Adoption Update Hawaii 2.2 - JPG

I'll upload more, but not till Wanda takes some new ones and sends them to me. I'm going on Monday. We don't have a name yet.

This is all so.....surreal.

Here's our daughter!!!!!!

Adoption Update Hawaii 2.1

I just talked to Wanda (11pm Thursday) and she put the baby up to the phone and she made some funny sounds. I'm a dad. Oh man...

Adoption Update Hawaii 2.0

Wanda is in Hawaii

I'm going to be a dad in 15 minutes.

THEEEEE Adoption Update

Ok here it is....

Many of you know we were (are still) planning to adopt from China.

On Thursday, we received a call from Wanda's cousin who recently adopted an African-American child from Hawaii. Wanda's cousin had received a call from her adoption lawyer in Hawaii wondering if she or anyone she knew would be interested in parenting a newborn African American baby girl. She immediately thought of us and she phoned.

We, of course, began to get excited.

Oh the possibilities. Being in our child's life from the first 2 weeks rather than at 12 to 14 months (as would be the case in China).

Over the Easter weekend, we wrestled, BOY did we wrestle. IT was tough. We went from absolutely no to maybe back to no to yes back to no. Monday more wrestling.

We decided to walk through the door and if God closes it, we would know it was His will.

NO CLOSED DOORS.

2 hours ago we received word from the adoption lawyer in Hawaii that the birth mom has approved us and wants to place her baby in our home. All that is left is a lot of paperwork.

As it stands, Wanda will be leaving for Hawaii tomorrow (Wednesday) with her mom and will be meeting our daughter and the birth mom on Thursday. I'll stay behind and work on the immigration and citizenship paperwork and go to Hawaii early next week.

I'm so thankful for all of you and all of your prayers. I can't help think back to Easter Sunday. As it was a celebration time, Wanda and I were wrestling about this and not feeling peace yet. God directed me towards a song to sing in the service and I know these words are true:

"It soothes my doubts and calms my fears,
And it dries all my tears
Oh the Blood that gives me strength
From day to day
It will NEVER lose it's power"

We've been wanting children for 10 of our 11 married years. Today it happened. I'm overwhelmed. The Blood WILL NEVER lose it's power!!!!!!!!


BTW - She's beautiful and we'll post pictures ASAP!!!

Music in the Church

Sorry I've been away for so long. I'll get right to my point:

It's been bugging me lately that it seems the Church (in general) uses music in a very old fashioned way. By that I mean, 100 years ago we thought, "If we have good music, people will come and listen and then we can preach the gospel to them". In esssence, a church service looks structurally the same as it did 100 years ago. I call that the "attractional" model. I don't think this works any more because the church doesn't have the very best musicians in the community any more so we're not really attracting anybody. The bigger problem I think is that what we have in the church now is a place where there is no room for music as artistic expression. There are churches where this happens but mainly it's because the church consists of mostly artists or was founded by artists.




Now think abot the fact that other forms of art (dance, painting, sculpting, photography, etc...) are way less represented in the Church, and you see the challenge we have in being a place where artistic expression can happen.





Do you guys see this in your setting? If so, how do you think it can be changed? Or.... am I asking the wrong questions?

Canucks Contest

Since I currently hate Kevin Lowe, I breaking my blog protocol to post a Canuck related matter. A great, Godly film maker has made a short for the Ultimate Canuck contest. Check it out here. Don't forget to rate it and leave a comment. If he wins he's promised to take all of us to a playoff game.........maybe.


Don't forget though...... 5 STANLEY CUPS!!! WOOOOOO HOOOOO!!!

Wisdom From Famous People - #2

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."

- Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking campaign.

Wisdom From Famous People - #1a

Apparently I misquoted Ms. Carey. The quote is an urban myth and was part of a mock interview that is about 10 years old. So I guess we'll have to wait another 6 days to find a good quote for a famous people.

See you next week.

Wisdom From Famous People - #1

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can’t help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff." --Mariah Carey

Coffee... With a Dash of Morality!!!

I'm always interested in stories about coffee. This story has the feel of an e-mail forward but please read and I'd love to hear your thoughts.


A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:

"If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us." God brews the coffee, not the cups..... Enjoy your coffee! "

Thoughts?

Canada Rocks!!!

Don't let this go to your head. But it is interesting.

Not In A Good Mood

I've...... pruned my blog links dues to inactive bloggers. Kempner, you're on thin ice. Nice recovery Tennille... you were almost gone. You and you will never be in trouble.

The Soundtrack Of My Life

This idea came from Simone:

Directions

1. Open up your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question below type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. No repeat artists…stuff happens (randomly!!)
7. No cheating or doctoring your list to make yourself look cooler than the person you took this from.

The Result

Opening Credits:
Love Is Blindness - U2

First Day of School:
One Week - Barenaked Ladies

Falling in Love:
Colored People/Entertaining Angels - Mashup - DCTalk and Newsboys

Breaking up:
Maybe Baby - Buddy Holly

Prom:
Theresa - Yuca

Life’s Ok:
Madame Bonaparte/Devil's Dream/Mason's Apron - Leahy

Mental Breakdown:
The Rotten Hand - Flatfoot 56

Driving:
Coming Toward - David Crowder Band

Flashback:
Carried To The Table - Leeland

Getting Back Together:
I Love Your Presence - Vineyard Cinncinati

Wedding Scene:
What If - Coldplay

Birth of Child:
Song For The Bride - Brian Doerksen

Final Battle:
Satisfaction - Rolling Stones

Death Scene:
I Belong To You - Lenny Kravitz

Funeral Scene:
Everything I Do I Do It For You - Brian Adams

End Credits:
Y Cain't Da Homiez Hear Me? - Gospel Gangstaz


What’s the soundtrack of your life? Let me know in the comments section.

Information Porn

Sorry for the racy title but it's the only thing that captures my thought.

I've been dealing with an addiction that I've only recently, with the help of a friend, come to realize has a grip on me. It my desire for information. It doesn't matter what kind or of what relevance it is to my life, I just love information. I want to know when the new Flaming Lips album is dropping, what price I could get a home espresso maker for on eBay, And who's blog I haven't read, or more importantly, who's left a comment on mine.

Not only am I hooked on this drug, I have found a great place to get it: right here. The internet has become my dirty little secret. Now please don't misunderstand me, I don't have a problem with internet pornography in the classical sense. I have built safeguards into my life that help me with that.

But see the internet is there whenever I need it. I can be the 1st person to know about the latest trade in the NHL or the first person to know about Brittney or Paris's latest screw up. I can check the weather, WHENEVER I WANT!!! Not just when that guy comes on the news.

I struggle with control. I never thought I did but I do. In my mind, I think that if I can know everything there is to know about tomorrow, nothing will trip me up tomorrow. Nice thought I guess.

So I'm not disconnecting my internet and I'm not going to join a monastery. But I am going to:

- Spend no more than 20 minutes per day on the internet.

- Blog only weekly.

My time on the internet was interfering with my time with my wife. It was interfering with my time with God and it was interfering with my time with others. When 1 Peter 3:15 says to be ready to give a reason for the hope you have, I'd be ready after I responded to an e-mail or read this fascinating article about the new Apple iPhone.

So if you're a daily lurker, sorry. I'm cutting back to only weekly. I hope you understand. (In the process of writing this post, I have come dangerously close to my 20 minute allotment.)

I Love Chocolate!!!

Apparently this is how I would look if I was an M&M. Try it at www.becomeanmm.com.

Holistically Pro Life

Yeah, OK, so this is a really good article on both being holistically pro life. Sorry if it's a little strong but seeing as the path Wanda and I are on in life, it hits pretty close to home for us.

Any thoughts?

Jesus....Taken Down For A Loss In The Backfield

Check this out.

Twice In 12 Months

Got my wallet stolen again on Monday. Someone broke into our (Starbucks) staff room and stole my new wallet, my cel phone and (incidentally) my brand new Bible that Wanda gave me for Christmas.

This time it's much more devastating because I had ALL of my ID in this wallet. This new wallet was extra big and everything except my passport was in there. When I called Visa and MC, they told me my card had been used in several drinking establishemnts within a 4 block radius of the store, and this was only 2 or 3 hours after he had taken it. I also am out a cel phone and those are a freakin' fortune to buy without a contract.

Song of the Day - Bad Day - Daniel Powter

Workin' For "The Man"

First off.... I'm sorry if this post disappoints you.

The truth is that after my Christmas vacation, I've started working for..Starbucks. Yeah I know, it's not good.

I had this dillema, Wanda and I had been downtown Van for 2+ years and still felt like we needed to broaden our place of influence. I went to Starbucks one day around Christmas to pick up some donated coffee for a strata function and struck up a conversation with the manager. He mentioned how they were needing help in the new year after all the college crowd went back to school. I knew it was time to leave the Well (just knew it was time, nothing bad).

So I had a decision to make:

My "COFFEE CONSCIENCE" vs. "THE MISSION"

So the mission won. There was no other shop to get a job at and this Starbucks is so close to my place that I could throw a rock through the window from my couch.

If you're disappointed in me I understand. But we want to be in the center of our neighborhood and this is as close as I could get.

Here's the crazy thing, I've been there 2 shifts, and I learning LOTS about coffee. I'm really enjoying the learning component so far. I even made my first drink for a customer today.

Go ahead and pummle (pummel? - sp) me with negative comments I'm ready for it.

Another Great Article

Here is a great article I poached from Relevant. Any thoughts?