
Article for Association for Washington Business.

Paperwork update

2009-12-23T11:13:00.001-08:00

I just found out from the people in DC that the documents that we sent- to arrive no later than 8am this morning- did NOT get there until between 9-10 and they are Not being processed until Monday. We were hoping that they would be processed today, sent to the agency tonight and off to China tomorrow night, but God had a different plan apparently and so we are waiting on His direction and His processing power.

We had 1 month from yesterday, so this is getting pretty tight- ok really tight- but nothing is too big for God if this is what He wants to have happen.

I'll keep you posted and please keep praying that God would want us to have "Vince". We are ready if He is willing.

Wild Day in Olympia

2009-12-22T04:43:00.000-08:00

The beat goes on.

Yesterday was Secretary of State day for the Weinbergs. We had to take all of our paper work down to Olympia to be authenticated and notarized. Since one of the documents had been notarized with a stamp that is now expired- apparently they cannot change stamps until the day of expiration- we had to go back to that person and have her re-notarize it for us, which meant we had to wait for their shop to open. We did that and were on our way down to the capitol.

We hadn't quite made it to Lake Stevens proper and I said, "Are you sure we have everything we need before we drive all the way there?" Teresa asked me a question about a document that I had received in email form. I had been waiting for it by fax and then the lady in DC decided to email it to me instead, so that was a bit confusing; was I waiting for a fax still, no it came by email.

Then there was still a letter that was supposed to be delivered from someone, I can't remember who, from again somewhere on the east coast, "Did we already get that one?". 'I think before we go all the way to Olympia that we had better go back home and make sure we have every single piece of paper we could ever need".

As we were driving home we past Kimmy leaving for Seattle with Ian and we waved as we passed. We got home and about 2 minutes later Kimmy walked in the front door; "What happened, aren't you guys going to Olympia". "Yes" we replied "But we think there might be a package we are waiting for on Fedex". She walked into the house, picked something, I don't know what up, and walked back out. She came back in 5 seconds later and said, "Fedex is here". Thank you Lord for not making us wait and for not letting us get all the way there w/o that piece of paper.

Still a little frazzled we made sure we had every thing we needed and headed back down. The mall parking lots are bursting as we drive past on the freeways- people attempting to find the perfect gift that will change their "listed people's" lives, while being in a frenzy because they waited until the last second to purchase this life changing gift. I'm glad I am on my way to Olympia- should we ever be super excited to go to Olympia to visit the Secretary of States office?

We get to the office and the people there are really nice. They do this kind of thing all the time, so they know a bit more about what they are looking for than we do, but each state and country is a bit different and each agency has a different set of docs, so they are not totally sure what they are looking for either.

We found out that they expect every doc to be notarized before it gets to them, even though our agency made it sound like there would be some that would have to be authenticated and notarized by them. The lady said it happens all the time, but thankfully she didn't send us home or back out, she just did that for us.

We had all of our family background checks done previously, with the home study, and we had to go to the local police station to get one done for Washington state, which really made no sense to me, since that is wHere T has lived almost her entire life. Our home study provider sent the ones they had to us, since we had already paid for them. We handed them over to the lady at the SofS office and she said she had never seen this form before, it always looked different. She advised us to go the WSP and get a new one and have it notarized while we were there. So off we went to WSP.

We got on the computer in their lobby, since it is cheaper to do that then have them input it for you, and finished that up, but then the lady there told us it would be between and hour and 1-1/2 hours to get that back completed. In the mean time we had copies to make, so we went for a late lunch and went to Kinkos to copy all the paper work.

We had thought that we needed to wait to copy all these forms until oAter the authentication took place, but the SofS lady said that this was incorrect and that many agencies tell their people the wrong thing to do, since once they have been authenticated the forms cannot be separated from each other. Ok, we'll do that now.

We checked the PU time for Fedex while there and got the copies made, went back to WSP and picked up basically the same forms as we had previously, just now they were notarized by them and back to the SofS's office.

Everything looks great there. They were really fast and told us of a BofA that was closer than the one tHe other lady had told us, as we needed to get a cashiers check to send in the packages for the processing fees for all these docs. Got the cashier's check and went back to Kinkos to send them all off.

While there we explained to one of the staff what we were trying to accomplish and he was excited because his sister is in the process of adopting. We have a lot of docs to send and some are going one place to be processed and some are going to another, but could arrive with the other packet. So we wanted to put them all in one single envelope so the first person could do the work and then send them all to the next person. "No problem, here is how we need to do this", was his reply.

He grabbed an envelope and had me put the docs in that one, but then it was not large enough to accommodate all the other papers, so I took those out of that one and asked if he had a larger one. He did so I took those papers out and transferred them. There is a point to all this rambling.

He finished the transaction with us, but had not put the stickers on the envelope. T and I were a little reluctant to leave w/o those stickers and the address being on the envelope, but after about 2-3 minutes I finally told her we were going to leave and let God handle this. We left, got in really thick traffic on the way home, were late to Garrett's non league game, which he didn't start, so it didn't matter thatf we weren't on time.

I went to the concession stand, at half time, to get a hot dog since we ate a long time ago, and went to pull out my wallet, which is normally in my jacket pocket. I put it there when I am logging many miles in the car, so it doesn't make me "crooked" in my back pocket. It wasn't there. It wasn't in my pants pocket. "Oh no, did I leave it at Kinkos in Olympia"?

I went out to the truck and thankfully it was on the floor of the back seat- it had fallen out of my coat pocket sometime in the long drive home. "Thank you Lord".

The rest of the night was uneventful and we got home, relaxed a bit and T checked the voice mail on the home phone. A message from the Kinkos guy in Olympia. A client of theirs had found our checks in the "first" envelope and they had not gone on with our forms. When I had taken the docs out of the first envelope the checks must have slid out of those papers and were in the bottom of that envelope and not made the transfer to the bigger envelope. They put them in the safe over night and I have to call him this am to give him instructions.

When T let me listen to the message all I could do was laugh and think about how many obstacles we had to cross and how many places we could have fallen down and what would have seemed to be one of the easiest parts ended up being the crashing point. God gave us some glimmers along the way yesterday and He can still make all this work. It's really is too big for us now and it will be fun to see what He does with all this.

Please pray that all this gets done in time, especially with all the holidays and weekends in the middle of it all. I'll keep you posted.

Crazy Week

2009-12-19T12:05:00.001-08:00

Last Thursday I had shoulder surgery- torn rotator cuff- and I scheduled it only AFTER I consulted the surgeon informing him that on Friday our entire family was scheduled to go to Dept. of Homeland Security and be finger printed. He informed me this would be no problem and I told him if there was going to be ANY issue that I should schedule it for this week. Again, no issues.

It is awesome that God has allowed people to be smart enough to create all these different medical devices that allow repairing a shoulder that was pretty up with just 4 little holes and I came home the same day; though I was pretty beat.

We went, on Friday morning, to Tukwila, about an hour and a half drive from here, and took all our paperwork in. It's like the airport except they don't really seem to be protecting anything. I don't think there are a bunch of people who are going to try to hijack that building, but maybe I am naive.

We arrived early- in true Weinberg form- and then got our numbers. They called me up and took one look at my arm in a sling and decided that it would be too risky- for them- to finger print me. Humm. I told them the story about the surgeon and they told me that I would have to get a note from the doctor before they could proceed. I knew he had surgeries scheduled for Fridays but I couldn't not get these done if there was any possible way on my end. I got the doctor to write a note and he faxed it in. Then the man in charge told me that it didn't matter if I had a note of not, they were going to make the decision whether or not they were going to finger print me. Humm, why did I trouble the doctor to do that??

We arrived at 11:30 and finally left, all finger printed, at 1:30. Kind of nuts.

Then we had all our paperwork and now we have to get it in the mail. Next day here, same day processing there, fax this thing to them and emails burning up the airways. Will we actually get this all completed in time? Only God knows the answer to that question. It will literally comes down to the last day or 2 I'm sure, but God has this all planned out and if "Vince" is supposed to be part of our family, more than just in our hearts, then it will all get to the right people in time. Pretty crazy.

On Monday we have to go to Olympia and get a bunch of paperwork notarized, certified and authenticated. I had to next day my birth cert. to NJ, since that is where I was born, in order for them to authenticate the paper they sent me. Humm? You send it to me and then I send it back to you so you can make sure it is right. That seems a bit odd, but we are trying to play be the rules and get through the "game" as fast as we can.

Anyway, it seems as if adopting an international child who is about to age out is about as miraculous as conception. We have 3 kids to prove that God can do miracles, so it's easy for Him to do another.

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement along the way. I'll keep you posted as we go along. BTW, I am supposed to be in a sling for at least 4 weeks and then I get to do some very light resistance exercises. I think I am going to be gimped up for quite a while, but this is all part of His plan so I had better just enjoy the process.

Awesome Reminder

2009-12-07T21:39:00.000-08:00

A great reminder about adoption.
Get the book if you haven't already read it.

Roller Coaster

2009-12-03T13:25:00.000-08:00

Well this has been a roller coaster since we came back from Ethiopia.

There was no agency, then one came on and then went back off and today it appears as if God may have provided not one but 2 agencies to get these kids into homes. Time will tell and we'll know more on Monday or Tuesday, but it looks as if there is a real solid one that will start taking applications as early as today.

Praise God for His amazing provision for these kids. he never fails.

Hard News

2009-11-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

Much happened yesterday but one of the big things is that the agency that I posted about on the 13th decided yesterday that they were not going to work with KKids.

Hard news to hear but God has a plan and it is way bigger than I can imagine. Please pray for all who are involved that they would trust Him to care for these children and that He would provide for this situation exceedingly, abundantly.

Much is happening on this front and He must work in an amazing way for this all to work out. This is certainly not beyond His control or out of the scope of His power, we must take all things to Him in prayer.

Ethiopia Slide Show

2009-11-14T06:23:00.000-08:00

I am currently scheduled to show the slide show from our trip on Sunday morning. It will be in the SS class 1st hour at GBC. You can send me an email-chuck@pricelessgranite.com- if you have questions or need directions. It should be fun.

New Agency

2009-11-13T04:25:00.001-08:00

For a few weeks now we have been praying for KKids agency situation; they had one that they had been working with for quite some time and that stopped and so there was no easy way for them to get the kids placed w/o an agency partner. Well, in very "only God" form, He came through for them and they not only have an agency, they have the agency that costs the least amount of any they had on the table.

Michelle is very excited, as they already have 4 families in the process, with the new agency, and quite a few more ready to jump in. This will mean that some of the kids we saw in Ethiopia will be placed in the not too distant future. God is so good. I hope that some of them will come to Washington so we can see them periodically. Our hearts are certainly connected with them.

It has been fun to watch God work all this out and He generally waits until there is no other way before He does act. In this way He maximizes the glory as there is no way we can claim any of the work. He is good.

Please continue to pray for the kids and the workers. Please pray that God would continue to bring families that want to adopt and that He would be moving in the hearts of the children to draw them to Himself. If they come to America to have a family and are not in His, they have not improved their situation. Please also pray for another agency to work with KKids, as this would allow them to place even more kids. God is THE Protector and Provider and it is up to Him to work and do those things, but we must still ask.

Tick, Tick, Tick

2009-11-11T05:16:00.000-08:00

I have to share all these stories- tales, as my friend Curtis calls them- with you because it is so amazing to see God work in the small and the big things in our lives.

Teresa and I had to send in a big packet of papers to the USCIS in Texas. What the letters mean really doesn't add to the story. We had received an 18 page set of instructions from our agency for use in a particular set of documents, but with any instructions there is room for interpretation, even if they are in English.

She had a few questions and so she called the agency before actually sending the paperwork and the cashiers check off. I had asked her if ALL of those papers needed to go and she told me she had talked to the agency and they gave her the nod. The problem was that they could not see what she was actually sending.

Off to the Fedex place. We went to the first place and found out that they did have cashiers checks, so we would be able to get the package off from this location. But then we found out that we had to have $1000 CASH in order to get it there. Yeah, like I am carry a grand around in my pocket. OK, not from this location.

We get the envelope paid for and then we had to get to the bank to get the cashier check. Drive 15 minutes, tick, tick, tick. The lady called ahead and said that the driver picks up at 4. We have a half an hour. OK, we have time.

We get to the bank, T runs in to get the cashiers check and runs back out. Tick, tick, tick. We go over to where the Fedex place is suppose to be, but we can't find it. We drive around the block, but it is not where we thought it was. Around the block again, but now from a different angle. "Oh, there it is". 4:06.

"Sorry, the driver picked up about 10 minutes ago". Ok, why all the driving around to miss the truck, by 10 minutes, until tomorrow?

We got home and the agency called and asked how it was going. Many questions and answers forth coming. Then the lady said something and I looked over to the counter with all the piles on it and noticed that the one BIG pile was completely gone. I asked some questions of her and T and came to the conclusion that we had sent too much paperwork in the packet. Then an hour later T looked through some more of her many stacks and noticed that there was 1 piece of paper that had gotten separated the pile that was supposed to go.

The next morning she went back down to the Fedex place and asked if she could take some papers out and add 1 in and they were nice enough to give it back to her so she could.

Humm, I wonder why the driver came just before we got there? I wonder why we had to go to the bank 15 minutes away to get the check? God is like that. He even cares about Fedex deliver and pickup times.

What's going on with our Process?

2009-11-09T05:18:00.000-08:00

I have purposefully left the last post on top for a long time in hopes that many would add their stories and "Thank you" to those who have done that.

Just a little update on where we are on our process. We have our home study completed-finally- and we are now starting the I800 form, which is a whole bunch of paper work that Teresa is really knocking out. This will all have to be completed and then we have to take it to Olympia to finalize it. Then finger prints and...

Last week I told the agency that it didn't seem like we had done that much paper work yet and really just had to answer a bunch of questions and wait. She told me that since the HS was completed that now was the time when we were going to have to do lots of paperwork. So here we go. If you have helpful hints about this process feel free to comment, as it seems like there are those, other than just us, who can benefit from your insight into these things.

Please be praying for "Vince" as I don't think if he knows yet and if he understands the process in China he may be getting discouraged at his chances of having a home. Also, pray that God would already be working in his heart, drawing him to Himself. It is amazing to think that God can work right now in his heart even when he may not be getting any Biblical teaching. There is a God shaped hole in each one of our hearts and God can make us see that it is empty whenever He wants. Pray that he would feel the great need he has.

Please Post a Comment

2009-10-09T06:43:00.000-07:00

I know some of you who read this have adopted and I need you to tell the other readers about God's faithfulness in providing in all kinds of crazy ways to make that happen. This is a request from me to you to tell about how good God really is in order that those who are reluctant to start the process can be encouraged.
Please even just tell a little story.
Some have gone to pick up their kids recently, some have had them for a long time, I don;t really care which one you are please just share. I would love it if there were 50 stories on here about God's faithfulness. We can't praise Him too much.

Ants

2009-10-09T05:48:00.000-07:00

Teresa and I were talking yesterday about the needs we just saw a week ago in Ethiopia. There is so much need and we have so little resources. She said she feels like a little ant.

Imagine the ant going back and forth from the scrap of food to the ant hill. The ant doesn't get discouraged and say, "Well it's too little food for such a long walk so I just won't do anything". The ant leader picks the closest food and the colony starts the work. Back and forth, back and forth; one crumb at a time. What are they really getting done? This is way too much work for one little crumb, but is it?

If they didn't, each one, do their part the entire hill would die.

Now imagine that we are ants but we have God as our Provider. God gives us some work to do and it seems like the "crumbs" are really far from the "hill" but that is where we are called to work. We work each day going to and from that "crumb", and as we work we pray that God would deliver to us a feast closer to the hill. Well, it only takes God dropping an entire picnic basket right next to the hill to change both our attitude and the effectiveness of our work.

So, we must not get discouraged that we are undertaking too great a task. We must not grumble that God has made the task too far away. We must not grumble at His provision. We must rejoice in His provision and pray that He would give us fruit in our labors and if He decides to drop a "picnic basket" right next to us, then He alone is the One who is deserving of our praise.

I hope this encourages you as you contemplate God's faithfulness to the ant hill.

Opportunities Abounding

2009-10-05T05:40:00.001-07:00

I got an email from Michelle last night; a very long email. I need to talk to her today and make sure I have all the facts straight before I post too much. But here is what I know right now.

They brought a good group of kids to the orphanage after we left; close to 20 more. They hit a hyena with the van and had to do some repairs to the van while on the road with all the kids. There are some relatively large financial obligations that are looming over head right now and with the US and world economies doing less than stellar, it is difficult for them to make ends meet. Michelle is still very hurt from all the slanderous remarks made about her on Australian TV; the entire program was very anti-Christian. Since their vision is to place kids in only Christian homes that makes them a key target. There are some real positive opportunities in Ethiopia right now, but all these things take dollars, and they just don't have lots of dollars right now. Now there are a lot of mouths to feed there and that all takes money and staff, which takes more money.

I personally don't even have any idea where to begin. The needs are so great and we don't have enough to "fix it", but God knows where the support will come from and He works in some crazy ways to show off His great power.

Please pray that Michelle and her team would have wisdom. That God would show Himself strong to provide for each one of these issues. That each one of us would trust Him in our daily lives and live in such a way that He would be shown great.

What can you do? Whatever God calls you to do, in whatever way He calls you to do it. Don't quench the Holy Spirit and don't limit His power to provide, but also don't feel guilty and then give. Pray that God would make it clear what you are supposed to do. The Macedonians were delighted to give out of their poverty, not because they felt guilty, but because God provided a way for them to show off His greatness as they were lead to give.

What is God going to do and how is He going to provide? I don't have the slightest idea, but it will be fun to watch Him work through His saint and then to watch Him provide for His faithful ones.

I Need a Little Help here

2009-10-04T03:48:00.000-07:00

For those of you have adopted previously and are much more savvy than I, will you add your thoughts to the site on the initial steps to adopting, please?

Since our return, and really before we left, we have some people in our church who are getting very excited about the prospects of adopting and want to know how they should begin, as well as where all the money will come from.

It would be very encouraging if you could just say a little about those 2 things. We started the process in a less than "normal" way and so if you could speak to this that would be great. Also, I know that all of you who read this are loaded:), and so if you could tell us some stories about how God provided for your friend's adoption, who aren't loaded, that would be awesome. I am giving you license to post a long comment.

It certainly is fun to watch our Magnificence God show off His power so we can only give Him glory when it is finished.

What's going on?

2009-10-04T03:20:00.000-07:00

Just an update on the adoption process for our family.

Before we left I contacted the home study guy and he told me everything is going along fine. As someone who likes to keep the ball rolling and stay involved, it is a little difficult to just sit here and wait for others to do their part and not want to push, but he assured me everything was fine and that we would have time to get all the necessary components completed.

It is very interesting to be where we are right now and to watch God work. I am not sure, ministry wise, what it is that God has for us in the future. It certainly seems that He is changing our direction slightly, if not significantly, but at the same time He has not diminished our absolute love for the ministry we are currently in. So maybe He is just expanding it.

The great part about being in partnership with The Father in ministry is He knows EXACTLY where and what we should be, and He equips us to do the work that He has planned for us to do. When you sit back and think about that it really is amazing and can be overwhelming. The God of the universe has something very specific for each of His children and He doesn't ever give us anything we can't handle. In our weakness He is strong and I am much too weak to do any of this on my own, so it is good that He is really strong.

In Ethiopia I was expecting Teresa to be much more overwhelmed than she was, and at least as emotional as me, but God really protected her and she was able to contribute much. Often it is hard to think objectively when emotions get in the way and God worked mightily in and through her.

So how is God going to use us, with our new son coming soon and the kids going off and doing their own ministry things? I have no idea. But that is the best part. I don't have to know and I don't have to be concerned with any of the details. He is in control and He will direct our paths when we wait on Him. All of these things are for our refining and make us into useful vessels for His Kingdom. We get to participate in ministry for The King. WOW.

As I am still not a little messed up on the time change I was reading this morning James 1 and was thinking about how often I hear The Word and discount it as if it is for someone else. There are some pretty pointed statements in this passage and also some pretty encouraging as well.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

We certainly don't want to be deceiving our own heart, which are deceitful enough without us helping, but look at the end of this section. When we act on what we hear and know to be right and we persevere, God blesses us in our doing. He blesses our work when we do what we are obey. He doesn't have to make that promise, but He does.

So, what does God want form each one of us? He wants us to trust Him and obey. And the words of the song are true that when we do this we will "be happy in Jesus".

Finally back to posting

2009-10-02T05:31:00.000-07:00

While away I added my thoughts to the computer and now have put them in for you to read. I did this differently than normal, as I want you to be able to start on the first day and read down the week. So, just keep scrolling down until you have finished the trip.

I really am serious about having people over for dinner, or whatever, so you can ask us questions and you are able to see more clearly what is going on in Ethiopia.

We pray that God would call some to adopt and some to help in other ways so we can, each one, fulfill the purpose He has for us. Don't ignore the Holy Spirit's calling on your heart to move. God is big and somehow He will provide for you everything that you need to complete the task He has called you to do. But, you have to step out in faith and trust Him. If we don;t trust Him we are sinning and we put ourselves in His place, as we think we know what is best.

I certainly do not have all the answers about the subject by going there for a week, but I have some and we would love to help you in whatever way we are able.

Pray that God would work mightily in your own heart and in the heart of others that His work may be carried out by His servants.

Italy to Ethiopia

2009-10-02T05:14:00.000-07:00

We left with 3 hours to travel what would normally take 2 but there was a lot of traffic and so it took almost the entire 3 hours. We made our flight and were told we were the last to check in, but the gal gave us the exit row on both the flight to Dubai and also to Addis; God is so kind.

The travel in flight with the lay over was another 9 hours. Tack that onto the already long day and then loose another night of sleep and we are tired. Something new I had never seen was there was a video camera attached on the front of the plane and so we could actually watched the take off and landing. There was a serious cross wind on approach to Addis and it literally looked like we were going to land in the field rather than on the runway, but of course they know what they are doing and we landed fine.

The sights of Addis were close to what I expected, looking much like India. The roads into the orphanage are terrible, reminiscent of India/Sao Paulo. But what a treat awaited us when we got to the orphanage. The kids were ready in the room when we arrived and they sang us a song. Their little eyes just light up with joy as they sing and the boys sing so enthusiastically that the veins stick out in the neck.

The older kids are like big brothers and sisters to the little ones. They are really caring for their needs. Teresa immediately became attached to one little guy named Abenezar. He just loves to be held.

There are many sibling groups and it is not best to split up, so that is more of a challenge to place them, but they really are awesome little ready made families. Take a look. We would love to tell you about them over dinner:)Invite yourself over and we'll talk.

After dinner we found out that the orphanage is going to be moving tomorrow so the girls started to sort through all the things, some to be left here and some to be taken to the new location. The infants will stay in Addis and all the rest will go to the new place. There are so many politics involved with all of this kind of thing and especially because it is in a different country. The “normal” way is not normal here at all. But God knows and He cares for these little ones and all that can be done is to do what is known to be right and let Him take care of the rest. His ways are not our ways and our thoughts can’t even begin to comprehend His thoughts, so we work as unto Him and rest in His provision and care.

The staff here seems to work hard and to really love and care about the children. With the world economy going south, it is impossible to carry on this type of work without God providing even the most basic of needs.

Currently there are about 30 kids here in the orphanage that could hold as many as 80, but since He is in control He knows that the move was coming and it certainly will be much easier to move 30 kids rather than 80. They have placed about 40 this past summer, which has obviously diminished the numbers here and they would like to try to place 80 or more each year.

Imagine going from the village, which we have yet to see, where daily food is a luxury and certainly not the norm, and water is at a premium. Imagine the staple food costing at the very extreme of what a family can afford and so often they go without food for more than a day at a time. Imagine living in the same clothes everyday until you can no longer actually fit in them. Now imagine coming to the orphanage and having food 3 times a day, clothes that are periodically cleaned and past down, so you get different ones, and a firm roof over your head. Now imagine coming to the normal American home and how crazy that would look comparatively.

For sure, individually we can’t solve these problems, but we can make a difference in the lives of one or 2, or maybe 80 this year. It really doesn’t take that much to significantly change the lives of these kids, but we must start the process or nothing will ever happen.

It’s late and it’s well into tomorrow by my clock. God is amazing as He has allowed us the privilege of being here and hopefully making some sort of small difference in the lives of these kids. We can certainly go into all the world and preach the Gospel, but we can also bring them into our homes and have a huge impact on some.

Day 2

2009-10-02T04:58:00.000-07:00

As I sit at the desk and read I hear the sounds of birds, children and the voice over loud speaker chants out “prayers” to someone who can help less than the children. These children are a light to this world, though, for right now, they are relocated to staying within the walls of the “compound”. By God’s grace someday they will be set free to spread their light and hope into this dark world around them.

Like any other children they need Jesus; they need the Gospel. In this life they have no hope unless it is given by some outside means- they need a hero to rescue them from their plight here. But even more than how desperate is their current plight- which in many ways is difficult to comprehend- they have a much greater need of eternal rescue. How great it is that The Father has not only made the one Way, but He has offered it freely to all who will accept it. As foolish as it would seem for any here to refuse the gift of help from outsiders, is the foolishness of any man who refuse The Father’s gift of His salvation.

I think that in our comfortable life we can often lose track that we truly are in such a desperate situation- without hope and without God- until He rescues us. The picture of the beggar is literally everywhere you look here. We are all beggars until we are made heirs of the King. How clear the picture of Ecclesiastes seems to be here in Ethiopia. Life is hard and then you die is much more “in your face” here than it is in America. For the most part we have no idea what a hard life looks like. Our “hard life” would equate to camping and not having a microwave or missing the show we like to watch.

Separating sheep and goats is part of the daily life here; dogs that are not pets, but scavengers. The poor and the needy are truly with you everyday and in every way. Jesus’ call to bring Him the little children has a different feel to it here than it does at home. Here, the children are the poor and needy; they are the helpless, homeless and fatherless.

What a privilege to bring some help in a small way. The people here in the orphanage work hard. The nannies work in 2, 12 shifts. Currently there are 2 nannies per shift, plus a cook, a house keeper and 1 guard. The orphanage director lives pretty close by and goes home each night to his family. He is a former taxi driver who was found to be faithful and they have trained him to carry this responsibility. He loves the Lord and is a very sweet, gentle man. This is 2 Tim. 2:2 in action; as he has been faithful and now he needs to find another faithful man who will be ale to be taught and pass this on to the next.

There is so much work, so little earthly reward, yet so vital in impacting the Kingdom for Christ.

Is. 41:8 But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
10 fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

There are so many sweet and precious promises right here in these few verses. It is our delight to be His servant. He has chosen US. He calls us Friend. He brought us from the ends of the earth. He didn't bring us all this way to "cast us off". He is going to be with us; He will strengthen us and help us to do the things He has planned for us to do and He will hold us up with His righteous right hand. Think about that next time you are feeling lonely or overwhelmed.

We just had a very difficult experience; one that we had planned on having, but I had not thought it was going to be so soon.

A young, maybe 16-18 year old, mom just came to the orphanage and dropped off her little- one month old- daughter. She is working as a house keeper, the father is no where to be found, she can’t work and care for the baby and if her employer finds out she has a child they will fire her. She loves her child as much as any other mother but she has no way to provide and so this is her best option. What she really doesn’t realize is how much of a change her daughter will undergo. This little baby is absolutely beautiful; looks very healthy, well fed and responsive to movement. She smiles at the future, though she doesn’t have any clue of what her past was, and what her future could have been, she now has hope.

The baby- Yepsura, which means from God- came to the orphanage in literally rags; no diaper, just a shirt, and a couple of small shirts to wrap her in, with a make shift cloth for a blanket. Maybe this is similar to what Jesus was born into, and yet He chose to come to earth to win us back. WOW! We have hope of the future because of a little baby.

On the way to this young girls “home” I was talking to the orphanage director and the evangelist. There is no plight so grim as one who faces eternity w/o Christ, not even the future of an Ethiopian mother like this, or this little girl. Without Christ their situation is more than grim; at least in America there is some pleasure to life under the sun, but here there is no pleasure and no hope to get out.

We went shopping while waiting for some guys to come up from the orphanage in Sodo. This is an experience everyone should have at least once in their life, but for some that would certainly be enough. We bought beads, purses, an antique shield, a shepherd’s club, scarves, necklaces, a stool, spoons and some other trinkets, all of which we could live w/o, but I guess we are doing our part to support their economy.

After getting our fill of the shopping we had to go to the internet café, as the only people, here in Ethiopia with internet in their homes are the very rich. After taking 17minutes to just load the program to receive emails we gave up a few minutes into actually trying to down load them. While driving to the next station we had a flat tire. I know what to do in this situation. The irony of the entire situation is that the tire blew out and the one they put back on literally had only the liner- like an inner tube for a tubeless tire- left. My estimate is 10-15 minutes driving before this one blew out. We drove just a few blocks and traded this cab in for another one- which also had a huge separated- ready to blow out- tire on my side. Oh well, it’s Ethiopian and no one is ever in a hurry to do anything, so you have to go with the flow.

We had a nice dinner, probably the last “normal” food we will have in the next few days.

Oh the goodness of God; it’s so hard to comprehend why He would allow us to “help” Him with ministry.

Day 3

2009-10-02T04:53:00.000-07:00

Is.41:17 When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the LORD will answer them;
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.
I will set in the desert the cypress,
the plane and the pine together,
20 that they may see and know,
may consider and understand together,
that the hand of the LORD has done this,
The Holy One of Israel has created it.

Notice the One doing all the work in this passage. I want to be a servant of the King, but there is nothing I can do that He does not do through me. As I observe all that takes place in Ethiopia each and everyday and want to find a solution and be a help in some way, but this passage tells me that all I can do is sit back and watch what He does and be amazed at His power; power to create rivers in the desert, an oasis where there should be none. He is the King of Glory, the creator of all things, His name is Jesus, Precious Jesus, the Lord of Glory, the King of my Heart, The King of Glory.

We are moving the bulk of the orphanage today from Addis south about 6 hours drive to a place called Soddo. The purpose is that most of the kids come from this district and Addis is expensive. So only the infants will remain here, as they may need to go the clinic and it is too far for them to get back. Toddlers and up will move to Soddo today. From here on the plan is to bring the kids to the new facility upon completion of paperwork and then in small groups they will be brought here for a day of 2 to visit the clinic and then returned to Soddo.

Today will be very interesting as there is a lot to do, but not like we would normally think of moving an orphanage. There are 25-ish kids, the clothes they have on their backs and very few other supplies; they just don’t have much to move. A couple of desks, few tables, some plastic chairs, some bunk beds and a few regular beds and that’s about it. We are praying for safety as we go and the Lord’s blessing on this new location; that He would make this new location a place of springs in the desert for these kids.

You can see the day unfolding in the next post.

More Day 3

2009-10-02T04:44:00.000-07:00

We left the Addis orphanage at 1, which is about 3 hours later than what was originally planned, but in Ethiopia the clock is just something that hangs on the wall and sometimes they pay attention to it. The real clock is the sun- “Are there not 12 hours in a day?”.

I taught the kids the song that goes, "Holy, You are Holy, King of kings Lord of lord..." and so they sang that on the bus for a while. It was very nice.
We left the compound, on the very bumpy road, but only the main roads are paved, even in Addis. One of the reasons for moving away from that compound is that it is very expensive and the road in front of it is so bad, and often people can’t find it. There are no road signs anywhere, that I saw, and so finding anything is very difficult. After leaving and driving about an hour we had to stop and get a pass to drive on the road to Sodo. About a half hour after we left there Michelle realized that we were still very close to the original starting point. We had just driving an hour and a half with 25 kids, ranging from 11 months to 12 years, and had barely gotten anywhere. We also found out that since it was now getting close to 3 that we had to take a different route to Sodo, because the short route- 4 hours drive- is filled with thieves at night, and so we took the longer one. We had no idea how much longer it would really be.

The kids ate lunch, which we were seriously considering NOT given to them. For some, this would be a very trying trip. We have one HIV positive child and he was the one most affected by eating lunch. In fact, he threw up about 10 times. We had him in the front of the bus and he used the “bucket” often. In all there were about 5 kids who threw up and 10 we pretty sick. They were so good. We could not stop to go to the bathroom more than once and in all the trip took 10 hours. We gave a few of them a cracker, but other than that they ate nothing on the way. The adults were talking about how American kids would do in this situation. There was almost no fussing, even from those who were really sick and no one complaining about being hungry or having to go potty. Imagine not eating for 10 hours and not going to the bathroom. The littlest one- 11 months- was dry when we arrived in Sodo.

There were more than a few serious wrecks on the way, but God protected our small “vessel” as we journeyed. One of bus helpers was amazing. He held the HIV+ kid for most of the trip and cleaned him up after every event.

We had so many serious road challenges. Even as we were within a mile of the new place were had to carefully navigate so the bus didn’t get stuck. It is the tail of the rainy season and the locals are ready for it to quit. The roads take a beating when the rains are so heavy, which makes life even more difficult than is normal.

The truck with all the beds and everything else arrived previous to us and we were really hoping that the guys would have everything set up, but nothing was done. So when we got here we threw the mattresses on the floor and everyone crashed, including us. When you’re this tired the bed does not matter.

Day 4 for real

2009-10-02T04:35:00.000-07:00

The night of rest was sort of a mess. There were people knocking on the gate starting at 5, and we didn’t get to sleep until around 1. The bus got stuck as it was trying to leave and so they wanted us to come and help push them, but that was not happening. They eventually got themselves out around 7.

There was NO food here and so the guard and I went to town to buy bread for the kids. We took a “taxi” and it took about 25 minutes for the whole turn. If we had walked the entire way it would have been about an hour or more. 50 small loaves of bread for was about $4.5, so that was cheap enough. The kids ate and are now playing in the yard.

There is so much to do and so little to do it with. The land lord is going to paint the bedrooms today, which mean we can’t allow the kids to sleep in those rooms until tomorrow. We will have the same sleeping arrangements tonight as last night, but there is a roof over our heads and the rain isn’t on us. God is so good.

We had a meeting with a “social worker” who is advising the staff what the best means to go forward on several fronts. He really likes the idea of the donkeys, especially when we told him we thought they should pay the “fund” back so that there would be donkeys in the future for other needy widows. He suggested that they start a water service; meaning the widows would hire a man who would work the donkey and get water to sell to the local workers. The widow and the man would split to profits and he would provide housing and she would provide food and she could still probably put a little money away at the end of each month and provide her a “salary”.

We had pasta for dinner. The Ethiopian food gets to me after just a few meals and so it is nice to have something that is normal to me.

Tonight we are sleeping in a hotel and here are a few pics of a "5 star" hotel in Sodo. This literally is the nicest one. The first night we had only a cold shower, the second night there was no water at all.

Overall a good day and it seems we got a lot accomplished.

Day 5

2009-10-02T04:30:00.000-07:00

We started the morning off early. We wanted to get out to pick up the kids so we could in turn go back out and get the donkeys.

We stopped by the bread store and got a bag full of bread loaves and took them to the kids and off we went. We take a mini van most places, as this is the only way we can get so many people moved around. We drove about 1 hour from town into the villages. We had some meetings already set up. 2 meetings were to deliver photo albums to relatives of the kids who are already in the States. This is a pretty big celebration for them as they get to see what is happening in their lives and see how they are growing.

We went from there to another village; the village we were scheduled to pick up a bunch of kids. Today is a festival holiday here and so many things are either stopped or at least postpones. This was the case with picking up the kids as well. We intended to pick up 15 and we were only able to pick up 2. This was best anyway, as we were not as prepared as we could have been to receive them, so they will be picked up on Monday.

We dropped off the kids at the care center and then went to town to rent trucks to pick up the donkeys. The girls went to see Dr. Mary and were very encouraged and we went to get donkeys. Everything here takes much longer than we are used to. It only took just a little less than an hour to drive out to get them, but then it took almost 3 hours to have them selected and then loaded onto the truck.

We drove back to the care center and dropped them off, but since the widows were not selected, we have to give them out tomorrow morning. So the donkeys are staying in the compound over night. The kids thought that was great, we’ll see what it looks like tomorrow morning.

We got back to the hotel to find out that we still did not have hot water, so we switched rooms. Unfortunately the entire hotel doesn’t have water, so I guess having only cold water was better than having no water at all.

Day 6

2009-10-02T04:14:00.000-07:00

I didn’t sleep much, as the orthodox were doing their chanting literally all night and are still going this morning. What a sad life. They certainly are good at saying their prayers before men and being loud in the square.

The girls want me to meet Dr. Mary so the plan is to go there before we go to the compound to deliver the donkeys. It should be a busy morning, but then we are headed back to Addis, as we leave tomorrow evening. It will be nice to get a real shower.

AS in all of Ethiopia it seems, the schedule is only to think about, not really do. Instead of going to Dr. Mary’s we went to do the donkeys first, as the widows were supposed to be already waiting for us. In reality there were a couple of them there, but by the time we actually delivered the donkeys we certainly could have gone to see Dr. Mary. But this is Ethiopia and we are not going to be culture changers here, especially in just a week.

There was no water in the care center starting at 1 yesterday and the guy is supposed to come and fix the pump today, but I would be shocked if that happened. So the nannies ordered water to be brought up by the water service guy and his donkey; kind of ironic to have so many donkeys in the yard and then hire a guy to bring water, when there is actually a faucet in the front yard.

The nannies couldn’t make breakfast for the kids until they had water so we were encouraging the guys to get the water here quickly. The kids were really excited about the donkeys yesterday when they came in, but being hungry takes some f that fun away.

We found out that today is like our Christmas. We knew there was supposed to be a huge celebration, but we didn’t know that it was this big and it has really stopped a bunch of things from happening that could have easily happened had it been another day on the calendar, but God knows.

Since it is “Christmas” the kids told us that they always have meat, but the meat markets are all closed. We sent one of the guys out searching and he came back with about 10 lbs. of beef, so the kids will be very excited about that. They don’t often get to have meat, as it is so expensive.

Michelle thought that they needed something to distract them so she got out the bubbles and gave each child a small bottle. They LOVED it. So for an hour or so they played with those.

In the mean time the widows slowly came to the compound and we finally had them all lined up. We had to tell them what they were agreeing to, as we just didn’t want to give them a donkey with no stipulations. Some of the stipulations were things like they had to take good care of them, they had to find shelter for them, the couldn’t abuse them and they had to pay back a portion of the cost of the donkeys into the donkey fund so this could go on again in the future for some other needy widows; there are so many. After they all agreed we started taking names and getting their pictures. There is nothing that happens fast and to give away a little less than 30 took a couple of hours. We were limited to getting only this much this time because of the holiday no one was really excited about doing business; they will get more later.

Giving them away was every bit as emotional as I expected. There were very old women- 55-ish, all the way down to 20. For sure they all have a story to tell, but we didn’t have time to listen to them all and have them translated. They were all very excited about the future, though some were a little nervous about caring for them. Close to half were taken down to the church by a young man, so the widows didn’t have to be drug all over the place. They will in turn find some one to work the donkeys and make money, which they will share in.

One lady told us she had been an orphan, as her parents had dies some how the same day, and that from 12 on she had to fend for herself. Somehow her husband had died and she was back to being alone again. Life in Ethiopia is very hard; death is common and starvation, or at least severe hunger, is the normal existence of so many. When we handed her the rope of the donkey she was so thankful. We reminded them often that these were gifts from God for their care, and they were even more excited.

One grandma looked to be about 50. If she were an American she would look 75-80. Here she was, all dressed up coming from church, coming to get a donkey. I am not sure how it can be, but I told Teresa, she was very elegant; very classy. She is absolutely beautiful, and she has had no cosmetic surgery. But in Ethiopia time takes it toll so fast and life is so hard. They don’t complain because that would do no one any good. What a lovely lady.

As we did our work I could not stop thinking of Matt. 7:11 which says, “if you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven give good things to those who ask”. I kept thinking about how desperately wicked my own heart is, and how they were trying to make me to be the hero. I don’t want to be the hero and I don’t even know if this is the best way to help them, but we were there to do this. Since our Father knows exactly what we need it is amazing to think of the care that He extends to each of us. He is So Good. In Ethiopia I say, “God is Good” and they respond with “All the Time”.

From here we did get to go and meet Dr. Mary and see the compound they have. It is huge and for Ethiopian standards id gorgeous. There are many buildings and gardens that the kids could use and work in. Please pray that God would allow them to use this facility, as most of it is empty now, and it would be an awesome home for them, while they wait to go to their new homes.

We then went back to the compound to pick up the 2 newest kids from the village to take them to Addis. When kids are first brought in they are taken to the city to be thoroughly checked out by the Dr. and get all their paper work in order.

When we arrived at the compound a young lady-12- was there to talk to Michelle. She has been in the other care center for 3 years and sleeps at home each night, as her mom is dying. She speaks English well and is very sweet. She walked a long way to make sure that she got her face in front of Michelle again before Michelle left again. This is the “persistent widow”, though she is only 12 and has never married she gets the idea.

She told us that her mom is dying of kidney disease and that she and her 14 year old sister can’t go to school any more because they can’t afford the $40 per year for books and uniforms. They have no way of making money and they rent a house for $17 a month. All told, their entire daily living expenses are about $125 per month. The 12 year old has been asking Michelle for 3 years to find her a home, and if the 14 year old can go with her they would love it. The mom is likely to die very soon, as there is not much care for these kinds of things here. The girls really are very lovely and I hope that God finds some one to take them both.

From there we got on the road back to Addis with the 2 new kids. They are 2 and 4 and yesterday they were in a village, in a hut, with a dirt floor and we are pretty sure they have never taken a real bath. Zalech, the little girl’s big toe nail is almost totally gone from running barefoot and we assume she has some sort of fungus on it. Taydros, the little boy, 2, had some sort of “onesy” type of affair on and it had been on so long that Teresa thought she may have to rip it to get his head out. All their clothes were brown-from dirt.

Since our experience on the bus on the way down, we were a little concerned that there would be some throwing up, especially since they look malnourished and we are reasonably sure they have either a parasite of worms. A great combo for a 5 hour first time ever in a car.

Taydros is stoic to say the least. Teresa said it is like he is a paralytic. He doesn’t move from where you place him. Zalech is trying to hard to be happy and to please me. I look down at her and she musters a smile every time. As we drive, he slept for the first hour or so and she slept for about 2 hours. Then when she woke up she was looking out the window and watched as an entirely new world flew by her. She only knew her village and had possibly never even gone into Sodo. Imagine, the Ethiopian countryside, your first sights.

The ride was supposed to take 5 hours and it did almost to the minute. With about a half hour to go Zalech was looking out the window and saw the lights of the town. We are not talking Las Vegas, but literally single lights hanging from a cord in a shop. She was so excited. It was like our kids seeing the Christmas tree for the first time; pointing and gasping, laughing and talking. I couldn’t understand anything she said, but joy is easy to interpret.

About 10 minutes into the excitement, without warning, she threw up all over me and her self. She didn’t have any idea what was going on, and there was a lot coming out. We had forgotten to take a bucket so Teresa made a “bucket” out of a diaper and she filled 2 of those up. It only lasted maybe a minute, but the results were all over the seat and the both of us. Immediately she wanted to be happy again for me. I felt so bad for her and h looked up at me with a sweet smile, as if to say, “I love you Daddy”, even though we just met.

As you can tell my heart is broken for these kids. I can’t take them all, but we can each do our part, whatever that might look like and allow God to work through us to care for these helpless ones.

We had peanut butter and jam sandwiches for dinner and it was off to bed. By the way, that sandwich was really good.

Last Day

2009-10-02T03:42:00.000-07:00

We knew this would be a difficult day. The Addis compound is almost empty. The 3 infants are here, there is a 12 year old who stays here to go to school, the little girl with the heart problem and Zalech and Taydros. Just a few staff are needed and the balance either went down to Sodo or had to decline the invitation to go, as it is just too far from here.

We packed up our things and then just played with those who remained. This proved to be a very serious bonding time. The car ride was the first step, but then this almost one on one time with them

was really sweet.

There is no question in my mind that you can love these

children as much as you do your biological kids. We have only been here for 6 days and my heart hurts so bad for these we are leaving behind.

By the time we return home we will have flown some 18,000 miles and missed not a little sleep, but I would do it all over again. Teresa told me that behind Grant’s event this has been the most life changing thing in her life. I agree.

One Leg Done

2009-09-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

We are just about to leave NY 6+3 Milan
We will land Sunday AM and spend the night just north of Verona
Monday we go to the slab factory and then fly out that night to Addis Ababa
God is good to let us be His ambassadors
Worship well tomorrow

The Trip begins.

2009-09-19T03:32:00.000-07:00

The prince of this world does not want any of us to be doing things for the King of Kings. I often forget that Satan's power is not even close to that of our Father's. When we are doing God's work, in God's way, there will always be opposition.

Travel is romantic up until you leave the house and it doesn't gain the romance until you get back home; everything in between is work, especially if you are trying to do some sort of ministry.

Please don't stop praying for us and for Michelle as well. There was a video released on the 16th slandering her work in Ethiopia and even the Ethiopian government. It is interesting that it released so close to the time we are leaving, but light and darkness have no union and maybe this trip is hitting a little too close for comfort for Satan. I can only pray that this is the case.

So, little sleep already, couldn't check in to the flight last night, wrong hotel-twice- and the journey begins. But, you know what? God is good and we must find our delight in Him. And these are simply light and momentary afflictions compared to the weight of glory that awaits us and this is amazingly comfortable compared to what the Ethiopians have every day.

We have to get ready to go to the airport. Thanks for all you encouragement.

Random Thoughts before the trip

2009-09-18T05:44:00.000-07:00

I just had my last night of sleep in my own bed for close to 2 weeks. Thinking about the trip is sort of ominous. I have traveled to many different places; all over the US, Europe, Brazil, Japan and India. I can't remember the last time I felt this uncertain of what the journey would hold.

I talked to Michelle yesterday and she told me that we would be driving about 5 hours out of Addis Ababa to a small town named Soddo. This is apparently going to be our hub. From Soddo we will drive another 1-1/2 toward the villages but will park the car and walk another hour-ish to the village. I asked "why are we walking so far, when we have a car?" She said, "There are no roads".

When was the last time you went to a "town" but had to walk the last hour? That is certainly different than anything I have experienced in America, or anywhere else for that matter.

Please pray for us as we go that we would be a light to those we come in contact with. Everyday, here in America, we are lights, but most of the time I am not thinking about that. I don't have any idea of the spiritual condition of the people we are going to see. We will see their financial condition, but as physically poor as they are, if they have Christ they are much better off than the wealthiest person you and I know here who is without Christ. If they don't know Christ they are doubly cursed.

This will be very difficult for me to see and my sweet wife is much more tenderhearted than I am. Pray for her that she might be able to remember that God is good, even as He allows some to be in these kinds of conditions, He also brings many to repentance.

Pray that we would be an encouragement to some along the way and that we would find ways to serve others as we are away. What a weighty task; to minister in some lasting way to those who have so little. How can anything really last in this part of the world? How can we make a difference that will not be gone with the first meal?

God's Amazing Grace to us is so Long and High and Wide and Deep, that it leaves me shaking my head. May His love be shed abroad in our hearts as we go to share The Hope with others. The vanity of this life will come into much clearer focus while we are on this trip. The need for a Savior should always be in clear focus. I need the Gospel just as much as these people we are going to see.

Can you imagine the gap between an Ethiopian village and the splendor of Heaven? The comparative difference between here and Ethiopia is really small in light of what Heaven is going to look like. Our fanciest dinner here is going to look like a village "meal" when compared to Heaven's feast.

Just some random thoughts this morning as I am preparing my heart to start this chapter/page of our life.

Adding to the Herd in a BIG way.

2009-09-17T05:58:00.000-07:00

Anyone who says God is not alive and working is crazy. He works in the most crazy-amazing ways.

Many of you have given so generously and sacrificially, it blows me away. I just sit here, in tears, when I think about the financial place some of you are in and you still have trusted God to care for your needs and given out of your poverty. I don't know how God will bless you, but if we have given with the right heart and motive, He promises to take care of us.

That being said, would you please tell us, in whatever fashion you desire, what amazing thing God does, so we can be encouraged.

It was very hard for me to have to say that I totally messed up the amount of each donkey. I really didn't want to let anyone down that maybe they had given "less than an entire donkey" or even a smaller part, but I had to do it.

God is so kind. He took something that I could not do well and made it into a sweet offering. Yesterday we received a single donation for the donkeys of $5000. This is on top of everything you have given. With this money we should be able to negotiate the price down, as we should be a good customer. I am not exactly sure where this takes us, but wherever it is, it is much more than we had when we started and God will be shown great for His provision of those who have so little in Ethiopia.

I am having a hard time with the fact that we get to be the "flower delivery people". What an immense privilege. Thank you all for caring so much. May God RICHLY bless you for your gift. It really is going to be amazing to watch God work.

When I talked to Michelle about this gift coming in we also talked about ways to encourage the people that are going to receive these animals to think about giving back to their own people because of this stewardship opportunity. This would be kind of like a living, micro loan. If these animals do really change their lives so much, then how can they spread that help out to those around them? I am not sure exactly what that will look like but hopefully was can have some of those discussions while we are there. Pray that God would give us wisdom to know what to suggest so that this can come about.

We only have 2 more days here and then we are off. There is much left to do here. Please pray for Teresa that she would be able to get what she needs to get done before we are flying out. There will be much "emotional roller coaster riding" on this trip so please pray that God would work His perfect will in our lives while we are there that He would be most glorified in the outcome.

What a great God we serve. Can you believe that we get to serve HIM? We could be living in the tents of the wicked, but instead we get to call Him Abba- Daddy. Pray for us that we would be pure ambassadors for Him.

Please Join Us

2009-09-15T03:20:00.000-07:00

In the Gospels Jesus taught the disciples about fasting. It was not that the had never considered fasting because they had certainly heard of fasting from Ezra, Nehemiah, Ester, and David, Jeremiah, Joel and Daniel, to name a few. Jesus was telling them "When you fast", not IF you fast." Jesus made the assumption that they would fast. He was just going to give them some guidelines to follow in the times they were fasting.

The Pharisees heaped up extra burdens so that no one could possibly keep up with all they we trying to require, like fasting 2 times a week. Is this what God required of them; fast 2 times a week? On the other side of this coin is "Is my fasting null and void if anyone knows I am fasting?"

For sure Jesus is expecting us to fast when we are coming into a situation that requires much of God's work to be done on our behalf. We can demonstrate to God that we are serious about our endeavor if we not only pray fervently, but also fast. Jesus fasted. The disciples fasted. The early church fasted when they were making decisions that were crucial, or when they were sending someone out on some missionary journey. Do you think their instruction was, "Don't let anyone know that you are fasting"? I think many of the people that were close to them not only knew they were fasting, but were fasting along with them.

Jesus teaches us that we are not to go around looking like we are fasting, trying to get attention for our fasting. Don't walk around acting like you're starving and when some one asks " are you ok?" tell them, "Oh I am fasting". Jesus' point is that we will fast and people may find out that we are fasting, but don't try to show off your spirituality by broadcasting that you are fasting, so you can get "spiritual points" like the Pharisees.

Jesus is not telling us to stop fasting, as much as "stop acting like the Pharisees who do everything to be seen by men". It is ok to be seen by someone, but don't fast for the sake of being seen. Don't fast as some religious calisthenic to show off how spiritually fit you are, like some sort of spiritual push up contest, "I fasted for xx days- what about you?"

With that being said I would like you to consider fasting at some point in time from now until we return from Ethiopia. We will physically be in Ethiopia from the 22nd-the night of the 28th, but doing this before we leave is also perfectly ok.

I will not tell you what my fasting plans are or what yours should be. I will tell you that it may be difficult to skip a meal, or meals, but Jesus was expecting that we would fast about something, and Jesus was more than a little concerned for those who can not help themselves. He literally came to earth because He was so concerned about those who could not help themselves-sinners.

The kids we are going to see on our trip have probably never known a time when their bellies were full more than a day or two in a row. For us, "starving" is when it is 2 o'clock and our normal time to eat is noon.

This will not connect our hearts more with the Father, as He sees our seriousness about this undertaking, but it will also help us to relate to the people pf Ethiopia. Can you imagine the idea of "normal" being that each section of the family only gets to eat every 3rd day? The reason they don't sit down to eat together, as a family, may be because there is often not enough food to feed the entire family at one time; not that both parents are working late tonight to get a bigger ....

So, please join me in fasting either for a meal/meals and pray in that time that;

God would allow us to be used by Him in some way.

We would have our eyes opened and our hearts prepared to see and understand what He would have for us.

We would be an encouragement to other believers while we are away- both here and over there.

In our going others may desire to go, or help go, as well.

Our affections would be hot for God and our view would be increased as we see what He would have us to see.

While we are there we will be able to share the Truth of God's love to those who need to hear the Gospel and maybe they will "hear it for the first time" because they are seeing it lived out. Everyone needs the Gospel- even and especially believers. We need to preach the Good News to ourselves everyday, and we need to live the Gospel so others will see what The Gospel does.

God's will would be done in our lives as it is continually being done in Heaven and that His name would be high and lifted up.

Those who have given sacrificially would be blessed by our Father who gives back in ways we can't even imagine.

We would grow closer to Him as we see ourselves in the eyes of the orphans. We, who are saved, were all once orphans BUT GOD adopted us into His family. Jesus, our Big Brother, not only loves us but He laid down His life for us, so that we could come into the family,

We learn what God would have us to learn and that we will be able to convey the need to those interested in helping when we return.

We would have wisdom and discernment to know if this is a good fit for our youth ministry to take a short term missions trip here.

God would be glorified in using these tools that are not sharp and are broken down and old. That He would delight to give increase as we decrease.

We are not the heroes of this story and our desire is that God would be pleased with our offering of ourselves as we go. Please pray, and fast-if you are so lead- to that end.

If you would like to add something to this list feel free to post a comment.

Wash your Car with a Shovel

2009-09-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had a tool that was broken, held together with wire,had a flat tire on it, or just didn't work like it was intended? Often, if I have one of those kinds of experiences I just want to throw that tool away and get another one that actually works well.

Well I never really feel like the precision tool I want to be. I need to be sharpened all the time, I need the rust knocked off of me everytime I am used, the cleanliness of the pot is less than desirable and yet for some strange reason, of which I am delighted, God still chooses to use me. I can't imagine the frustration that He would have to go through if He were not perfect and knew that all the mess was going to turn up something good in the end.

If I were Him I would want to start all over with a tool that wanted to actually do what it was made for, not one that was trying to try to be a shovel when the intention was for me to be a hose. Both of those have specific purposes and both are very useful but have you ever tried to dig a hole with a hose or wash your car with a shovel?

Isn't it awesome that God uses broken, dull tools to bring about change in the lives of others? I am so glad that He can use this tool and get some use from it. I am also very glad that He has a plan for the work He is going to do with the tool and somehow this tool is exactly what He wants to use.

God Working some more

2009-09-14T04:18:00.000-07:00

After a crazy weekend of a birthday each for Teresa and Kimmy, gathering up all that has been donated to the kids and packing and unpacking to see what we need to make weight, making a tally of all the dollars donated this weekend and watching God work, today starts the last week of work until we leave.

God truly is the Provider and He is working amazing things through His people.

We received another $950 dollars this weekend from those around GBC and that does not include those who are donating on line and I can't see it. This should take us to around $2500 plus the web funds. Even with the "increase in price"this is amazing. God is working in His people.

Stories from the field should be amazing as we watch God work. So many have given sacrificially and God loves those that have a heart for those who can not take care for themselves. Like us- who were dead when He made us alive- and He did not leave us without Himself.

I did want to tell you that I had a lady come up to me and would like us to look for a 7 year old child for their family to adopt. I really was not expecting that, but I can't keep up with Him.

Also, we are over the amount we can take on the plane, without a fee, but God is apparently working that out as well. There is a man who goes to our church who is a pilot and he is going to ship the excess over on Fedex so we can just take the normal amount and everything else will be sitting there waiting for us when we arrive. God had it all figured out. Isn't that awesome?

Amazing things happening- keep praying that God would be pleased to show how great He is in this situation.