Erik w/a "k"s Crazy Life Moments

Favorite Christmas Videos

2011-12-24T12:26:00.000-08:00

Every year there are a few videos that go viral at this time of year. Here are a few of my favorite from the past years.

Digital Nativity

Bethlehemian Rhapsody

Mr. Bean

Santa's Lap

My Buddy Josh Griffin and his team down at Saddleback put this one together this year.

Christmas Rap from HSM on Vimeo.

Nintendo Sixty Fooooouuuurrrr!!!

Northpoint iPad Christmas

My buddy Jake Rutenbar did this one few years ago.

Merry Christmas from Grolsch & the Swingtop Philharmonic Orchestra

Preston Leatherman sings with his iPod in Nashville Mall (we were just there)

Jimmy Kimmel Asked Parents to Give a Fake Gift Several Weeks before Christmas

Angry Birds Interactive Christmas Lights!!!

A Nashville Getaway

2011-12-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

At Christmas time we all usually head east to be with family. This year was no different except that we decided to take the kids out of school a little early and do something extra. Jeanne-Ann and I flew out with the kids to Kentucky and dropped them all off with my parents. Then the two of us headed to Nashville, Tennessee! Four days and three nights at The Hermitage...JUST US!!! I gotta tell you, it was awesome!

Sitting next to our bed as we walked into our room.

I highly recommend getting away for a while if you can. That's right married peeps...I'm talking to you! I think it is of utmost importance to make sure you care for your marriage. Not just in your first couple of years either. Date nights need to be part of your routine for the rest of your lives. Get away when you can.

Jeanne-Ann and I have had regular date nights since before we were married. It can be really easy to drop out of that habit once you are married. After all, you eat meals together at home, watch movies at home together, hang out together at home. That's great. It's also great to get out every now and again. I vote the more the better. It does not have to be expensive. We will sometimes go to the local bookstore and grab a drink ad sit and read next to each other. That may not sound very romantic, but we enjoy doing that together. Find what you enjoy and go do it. Groupon is a great way to go out for cheaper too. I have tons of ideas for dates on the cheap to dates with tons of cash money! Maybe I will write that post another day.

So we headed to Nashville. I want to hit a few highlights of our trip:

* The first night we walked around Legendary Venues and I said, "One of these local honky tonk bands is going to be doing major headlining shows one day. The rest will be doing these honky tonks for the rest of their lives."

* Centennial Park was a cool place to walk around. In the park you can find the only life-size replica of the Parthenon from Greece. That was amazing to see.

* J. Alexander's was a good place to eat, but for lunch it was a bit pricey for my taste.

* Vanderbilt University is where we spent Thanksgiving together 15 years ago. I was having vocal surgery and it is the best in the country, perhaps the world.

* Gigi's Cupcakes - it was one of the most "girlie" places I have been in a long time. I got three cupcakes, but should only have gotten one. It was soooo rich!

* Rocketown - a dream since I was in college. This is the place that Michael W. Smith started as an outreach many years ago. I remember thinking how cool it would be to go to this place.

He also had a song a song called Rocketown. It was huge in my world back then. We actually put it on in the car as we were driving to it.

I looked up online and it said there was Bboy practice. I was pretty pumped to see that. It turns out there was some band (Sophie the Whale) playing for about 15 teenagers. It was loud, but I still smiled and soaked it in for 30 seconds.

* Pancake Pantry - this was another place that was recommended to us and hit the list of top 10 things to see/do in Nashville on tripadvisor.com. We had to wait in line outside, but it was totally worth the wait. It's just one of those hole in the wall places, but the food is delicious! I had Caribbean pancakes and Jeanne-Ann had french toast. Soooo yummy!

* Ryman theater - this is where the Grand Ole Opry was/is at. There is a ton of musical history here! This is where Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Minnie Pearl and Elvis (and TONS of other amazing artists) got their starts. We got a very cool backstage tour. Buddy was our tour guide and has been working there since 1964. He knew all the stars that worked there. Now, I have NO idea what he said because he spoke some language that I'm not sure is an actual language. There is a video of him included. Enjoy.

The Johnny Cash Room

* Wildhorse Saloon - this was an old warehouse that someone bought and turned into a 3 floor restaraunt/bar/dance hall. Another top 10 place and it is amazing! The atmosphere is fun and very cool. They have a bunch of fun horses around the place and line dancing lessons every night. After the lessons were over there was a whole bunch of line dancing to be had until the live band came on. The Buchanan Boys were great. More line dancing then too. Such a blast! Wanna see?

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Bex told me she saw this place on Ellen so I looked it up. We missed the Swaggin' Wagon by 2 days!

* Panera - a place Jeanne-Ann likes to go on a date. We went there a couple of times for a "hold me over" meal.

We ran into Elvis a few times.

So, care for your marriage. You will build memories that you will carry with you for the rest of your lives. Don't make excuses. We all have places we spend money and those are the places we place value. Value your marriage. Go do something this week that you haven't done! I would love to hear about your date ideas! (maybe even where you decide to go this week)

Shepherds and Angels

2011-12-15T07:17:00.000-08:00

For the last several years we have been doing another tradition. This one is a collaboration. Along with our friends the Condellos and Unwins and Prinzs we do what we call the Shepherds and Angels party. All of the kids dress up as shepherds or angels...or animals and we have a birthday party for Jesus.

Brian usually sits down and reads the story of the birth of Jesus from Luke 2 (yes, the same passage that I referenced in my last post) and the kids act out the story. There is plenty of comedy in this version of the story as the kids are just plain funny. This year Karston decided he would be a sheep. He took one of the babies' blankets and sheep pillows and wrapped it around himself. It was perfect. His buddy Noah was a donkey and that made me laugh.

Jennifer Gates (aka Jenga) played the part of Mary and Haakon played the part of baby Jesus. He was perfect for the role! He just laid there and soaked it all in. To let you in on the inside I am included the video from this years performance. Enjoy.

After the performance is over we all sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and enjoy some birthday cupcakes. It is quite the celebration. Craig usually brings his guitar and we sing all sorts of Christmas carols and 80s rock tunes like Every Rose has its Thorn.

Haakon LOVES the guitar...doesn't matter if its me or Craig playing.

I love that we have these kinds of traditions. I want my kids to know the story of Jesus. I want them to be familiar with it. It's the single most historic and life altering story ever!

Living Nativity

2011-12-13T21:59:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Jeanne-Ann and I took the babies up to Fox Island and spent 24 hours with the Manns! It was a really great time to be together with some really great friends. We got there in time for church and sat under the tutelage of Josh again! I love being in different churches as it broadens my scope of how church happens outside of my own church.

After church was over we went to a cool pizza place for some lunch and then back to the house for naptime (babies) and hang time for the adults. (Kynzi and Karston stayed with friends as they had school on Monday). We chatted and chatted. So good to be with friends and refresh the soul. Then we decided to go to the living nativity in town. Last year they apparently had around 4,000 people come through the 2 days that they were there. They were expecting over 5,000 this year.

We had the option of doing the drive through or the walk through. It was suggested that we do both. After we turned onto the road where the church was holding the living nativity we decided to do the walk through, as the drive through line was super long. Well, as it turned out, the walk through line was super long too. It was also bitter c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-old!!! We went onward anyhow. Thankfully you could walk into the church for some snacks, hot chocolate and warmth while you were in line.

There were shepherds in the front fields with sheep and donkeys. A guy was riding around on a horse. Everyone from the church was involved and dressed as if they were from the time of Jesus' birth. There were town greeters (an elderly couple who had been doing this for 13 years...if my memory serves me right); people selling things like spices, woven carpets, etc.; people giving henna tattoos; angels singing and of course, the nativity with Mary, Joseph and Jesus!

It was a very cool experience. The church did a phenomenal job and it was cool to take our babies through it. As I think about Jesus, who was promised to come to earth thousands of years ago, I think of Kynzi and Karston, Haakon and Nyah and Mercy (the Manns' little girl) who were promises to us. Jesus was chosen and so were our kids. God chose each of them perfectly for our family!

Happy family

Bundled up

Angels tell of the birth of Jesus

I think Joseph looks like Zach Galifianakis

Jesus, who was fully God, became fully human as well. A concept that is hard to comprehend at times. You can read the story of Jesus birth here, found in the Bible in Luke 2:

Luke 2
The Birth of Jesus
¹ In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while^[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register. ⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
²¹ On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

Some of you reading this already know this story and it is part of your story; some of you have heard it but it is not part of your story; some may be reading this and you have never even considered this; you may even think it is all a bunch of malarkey. Wherever you sit, I hope that you would at least consider what this means to you. The reality of this story has changed my life. Of course it goes beyond the birth of Jesus. It includes His life on earth and his murder on a cross and His coming back to life and returning to heaven. That was needed in order to cover over my sins. I had to confess my sin and receive His free gift of forgiveness too. It includes the fact that He is still alive today and that I am able to have conversation with Him today (prayer). I think I will post my faith story in a blog in the near future.

Consider Jesus this Christmas.

Christmas Tradition...Festival of Lights

2011-12-10T20:04:00.000-08:00

Traditions are important. We have many of them. How about you?Today I want to share with you one of our traditions.

Every year we bundle up and load into the van and drive through the Keizer Festival of Lights. It is the place I wish I lived in town this time of year. You see, they have a route set up through a neighborhood about 1 1/2 miles from our home where people put up massive amounts of lights and many people along the route participate. It is a Griswald dream come true.

I LOVE decorating for Christmas. If I could set up my lights with LED and program it myself I would. Alas, we live on a private street with 4 homes. There is not a lot of traffic on our street. That is a great thing when the weather is nice and the kids want to play in the street. It's not great if you want to set up lights for all to see. Here is a video of the kind of decorations I dream of doing someday.

That being said, I still set up lights every year and do it as nice and close to overboard as possible. I don't live in that neighborhood, so we all drive over and take the winding journey at 2 miles per hour behind hundreds of other lookie looers. One home has Santa and they do a canned food drive. That is pretty cool. Some have their families' names on giant wooden Christmas stockings or snowmen or reindeer. Some have music set up with changing colored lights. There are many blow up Santas and reindeer on roofs, etc. It's pretty great. There is the occasional home that has 4 or 5 strands of lights thrown on a bush here and there and you suddenly start to judge them. You actually start judging homes that would be knock outs in normal neighborhoods, but not in this one.

Jeanne-Ann also makes hot chocolate or caramel hot cider for everyone. This year Kynzi and Karston put down the seats in the very back, placed blankets and pillows on the ground and played games as they sang Christmas carols. Most of it was lovely, but I don't know the right term for this:

It was interesting to note that the Salem Christmas Lights Parade was tonight as well, but the kids wanted to drive through the Festival of Lights.

Jeanne-Ann would mention a particularly awesome house and the kids would look up from their games and then back to the game and singing.

My favorite. It went between 2 homes. Love that the neighbors collaborated!

I wish this was in the neighborhood, but it's from Chicago.

Could make a cool background.

I like the notes to Santa.

This was only in Wilsonville today. Not south or north of it.
Just there. Got me ready for the Festival of Lights experience.

Randomly at Bridgeport.

It was a really great night! Do you have any fun pre-Christmas traditions?

Christmas Tree Lighting

2011-12-04T20:25:00.000-08:00

The other night I was taking Kynzi to a friends house for an overnighter birthday party. On our way we drove past Riverfront Park and there were a ton of people there, lights and a TV camera crew. I had no idea what was going on. After I dropped off Kynzi I decided to drive back past the park. There was still a pretty big crowd. If you know me, I can't not pull in and see what's going on.

After driving around looking for a parking spot a police officer on a bike told me I could park right up front! Sweet! I carried Haak and Nyah out to see the lighting of the Christmas tree! It was pretty cold outside, but holding my two babies kept us all warm. We stood around for a while. A lady came up to me and said, "Sir. You have the most beautiful babies in the world! You are so blessed." (smile...I know!)

Suddenly a fire truck came with lights blazing. Then they hoisted Santa Claus up on the ladder. Very cool. They raised him to the top of the tree where he placed a dove. Then we had a 10 second countdown and they lit the tree.

Cheers all around. Santa came down and handed out candy canes. We squeezed our way to him and then ran into some old friends who just moved back from 5 years in San Diego.

They told me they would never get near Santa at a lighting of the Christmas tree in San Diego. It's part of what they love about Oregon. After chatting for a while I saw that Santa was still around and no one was around him anymore. So we took a quick pic with him. Nyah was OK with, Haak was not impressed. Haha. It was cool.

I love being able to take little moments like that, especially when they are totally unplanned. I often live life with little margin and I love when I have plenty of margin. This night I was in no rush to get anywhere. I prefer to be in that kind of place. It's good. It's good for me. If I am having to run from one thing to another and not have room to breath I know I lose out along the way. I don't want to do that. I want to breath, even though I love the hustle and bustle.

So, because I am in a season of margin I got to do something fun, cool and spontaneous with my babies!

Have you been to a Christmas tree lighting in your town?

Have you done something spontaneous recently?

12 Days of Christmas Blog

2011-12-02T10:13:00.001-08:00

Between now and Christmas I am writing 12 blogs. Some will be holiday themed and some will be random musings. (and yes, I will include my 30 day phtotography challenge) I have needed some inspiration and my great friend Bex suggested we do this. We did a 30 days of blogging together last year, so here we go.

Last night we did an annual family activity. We made our gingerbread house. This is always a fun experience. My roll is to get the walls and roof up and "glue" them together with the frosting. This frosting did not do a great job, but it worked. Kynzi and Karston typically take care of the decorations. Each year I have had less and less to do with that part, unless they want it more detailed. Then I come in with my surgeon-precise hands and do my work.

As the kids get older, they want to do more of that. They took some serious creative liberties this year with that role. I walked away from the table for just a moment and suddenly spontaneous laughter erupted. I turned to see my children plastering the roof with "snow" and nerds, sweetarts, etc. Serious fun! We also made snowflakes using coffee filters. They had a great time getting creative with that.

What holiday traditions do you have with your family? What are some of your best memories from growing up?

Guest Post: Extreme Makeover: Minnesota Style

2011-11-25T13:41:00.001-08:00

Todays post comes from my good friend Kylie McCoy. Perfect for the Thanksgiving season.

Most people have seen Extreme Makeover: House Edition on ABC. If youhaven't seen it, chances are you are you have heard about it at some point.It's known for it's week long renovation of a family's home as it usuallycompleted demolished, redesigned, rebuilt and lives are completely transformed.It's an incredible and moving show to watch as you see fathers and mothers ofchild crumble to the ground in tears after seeing their own brand new house forthe first time. It's moving to see disabled children and war veterans be giventhe opportunity to live a normal life with the necessary equipment provided forthem. Equipment they would never have been able to purchase on their own.However, rarely do people - as in you and me- actually get to see something asmagnificent as the simple outpouring of love and generosity to a family in needright in their own backyard. Rarely do we get the opportunity to participate,whether through monetary giving or giving up some time to help raise the wallsor nail shingles on a house.

This fall, that all changed for our little community in Maple Plain,Minnesota.

Meet Rick and Karen Sampson. An incredible couple who give hours uponhours of their time at Maple Plain Community Church as they work in thekitchen, often starting 5am to prepare meals for various events. From Awanadinners to the Mens' breakfasts, the Sampsons are probably behind the scenes.They are also actively involved in the community helping at the local foodshelf, driving those around who either do not have a car or cannot drive anylonger, or . Despite serious health concerns, the Sampsons are anincredible couple that is always seeking to give. Despite prostate cancer,heart problems, surgeries, respiratory issues and other concerns, the couplecontinues to give and serve the community.

Meet the house. For 21 years, the Sampsons have lived in their home.The original house was a 24x22 cabin built in the 1920. Since then a two storyaddition was put on in the early 2000's. For 12 of those 21 years, the roof hasbeen leaking, allowing a partition of the house to begin to rot. The leakingroof allowed in water, which in turn created the perfect atmosphere for blackmold. Last but not least, the original part of the house never had a foundationto sit on and hold it firmly in place. All in all, these conditions were notfavorable for the Sampsons and their health conditions.

Meet Operation KARE. Once Maple Plain Community Church members learnedabout the house conditions along with the mounting health concerns, action hadto be taken. A group of seven people began planning and organizing what wouldbe Operation KARE. Meeting once a week over coffee, the meeting of minds hasdriven the project and enabled the Maple Plain community to give back to afamily who has given so much despite health concerns. One of the driving forcesbehind the project, Justin McCoy shared some of his thoughts in a recentinterview..."Everything so far has fallen into place," said McCoy."We have faith that will continue." They plan to have everythingcompleted for the Sampsons to move back into their home by December 1.

Meet Your Part. While the deadline is closing in, there are stillopportunities to help out, especially financially. If you are interested andwould love to help out this serving couple so intricately connected to theMaple Plain community:

Send financial contributions to

Operation KARE

6250 Highway 12

Maple Plain, Minn., 55359

If you live in the area and want tovolunteer opportunities,

e-mail Justin McCoy at mccjus@gmail.com

Check out another article about Operation KARE:
Lending a Helping Hand
By Gail Lipe

A crazy Few Weeks

2011-11-14T08:30:00.000-08:00

THIS POST WAS MEANT FOR THE MIDDLE OF OCTOBER.

To say that the last few weeks have been a little crazy is to say it lightly. You may have kept up one or another, and I wanted to say thank you to so many of you who have prayed for us. It has been a trying few weeks.

We were putting lotion on the babies when Jeanne-Ann noticed a lump on Nyah's chest. We called the doctor and got in the next morning. He sent us to Portland to Doernbecher Children's Hospital.

They did surgery on her to remove the benign tumor. It had some technical term that basically meant she was OK. We were told there would be some swelling, but the swelling grew and grew and got to be the size of her previous tumor. We brought her back in and she had another surgery to remove that.

She is soooo cute, I just want to eat her up!

Instead of sewing her up they decided to let it heal from the inside out. Warning: the next part is nasty, so feel free to skip to the next paragraph. They put gauze inside of her wound and sent us home for a few days. Turns out that when we returned she was not ready and they told us we would need to change out the gauze in 2 days. That meant we would have to take off the bandage, pull out the gauze from inside her, take a Qtip and jam more gauze inside her gaping wound! Neither Jeanne-Ann nor I could handle even the thought of that. I inadvertently saw her wide open wound and almost lost my dinner. Just writing about it now is making me sick. Thankfully our neighbor is a paramedic and he came over and did it for us. (thanx Ben!)

In the middle of these procedures I went and saw my doctor about my shoulder. You may recall That I tore my rotator cuff and went through 4+ months of physical therapy and got a cortisone shot before I left for Ethiopia this summer. I only progressed to about 65% or so. I knew Jeanne-Ann's insurance was running out at the end of September and if I was going to have surgery it would be wonderful to be double covered.

So my doctor looked at me and said we needed to do surgery. This was a Thursday. I told him about the insurance, which was a week and a day away. I also told him that I was leading a youth pastor retreat that next Thursday. He laughed and said, "You don't have to be at that retreat do you?" haha. Yes! I was leading it. So we set up surgery for the Wednesday before.

My dear friend Michelle took me to the surgery center and picked me up too, as Jeanne-Ann had 4 children to take care of. She was there when they pulled out the clippers. I said, "I don't really have any hair on my shoulder. What do you need that for?" They shaved half my chest (not a massive difference...haha) and then they lifted up my arm and shaved my armpit. As soon as they lifted my arm I began to giggle. I couldn't stop laughing. Then when they shaved I laughed even harder. The whole time Michelle is laughing along with me. She may have some video evidence of that, I am not 100% sure.

What I do have video evidence of is right after surgery in the recovery room. Meesh thought it would be fun to video that experience. I don't remember any of this, except for having watched it several times.

Next thing I know, I am sort of awake and being walked to the car.

There is so much that happened after that I honestly don't want to bore you with a super long post, so I will just hit a few highlights (or lowlights).
* On the way home I semi-recall asking Michelle to hold my hand because it was so cold and her hand was so warm. (she is a good friend...haha)
* I had a nerve block on my arm so I could have cut my finger off and wouldn't have felt it. In the middle of the night I threw up from the drugs and my arm fell out of the sling and scared me. I screamed because I didn't know whose arm it was.
* On the way to the retreat I had to puke. Brian pulled over and I said, "I don't remember having pineapple."
* I fell asleep leading worship (standing up)
* I fell asleep at dinner and Byron took a picture of me with my phone and set it as my background

* My friend Brian bailed me out at the retreat by playing guitar (I thought I would be able to) and sooooo much more!

I couldn't pull my socks or shoes on myself.

* I puked many times on the last day when my nausea pills ran out (sorry, no pics for that...haha)
* On the way home I could not lift my head up with out feeling like I was going to puke
* I got home and slept for a few hours and my friend Steve came and picked me up to take me to Fox Island where I would preach 2 times the next morning. (more on that in another post, perhaps)

Me sitting in Josh's future office

* I spoke at an event the following weekend
* We prepared for saying good-bye to some of our dearest friends in the world, Josh, Bex and Mercy, as they made their move to Fox Island. (this was very difficult)

The moving truck

Kynzi & Karston left a message inside their house.

Our last "we live here" meal together.

There is so much more, but this may be one of my longest posts and I just need to post it. Thanx for bearing with me. I am a blogger, and I love to blog. This being said, I will continue to strive to post more.

Again, thank you for praying for us during this time. How can I pray for you?

Pinterest made me a Hero

2011-11-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

Have you checked out Pinterest? Basically it is a "Wow, I saw this online and thought it was cool." And you can follow your friends and see what they thought was cool. You can follow certain categories too. I have taken a few pictures of things I have seen around and posted them, but many people post things they find online. You can also "repin" things others have pinned. You can do this online AND you can do it with an app on your phone. It is sort of like your Facebook news feed. Or instagram.

This brings me to today.A few weeks ago I saw a couple of things on pinterest I really wanted to do. They were food items. Over the years I have discovered something about myself. I am an entrepreneurial type of person who is great at dreaming dreams and thinking of ideas. I am NOT great at following through on many of those dreams. I need someone who can come alongside me and help me see that dream through. I have some people like that at work and in my personal life and that is so important for me to have, otherwise I would hardly accomplish a thing. haha. I even have a "life coach" (more on that in another post) who helps me with this from time to time.

BUT...

Today I finally followed through on this "dream" I had. There were 2 things I wanted to do. 1) Make apple mouths and 2) make home made butterfingers. Yes, you heard that right! Yum! So I purchased my ingredients (several on post Halloween 50% off prices) and got right to it. Now for the blow by blow.

Apple Mouths

For this little project I needed apples, peanut butter and mini marshmallows.

This is what I got. It turned out I needed toothpicks to hold them together because I sliced the apples to large. Then Kynzi had the brilliant idea of adding in raisins for eyes. Genius!

Karston really enjoyed them!

Now to the second project.

Home Made Butterfingers

For this project there are only 3 ingredients! Candy corn, peanut butter and chocolate. That's it! The first thing I did was put a bag of candy corn into a bowl and microwaved it for 2 minutes. I think the original thing I read said 1 minute, but that wasn't even close.

Then I added 15 seconds more until it was runny and I could mix it really well. Once that was ready I mixed in 16 ounces of creamy peanut butter. When it was a nice consistency I put it all out on a pan with parchment paper.

I think it is probably best to put it in a shaped pan (8x8 or something like that) but I used a flat one and mashed it down with a fork to get it to a nice thickness (1/2 an inch or so). I let it cool till it was hard and then used a pizza slicer to make small pieces for consumption!

After that was all cooled off I melted chocolate in the microwave. I think it was in for a total of 1 minute, but you need to just check every 20-30 seconds. I happened to have gotten Dove (best chocolate) promises at the post Halloween deal.

Once it was melted I took the pieces and dipped them in. I putted the finished product in the freezer so the chocolate would harden and came back a while later and we enjoyed what tastes unbelievably like the real Butterfinger!

I seriously can't tell you how amazingly yummy these things were! You should totally try it! Those candy corn bags are still in most grocery stores and Wal-Marts! Hurry in now!

How about you? Are you good with these kinds of things? Are you creative? Have you made anything recently? Are you on Pinterest? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear more!

30 Day Photo Challenge

2011-09-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

I love a good challenge. I love photography. I love being pushed in both areas. So I found this challenge and decided to take it. I saw it on a website called pinterest. If you haven't heard of pinterest, you will now. It is a website that is filled with GREAT ideas. Basically people "pin" things that are of interest to them. There are categories you can choose to check out and you can also follow others who are on pinterest.

All that to say I am about to venture on a 30 day photo challenge. Below you will see the daily photos I will be taking. Want to join me? I think what I will be doing is posting a weekly update instead of posting a blog everyday with a pic. So...are you in?

Father/Son BBQ

2011-09-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

Today Karston and I went to our first Father/Son BBQ together. Our church put it on out on a farm owned by the Schillings. It's a perfect setting for outdoor events. I love getting time away with one of my children to do something special. Whether it's a "kid date" or a group thing with other families like today, it is so good for the soul to have that kind of time together. Many of my best memories are with my children out with some one-on-one time.

When I heard about the father/son BBQ the men's ministry was putting on I immediately texted a few friends and told them we all needed to go.

The weather forecast called for rain, but the sun was beaming and it was pretty warm. The Schilling's farm was the perfect spot for this event. They have an amphitheater with a fire pit for s'mores, a patio outside of the barn for making and eating food and a great grassy area to play all sorts of games in. The whole place is framed by corn fields and they are in "full bloom" currently, so it was a beautiful backdrop!

We played some horse shoes, bocce ball, volley ball, blong ball and another fun "sport." I think perhaps it's best just to let you see the final 2 activities we did.

Book Review

2011-09-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a lot lately. I love to read, but I am so good at filling my time with other things that reading can get lost. That is not a good thing. I read once that leaders are readers. If memory serves correctly, Bill Hybels reads a book a day. That may be someone else, as my memory tends to get a bit foggy after 72 hours and sometimes sooner. Honestly, sometimes I struggle to remember if I actually did something or I saw it in a movie or I dreamed it. It is so real in my mind that I am convinced that I did it.

Jeanne-Ann often jokes that I told "that other person" about something. I tell her, "We talked about this. I know it for certain! We were sitting on the couch and..." She has a really good memory and sometimes I am in the car and thinking about telling her something and I forget to tell her. Because I have such a vivid imagination I think perhaps sometimes I mix my thinking about telling her and actually telling her. Don't tell her I said that. She usually doesn't read my blog and I don't want to admit that she is likely right. Bottom line: I am sure I told her, she knows I didn't tell her, so I must've told "that other person."

Sorry, I got off track. Now, to the books I have read recently. The three I want to share with you are as different from each other as you can get. One is about blogging, one is about domestic human trafficking and the other is about real life adventures from the perspective of a navy seal.

31 Days to Finding Your Blogging Mojo (blogger must)

If you are a blogger then this book is a must. Bryan Allain takes you on a one month journey on how to become a better blogger. You can read the book much faster than that actually, but if you want to take it slow and just do one exercise a day then you can do it in 31 days.

Each day has a different challenge to help you with your blogging "mojo." He forces you to really look at your blog and why you blog. He doesn't discourage you, he just pushes you. Allain has been blogging for over 10 years and knows his stuff.

It's as if you have a professional blogger be your personal blogging coach. He asks great questions and what you do with it is really up to you. Even if you are not a blogger but you are interested in blogging this is worth your time.

As a bonus, the guy is hilarious! Between each day he has random observations on life and you will smile widely at least, even if you don't laugh out loud. Man, those last three words took a lot of effort to type. If only there were some way to shorten it. Hmmmm...

Double bonus? This book is ONLY $4.99!!! GET IT!

Renting Lacy (hardest book I have read)

This is easily the most difficult book I have ever read. Not because it has really big words that I need Google for, but because the subject matter is so heavy. Linda Smith is a former State Representative of Washington State. After a lot of research overseas and then in the States she has become a HUGE advocate for America's prostituted children. I was in Thailand with my wife a few years ago and saw the reality of prostituted children and I was angry. Yet, I felt like there was nothing I could do. This was something that happens in foreign countries, far, far away from where I live.

As it turns out, it is happening right here! Right where we live. Renting Lacy is a book that balances the story of young girls and how they are drawn in and lied to and treated with tons of data that is well researched. This is not a book you read and then get angry for a while and soon forget about. It sticks with you. You are changed. You look around at the world differently. When I walk through the food court of a mall I am compelled to look for girls who are being preyed upon. I am changed. So much so that I have become the Regional Advocate for the Justice and Mercy Foundation for Oregon. To give you a little insight to this foundation, this is what it says on their main page.

Helping the world discover a better way to live.

Mobilizing and equipping the Church to pursue biblical justice and mercy.
Networking organizations and coalitions to pursue biblical justice and mercy.
Fostering the creative and innovative pursuit of biblical justice and mercy.

I wish this book didn't have to be written. It did. There is a warning on the cover of the book that this is for mature audiences. It is VERY true. Thankfully Smith does not get too graphic, but the heart of what is happening is not lost. I found myself going through an emotional roller coaster. Anger to sadness with tears flowing to fear to joy at the justice moments. I have 4 children. I know I can't live in fear and worry so much that I am way too over protective, but I also know that I can't be dumb either. This has opened my eyes and I am aware. I need to be proactive.

Read it. Do something. Be part of changing laws that give deeper punishments for men who pay to have sex with little girls. It sickens me how easy it is for a "John" to get away with this. There is one point where a guy gets busted with a girl and the police tell the guy to get lost because he cried and said his wife would leave him if she found out. Then they arrested the girl! Granted the one police officer knew that she would be better off having some time away from her pimp and getting fed better in prison.

Thank you Linda Smith and the many advocates out there making a difference!

Seal Team Six (fun ride)

Seal Team Six. What's that? They are the elite of the elite in the Navy Seals. These are the guys who took out Osama Bin Laden. What an amazing insight into the world of what it means to be the most specialized group of Navy Seals there is. This book reads more like a novel than a non-fiction book. Howard Wasdin takes you on a crazy ride through his process of joining the military all the way to his Seal Team Six days. I had no idea. Every time I hear about them on the news I feel like "I know those guys."

Wasdin messes with your head as he shares about the rough upbringing he had and then you see how that has a pretty major role in why he is a great seal. I was mad when I would read about his step-dad and then I was mad that was the reason why he could handle so much of the difficulty that comes along with all the training.

As I read this book I kept going, “Oh yeah. I remember seeing that on TV or reading that online!” It was like having your own personal insider into history. Do you remember the Battle of Mogadishu? It’s what the movie Black Hawk Down was based on. Wasdin was a key player in that whole event!

I remember a time when I thought, “It would be cool to be a Navy Seal!” I no longer think that.Actually, I still think that, but I have no desire to go through what you have to in order to become one.

This is a PG-13 book. At times it may even dip into R rating, so be forewarned. This is not a book for young readers. That being said, it would make for a great movie, one that I would hope they kept at a PG-13 rating.

Welcome Home

2011-08-23T19:13:00.000-07:00

After a long day of running around to almost every corner Addis we finally headed to the airport to catch our 11PM flight home. We got there with plenty of time to spare. It was 8PM and we were checking in. The problem was they didn’t have Haakon and Nyah in the system. My dad had paid for them (you have to pay the taxes for a lap-child). The next 2 hours was spent trying to figure this out. 5 different people worked on it. In the end we paid for a new set of tickets for them and said we would just get reimbursed when we got home.

Haak and I went to our seats in coach (loser) class and Jeanne-Ann, Nyah, Kynzi and Karston took their seats in first class! They were flying on rewards tickets and the return tickets (as we had to change them from Sunday to Wednesday) were cheaper if they flew 1st class! Imagine that! Thankfully Haak and I slept most of the way to Frankfurt.

In Frankfurt we would no longer fly Lufthansa, but we would be on Continental. They could also not find Haak and Nyah in the system. Jeanne-Ann and the kids were booked in 1st class for this leg all the way to Newark as well. After era considerable amount of time they were able to find Haak but not Nyah. Something must be pretty jacked up in their system. Anyhow, Jeanne-Ann mentioned to the lady who was helping us that as soon as we landed in Newark our babies would become American citizens. She said it was really important for all of us to be together at that moment and wondered if there were anyway she could seat me with them. It was too late to use rewards miles and she informed us it would cost 3,000 Euros. That’s about $5,000 USD!!! Just to upgrade. Gulp.

She said she would not promise anything but that she would talk to her colleagues. After about an hour she called me up and said they worked it out so I could sit with my family! Amazing! These seats were AWEsome! They have buttons that you push to raise your legs or lower your back. You can even lay completely flat to go to sleep. A 10 inch monitor with over 200 movies to choose from and TV shows and games! I watched 4 movies. Haha. There was even a built in bassinet for Haakon to sleep in. I could go on and on about the food and sundaes, etc, but I wont. I know what it’s like to fly in loser class and it’s hard to go back there once you have tasted the good life. :)

Karston Enjoying a movie and a snooze

Nothing like stretching your legs on a flight.

We landed in Newark and our babies became US citizens.

It was a wonderful moment. Then all of a sudden our phones lit up as we could finally turn them on for service after nearly 2 months. I tweeted about landing and the citizenship and made calls to family and then to my surprise, my brother decided to drive down from Albany (3 hours) with his 3 boys to see us! We spent a couple of hours together and shared stories about all of our summers’ happening. It was wonderful.

Fred Armisen from Saturday Night Live and Portlandia even greeted us. What a nice guy.

We then loaded up and got aboard our final flight. I had actually been upgraded to 1st class for this final leg, but the rest of my family had to sit in los...sorry, coach class. It was a full flight and all we wanted to do was to be back home. We finally landed. Jeanne-Ann had opted for the very last row because there were no other passengers in that row so she had it to herself with Haak.

We got off the plane and saw our friends Scott and Marilyn Williams at our gate waiting for us. They were headed to North Carolina but knew we were landing a little before they were leaving. Then we headed to freshen up and put on the babies’ “debut outfits.” We walked the long corridor at PDX and then turned the corner (I had the video camera on my phone going) and we heard LOUD cheers. Over 60 people were there celebrating with us. It was AWEsome and overwhelming. I couldn’t believe it. I remembered when Josh and Bex returned home. Bex had asked me to take pictures and they had a bunch of family there. Family time was first and all of us friends stood back as they hugged and kissed and held the babies. Then it was time for friends.

We did not have “blood” relatives there, but our other family was there. Typically I thrive in these situations. I love crowds and I love people. It was a weird moment for me. I saw Jeanne-Ann walk up to some of her girlfriends with Haak and I sort of froze. I wasn’t sure what to do or who to go to. I honestly can not remember another time in my life where I felt like this. I was out of sorts. It was surreal. I felt like I was floating away from my body and watching from above for a few moments.

Finally someone came to me. (I think everyone was like I was when the Manns came home...we weren’t sure when we could go up and didn’t want to be that first one). Then the floodgates opened. It was hugs and kisses and more hugs. Nyah is very attached to me so she was pretty uncertain how to navigate this moment. Haak goes to everyone pretty easily.

I began to cry. It was here. The moment we had been dreaming of for almost 2 years was actually happening. We were home with our 2 beautiful babies from Ethiopia. Our West Coast family knew how to celebrate and they celebrated so well! It was a real honor and pure joy to be part of. Honestly, it is quite a blur, but there are snippets of that next hour or so that I will never forget. Eye contact before a hug that went deep into my soul and spoke volumes without hardly a word.

I will let the pictures that follow speak for themselves.


Eager anticipation


Thanx to Lisa for most of these welcome back photos she posted on FB.

Sometimes a hug is better than any words expressed.

Our Adoption Support Group!

The whole family!

"Erik. Why have you not been to the office in forever? I have a lot for you to do! Get your butt back in there tomorrow!"

On our garage door when we arrived home.

Thank you so much for being part of our journey. Whether you were there or you prayed for or us or gave us a gift or sent us a note or are a faithful reader on my blog. You have been part of our journey. The crazy part of getting home is over, but this journey and the craziness that goes with it is hardly at its end. Continue to join us, won’t you?

We Got Custody of Our Children!!!

2011-07-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

I was going to post about our trip to Wollisso today, but a turn of events happened and I thought you should know about it. It is, after all, what we have been asking for prayer for quite some time now. Because Kynzi was so sick on Karston’s birthday (Monday), we moved our visit with the babies to today (Tuesday). We decided we would go and visit with our lawyer, Sintayehu, before we headed to the orphanage. I called him up and he told us to come on when we were ready. We arrived about 2:15 in a rickety old taxi as a storm was brewing overhead.

After a couple of minutes of waiting he came out and walked us back into his office. Jeanne-Ann and I had prayed for wisdom from the Holy Spirit as to exactly what we should say, because we didn’t want to say anything that might be “the wrong thing.”

We shared our concerns regarding something we were worried about with Nyah. It was something we talked to him about before, but the doctor said it was normal and he told us we had to trust the doctor. Today we told him we had done quite a bit of research and agreed that it was “normal.” Babies who lay in cribs and aren’t held a ton often get flat spots and even misshapen heads. It’s called positional plagiocephaly. We are pretty sure that is what Nyah has. We told him that research tells us that it’s best to get a helmet of sorts that is designed especially for this before they are 10 months old. Nyah is almost 10 months. These helmets, or DOC bands, can greatly help to bring back symmetry to the head.

After we shared our concerns, we asked if there was any way to help move the process along any faster. We had not yet received the MOWA letter (the big slow up in the whole process) and then there was the wait for their paperwork after that came (20 days or more we had been told). He smiled and said, “Well, there has been a change since we last talked.” WHAT? This can not be good news, but he is smiling. Mhmmm...what was it? “The letter from MOWA came yesterday, and I was going to call you, but when you called me and asked for an appointment I decided to wait to tell you in person.” WHAT?! Are you kidding me? I held my breath and said, “What exactly does that mean?” “It means you can go and take your kids.” “Today?!” “Yes! Of course!”

Tears welled up in my eyes as the reality of this news began to register. Was he for real? We were on our way to see the babies after our visit with him. “So we can go and not visit but we can take custody of them today?” “Yes!” Wow! I couldn’t believe it. I got out of my chair and ran around to the other side of his desk where he was sitting and gave him a huge bear hug. Then there were hugs all around. We all hugged each other and we all hugged Sintayehu. He would call over to the orphanage when we were on the way and we would start the process.

I asked him how long the rest of the process would take. He told us he would work hard and make sure that it was done in 15 days or less. Jeanne-Ann clarified what 15 days meant. Not business days, just plain old glorious days! It could be sooner, but he would not promise that. Then it will be up to our embassy. He told us not to cancel our return tickets on July 31 yet. It could still be possible! Can you believe that!?!?! We may arrive home on August 1 as we had originally planned!

We arrived at Tokoul, our orphanage, 5 minutes later and the heavens had opened up and in the 13 steps it took us to get to the building from the taxi we were soaked. We didn’t care. This was a momentous occasion. We were celebrating. We handed over the copy of the letter to the office manager who had just arrived so she did not get the phone call yet. She looked at it and with joy in her eyes she smiled and said, “Wow. Congratulations.”

She called for the nannies to bring them out to us and we sat for a while, as they were still sleeping, and she began the paperwork. The nannies finally came and walked us to the meeting room where we had been so many times before with Haakon and Nyah for our 2 hours or so visits. We didn’t understand. So I walked back to the office and asked if we were still getting to take them home with us. She said, “Yes, I just have to finish the paperwork.” Whew. Huge relief. I ran back to Jeanne-Ann and my FOUR children and explained what was going on. A few minutes later we were loading up in the taxi and headed back to our home away from home, with all four kids!

We walked proudly in to the guest house with smiles plastered to our faces ready to show them off to anyone or anything that moved! Most everyone in the guesthouse knows our story and we were greeted with many congratulations and “awwwws” and everyone agreed how beautiful they are! We have shared the “what happened?” story many times over tonight and every time it has been a pure delight.

We gave them a bath right away. Haakon was not a big fan, but Nyah loved it. Then we hung out in the room, took some pictures and just loved them like crazy! We fed them, changed about 5 poopy diapers (thank you Haakon) and now they are sleeping in our room in makeshift cribs (there are a ton of families here right now and all the cribs are being used). I can hear them breath as I am typing away at my computer. I keep looking over and smiling as I see God’s plan for our family continue to fall into place.

True, a couple of years ago I would never have thought I would be adopting ANY children, now I can’t imagine it any other way. These are the children God purposefully chose for us, just as He has adopted us into His family!

Thank You Jesus!

A Typical Day in Addis Ababa

2011-07-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

I thought it might be nice to let you in on what life is like for us over here on a normal day. We usually get up between 6:00 & 7:00AM and get ready for the day. Then we head downstairs to the lobby where we get our breakfast (included). We have the option of hard boiled eggs, an omelet, scrambled eggs or “pancakes” (more like a thick crepe but not quite as good). We have the option to have our breakfast in our room, and sometimes we do that, but we enjoy chatting with other people who are staying here, so we usually choose the lobby option.

I have been running every other morning, so that happens before breakfast. We are at 7,750 feet above sea level where we are staying and it makes it harder to breathe than back home. My first outing I thought I was going to collapse lung as it was on fire! I have been getting more and more used to the air so each time I go a little further than the last. I am training for the Hood to Coast relay, so I HAVE to get in shape. (good motivator). I finally got to run with some Ethiopians, but more on that in another post.

We are currently on a 2 times a week visitation rotation with the babies. Usually that is Monday and Thursday or Friday. We get 2 plus hours with them on those days. On days we are not visiting with them we do any number of things. Some days we just chill around the guest house. If it is sunny, I like to go up to the 4th floor and sit on the roof for 30-60 minutes and read a book on my Kindle. I have discovered that this close to the equator, I should not be out longer than that without sunscreen.

About every 2 to 4 days a new couple “moves in” and we like to get to know them. Weygoss Guest House is known for its adoption friendly atmosphere, so most who stay here are adopting, though recently there have been several single guys who have been staying here, but they mostly keep to themselves. Almost all the couples we have met here we have really enjoyed getting to know. As with anyone, there are some who just like to keep to themselves, and that is fine, but I feel bad for them because I think they miss out on some shared community. Most of the couples that stay here are from Canada, but occasionally we find a couple from the States. One couple, Dave and Becky, actually know someone I know. He is a pastor and he works with a youth pastor who used to work in our district. They are also adopting through the same agency as we are. We have also gone out with Shirley, who is here adopting and has been here since November (she has a story and it’s hers to tell), and she has an amazing attitude and we learn a lot from her experience.

Like with Dave and Becky, we have gone out for meals or other little excursions with many of the families who have stayed here. That has been a real joy. Some are here for their second time and they have introduced us to some new restaurants, but the longer we are here the more places we get to know and we are usually doing the meal introductions. We typically go out for one meal a day and eat in for one meal. I am planning a post on restaurants later that I hope will be helpful to other adoptive families in the future who google “where to eat in Addis Ababa” or whatever. I know that the few places that Josh and Bex and Nina and Wes have recommended have been really good for us to know. We also met some missionaries our first weekend who drew us a map with many restaurants and other sights to see for us that has been very helpful and copied to hand to other couples.

Many of these places we need to grab a taxi and drive to but there are plenty of places we can walk to as well. We live on a main drag in Addis and so we don’t have to go to far. One of our favorite places to visit is Kaldi’s. This is a straight rip-off of Starbucks. The round green sign, the names of their sizes, the look and feel. Jeanne-Ann loves their caramel macchiatos and they have a killer strawberry “juice.” It is like a smoothie and is amazing! They also have fantastic desserts and ice cream too. A big difference from Starbucks is that you could have a legit meal there. We have really enjoyed the french toast, though it doesn’t touch Word of Mouth back home or the Sassy Onion. They also have really good french fries. The kids are always asking if we can walk to Kaldi’s and we very often acquiesce.

Kynzi has made great friends with all the ladies who work at the front desk. Eva, Betty, Tsion and Bisrat. She loves going down there to play cards with them, tell funny stories or just sit and talk with them. Karston likes to hang out there too, but not as often. A couple of them have even braided Kynzi’s hair. She has really enjoyed that! Eva has also been giving me Amharic lessons. It's a really tough language! There have been a few kids their age that have been here, so for those days there is plenty of playing outside with the other kids.

The main roads here are pretty rough to walk down. It is not because they are not paved, they are, but the cars and buses pump out so much exhaust that it can be hard to breath at times. There are also lots of beggars who either sit with their babies with their hands out or they follow you and ask for money. I will do another post on the poverty here likely in the near future, but needless to say it is hard on the heart to see it everywhere.

There are a couple of small grocery stores in walking distance that we buy things for our meal in and we will often go to the closest one to buy 2 5-liter jugs of water as we can not drink the water here unless it is bottled. 3 times since we have been here we have seen military guards and police line the streets and even shut down traffic so that some dignitary can be driven through at a very fast pace. There are soooooo many embassies here its crazy. Because this is the capital of the Africa Union pretty much every African country has an embassy here, but so do many other countries around the world. I assume most of these shut downs is for someone important headed to their embassy in a hurry.

At around 2:30-3:00PM they do a coffee ceremony in the lobby. Nunu makes up coffee and I have made an effort, as with any country I visit, to try everything I can in that country. I tried the coffee. If you know me at all you know I hate coffee. I had a cup when I was in 6th grade and hated it and haven’t had a cup since. I have sipped here and there to be polite, but have not had a complete cup. It smells good and I know most people have told me that if I get a cup that has all those different sugary things in it that it doesn’t taste like coffee at all. I don’t need another expensive habit thank you. The thing is, I don’t hate this stuff! I have actually had several cups! I know...shocking!

The afternoons and evenings are often filled with card playing or iPod playing. We have been playing a bunch of different card games. Sometimes we play in the room as a family and sometimes we head downstairs and invite others to join us. There is a TV in each room and there are some all day movie channels so sometimes we watch movies or a TV show. There is a little movie rental place around the corner that costs about 25 cents to rent, so we have rented from there some too. I recorded a few shows onto DVD before I left home so Jeanne-Ann and I have been watching Chicago Code most nights before we go to bed. Of course we also jump on the internet most days to do email and Facebook and Skype. It costs about $2 for an hour of wireless internet. Some days it works great and then there are the others. ;)

It’s been a pretty good time for us here. It will get better as soon as we get custody of Nyah and Haakon!

Tomorrow we are taking an overnight trip to some hot springs and to see monkeys. I am sure that will be worth a post so I will put that up later this week.

That’s life in Addis.

Our Court Date

2011-06-29T11:14:00.001-07:00

Today was the day for us to go to court. This is the day we have been waiting for a long time. It is the date that we have waited for Dove to call us and say “We have your court date. You can go to Ethiopia!” We got up early, had our breakfast and waited for our driver to show up. We took the 15 minute ride to the court house and met up with another couple we had met as they were going to see their kids the other day. We chatted for quite a while and then we were finally ushered in to the building.

There were no words in English so we kind of checked out each floor and kept getting sent away to another floor. We finally found where “baby court” was and walked into a 30x20 room (roughly) and we sat down as more and more people made their way in. We didn’t see any of the other Dove families and wondered where they were. We sat and shared with Brad and Elisa and learned their stories and shared ours.

After about 25 minutes a flood of more people came into the room along with the rest of the Dove families. We were 5 families in all. There were easily 50-75 people in this small room, most of them standing as there were only chairs along the outside of the room. We met our lawyers’ assistant and waited. As we waited we shared and talked with the other families and some other couples who were at our same orphanage from Belgium. The room was filled with about half white people and the other half Ethiopian. These were birth parents who were coming to testify that they were legitimately giving up their rights to their children. What a dichotomous moment. Joy and sadness filled the room at the same time. Tears were welled in eyes all over the room. Some tear because they were making the final legal effort to say yes, they were giving up their rights and some tears because this was part of the legal process to gain custody. The air was thick. Not just of emotion, but it was warm with all the breathing in that little space.

There were signs all over to be silent in many different languages, but the volume kept rising. Nervous tension, I think. After about 45 minutes of waiting and conversation at a peak a woman came in and banged three times on the metal door as loud as she could and there was sudden silence in the room. Whoops.

Our lawyer showed up and said we would soon go in, but we would likely be near the end because there was a big group of us. We all chatted and wondered what the result of each person who came out of the judge’s chambers was. Did they pass court? Did their MOWA letter arrive in time? We studied their faces, but couldn’t tell. There weren’t smiles, nor were there tears. I asked one man what happened and he said they didn’t have their MOWA letter and they were asked about 5 questions that required a yes answer.

Suddenly we discovered that there was some paperwork missing. Not good. Then our lawyer said, “Who is Williams?” Gulp. “That’s us.” He told us that our paperwork was not there, but that his assistant was running back to get it. “No problem.” I did not stress about it, thankfully. Our lawyer went in to the chambers and then came out again, then finally our paperwork arrived. We went in with 2 other couples, while the other 2 couples with our agency waited their turn.

The room was about half the size we were just in and there were 2 tables in it. Behind one were two clerks who were going through paperwork and behind the other was the judge. We had heard about this woman. Everyone said she was very beautiful and soft spoken. Both were true. She asked us if we had met with our children 2 times and if we understood that this was a forever decision. She told us it was important for us to learn as much about Ethiopia and its culture that we could so we could pass on what we learn to our children. Then we were done.

Kynzi had made a beautiful and very colorful drawing that she handed the judge and her face moved from quizzical to delight when she unfolded it. She said thank you and we walked out. We did not pass...there was no letter from MOWA. Our lawyer told us he hoped 10-15 days. We are praying sooner.

2nd Visit with the Babies (and prayer request)

2011-06-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

It was an early morning, as far as any real activity goes, as we headed out to meet with our lawyer today. They had lost power from the storm the night before and had not gotten it back yet. We sat in a fairly dark office with Sintahyu and he talked to us about our court appointment. He mentioned that our letter from MOWA had not arrived yet as the slow down to 5 a cases a day had slowed everything down. He imagined it would likely be 15-20 days before that would come to be. That would mean we would not get custody of the children right away. On top of that he told us we would only get to visit them once a week. WHAT?!?! That is not happening.

We are praying that we pass court on Monday! We will be in court at 9AM on Monday, so if you are praying, that is 11PM West Coast time and 2AM East Coast time. We don’t know exactly when they will see us, but it should be within the hour or so. We are praying a miracle happens and the letter arrives in time and we pass. Then we would get to take custody of the kids the next day. He mentioned that the day before they had upped it by 10 cases a day. We were unclear if he meant they are now doing 10 a day or 15 like our agency told us.

Now to the good stuff...

Today we got to see the kids again. This time we shared a room with 2 other couples. One couple was the couple we were trying to trade meetcha shots with the day before and the other couple we actually saw at the airport in Frankfurt. I remember sitting in the airport and Jeanne-Ann was pointing out four couples she was guessing that were adopting.

After some introduction and sharing our meetcha day experiences the nannies started bringing in the kids. We got another 2 whole hours with them. It was different sharing the experience with others. Not different bad, just different. Some of it was actually good. We shared with each other about what we thought of each others’ babies. They were all around the same age, which was pretty cool. I am not sharing names as I don’t have permission to share their stories, but I will say that these are some really nice people and I enjoyed getting some very unique time with them.

Back to our babies. Haakon was upset today and cried again, but it seemed to be a different kind of cry. Yesterday it seemed very much like he was upset because he was taken away from his familiar nanny and placed with a bunch of strangers with an odd pigmented skin. Something he likely had never seen before. Today the cry seemed to be more out of pain. He grabbed at his ear a lot and shook his head. Poor boy. I think he may have an ear infection. He did fall asleep in my arms and that was pretty awesome! That never got old with Kynzi and Karston and will never get old with Haakon and Nyah. As a matter of fact, it isn’t old now when the older ones do still to this day.

Kynzi had a great time getting Nyah to laugh. Those were some great pictures. I can’t wait to share them with you all! As soon as we gain custody of them I can show you. Believe me, it has been so hard to not share with the world what beauties these two are. Let me try to describe them as best I can. Haakon has almond shaped eyes with long eyelashes. He has a head full of hair. His hair is a tight, kinky curl. He has a bunch of spots on his face left over from his chicken pox. Because he has cried most of the time we have been with him, Haakon has a pathetic sad face you just want to kiss and make everything better for him.

Nyah is very expressive. She has many faces. She has a naturally mad-looking face to a beautifully dimpled smile. Her eyes are huge and at times she can look like she is startled like a deer in your headlights on a hot summer’s eve. She also has long eyelashes. She does not have much hair at all. On top it seems to be softer than Haakon’s, but she has a halo of hair on the back of her head that is pretty curly too. She has one or two spots left from her chicken pox as well. She has two teeth that have popped out on the bottom of her mouth. She is beautiful.

Two hours flew by and the nannies came to take them back to their rooms and feed them lunch. I didn’t want to leave them as I knew it would be several days before we got to see them again. We are praying you into our arms soon my sweet little children!!! Pappa loves you!!!!!!

Meetcha Day! We FINALLY met our babies!

2011-06-18T11:28:00.000-07:00

We are here!!! It has been a year and a half since we started this process and we are finally here. Let me tell you a little bit about our trip and then tell you about our first day in Ethiopia. So you know we were stuck in Frankfurt, Germany (if not, read all about it here). After our first canceled flight the day before we came with high hopes that we would get out the next day, with small fears that we wouldn’t. Those fears rose a bit after we got to the airport.

We sat for a while at our gate (2 1/2 hours early) and after some time noticed that no one was coming to the gate. Then a couple said something about the gate being changed. So we all walked across to the other side of the airport and got to our new gate. It was a small room downstairs filled with people. We were told immediately that although our flight was scheduled at 1:15PM we would have an update at 2PM as to whether or not we would be flying out that day. They seemed to have high hopes still though. 2PM came and went and at 2:45PM they told us they should have something at 3:40PM (odd time to say they would have an update). After the last update the wave of tiredness swept over our whole family and we fell asleep in our chairs. Jeanne-Ann woke me up and I felt like I was in one of those movies where there is haziness and lack of understanding of the situation around you. That slow motion sensed swarmed my foggy mind. I groggily walked up to the counter to check on something and at 3:45PM they announced that we would get on the plane at 4:30PM and the place erupted in cheers. I had been wanting to update everyone but internet cost about $10 per hour and I didn’t need it that bad. Then I saw the guy behind me in line checking facebook on his iPhone and asked if I could get on twitter for a moment. I was on and off in 30 seconds with a quick update to let everyone know we were leaving and then we headed for the plane.

It took some time to get everyone one and in the air but we finally lifted off. It was about 7 hours of in air time. We watched a couple of movies and then went to sleep as best we could, which was not much. It was a large plane that sat 2 then 4 then 2 again. We had a middle row of 4 to ourselves. That was nice. The bathrooms were down the stairs. We all thought that was pretty cool.

We landed at 3:30AM and walked through customs and waited a long time for our bags. Nine bags were underneath plus our carry ons. We looked a little ridiculous with all that luggage, but we had several of them filled with diapers and food, etc. For the kids as well as cases filled with donations. Much of it we will not bring back with us. Sammy and Balcha were there to pick us up and we headed for Weygoss Guest House. We got in and to our rooms on the 3rd floor (which is actually 4 flights of stairs as you have to go up a flight to get to the 1st floor). We have great rooms with a balcony, but more on the rooms in another post.

We slept for about 2 hours and then got up, ate some breakfast and called Sintayehu, our lawyer. He called back and told us we could meet the kids at 3PM. Jeanne-Ann was saying that this was good as we could relax for the day and take our time and then get over to Tokoul. Sintayehu didn’t wait 30 seconds before he called us back and told us we could get in right away! My stomach dropped and we called our driver and headed to the orphanage.

The drive was about 20 minutes or so and we saw a good deal of the landscape here. The people are beautiful and very friendly. As we pulled up to the dirt road Tokoul is on I immediately recognized it from the pics Josh and Bex had shown us as well as many a video we have seen on youtube from people’s “meetcha” days. This was it. It was happening. We were ushered in to the visiting room that was also familiar to me and we waited. The air was thick with anticipation. It may have been 10 minutes, but it seemed like forever! I wanted to have some friends we had met through Krista (former Dove employee) over facebook come and take pics and video and we were going to exchange that offer with them, but everything happened so quickly that we never got a chance to get online.

Then I heard them...the nannies around the corner. In walked the first nanny with Haakon Tarekayehu and then immediately behind her was another nanny with Nyah Tigist! They were real! They ARE real! It didn’t take .03 seconds before the tears broke through their natural dam. I held Nyah and Jeanne-Ann held Haakon. I squeezed her and kissed her. She is MY daughter!!! I have 2 daughters and 2 sons!!! This is crazy. My mind raced all over the place and yet all I could think about was these precious ones. Kynzi and Karston were in charge of video. They did OK. We will post those videos after we get custody of the children. Until we have custody we can not post any pics or videos of them.

After a while Jeanne-Ann and I traded and I held Haakon. These 2 children are so beautiful. Haakon cried pretty much the whole time. I think that is a good thing. He is bonded to his nannies and we are strangers. Nyah was very chill. She just kind of checked us all out with her big beautiful eyes. It was a surreal 2 hour period. Time seemed to just be all floaty. I can’t explain it any better than that. Kynzi and Karston each held them and loved on them a lot. It was awesome to see that. Karston has been over the moon excited to hold his little brother. Ha has plans to teach this boy how to play every sport in the world. Kynzi plans to mother these kids like crazy. I love how excited they are about their siblings.

We held them. We loved them. We cooed at them. We talked and sang and laughed and cried. So many emotions. So good for my soul. At one point I was holding Haakon and he fell asleep. Sweat formed as our skin touched. His forehead glistened and he slept. This felt so right.

After 2 hours of cuddling and pictures and passing them back and forth we heard the steps of the nannies around the corner and it was time to say goodbye. My heart was full and ached at the same time. I didn’t want to say goodbye, but I knew I would get to see them tomorrow again. The first thing we did when we got back to the guest house was look through all the pictures. We relived every moment and talked about it over and over. What a morning it was.

There is more to the day, but that’s it for now. I know many of you have been asking for updates and so I wanted to make sure I got you the best one in a looooooong time!

(PS. Pics will come later. Takes a long time to load)

Day 1 of our Ethiopian Journey

2011-06-13T12:46:00.001-07:00

We are off. I can't believe it. As I write this I am sitting on our plane to Newark. Kynzi just moved up to sit with Karston so they can watch Gulliver's Travels together. My beautiful bride is sitting next to me.

We jammed a lot of friend time into the last few days. That was so fun. I thank God every day for the family He has put into our lives. All of our family lives so far away and He has blessed us with amazing people close to us.

I got 2 hours of sleep last night and have logged one on this flight so far. Unfortunately the lack of sleep is not helping my state of mind. I am trying hard to be patient with children who are also tired. It's going to be a long trip. Haha.

We had 9 bags we put under and everyone has at least one carry on. The next flight from Newark to Germany is the one I am praying about. I am flying straight to Frankfurt but Jeanne-Ann and the kids are flying to Stuttgart and then meeting me in Frankfurt. I am praying they can join me on my flight. Their flight from Stuttgart to Frankfurt is totally full and none of them are sitting next to each other. Not good. If they don't get on my flight I am praying for kind people to move and give them seats together.

The kids gave our flight attendants a box if chocolates and that had opened up conversations with them about our trip. I love that. I love being able to share God's story He has painted for us. You know me...i love to talk. The guy sitting next to us asked about our travels and was very excited to hear about our story. He is headed to Edinburogh to see his daughter graduate from college. His brother is with him and they will stay 2 weeks and play lots of golf. That's pretty awesome. His wife is joining them in 2 days. Very nice guy. I love getting to talk with people and hearing their story and getting to share our story.

It is strange to think that after 1 1/2 years we are actually making this trip together. I am so thankful to God that we all get to go together. That is huge! This will be something like we will likely never get to do again. What an adventure. No cell phones. No Netflix. No dvr. I think I will have to forfeit all my words with friends games. ;-) I'm pretty connected and this will be a good thing for me (I keep trying to convince myself).

We have several card games and various other games. I will be teaching my kids card games I grew up playing when I was in Norway. We brought a football so Karston can train for the fall and a soccer ball so we can play with kids in our neighborhood. Our neighborhood...I like the sound of that. I plan to train for hood to coast which is at the end of august. I have been praying I make an Ethiopian friend who is a runner that I can train with. How cool would that be?! I don't know what they will think seeing a white guy running around everyday (I said everyday...that's funny...a guy can dream).

Well, I think I will take another nap.

By the way, thanx to Daniel and Aelix we got allthe malaria pills we needed. And thanx to Steve for getting to our house at 4:15AM to drive us to the airport!

How You Can Pray

2011-06-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

We are FOUR days from departure! Count it...1...2...3...4!! Wow. People keep asking how you can pray. Well, here you go.

1) We just found out our fingerprints expire on August 16. I hope that would not be an issue, but we want to be safe. The soonest appointment that is available is July 6. Would you pray there is some way around that?

UPDATE: They snuck us in. We got our fingerprints. Thank you Jesus!

2) We leave Monday. The longest part of the flight I fly separately from the rest of my family. We would love to fly together.

3) Our court appointment is on June 20th. Would you pray we pass court the same day. It is happening less and less because of the slow downs. Passing would greatly increase our ability to return home sooner with our WHOLE family!

4) Although we look forward to our time away as a family, pray that the process goes relatively quickly. It would be really nice to be home and have some time off to get used to life at home with 6.

5) We want to grow as a family (not just in numbers) as we will have this very unique opportunity to be away and together in a way we are not likely to do again.

6) Pray for good health for us and Nyah and Haakon too.

7) Pray for the birth parents of our children. Today they will be standing before the judge in court explaining why they gave up their child. This will undoubtedly be a difficult day.

8) Pray we get everything we need to get done done. Not much time left here and LOTs to do yet! Weekend, I am thankful for you. :)

Thanx friends. I sure do appreciate you!

Dreaming of Ethiopia

2011-05-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

Since we got our call to head over to Ethiopia a week ago I have to be honest...I have thought of little else. I have so much to do to get things in order at work for when I am away and also at home. Too much probably. I know that will all come together, but I just can't stop thinking about Nyah and Haakon. I can't stop looking at the pictures of them and showing them off to everyone! It seems almost every conversation I have I end up talking about them and our trip to get them. Usually I try really hard to have people leave a conversation feeling like they have had someone who deeply listened to them and asked them questions. That's not happening as much right now.

I know it's OK. Don't get me wrong. I love talking about them. It's good for me to tell the story. It's just different for me is all. Although, most conversations this past year have always started like this: "Hey, how are you? Great, how are you? Awesome. Hey, how is that adoption thing going?" So inevitably the conversation heads there anyhow, but now it has legs. It's real. It's happening. We are going.

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Can you tell I am a little excited?

Even though I have seen pictures and watched videos and heard stories and read blogs, it is a huge unknown. I imagine that it will be like. What our day in and out life will be like. What it will smell like. What sites we will see. What experiences we will have. How long it will take to pass court. When our embassy date will be. When we will come home. What people we will meet. I imagine a lot.

Right now we are working on our flights. Hoping to have all that nailed down by tonight. God has lead us through this so far and has provided all along the way. I am not stressed about that. (Thank you Jesus for taking my stress away!) We have pretty much finished the babies' room. Just a few more decorations and a rocking chair and we are done. We did some severe cleaning of the garage. Lots of house cleaning (my wife is amazing!)

BTW, if you haven't read my last post about our call go here.

I wonder...will we all fly together? Will we get to meet the birth moms? Will I get to train for hood to coast relay race with some new Ethiopian friends? Will there be anyone at the airport when we return home if we come back on a Monday afternoon? Will the kids like the food (I have already enjoyed Ethiopian food here in the States)? Will my older kids get along perfectly and start a new relationship because they have this shared experience without other kids to interfere? ;-) Will I get a tan?

I wonder...

WE ARE HEADED TO ETHIOPIA!!!

2011-05-24T15:56:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can hardly believe it. It was a regular Friday. What I was doing was a little different. I was working from home. Sitting on my couch with my laptop open. Working on plans for our middle school service project camp that is happening in July. I was going to Karston's annual parent BBQ and so I decided it was best to just work from home and not waste all that time driving. But then...something that would change the way I viewed that day forever.

At 10:55 I heard that special ringtone I only have for Dove Adoptions International. I was not expecting it to be honest. When I was waiting for our referral call, I had my phone on all the time making sure I would hear the ringtone. I would even apologize to people I would have lunch with, because I don't like to have my phone interrupt my time with others. I have had my phone on silent plenty these days. I just happened to have it on this day. It rang, and Mercy Me sang, "On the other side of the world, she is just a few days old. A helpless little girl with no family of her own. She is not to blame for the journey she is on..."

Man that song gets me every time I hear it. It has such deep meaning for me now, especially as it is my special ringtone connected to my children!

Anyhow, this was THE call. Well, the other THE call. The one where they told us we had a court date! That's right. You did not read that wrong. We got our court date! June 20th!!! Can you believe it? On June 20th we will be standing before a judge in Ethiopia explaining that we want to legitimately adopt these two amazing children.

I seriously can not believe it is actually happening. 3 weeks from now we will actually be in Ethiopia! They want us there the week before so we have time to visit our kids and meet with our lawyer who will walk us through the process of our court date. It is so surreal. I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around this. I have equated parts of the adoption process to being pregnant before.

* Getting accepted into the process was like finding out we were pregnant.
* Knowing our paperwork was received in Ethiopia and we were on the list was like hearing the babies' heart beat.
* Getting our referrals was like seeing the ultrasound and finding out the gender (plus seeing their actual faces)
* Getting the call with a court date was like going into labor, albeit a very long labor.
* "Meetcha day" (the day we actually meet the kids) will be like the birth, and then they will have to put in the NICU, so they have to stay at the "hospital" for a while and we can visit them and love on them.
* When we pass court it will be like taking the babies home from the hospital.
* I guess passing our Embassy appointment and arriving back in the US don't really fit into the "pregnancy" equation, but maybe that is more like the follow up doctor appointments. ;)

Soon I will be blogging from across the pond and letting you in on the life of us in another world. Our children will be going with us and we are currently planning on staying from court to embassy. We have no idea how long this will take. We have seen people do that in as short as 3 weeks, our friends Josh and Bex Mann did it in 6 weeks and my sister and bro-in-law did it in 3 months. Theirs was an extreme case and is not the norm.

So here we go. We are launching on a new chapter. It's exciting. It's thrilling. It's scary. It's unpredictable. It's breathtaking. Sitting completely in the hands of God...it's good.

Join us, won't you? Now...where is that to-do list?

End of the World Credit Card Debt

2011-05-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

I just spent $37,435.29! I got an iPad2, a new MacBook pro for my wife, iPhones for the kids, a soft tail fat boy Harley Davidson, ground fx for my car, a new 6'5" Al Merrick surfboard, Parrot Drone remote control, an iPhone video projector, iPhone pinball game, night vision goggles, a carstache for my Honda, a jetpack (I am REALLY excited about this one), this crazy jacketback. Its a backpack built into the jacket. Cool, huh?

Those are just a few things on the list I got. I figured being that it I may no longer be here on earth after Saturday, I would have some fun. ;)

I don't know if you have heard, but there are people who are saying that Jesus is returning on Saturday, May 21. This guy, Henry Camping, who is an engineer, has said he figured out the math from the Bible and knows that tomorrow is that day. Many people are freaking out thinking this is true. Many people say this guy is a nut case. Here is the deal. I have read the Bible and I know the answer. You see, in the Bible, Matthew 24 to be specific, we are told a few things about the end times. 1) it tells us that the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ, will be preached in all the world. See here:

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

That's verse 14 in chapter 24. There are way too many people groups in the world who have not heard the gospel yet.

The other major thing, and for this conversation perhaps the most obvious thing, is that in verse 36 it says this:

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father.No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

You see, this guy is using the Bible for his math to get to the 21st, but the Bible is VERY CLEAR in saying that NO ONE knows the day or the hour.

Here is what I like about the fact that this guy has caused some crazy amount of stir in our world. I love that we are thinking about the end of our lives. Not that it's the end, but what we would do if we only had a short time left.

What would you do if you knew you only had a couple more days left on earth? Would you go out and buy a bunch of things? Would you go sky diving? Rocky mountain climbing? Go 2.7 seconds on a bu...wait a minute. Maybe Tim McGraw had it right.

A little highlight from a whole bunch of apocalyptic movies.

Eclectic Method - The Apocamix from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

PS. No, I did not actually buy those things, but it sure would be fun!

An Update

2011-05-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

A lot of you have been saying, "Hey, we haven't heard an update in a while. Did I miss something?" No, you have not missed anything. I haven't made any updates because there really haven't been any updates.

Basically our agency told us that when we accepted our referrals that we would get notified about a court date in 4-7 weeks. We are in our 5th week! Ugh! The upside is that we are closer than we ever have been before. (duh). Our summer plans are on hold. We don't know when we are going, but every single day we are praying for Haakon and Nyah. We are praying for health (we think Haakon has the chicken pox and Nyah already had them last month). We are praying they know they are loved. We are praying every day that they are held and cared for well at the orphanage.

We invite you to pray with us on those things too. Would you also pray for a court date soon?! :) We have been praying for some friends too. One family has been waiting for 10 1/2 months for their referrals! We waited 7 months, 3 weeks and 2 days. Another family is adopting from Rawanda and have been waiting super long for their referral as well!

So here is to waiting. Kids: we are coming soon! Love you!

Follow Up To One Day Without Shoes

2011-04-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

April 5th was "One Day Without Shoes Day."

I went an entire day without any shoes on. Fortunately the sun was out and it was relatively warm. I did not know what to expect. I had been planning for the day for a few weeks and it finally arrived. I decided to write on my feet to hopefully open up more conversation. I had a few meetings at different places and knew that I would be in some stores where surely they would not allow shoes.

As I walked out of the house to take Kynzi to school I felt the chill of concrete on my bones. Almost a stinging sensation, like when the tiny rain drops fall. I had a meeting at the church and then to the office. Those were pretty easy. It was my meeting with a youth pastor at Starbucks that would be my first venture into "the world." I didn't get a single look. Weird. The same went for when we went to the Green Apple frozen yogurt place.

Although I didn't get the questions and looks I was expecting, I felt. I felt the cold on my feet, which caused my whole body to be cold. I also stepped out in the parking lot at my office and found broken pieces of glass all around my parking spot. I stepped carefully around the pieces knowing there were plenty of shards that were small enough to not be seen and possibly in my feet already. I didn't feel any pain, but I did feel for those around the world who can't afford shoes. That was significant. If no one else was moved by what I was doing that day, I was.

I know that when I head to Ethiopia I am sure to see people without shoes. That will be hard. Below is a compilation video of my day in under 2 minutes.

 Facebook readers

Facebook readers click here to view the video.

An Ethiopian Welcome Home Experience

2011-04-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

On Friday we finally got to do it. We met Mercy Mann in real life for the first time! We have skyped with her several times, but this time we saw her, we held her, we kissed her! It was awesome! But let me back up a little and then get back to here.

Josh and Bex Mann invited us to Starbucks to tell us that they were planning on adopting from Ethiopia. Jeanne-Ann and I were kicking each other under the table. You see, just that morning we were having our first major conversation about the possibility of adoption and here God was using some dear friends and their journey to move us forward on our journey too. We have walked together closely on this road of adoption and it has been truly amazing. We have walked through the joys and the sorrows of all that is adoption together. These have been some amazing friends. God has truly blessed us with a bunch of amazing friends and family to support us, encourage us and pray for us along the way. I know many of them are you my dear bloggy friends. Thank you.

We have gone back to that same Starbucks for all of our (the collective our) celebrations along the way and added Chipotle to the date as well. It has been a fun tradition. When they headed over to Ethiopia I had a deep sense inside that we were "with" them there. I felt like I was experiencing it alongside them. Bex is an incredible writer and I love how she blogs. I learn so much of what it means to be a great blogger/writer from her. (I'm working on honing my skills Bex...thanx.) Her ability to be so descriptive and detailed has made it feel like I was there. Sidenote: I would say my sister Nina has done the same as she is also an amazing writer! Both have moved me to tears and to deep laughter.

We have also been able to skype with them along the way. We got a tour of the guesthouse they stayed at (perhaps our future temporary home) and get to meet Mercy and see her in all her digital goodness. Often those skype video calls would include my sister Nina, Wes and their 2 kids Alex and Eliana. What a thrill that has been for us. Our kids are at the same orphanage as Mercy was at. That's only ONE degree of separation folks!

So when the call came last week that they were actually coming home hot tears of joy streamed down my face. It is hard to fully describe how I have been living vicariously through these 2 families as they have been over there. Nina and Wes are still over there as they have hit one issue after another. We are praying that they are able to come home this week! Would you join us in praying for that to happen? Read more about how you can help them financially get home here. They have been there since Early January!

They boarded the plane and stopped in Amsterdam and San Francisco before they finally landed at PDX. Several of us met at YoCream for some frozen yogurt yumminess before we finally go to the airport. With friends and family all in one area we anticipated their arrival with greatly. The buzz was fun to listen to. We had made a huge poster and the Unwins (I think) brought American and Ethiopian flags for the kids to wave. Bex had asked if I would take pictures when they arrived and I was quick to oblige.

Everyone waiting with baited breath.

We stared as far down the corridor as we could of concourse A, knowing that their flight had finally landed and Bex had tweeted "Home."

A simple one word tweet drenched in meaning.

After what seemed to be an eternity, we finally saw them and everyone began to cheer and shout! They were home! It was real. The friends kept their respective distances and allowed the family to be the first greeters. There was some hesitancy at first as no one wanted to overwhelm them until Liz (Bex's sister) said, "Forget this!" and charged right at them full force. Soon we all got our hugs in and I won't lie...it felt good. This is family.

The Family...all together!

When Jeanne-Ann was holding Mercy Bex said, "You are now touching someone who has touched your babies." I lost it. That surreal moment will stick with me for a long time. I was suddenly transported to a building filled with children whom, for one reason or another, don't have birth parents that can care for them, and I missed my kids. I have not held them yet, but I know I love them. Deeply! Soon my sweets, soon...Pappa and Mamma and your sister and brother are coming to bring you home. Soon.


One of my favorite pictures of the night.

Mercy meets some of her new friends.

It's official. This little one is an American!

This was a good day. A really good day.

One Day Without Shoes (update)

2011-04-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you caught my blog a few weeks ago when I talked about One Day Without Shoes, but tomorrow is the day! Toms shoes is an amazing company with an amazing strategy. For every pair of shoes they sell, another pair of shoes is sent to someone in a developing country. I love this concept and I wish more and more companies would do the same thing.

Tomorrow millions around the world will spend the day walking barefoot to raise awareness of how a HUGE population of the world can not afford their own shoes. I will be one of those people. Will you join me? Someone asked me if there was more that they could do than just "raise awareness" and I began to think about it. I am headed to Ethiopia SOON (we do not know when yet, but we are praying we get an answer here any day). I would love to collect NEW or "gently used" shoes to take with us. We will bring extra suitcases with us to fit the shoes in.

The key is that these shoes should NOT stink! Please do not give me year old plus shoes. They need to look new if they are not brand new. Contact me with how to get those shoes to me. Just email me here.

Want more info? Check out toms.com and you can also download their iPhone and Droid app.

A Blog Napping!?!

2011-04-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

So my sister and brother-in-law are in Ethiopia and have been so since the middle of January. There have been several "speed bumps" along the way. It has been heartbreaking to see one thing after another come along that has kept them from coming home with their twins. Their attitudes have been amazing all along the way. That's not to say they haven't been sad or mad at times or dealt with confusion, but they they have been so solid!

As a result of staying there for waaayyyy longer than anticipated they have incurred significant financial burdens. So. A solution. Nina and Wes have some pretty awesome friends (Aimee and Angelam Karen and Kari....shhhhh...don't tell anyone) who have blog-napped Nina's blog and are doing a blitz sale of a really cool messenger bag. Kari from mycrazyadoption.org does these great designs! Would you help us bring them home? Buy 1 or 5 bags!!! Go right to Nina's blog here and see all about it.

Memory Lane Makes Me Think of the Future

2011-03-28T08:38:00.000-07:00

Today I went to pick up my 11 year old daughter at church. I had just finished up at our high school worship service and needed to get Kynzi. She volunteers with the little kids as their Sunday School teacher. As I walked down the hallway and saw all the parents walking hand in hand with their children or carrying them lovingly in their arms, I was suddenly swept away to the spring of 2002. I remembered carrying Karston in my arms and Kynzi holding my pinky finger as we walked down that very same hallway. So small and tender. So light. So dependent on me. Life was good.

Life is good now too. In a different way, but oh so good. Now I have a daughter who volunteers with kids ministry and a son who volunteers with Angel's ministry making food for the homeless. I like my life. I like it very much thank you.

Fast forward into the near future. My mind was overwhelmed with the thoughts of how I will be walking down this hallway again soon enough. This time it will not only be to get my middle schooler, but picking up my two very small, very dependent children who need me for everything. As I am holding one in my arms and a very cool and manly diaper bag on my other shoulder, Jeanne-Ann has the other baby. We are smiling as people all around us rejoice with us that our children are all finally home.

It was a short lived, yet very real moment for me. I am so looking forward to that day. I know I will have plenty of days where I will wonder what in the world have we got ourselves into, just like I have with the first two. Those moments are not what marks the days though, the fact that God has given us the gift of being parents and the moments of interaction, laughing and late night talks as I put them to bed are the things that make the day. Being a parent is truly a gift. I need to treasure that gift as much as possible.

Winner of Caption This

2011-03-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

Thanx for the captions. That was a lot of fun. There were some really good ones in there. you guys are funny! We talked about it as a family and came down to one winner.

LorieN said...NRA Desperate for New Members, Now Allows Nerf Guns.

We had a close second that gets an honorable mention.
This is My Life said...
Jon Coats: this caption is a combo of your last name and nerf. With the Will-I-Am flare

"Nerf-I-Am's"

Lorie, your shirt is on the way!

One Day Without Shoes

2011-03-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

I have discovered something about myself. The more I do for others, the more I want to do for others. Every time I do a service project or go on a missions trip or help a neighbor with something I find myself wanting to do more. Ever since God opened my heart to adoption I have had this sense that I need to be doing more. I remember in the beginning of last year I gave up my Starbucks card I had been using for years to use a new (Red) Starbucks card. Every time I used it a portion of the money went to Africa. I know that may not seem like a big deal to you, but I love hearing, "Wow, I haven't seen that card in a REALLY long time!" or "Where did you get that card? I have never seen it before." (rookies). Anyhow, I wanted to make a difference even with my Refreshe Tea.

Sometimes the things I find my self doing or wanting to do are small, but sometimes they are more significant. I recently was on the TOMS website getting a shirt for a friend who was not able to get onto their website. When I got on I saw this information about "One Day Without Shoes." Let me back up a moment before I explain. TOMS is a shoe company that gives a pair of shoes to someone in a 3rd world country for every pair of shoes they sell. I LOVE that model. My wife and daughter have TOMS and I love that we have given a pair of shoes for each pair that they own.

Now, to the One Day Without Shoes story. I saw this about 2 years ago when Hanson promoted it and walked with a whole bunch of other people barefoot. I thought it was pretty cool, but I did not do anything that time around. TOMS is trying to raise awareness. This is what they say on their website. "Millions of kids grow up without shoes and at risk of infection and disease. One Day Without Shoes is the day way take off our shoes and raise awareness of the impact a pair of shoes can have on a child's life."

So I have put together a "team" of people who will join me on this day to raise awareness. This team would not be complete without you. Would you join my "team" and go without shoes on this day and help me raise awareness of this issue? Click here and join my team. Let's get the word out there. Feel free to jump onto TOMS website and buy a pair of shoes too.

Don't You Just Love A Good Giveaway? (Caption This)

2011-03-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

I think it is time to do a giveaway! So here is the deal. We have some shirts left from our fundraiser and we want to give you one. All you have to do is post a comment below on what the caption for this picture might be (including the size you would prefer) and you will be put into the contest. Feel free to click on the "follow" this blog too. Hopefully we will have your size, if not we will get as close to that size and you can give it to a loved one if it doesn't fit.

Caption This

Names?? Yes, our babies have names!

2011-03-04T10:54:00.000-08:00

Names are a difficult thing. They are an important thing. It has been said that your name is your favorite word in any language. Your name is you. It is who you are. When I came to look at the job at Salem Alliance 14 1/2 years ago, I asked for a picture directory of the students. There were about 80 at the time and when I spoke to the middle schoolers that weekend part of what I did was line them all up and try to say all their names. I got about 90% of them right. It was amazing!

I work really hard to remember people's names. I know it's important to them. I even ordered one of those late night infomercial Mega Memory packets a bunch of years ago. Honestly, it has helped me a TON! I am way better at remembering people's names than I used to be. Now my friend Jeramy Williams (no relation) is the master at this. When he shares stories about people he always uses their first and last names. He knows who these people are. I try to know more than just names too, I want to know people. I want to know their stories. That's why I think it's important to really focus on the person you are talking to. Making eye contact and engaging in the conversation.

I am starting to veer off topic a little bit, so let me turn back to where we started. Names. What's in a name? A rose by any other name would still smell so sweet...or something like that. When Jeanne-Ann was pregnant with our first child we were settled on the name Brittain. We had a friend in college with that name and we really thought she was cool and loved her name. When she was born, we both immediately said, "She doesn't look like a Brittain." That was a weird moment. I never thought that could be real for babies. So for a couple of days we just said "her" and "she" a lot.

We finally settled on Kynzi Anike. We loved it. It fit her. It was perfect. Jeanne-Ann and I talked a lot about how we would spell her name, but I made an "executive" decision when she was still "under the influence" of the pain medication. (insert smile here) Karston Thomas also went nameless for a while. After some back and forth on how we would spell it we finally named him. We worked really hard at choosing the right names for them.

That brings us to today. You have read that we are adopting 2 kids and we just got both of their referrals this last week. We have been talking about names for a long time. I got us both an app for our phones that we could look up names. Jeanne-Ann has been doing a lot of research on names and their meanings. She looked for names meaning "chosen." As we looked through the names we found several that made the possible list and some that just made us laugh. Can you imagine our kid being named Flavia? Can you say, "Flava Flav!!?" Now, if that is your name or a loved one I am sorry, I am not laughing at them, it is just not a name that fits with us. Other favorites in that list...Mustafa (almost Lion King), Nazarite, Vala and Waljan.

Another meaning we have talked about is "purpose." There were only a few names on this list, but one name that we loved was one we had already talked about. How cool is that? That being said, we have talked about a LOT of names over the last year. It kinda drives me crazy, but Jeanne-Ann loves to talk about it. ;) The kids have given names and we will use them as middle names, but we are giving them these names.

And now for the reveal.

Our son is Haakon. This means chosen. God chose this child for us and we chose him. You may feel a bit confused as to how to say it, so let me help you. Hawk-en, or if you want to say it the Norwegian way, Hawk-awn. We will nickname him Haak or Hawk. A little history on this name and part of why it jumped out at us on this list. After we told our parents about it my mom emailed me some things she knew about this name. Some of these things we knew already, like it is the name of the former King of Norway and the current Crown Prince of Norway. Now for my mom's email.

Did you know that in 1994 the olympics were held in Norway. It is the olympics where everything went perfect. There were no weather delays. Perfect sunny days with perfect temperatures. (it didn't hurt that Norway did so good:):)). Crown prince Haakon lit the Olympic flame and the mascots were Haakon and Kristin. Yeah for Haakon. Beautiful name with lots of history.
One from old history is Haakon den Gode. He was known as the king who tried to deal with conflict by being good and not using weapons. He also became a believer in Jesus and spread that to the people who to this point in history only believed in the old Norse gods like Odin

Our daughter is Nyah. This is a name we have had for quite a while. We talked about it, loved it, threw a bunch of other names into the mix and kept coming back to it.

I googled Nyah and found out a few things.

Nyah is a town in northern Victoria, Australia.
The following names are baby names related to Nyah and are suitable names for brothers and sisters of Nyah: Boys - Amare, Dakarai, Daktari, Daniachew, Danso, Demissie, Diallo, Diji, Donkor, Dume, Jabari, Girls - Shani, Zula, Both genders - Damisi, Kamari, Makena, Nalo

I love it! I love her! I love them!

There you have it.

We Got Our SECOND Referral!!!!

2011-03-01T18:02:00.000-08:00

I was sitting in my office today and planning on heading out to our adoption agency to deliver the biggest check I have ever written. It’s the referral acceptance check. I know we didn’t have the second referral, but I did not want the check to be any hindrance at all for the next part of the process. I was planning on leaving at 11:30, but a few things kept coming up and it was delaying my departure. 

Again, Jeanne-Ann and Babe are the same people.

I got my jacket on and was almost ready to go out the door. Then all of a sudden, at 12:31PM, the phone rings with that special ringtone that will forever hold very special meaning to us. It was Tami at Dove! She said she had another referral for us! Gulp! I asked if Jeanne-Ann was on and she told me she could not get ahold of her. What?!?! I told her I was putting her on hold and would try to call her and conference her in. She didn’t answer her phone? 3 calls...NOTHING! CRAP!!! I got online and found the number to the school and told Debbie at the front desk I HAD to talk to Jeanne-Ann. I knew it was between morning and afternoon classes so she should be free.

A minute later Jeanne-Ann was on the phone and I conferenced her in with Tami. “Oh no!” Jeanne-Ann cried when she heard it was my voice on the line. That meant Dove did not call her, but it must be about the referral. So we had to find out information over the phone. No running home and getting the kids out of school this time. We wanted to know the gender and age and a few other things before we got off the phone and looked at pictures, etc.

IT’S A GIRL!!!

I am going to have another daughter!!! I can’t believe it. Wow! Amazing. Kynzi has been praying so hard for a little sister and of course we would have been happy with a boy too, but soooo excited we have a little boy and girl.

I am walking on air right now! My heart is so overwhelmed with love for these two beautiful children that will be mine and Jeanne-Ann’s forever!

After I got off the phone with Jeanne-Ann I jumped in the car, headed to the bank to get a cashiers check and then drove to Dove. Once I arrived Krista saw me through the window of the office and greeted me at the door. There were most of the people from the office ready to hear all about it. I obliged and shared the story about our two kids! What a fun moment to get to share with the people who are pretty invested in our journey from a totally different side than most people we know.

I headed home and when I arrived Jeanne-Ann had told the kids we were going to do something. I think Kynzi may have had an idea, but she was trying not to let on. We set up the computer and Jeanne-Ann said she wanted us all to look at our son again, but when I opened the screen they saw their new SISTER! Kynzi screamed and jumped up and down and then proceeded to dance all around the room as Karston watched and said, “Cool!” Then it was time to connect with the grandparents and other family members as quick as we could. We could not keep the lid on this one for too long.

We went out with some friends to Green Apple frozen yogurt to celebrate. We wanted to celebrate both of them, but decided this round should be a little less expensive. Haha. We love getting to celebrate with others and love that you get to be a part of our journey, whether you are a great and close loved one or a blog “stalker.” You are part of our journey. Thank you for your encouragement and your support. We now will dig our heels in for the next waiting period, which we have heard is harder than the first one. I can understand because now we know who they are and we love them already. We just want to be with them and love on them and have them home with us. With a face and a name and two real human beings tied to our dreams, we long to hold them in our arms. It looks like it will be 3-4 months before we leave for Ethiopia.

My sweet, beautiful chosen children...I love you. I long for you. I have been praying for you every single day of your life! I can’t wait to hold you in my arms and snuggle you and love you an kiss your faces! We are coming...as soon as we can.

Want to read about our first referral? Click here.

Names to be shared soon. Keep your eyes open.

We Got Our First REFERRAL!!!!

2011-02-26T17:27:00.000-08:00

Finally! We have been waiting and waiting and waiting some more! I can't believe that yesterday, February 25th, our life was forever changed! After 7 months, 2 weeks and 3 days we have a REFERRAL!!!

And now for a play by play of my day (even minute by minute).

I got a text from Michelle saying that her and Brian were headed to the hospital in Portland to see Lisa, who is one of our high schoolers who has cancer. They swung by the office to pick me up and we had a great visit with Lisa. She is an amazing girl. She spoke at DYC last weekend for part of our Saturday morning session and got crazy applause from everyone and then we all gathered around her to pray, much like the way they prayed around us Sunday morning. You can read more about that here if you missed that post.

When I woke up Friday morning I was thinking through the day and wondering if we would get our call. I knew I had a premarital counseling appointment with Eric and Chrystal at 2 and thought, "If we get our call today I may have to reschedule that appointment." As we were headed back from the hospital I suggested we go eat at Moe's and Chele, Brian's wife, was going to meet us there.

We were on I-5 and crossing I-205 when all of a sudden my phone rings. Not just any normal ring, but my special ringtone! (MercyMe's Won't You Be My Love) AND it said Dove International Adoptions on my screen!!! I know my face had a crazy look of shock that Michelle saw in her rearview mirror. I answered and said hello. It was Tami. She put me on hold to conference in Jeanne-Ann. As she did this I pulled out my Flip cam that I have been keeping in my jacket pocket for the last 2 months and started recording. I wanted to capture every moment. I have been practicing this moment for months in my mind. It was out so fast that I think I actually beat Brian to the punch of recording as he had pulled out his iPhone to record it too.

Screen capture from my phone. BTW, Babe and Jeanne-Ann are both the same person. Just in case you were wondering.

The video is pretty uneventful as I just sat in shock and listened to what was happening and tears started coming. We told Tami we didn't want to know anything except if it was a boy or a girl. The rest we would wait to find out together with our kids when we all got home. Michelle pulled up to the office and her and Brian went in to "run interference" as I grabbed my laptop and shut things down in my office. I was not ready to tell anyone until we had all seen the pictures together as a family. I ran out to my car and just said "see ya" to Mike and Lisa.

I am not going to lie, I may have broken some laws on the way home. Except for a few times when the "fast lane" was only doing 62 in a 65!!! Don't these people realize I had a small window to get home? When they called Jeanne-Ann, she had just finished up with her morning Kindergarteners and had about an hour break until her afternoon Kindergarten class would show up. I would get less than 30 minutes with my family until school was done. I had to get home fast. (younger readers, please don't do as I did. Obey the law. Don't speed.) After crossing over a limit that may have had an 8 and a 5 in it I finally made it home. :)

Jeanne-Ann had picked up Kynzi and Karston from school and they were home waiting for me. We hugged and then opened up the computer to see the email with the pictures and information. Kynzi and Karston videoed us as we opened up the email and then we videoed them as they looked. There, right in front of our very own eyes was our beautiful baby BOY! I am going to have another son!!! He is amazing! I can't even believe it. He was born October 4th, 2010 and is almost 5 months old now.

Jeanne-Ann and I have already laughed at ourselves because when we got the call, I was crying and she did not shed a tear. Not that she is not overjoyed, we just respond differently to things. The really funny part is that as we were videoing Kynzi and Karston it is clear what cloth they are cut from. Kynzi is me...all the way. Karston is Jeanne-Ann...all the way. That is clear from the video as you will see. Karston thought it was cool, Kynzi couldn't hardly breathe in between her sobs of sheer joy.

After we looked at the 2 pictures of our son (we can not share pictures until we have legal custody, so it will be quite a while for that. Sorry. =) We called all the Grandparents. Three phones, all on speaker, and 4 Grandparents on the line ready to hear the news. There was a lot of screaming and tears of joy. At one point I said, "OK, all grandparents have to be quiet. No questions until we are all done because you are all talking at the same time and you are all getting confused." It was actually quite humorous. So we told them all the information about their newest grandson, and then emailed pictures to them. Our son, like Kynzi and Karston, are quite fortunate to have loving Grandparents like this. Thank You Jesus for them all!

After everyone was home from school, we needed to get a hold of the rest of the family members so we could start getting to the point of making this all public. I know how hard it can be to hold onto exciting news, even if it isn't directly your own news. We talked to Jeanne-Ann's siblings in North Carolina and Guatemala and to my siblings in New York and Ethiopia. We called Nina and Wes on their Ethiopian cell phone (they are over there with their twins, Alex and Eliana, waiting to bring them home). They got on Skype and we video chatted with them to share the news. Then they ran up to get Josh and Bex and Mercy on the camera so we could share with them. What a fun moment that was!! It is crazy that we live in a time where I can get on my laptop and SEE them and TALK to them in ETHIstinkinOPIA!!! Sooo fun to share this with great friends and family and especially with them actually being there. We are hoping that they will be able to go visit our son soon!

Then off to Outback! We had a celebration meal with a group of our dearest friends. It was amazing to sit in a restaurant and feel like the 15 of us were the only ones there. Even though it was packed, it felt very intimate. We laughed, we cried, we ate, we thanked Jesus. It was so good. God is good.

So there you have it. I am blogged out...my fingers are tired of typing. I'm tapping out for this post. I will update you when we get our next call. I will post the videos later. I need to go do some running/training with Karston and I want to get this post out right away.

You might be wondering about our 2nd baby...we are too. Hopefully we will hear soon.

We will share our little boy's name in a later blog post.

It was quite a day. We are thankful. We are overjoyed. We are ready for our adventure to begin...or continue...

Sooooo Tired!

2011-02-24T23:01:00.000-08:00

The last night of DYC I stayed up REALLY late. I was working on a video that I wished I had done before DYC even started. It was a song I had recorded doing just my voice and mouth. It was inspired by Mike Tompkins and his version of Dynamite. (video to come next week or so. I want to touch it up a little) Anyhow, I was up super late and got up early too.

When the event was all over we started packing up all the stuff...it's a lot! Mike kept telling me I was needed by different people. You see, he knew that I had a torn rotator cuff and that I needed to not lift things like I was. After we ate lunch I finally listened to Mike and went into the suite where all our staff ate our meals. I laid down on the bed for just a moment to rest.

As it turns out I was REALLY tired and fell right to sleep. Next thing I know there are screams and about 8 people or so jumping on the bed. I sat up and had absolutely no idea where I was, what day it was or what was going on. I was sooo gone it took me a bit to figure things out. Check out the video.

Have you ever been so tired that when you woke up you literally didn't know where you were? I have had that several times when I have traveled, but it has been a while.

Being Prayed For

2011-02-22T10:54:00.001-08:00

This past weekend we had our biggest youth event of the year. It was a pretty awesome weekend. The themes was "Consumed" based on Deuteronomy 4:24 which says, "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." The whole concept is that God loves us so deeply and desires our love back. When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, he replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40).

We had four speakers throughout the weekend. Ronnie Harris, one of our youth pastors and former NFL player, spoke on loving God with all your heart. Amanda Holste, who attends one of our churches in Oregon, spoke on loving God with all your soul. John Stumbo, my former senior pastor, spoke on loving God with all your mind. John Chang, a church planter, spoke on loving your neighbor as yourself. They all did a fantastic job.

Sunday morning, John Coats and I lead a prayer service. I did not expect it. It was pretty amazing. I had shared that one way you can pray for someone is to visualize God's best for them. God knows our thoughts and can see what we are thinking. It was something my friend Morris had shared with me years ago. Well, near the end of the service, Jeff Brown came over to me and said that his wife Kara had come over to him and said, "When Erik said that I pictured him and Jeanne-Ann with their 2 kids from Ethiopia." He said, "Me too." They felt like they should have everyone pray. I am not someone to get in God's way, so they did.

Jeff got up in front of everyone and shared a piece of my story and asked people to come around me and pray. He also asked if Jeanne-Ann was in there. I never saw her. It turns out that when Jeff said her name she was walking past the doors to the meeting room and heard her name called. She came in and got about 20 feet from where I was. People got around us and prayed for us. It was amazing. I was overwhelmed. They prayed we would get our call for our referral soon. I had to give announcements after and was blubbering my way through them. That part was actually pretty funny.

I am so thankful for people who listen to God and for your prayers. Thank you!

Valentine's Day

2011-02-15T23:18:00.000-08:00

Usually Valentine's falls over President's Day weekend. The problem? Well, you see, I run a high school conference over that weekend every year and we often have to celebrate on a different day. that is a score for me, because I get stuff at half price and don't have to wait ridiculous amounts of time for a restaurant. Sunday, I was talking with my small group guys and mentioned what they were supposed to remember for our meeting on Monday. One of them said, "Are we meeting on Valentine's day?" Whoops. "No, we are not."

I then had to start putting a plan into motion. I know Jeanne-Ann does not always like surprises, so I gave her some options. I went out and bought steak and some other food and I was going to cook it up...or we could go out to dinner somewhere. Then we could go out after that. She wanted to stay in for dinner and then go to one of our favorite date places we haven't been to in a while...Borders. We like to go and grab a book or two and sit down with a drink and just enjoy some books together. That was the plan.

When I woke up in the morning I could smell the cinnamon rolls in the air. Jeanne-Ann made some yummy, gooey cinnamon rolls that were absolutely amazing! I had cut out hundreds of hearts and put them all over the floor and Karston decided he wanted to do that too, so he added his own into it. I had also used the poster board Jeanne-Ann got to write a poem on for each of the kids. Fun morning.

Then the rain came with a vengeance. It would not be optimal weather to grill the steaks outside that evening. So we ended up ordering in. Both the kids called into our local radio station to wish me a happy Valentine's Day (not sure why they didn't call for both of us, but I'm not complaining). We were able to capture Karston's call on video.

Kynzi had her first babysitting gig, so we hunkered down in the bedroom and started watching a King Arthur movie, but lasted only 20 minutes and we changed it out for Hitch. We both love that movie! All in all it was a wonderful day. More subdued than normal but a great time together anyhow.

How did you spend your Valentine's Day?

7 Months

2011-02-08T22:22:00.000-08:00

This is a post I NEVER thought I would make. This will be an honest post. I write this post with a heavy heart. I don't need a bunch of "God has a plan" comments. I know that. If you want to say something just let me know you are with me and that you care. Our adoption process has been quick. Everything about it seems to have gone at "record" or near record speeds. Fingerprints being turned around in just a few days instead of a few weeks, paperwork coming back faster than anyone expected...those sorts of things. So I thought that once we got on the waiting list we would not have to wait long on that either. Boy was I wrong.

Today we hit the 7 month mark. In what is touted as an average 4-6 month wait, we have passed the average. I realize you may think we are above average, but here I prefer not to be. (wah, wah). So today is a bit of a struggle. I also have the weight of our biggest conference of the year just 10 days away. There are plenty of details and small things and larger things to take care of yet. I roll pretty well with all of that, but it still weighs. I also am waiting on an appointment with an orthopedic specialist to find out if I need to have surgery on my rotator cuff, which is torn.

Each day I anticipate a call from Dove, our adoption agency. Each day that passes there is a piece of me that is sad for the loss of that day and not knowing who our children are. Last week I changed my ringtone for Dove from Cold Play's Viva Lavida to MercyMe's Won't You Be My Love. I originally had Viva Lavida because I just liked the song, but I have fallen in love with this album from MercyMe and this song has great meaning to me and our children. Take a listen to it on this video.

Now, there is plenty of good stuff in the midst of these occasional harder days. Being the nearly eternal optimist I tend to find the good stuff pretty easily. Take tonight, for instance. We have an adoption support group that meets once a month. Tonight was February's night. As we gathered around food, we shared, caught up, laughed and enjoyed just being together. We also talked about how we can promote "caring for the orphans" as Jesus calls us to, on a wider scale at our church. We each shared how the others could pray for us. Praying together is significant. It joins us. It draws us closer together and closer to God. It warms the heart of God to hear His children talking to Him together.

Then we received some unexpected gifts. From one couple, ready to journey to Ethiopia in just a few days, we got a book called "Jesus Calling." I am super excited to dive into this book which is a daily reading of words taken from the Bible to be read as if God is saying them directly to us. Just what I need! Then another couple handing us a check towards our adoption! What?! I am seriously blessed.

Riding home in the car I reveled in the moment. I tucked my kids into bed, did our normal good night routine and prayed with them. I thanked God for how He has placed our family together and for our other family members half way around the world.

So bring it February. Give me what you got. Does that include a phone call? I hope so.

Top 5 Superbowl Commercials

2011-02-07T21:59:00.000-08:00

I do not watch a ton of sports. I love going to see them live, but I have other things to do and other shows to watch, it just doesn't seem like it fits. I do love to watch my Red Sox play though, especially when they play the Yankees. Yesterday was the Superbowl. I rarely care who is playing, unless it's the Cowboys or the 49ers. So when the Packers and the Steelers made it to the big day I don't have any strong urge to cheer for either one...except for the fact that growing up a Cowboys fan I learned to hate the Steelers. That was a long time ago.

Fast forward to today again. Superbowl Sunday is a day I love! A party. Food. Friends and family. And...commercials!!! So, that brings us to my top 5 favorite commercials of the Superbowl. Here we go.

Volkswagen - Darth Vader Kid

Best Buy - Justin Bieber & Ozzy Osbourne

Doritos - life

Pepsi Max - Love Hurts

Chevy - Tommy (Lassie)

Facebook friends view the videos here.

What were your favorites?

My Son Won a Wii...Adoption Update?

2011-01-31T22:59:00.000-08:00

This morning I took my son to the orthodontist. They have this great deal for kids called orthobucks. Every time they go they get 6 of them. Sometimes they get extras for good brushing or early arrival, etc. When they refer someone they get 100 orthobucks. This can be spent on all sorts of things they have there from cars, to games, to GI Joes, to gift cards. Well, if you refer someone you also get your name put in the hat every 6 months. At the end of the six months they draw a name for a big prize.

When we walked in today the receptionist said, "Karston, I have something for you." She went in the back and came out with a black Wii!! I told him he has my genes. Haha. I love winning things. And now Karston won something big. He was so excited. They took several pictures of him and he has been super excited to tell anyone who wants to listen.

He told me on the way home that he wanted to do one of 3 things with it. 1) Sell it and give all the money to bringing his siblings home. 2) Sell it and give half of it to bringing his siblings home and the other half to spend on something fun. or 3) Sell it and spend it on something fun. (we already have a Wii that we bought after the Craigslist deal went sour) I suggested he get something fun with it, but I also don't want to rob him of giving either. I imagine we will land somewhere on both things. I love his heart! My kids are so much a part of this whole process and as a family we all talk about it and pray about it every single day. We long for our children to all be together! As of today we have been on the waiting list for 6 months, 3 weeks and 2 days.

That being said. If you are in the market for a Wii and were planning on spending the money anyway, want to buy ours? It comes with Wii sports and Wii Resort. Let me know!

A weekend with middle schoolers

2011-01-24T15:06:00.000-08:00

I spent this weekend with a group of awesome middle schoolers from Washington. We headed up to Mt. Baker and I was the speaker for their retreat. This is the age group that I worked with for 8 years at Salem Alliance Church! I love these people. They are so fun and full of energy and love life.

Besides the regular retreat stuff we went to Mt. Baker to go tubing in the snow. This was a great tubing hill. There were easily 150-200 people there. It was basically I giant bowl with people using every part of it to tube. I suggested we make a train (not the safest idea, but almost always the funnest). So we did several trains. Then, as is typical, I had to step it up. I suggested we make a multi-layered sideways train. Am I getting too old? I think not. Although I did take a pretty good beating. Check out this video.

Then we decided to build a little jump and have someone jump over me. See? I'm not too old. This was after I got my face smashed in! I am not sure if my nose is broken or not. It is swollen and red. It hurts when I eat, sneeze, smile, flare my nostrils, etc. Haha.

Creative Juices Flowing Day 2

2011-01-16T20:15:00.000-08:00

Today we are continuing the creative writing exercises the huffingtonpost.com talked about recently. Today's exercise is this: Open the dictionary to a random page. Find a word that you do not know how to define. Write an imaginary definition for it. Repeat.

So here we go. And the first word...
Metamerism - n. - a large egg-like object found inside of large quantities of horse dung often used in villages found in Guatemala to cure osteoporosis. It is believed the calcium found inside will fill the calcium deficiencies.

Ichnite - n. - inside part of bark found when ripped off birch trees. Used by the Malayan tribe to start fires with out flint or heat.

Now it's your turn. Grab a dictionary or go here. Then make up a definition in the comment section.

Creative Juices Flowing

2011-01-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

This week I thought it would be fun to do some writing exercises I found in the huffingtonpost.com. Why don't you join me and try it out. Here is the link for what the exercises are and then we will try a different one out each day. Today's exercise is 7x7x7x7.

Grab the 7th book from your bookshelf. Open it up to page 7. Pinpoint the 7th sentence on the page. Begin a poem that begins with that sentence and limit it in length to 7 lines.

The book I grabbed was "Eat That Frog" by Brian Tracy. (21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time). The 7th sentence actually is the second one on the 8th page, so I am going with that, as there were only 5 sentences on page 7. The sentence is, "Here is a great rule for success: think on paper." Here we go.

Here is a great rule for success: think on paper.
Without it your thoughts may become vapor.
Quickly write it down.
Or else you may frown.
Do it now, don't regret,
What needs to be done don't you let
Or else you might soon just forget.

There you go. Now it's your turn. Go ahead. Try it. Do this exercise in the comment section below. Let's get our creative juices flowing together.

Jump Rope

2011-01-14T20:56:00.000-08:00

Do you remember when you were a kid and you jumped rope? It was so fun, wasn't it? Or perhaps as an adult you did it to get ready for a boxing match against a Russian who you were not sure was human. Whatever the case, there is something that jumping up and down while swinging a rope around you that is exhilarating. When I lived in San Francisco in 5th grade we used to do double dutch all the time during recess. This is basically where there are two people with two jump ropes and they spin the ropes in opposite directions. Then you jump in and try not to get tripped up in the rope. The really cool kids would be able to do tricks inside of the double dutch ropes. That was pretty awesome. I remember those days well.

A few years ago my kids starting going to jump rope club. Who knew? They would go before school started and they would learn how to jump rope. There were different things you had to do in order to pass to the next level. Each level would have varying degrees of difficulty when it came to what tricks you would do. Once you passed so many levels you were invited to be part of the Jumping Stars. This is a prestigious deal. Kynzi was in it when she was at Clearlake and then Karston got in last year.

They work on routines put to music and then preform. They do our local parade and half time shows at basketball games at colleges and universities and high schools around our city. Tonight they were at Willamette University doing the half time show at the girls basketball game. It's pretty awesome to watch. The part I don't like, is both of my kids are WAY better than I am at jumping rope now. Haha. I actually love it too. This is just the beginning of me "getting old" as they start beating me at more things and I no longer "let" them win. Hmmmm...this is a weird place to be in life.

You Want Me To Fry That?

2011-01-13T22:04:00.000-08:00

Today I took a trip to Seaside with some friends. In the non-winter months this is a happening tourist spot. Many people come here for spring break and it is the finish line for the Hood to Coast relay race. We decided to go out for a bite to eat and I needed to stop in the candy store to do some shopping for my mom. We ate at a great place called Dundees. They cut their own chicken tenders there and they are sooo delicious!

After we went next door to an ice cream place and they have a particularly interesting section on their menu. They fry a whole bunch of different things. Because there were 5 of us we decided to get the party platter. While that order was in we went next door to the candy shop. My mom wanted European black licorice and they sell it at this store. Of course, I loaded up too because it is soooo stinkin' good. No, it's not like twizzlers or red vines or even Australian licorice.

I got my stash and everyone else got their salt water taffy and other fun candy and we headed back over to indulge in our fried "food" order. We sat down to a plate with fried pop-tart, fried HoHo, fried Twinkie, fried Oreo, fried cinnamon roll, fried cookie dough and fried Snickers bar. Least favorite? Fried Oreo. Favorite? It was a tie between cinnamon roll, cookie dough and Twinkie. Snickers pulled a very close second. Naturally we all paid for this bodily transgression later, but it was worth it for one time. It's not something I recommend you choose as a meal everyday.

What's the strangest thing you have ever had that was fried?

Game Nights

2011-01-12T14:45:00.000-08:00

I love playing games! All sorts of games. Card games, board games, etc. Probably what I love most about it is the interaction with other people. Whether it's with my family or with friends or a combination there of I just love games. Tonight I got to play a new game called "What's Yours Like?"

This is a fun game. When you play a game with a group of people who like to play games it’s fun, but you throw in a game that you are pretty much guaranteed to laugh at and it raises the level of fun so much more. This is just such a game.

The basic concept is this: you are given a word or phrase and everyone around the circle will describe “what theirs is like” without giving too easy of a description. The person guessing writes down all the clues until they get it right. Once they get it right they count up how many clues they needed and that it their total points for the round. So you want the least amount of points as possible.

Here is an example: The word was "Trunk." Some of the clues given: Mine is broken; mine is large; mine has books in it; mine has a spare; etc. It seems really easy until you are the one who is guessing. It is a ton of fun and we laughed like crazy. Looking for a good group game? Try this one out.

Happy Birthday Baby

2011-01-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

Today we honor the day my bride, the love of my life, Jeanne-Ann's birthday. I love this woman so much it's crazy. I have gotten myself worked up before thinking how hard life would be without her. Not a thought I ponder much on. The other side of that, the side with how amazing life is as a result of her, I do ponder often. Much of it is the little things. If you are in love, you know what I mean. The longer we know each other the more amazing those things become too.

I love to laugh with Jeanne-Ann. She makes me laugh a lot. She is fun. She is sneaky. She loves to play tricks. I love when she has tried to pull something over on me and I realize it. That laugh. That is awesome! She gets a lot of that from her dad, which I love. I love how we both cried at the Christmas Eve service when we it hit us, separately, that we never thought we would get to Christmas without having the referrals of our children. I love how she prays for me to respond to certain things and I do. I love that she buys bagels from our favorite local bagel shop and then cuts the whole bag of bagels for me ahead of time. I love what a great teacher she is. This year she is full time and it is a lot of work, but she knows that it is helping to bring our babies home and that makes it worth it. I love that she loves the more difficult kids.

I love how she loves on our kids. She is soooo good with them. She is an incredible mother. God created her well for that role. We talk about strategies in raising our kids and she is constantly coming up with new things for us to be doing or not doing that make so much sense. Candy day, for example, is genius. On Saturdays our kids can eat all the candy they want. The rest of the week it's (pretty much) off limits. As a result, they don't eat a ton of candy on Saturday either. Summer Soda is another great idea. We don't drink a ton of soda in the house and in the summer she makes it special on certain days. Not that they don't have soda throughout the year, it just makes it special. Part of that is building memories. We talk a lot about that. We want our kids to have great memories of growing up. We want them to remember how "we would always do..." More than remembering "that one time." The special occasions are VERY important, but the consistent stuff is huge. That is important to her...and it is important to me.

The way she loves me is amazing. I learn from her every day. I want to love like she loves. I want to care like she cares. She helps balance me so well. I would love to be out every night with people. If we could have a party like we had last night every night I would get so pumped about it. She is very different from me. In that respect she would love if we hung out at home and just did family stuff. As a result, we "compromise" and end up being better for it. She knows I need to be with people, but she also knows I need to chill and slow down and just be for a while. My soul needs that too.

I seriously don't know what I would do without Jeanne-Ann in my life. My life is better because of her. Every part. My day is different because she is in my life. I breathe better because of her. I smile bigger because of her. I love deeper because of her.

So, I celebrate and honor you today babe. I thank God and your parents from bringing you to this world! Happy birthday My Love!

Intentional Walks and Partying with Friends

2011-01-10T22:10:00.000-08:00

I love getting together with friends and family. I LOVE IT! It is one of my favorite things to do. My soul sings when I am with people. Tonight we gathered to celebrate. Celebrate a team who went undefeated. Celebrate a team who represents our state. Celebrate fun. Celebrate competition. And we did. We ate, we laughed, we cheered, we screamed, we moaned, we cried, we yelled. A range of emotions. It was really fun. Although we lost, we had a total blast. I love that.

These are people I love to hang with!

As far as the loss...I am not complaining that we lost, I am just frustrated about the way it was finished. I realize that what I am about to say is about a strategy, but it's not a strategy that I like. In baseball they do an intentional walk when they are afraid of the batter. I can't stand it. Ever. Even when my Red Sox do it I yell at the screen. In basketball, when they throw around the ball until the shot clock forces them to shoot it, I go nuts. It's so irritating. Tonight, the last 2 minutes was filled with that junk. The fear that if they went for it Oregon would come back and win it with another touchdown and 2 point conversion. A legitimate fear.

There. I said it. I'm done. Congrats Auburn. Thanx for a great year University of Oregon. It was a fun ride. See you this fall!

Ducks in the BCS Championships

2011-01-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

I am so pumped about our home team, University of Oregon, going to the BCS championships! I want to give you a little history. I haven't always been a Duck. I've only lived in Oregon since late 1996. Even after I came here I thought it was silly how many people were divided between the University of Oregon and Oregon State University. I couldn't even keep the schools straight for years. I was invited to watch the Beavers play up in the Withnell's club seats and had an awesome time enjoying the food and the game from afar.

After that I had a bit of a dry spell until a few years later I was invited to go see a Duck game. I could not believe how LOUD it was. I had never been to a sporting event at any level that got even close to that volume! It was unbelievable. I have been to MANY sporting events in my life. At so many different levels. Mostly professional sports. Being a youth pastor in Atlanta I was often taken along or given tickets to take someone with me to see the Braves, the Falcons and the Hawks. I went to a LOT of games. NOTHING compares to going to Autzen stadium.

I have been invited to several games over the years, but it wasn't until my son Karston was 4 that I took him and we lasted almost an entire quarter that things stuck. You see, as much as he complained and was tired and didn't like the noise, as soon as we saw anyone wearing green and yellow after that day he would yell, "Look Pappa, a Duck fan!" He was hooked. The next year we went and made it almost a full half game! Karston was hooked...and so was I. Karston started asking for Duck gear. Now, he wears probably 85% Duck stuff out of all that he wears.

This season I have been fortunate to get to go to a whole bunch of the 12-0 games thanks to a friend of a friend. I have done some other posts about some of those experiences.

The other night Jimmy Fallon premiered his BCS Ducks power ballad video. This is amazing.

(facebook friends click here to watch the videos)

This year the show Sing-Off came back on the air again. It is an a Capella competition. The singers on this show are incredible. One group that was on this show was from the University of Oregon. They are amazing. They recorded this song and it's so fun! Check it out.

6 Months

2011-01-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

Well, I did not think we would be here, but we are here none the less. Today, just one day after Ethiopian Christmas, we celebrate 6 months on the waiting list. It may not seem like something that you would celebrate, but the thing is, every day we get closer to getting our referral. And every day that we get closer to getting our referral is a day we get closer to getting to meet our babies! That excites me!

Next week my sister and bro-in-law head over to pick up their twins and then in 5 weeks Josh and Bex (whom we are celebrating with) take off to pick up their daughter. It is good to have others "pave the way" for you as you go along this journey. There are a ton of other bloggy friends we have out there who we get to learn from and vicariously experience their journeys too. So glad for that.

Will this be our month? It better be! Karston prayed the other night that we would get our call in the next 5 months. I said, "5 MONTHS!!???!?" He just laughed.

Ethiopian Christmas

2011-01-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

Today, Christmas is celebrated in Ethiopia. I know that seems weird to most readers of this blog, but it's true. They use the Coptic calendar, which is also known as the Alexandrian calendar. So not only is is Christmas today, but it is 2003 there!

Wikipedia says this about it:

The Coptic year is the extension of the ancient Egyptian civil year, retaining its subdivision into the three seasons, four months each. The three seasons are commemorated by special prayers in the Coptic Liturgy. This calendar is still in use all over Egypt by farmers to keep track of the various agricultural seasons. The Coptic calendar has 13 months, 12 of 30 days each and one intercalary month at the end of the year of 5 days in length, except in leap years when the month is 6 days. The year starts on 29 August in the Julian Calendar or on the 30th in the year before (Julian) Leap Years. The Coptic Leap Year follows the same rules as the Julian Calendar so that the extra month always has six days in the year before a Julian Leap Year.

From ehow.com

The word Ganna is used interchangeably with the word Christmas to mean the birth of Christ (leddat). A common way to refer to the holiday is "ye ganna baal".

So offices are closed today and we will not hear from our agency as a result. What I am praying is that during this celebration there is someone holding my children and loving them, whomever and where ever they are. We pray for you every single day and long for your arrival into our lives my sweet ones. We celebrate today with you.

Top 10 Memories of 2010

2011-01-05T21:46:00.000-08:00

Top 10 Memories of 2010

* Getting accepted into the adoption process

The beginning of the year started us off with our acceptance of this process. We were told there would plenty of "hurry up and wait" moments throughout the whole process. They sure were right. (actually end of '09, but the beginning of the year)

* Eating Sushi in Japan - ewww (link to a blog post of this?)

I wanted so badly to like sushi and when I had a day in Japan I thought I should probably try some sushi when I was in Japan. I have not had good experiences here n the States. Then I tried it there. It was AWFUL!!! I almost threw up in the restaurant.

*LIFE Conference (2 from here) - Doing the Flash Mob Dance at a baseball game (insert video here)

I got to do the upfront fun stuff before the main sessions started and it was so much fun. Alongside with my co-host Kate, we got to do a flash mob dance at a baseball game with 7,000 people! Check out the video that shows we got on TV too!

* LIFE Conference - breaking the world record of rock, paper, scissors

We broke the world record and it was so fun. 7,000 plus people participated in this and it was crazy to watch all of them take their turns and narrow down to our final 2.

* Getting on the list (July 8)

We were at LIFE when we got the word that our dossier (paperwork) landed in Ethiopia. When we shared it with a group of people there was this intern, Nate, who shared with Jeanne-Ann and I that he was adopted and how amazing that has been for him. We bawled as he shared his story. So good!

* Camping with my son
This was a trip that I will probably never forget. We still talk about it and how awesome ever piece was. It was seriously significant for the both of us.

* Taking my kids fishing
We got to go several times this year. Although we have not done super well with catching anything, it's still much fun. I think this summer I need to take them to Detroit Lake.

* Our Trip to Vancouver for the Olympics
A last minute trip that literally we decided the morning of to do. Meeting Russian and Norwegian Olympic athletes was so cool!

* Christmas Break - family time galore! Games, etc.

We played so many games and just hung out and laughed. I LOVED that! TWO WEEKS!! I need more of that. We all need more of that. Phase 10 rocked our faces off!

What are your best memories from last year?

Top 10 Movies of 2010

2011-01-04T22:29:00.000-08:00

I love movies! Largely because I love story. That's why I love TV and music. I love story. Tell a good story and draw me in. I am typically not the guy who tries to figure out what the mystery is about before it is actually revealed in the story. Why? Because I like to be drawn in and fully entertained as I am engrossed in the story.

I am glad Regal has a "frequent movie goer" pass. It's nice to get free stuff after I spend all that money on those movies. The nice thing is we do have a $3 theater and $5 Tuesdays at Cinebarre. Oh, and Costco saves you money at Regal and so do those Entertainment books. There were some really great movies this year. Again, I want to say that these are movies I enjoyed, but they are not for everyone. You have to make your own decisions as to what you watch. I often read reviews and insight on pluggedinonline.com

in no particular order...

Top 10 Movies I Saw
* Despicable Me - a very funny and touching story that ultimately is a story about adoption.

* Tron Legacy - I loved the original movie and was pretty excited to get to see it again as they remade this movie. It was cool that Jeff Bridges reprised his character from the original.

* Toy Story 3 - I am constantly amazed at the ability of Pixar to write great stories, especially when it is a sequel...and the 3rd film! Great flick!

* Inception - CRAZY mind bender! I keep a top in my pocket just incase. It was seriously intense.

* Iron Man 2 - this was just pure blow em up fun.

* The Karate Kid - I had really low expectations for this film. I could not imagine a 12 year old boy taking on the same role that Daniel-san had. Jaden Smith surprised and impressed me. I also liked Jackie Chan's character and their relationship.

* Chronicles of Narnia The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - I loved the C.S. Lewis books and it sure is fun to watch them come to life on the big screen. Saw this one in 3D!

* Knight and Day - although pretty unbelievable this was a fun ride.

* Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole - another unique story humanizing owls. A story of courage, family, friendship and betrayal.

* Babies - although I feel like the American woman tried too hard to be "European" this interesting little documentary about the early life of 4 babies from around the world was a unique film to me.

What were your favorite movies?

Top 10 Songs of 2010

2011-01-02T18:04:00.000-08:00

It's New Years. There are TONS of Top 10 Lists out there. I thought it would be fun to do my own top lists this week. To start off the week right I decided to do my favorite songs of the year. These are songs that made me dance while I was driving, sing at the top of my lungs and/or fill my soul. I love these songs. I don't necessarily love the artists or what they all stand for, but I do love the lyrics and the tune/beats. They are in random order.

Mercy Me - This Life

Their song Won't You Be My Love is also awesome!

Taio Cruz - Dynomite

Chris Tomlin - Our God

Group 1 Crew - Walking on the Stars

Carlos Whittaker - Rain it Down

B. Reith - Old School

Lee DeWyze - Hallelujah

Train - Hey, Soul Sister

Bruno Mars - Just the Way You Are

Ke$ha - Tik Tok (oh wait...that's on my OTHER list)

Uncle Kracker - Smile

This song has one of my all time favorite lines.
"Cooler than the flipside of my pillow." Which, thanx to my friend Colby Martin, is a quote from a sportscaster.

There you go. My fav songs of 2010. There are a few that didn't make it to the list, but I am keeping it to 10.

What would you add to this list?

PS. Facebook readers, want to watch the videos? Go here.

Sarcasm...I speak it fluently

2011-01-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

Webster's defines it this way:

noun \ˈsär-ˌka-zəm\
1: a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain
2: a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual

I am super quick with a sarcastic quip. Get me in the ring with the titled sarcastic king and I would give him a run for his money. It's a trait I picked up in high school or college. If it was high school, it was refined and perfected in college. You could actually major in sarcasm at my school. Most of the basketball team had it as their major and it was with this crew that I honed my skill.

I remember the time I was at my first meeting with a group of guys who we were going to meet wekly with. It was an accountability/encouragement type of group. Some of these guys I knew, some I met for the first time that night. At the time, not everyone had a cell phone, and in through the door walks Chris who was on the phone. My friend Todd made some sarcastic remark and I jumped right in. When we officially started our group Chris started by saying, "I don't know what everyone else is expecting from this group, but sarcasm is everywhere in my life and I don't want it to be part of this group. When I walked in I was talking to a student who was hurting and you (looking at me) made some sarcastic remark. If that's what this group is going to be about then I don't want to be a part of it." I felt like the BIGGEST LOSER! I apologized and our group started right in and we never uttered a sarcastic remark from that point on.

It was a really good thing for me. I needed that. I have seen sarcasm tear people down and hurt them tremendously. Usually my sarcasm has been directed at friends and in a way that I know that we all are OK.

Words are powerful. They can change the life of the person you give them to. Will those words be words that push someone in a direction of encouragement or will you hurt them deeply? Sometimes even just a hello and a smile can change someones day.

This year, I am planning on continuing to reign in my tongue. I have been on a journey to lessen the language of sarcasm for several years now and I want to continue that journey.

I want to be someone who builds other people up. I want to be known for my words of encouragement. I don't want to see someones eyes drop because of something I say. So 2011...here I come.

My Heart...Christmas Eve

2010-12-29T12:26:00.000-08:00

In our home we mix traditions from Norway and the States. This year we started off the morning opening up one gift and then started into the full gift giving in the afternoon. We paused for a traditional Norwegian Christmas meal and had Risen Grøt, this is basically a rice pudding that is hot...basically. We put sugar, cinnamon and butter on top. In one of the bowls (this is a mystery to everyone) there is a peeled almond. The person who gets the almond gets a prize. It's great fun to pretend we have it and save the reveal until everyone is done. This year Karston got the almond (mandel in Norwegian). It was his first year getting it without "all the little kids get one."

The big winner!

Eager anticipation for the next gift

Then we jumped back to presents for a while. We decided to go to the 5PM service at church, as we would have been late for the 3PM service. I love going to Christmas Eve service at our church. It's a highlight of the year. We sing tons of great Chrsitmasy songs, hear the story of Jesus in new and creative ways and finish with anyone who wants to go on stage singing the Hallelujah chorus! I used to make fun of that until the first time I did it. I remember pulling my friend Steve on stage when we were in Atlanta and laughing most of the way through it. Now I truly love that moment.

Part way into the service there was a drawing of baby Jesus up on the wall. My heart suddenly longed for our babies in a way it hadn't yet. Oh, I've been longing for them for quite a while, but it had not hit me until that moment that I never dreamed we would make it to Christmas and not hear a word about our referral. Tears slipped down my face as I thanked Jesus for coming to the earth so that we would have the opportunity for forgiveness of sins and eternity in heaven when we leave this earth. I have been resting in Philippians 4:6 recently, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." I try not to be anxious about this process. I try to just thank God for the process and for my children and for the MANY people who have been part of our journey. I also present my requests to God. This night I was just sad as I longed for them.

That night, as Jeanne-Ann and I were talking she told me that she was crying and longing for our kids. She didn't know that it was happening to me too! Haha. They are coming. We will get a referral. For now, we just sit and wait. We live life, one day at a time. Each day praying the next will be the day we get the call. God is good...all the time. I know this to be true!

My sweet children, I know you are out there. I pray for you every single day! So do your brother and sister and mother. We can't wait to meet you and live with you as a forever family!

I won an iPad!

2010-12-24T11:20:00.000-08:00

Well, MANY of you jumped on to help me with my latest video competition. I am sure there will be more to come in the future. Haha. I really enjoy doing it and winning is fun too. You are too kind to jump in and support me in these crazy endeavors of mine. Thank you! It was a close battle to the very end. The video that came in first was really awesome and honestly way more deserving than mine as far as good videos go. I "liked" that video myself.

That of course means I got second place! Second place was an iPad. They are in Germany and asked if I wanted to wait for it to be delivered or if I wanted the money in paypal. Now, if I am honest, I was VERY tempted to get the iPad...but we were planning on selling it anyhow so getting the money without the hassle of selling it is awesome! Straight to the baby fund!

Now for last minute Christmas items...thankfully I was up late last night wrapping gifts while I was refreshing my video, so most of it is done. I LOVE Christmas!!!

QUESTION: What's your favorite Christmas song?

You might remember this little nugget from a couple of years ago.

Here is my video and the winning video. Remember, the contest was with appventcalendar.com so the song is about the free apps they are giving away.

Christmas Wish List

2010-12-22T09:19:00.000-08:00

What are you wishing for Christmas? An iPad? The latest droid phone? A Segway? An original Wrigley's chewing gum pack? We tell our kids that they can't go into a store and ask if they can have something, but they are welcome to tell us all year long what they wish for as we walk down the shopping aisles. We keep some sort of track of what they wish for and when Christmas or a birthday comes around we begin to ponder that list, we look at our budget, we talk about reality and then we make some decisions.

I love shopping for gifts for other people, because I love to give gifts. I wish I was loaded so I could give more and more, but with what we have, I love to get creative. I constantly see things and think, "I could make that." Then Jeanne-Ann gives me a good case of reality and says, "Seriously? You never do." That is true, but I could. Haha. Every now and then I actually do. I have an idea I am working on, but I can't mention it just yet, because I do have potential receivers of this gift who read this blog. (Yes, it's you I am talking about.) I am excited about it, because it is a cool gift and I can make it AND I think the recipients would really like it. I will let you know how it goes.

Want to see my wish list? I'll show you mine...will you show me yours? I would love to know what you are wishing for.

* Call of Duty Black Ops
* Belt Buckle
* Ted Dekker books - (Kiss, Boneman’s Daughter, Burn, Bride Collector or Immanuel’s Veins)
* Thumb Ring - Like Howie Mandel’s
* Red Sox knit hat
* Chair massager - one that hangs on your chair
* Anything Red Sox
* Fish eye/Macro lens for Canon Camera
* Great zoom lens with Macro for Canon Camera

Those things are all great and fun and all that, but the number ONE thing on my wish list?

A REFERRAL CALL from our adoption agency!!!

ps. A post on how I am dealing with anxiousness regarding this wait coming in the next week.

Warning: Buying on Craigslist? Test it before you buy it.

2010-12-21T11:23:00.000-08:00

I learned a valuable lesson recently. Our Wii stopped working and was out of warranty. I checked Craigslist and found a ton of great deals. I put out offers to a whole bunch of people and got a reply and made the deal. Jeanne-Ann told me I should meet somewhere I could test it. I sarcastically said, "Should I bring the TV or just meet at Best Buy in the back by the TVs?" Then I told her that she sounded legit and she wanted to get the Kinect for her son. I knew where her baby went to daycare and found out several other things from her in our conversation. No problem.

I get home and the Wii makes a LOUD spinning noise when you put a disc in. Louder than the game. VERY annoying. So I contacted her about it. She said it has always done that and she thought that was what it was supposed to do. WHAT???!!!?? Are you kidding me? Then after playing for a while we kept getting disc errors. I told her this was not going to work out and I needed to return it to her. Then some guy contacted me (a boyfriend? I don't know) and told me I had to deal with him and was NOT to contact her anymore. I said that was fine and would be happy to deal with him. Basically he tells me that this is all user error and it is my fault and that the disc error is bad discs.

So there is my story. I am not sure it is over as I need to decide how to finish this conversation, but you have been warned.

Craigslist, I love you, but I need to be more careful how I use you.

Thanx...and further endeavors

2010-12-20T08:41:00.000-08:00

Our raffle was a smashing success. We raised just over $1,200 and had such a blast doing it. I want to thank all of you who donated towards our adoption this way. So many of you gave us gift cards to go into this raffle and then so many of you donated your dollars. I was seriously overwhelmed. So thank you! We are very close to having what we need for our referral check. (holding tightly that maybe it will be coming soon...Christmas gift?)

You may know that I happen to run into the most random things. On Tuesday morning I was headed to Port Angeles, Washington to speak at a youth group meeting. About 30 minutes before I left I remembered I had a website opened from the week before that had a video competition. I decided to look at it. Sure enough, the video was due THAT DAY! appventcalendar.com was running it and so I read the rules...less than 2 minutes, had to be in a Santa costume and that was it. You could do anything. I looked at the time and I decided I was going to try it.

I took a Christmas carol and rewrote the lyrics. Then I pulled down my Santa outfit, grabbed my guitar, practiced it twice and recorded it on my iPhone. I sent it in and the guy told me it was awesome and was in the top 10. So here is the deal. The top 10 were then uploaded to youtube on Friday and then it is up to the most views. Here is the breakdown 4-10th place get $15 iTunes gift cards. 3rd place will get a Parrot AR. Drone (remote control with your iPhone helicopter with a video camera on it). 2nd place wins an iPad and 1st place wins a MacBook Air! The competition ends on Friday, December 24th at 1AM...I think. It says Friday at 10AM GMT+1. This is a really great website as they give away a free app every day in December each year. I love loading my iPhone with the apps they give away. Feel free to jump over and support them.

So, here is where I come asking for your help again. Can you go watch my video...A WHOLE BUNCH OF TIMES!!!????!!! Are you planning on sitting down and watching some TV? Got a laptop? You could just keep hitting refresh all night. Even if the view count doesn't go up right away, it is still counting each view. It just takes some time for it to catch up. I would GREATLY appreciate it! Just go here.


3rd place.


2nd place.

1st place.

Check out the video of the Drone...it's sick!

FB friends who want to view the video click here.

5 Months

2010-12-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

My how time flies. A year ago Jeanne-Ann and I had just made the decision to move forward in adoption process. A year and a half ago I wasn't even thinking about it! Now we have been on the waiting list for 5 months. If you are new to what I am talking about, let me explain.

In December we submitted our application to Dove International, then we took a bunch of classes, filled out a bunch of paper work, got fingerprinted, did more paper work, waited a lot here and there, had in-home visits and finally sent off our dossier (all our paperwork that said we were approved to adopt) to Ethiopia. On July 8, our dossier landed in Ethiopia. That is when we started on the waiting list.

That was 5 months ago today. They say the average wait is 4-6 months. Some have waited for just over 6 months and 3 weeks, some have waited just shy of 3 months. We are smack-dab in the middle of the "average." Typically I don't like to be average in anything. I am an all in type of person. We would love to be VERY AVERAGE on this one. So if we got the call today, I would not be upset. :)

Ever feel like the thing you want is so close you can almost taste it, but for some reason you can't quite grasp it? I feel ya kid.
(FaceBook friends click here to see the video below)

Adoption Raffle (lots o stuff) Help Bring Our Babies Home!

2010-12-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

RAFFLE IS OVER!!

If you have been following our story for a while, you know that we are in the process of adopting 2 babies from Ethiopia. If you are new to the blog, welcome.

The process of adoption has been an amazing one. We are so excited to grow our family to 6! Two days from today will mark 5 months on the waiting list! WOW! Our pray is that we will get our referrals for our sweet children this month! Wouldn't that be amazing? I think about them all the time and I don't even know who they are yet. It is a strange thing. A year ago I did not think we would actually be moving forward on this… Not until God grabbed my heart and totally and radically turned it around. You can read more of our story here.

Today we are starting a Gift Card Raffle. We have been doing all kinds of fundraisers and we are trying to get creative in how we raise money for our adoption. Being that it is Christmas time, we thought that maybe you would want to take a chance on winning some gift cards to give away as gifts (or to shop with). So really you just MIGHT be doing a little Christmas shopping by supporting our adoption. Below you can see what we are raffling off.

Raffle tickets are $10 each or 3 for $20. You can get as many as you like. So, for example, spend $40 you get 6 raffle tickets.

After doing the math we realized that if 200 raffle tickets are bought we would receive $2,000 towards our adoption and that would cover the remaining amount of $ we need to have at our time of referral!!! That would be amazing! If we make anything over that amount, it would go towards our travel expenses to Ethiopia.

EXTRA TICKETS:

If you get at least one ticket there are other ways you can get extra tickets for "free."

1) If you post about it on your FaceBook status with a link to our blog post you will get a free ticket. (tag me by typing @erikwilliams as you post it)

2) If you blog about it on your own blog you will get another free ticket. (send me a link with your blog post in the comment section)

Just to be clear: donate $40, blog about it and FaceBook it TWO TIMES and your grand total is 8 TICKETS!! Or donate $60, blog and FB and you get 11 tickets! Those are pretty good odds. There is no limit...the only limit is you...haha.

Now for the goodies:

We will raffle off everything you see in the picture below (plus a few items not pictured). The way we will raffle them is in groups. There will be 5 total raffles and if you do not win the first round, your tickets stay in the pot for the other ones. You could win several things if you have multiple tickets in the drawing.

Bundles:

1) "Techie Bundle" - $50 Amazon and $50 Best Buy. $20 Starbucks (just added)

2) "Mall Package" - $50 Macys, $20 Christopher & Banks, $25 Starbucks

3) "Restaurant Bundle" - $25 Olive Garden, $25 Red Robin, $20 Texas Roadhouse, $25 Jamba Juice

4) "Local Package" - $20 Ike Box, $20 Bible Book House, Wash, Cut & Style by local Hairdresser (this will go to someone from Oregon); $25 Broadway Coffeehouse (just added)

5) "Music Galore" - $70 itunes, 1GB iPod Shuffle

Just click the donate button at the bottom of the page and put in your desired amount. (if you are local you are more than welcome to give us cash or a check)

The raffle will end at 5PM PST on Friday, December 17, 2010. We will then go live on camera at www.erikwithak.com where you can watch us draw names. This should be VERY exciting!

ps. There may be more things added as we go on.
UPDATE: We got $25 to Broadway Coffeehouse gift card and $10 to Starbucks.

Thanx for your donation!!
(FaceBook friends click here so you can click on the donate button)

Armless Pianist Wins China's Got Talent

2010-12-02T23:29:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had a dream and something kept you from it? What is your "issue/disability" that causes you to not move forward on a dream you have had? Could it be possible that you are letting something stop you from your dreams because you just don't think you can?

This is crazy amazing!

Facebook friends click here to watch it.
Are you ready to stop letting it keep you from your dreams?

Is December Our Month?

2010-12-01T22:12:00.000-08:00

We are just over a week away from our 5 month waiting list "anniversary." I wonder if this will be the month we get the call. I am holding on to hope for just that. It is weird. I did not think I would be the way I am about this. I could not have imagined how much our babies would have consumed my thought life. I think about them all the time.

I know that the Bible says we shouldn't be anxious.

Philippians 4:6-7 "⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

So I am trying not to be anxious and spending as much time as I can to be thankful to God for all that I can. I just did a post on thankfulness the other day. I am thankful! Whenever I think about our kids I thank God for the opportunity he has given Jeanne-Ann and I to be parents. Kynzi and Karston are amazing kids and they will be amazing older siblings. I can't believe that God is allowing us to be parents again! For that I am very thankful. I just want to hold them and love them and begin to teach them life lessons. Is that so bad? ;)

So today is another day we have not received a call for our referral. Maybe tomorrow?

My Kids in the Paper

2010-11-28T12:54:00.000-08:00

Every year when we get our first snow we all go out and build a snowman. Then we take pics and submit it to our local paper. Well, for 4 years in a row we have done that and 4 years in a row they have put it in the paper. Front page! This year we did not have much snow on the first snow fall, but we still took advantage of it and made a snowman...on a slightly smaller scale than last years. Here you can check out the pic from last year. Here's hoping we have a LOT more snow this year too!!!

Thank You

2010-11-26T13:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful day hanging out at home, playing games, being with friends and of course, EATING! I love Thanksgiving. One of the reasons is that it reminds us all to think of what and who we are thankful for. That being said, I am thankful every day, but it is a good time to say it out loud. So I thought I would share a list (not comprehensive) of things I am thankful for.

I am thankful for...
      My wife
                my children
                        friends
laughter
                                   sunshine
         snow
                moments
   the gift of adoption
                technology
     a good book
             a good movie
                           time with my bride
     a date...with my kids....with my wife
             self-serve frozen yogurt
Ethiopia
          random texts of good news
                                              so many people supporting our adoption
   dancing with my daughter
              shooting paintballs from wrist rockets with my son
                     reconnecting with old friends
       sleeping in
my parents
              Fenway
running
    collaborative journeying
                music
        Jesus
   chocolate
honesty
          celebration
                          thoughtful gifts
     a good fitting hat
            photography
                   surfing/ocean
traveling
                              hand holding
           others' perspectives
                              soft pillows
               guitar
innovation
                  a kiss
knowing looks from my bride
              my heritage
                      languages
     time
                water
flowers
                    my upbringing
                                          patience
      creativity
                 spell check
hot tubs
                                   video
                       nature
the Bible
          walking barefoot in the hot sand
sports
       a great deal
                      a generous heart
                                        forgiveness
Heaven

Simplicity - simplifying your life

2010-11-24T20:56:00.000-08:00

I am a pack rat. I admit it. I have a hard time throwing things away. I am not sure exactly why. Maybe it's because I "may need it someday," or that I have sentimental attachment to something or I just can't let go. I don't know. I am sure there is a combination of all those things and more. I am getting better. Jeanne-Ann helps me with that. She is good at tossing things.

This week I got to spend some time with my friend Joshua. He is a youth pastor in Vermont and a couple of years ago he and his wife made some decisions to simplify their lives. It has become such a major deal that he has written a book about it. I sat down with him on camera and interviewed him about it. I thought you might enjoy what he has to say. Who knows. Maybe this is what I need to start moving more in that direction. Anyhow, here is the video. Enjoy.

By the way, if you are interested in buy his ebook, Click here to visit Becoming Minimalist.
If you buy it from this link 50% of it goes to our adoption!!!

ps. If you are reading this on FaceBook click here to see the video.

I need to tell you a story

2010-11-19T08:15:00.000-08:00

This week I was at a conference in Colorado with a bunch of youth pastors. We had an awesome time of sharing one afternoon. Later that day in one of our sessions my friend Danny got up and said, "We have had a great time of being transparent and sharing some tough stuff. Today I have seen the Father's heart. We all know Erik worked really hard to get votes for his video and that he did not win. Today Erik told me his story about their adoption process. I heard a father's heart. Then when he walked away I saw the back of his shirt. It said, '5 million orphans...minus two.' That's when it hit me. We need to to take an offering for his adoption."

Then they all gathered around me and prayed for me. They passed a bag around and handed it to me at the end. We were in a meeting so I didn't pick up the bag to look inside of it. Jason had asked me to take Britt Edwards, our worship leader, to the airport during the session. On the way he shared his story of adoption and I shared mine. I prayed for him and he prayed for me and I dropped him off.

I decided to dump out the money and count it. I counted $100, $200, $300, $400...I was getting near $500 and I thought how amazing it would be if it were exactly $500. I hit $510!! I couldn't believe it. Tears started forming in my eyes. Then I read a note that was in there. It said that he would work it out with me and he was giving me $500! I know you are good with math, but that's $1,010!!! The tears went over the dam and flowed.

When I first counted the cash I thought I had counted wrong, so I recounted. EXACTLY $500!!! That's what I would've won in the video competition. Had I not lost, this moment would likely not have happened. The Lord doubled it! I called Jeanne-Ann to tell her about it. She asked me if I was OK. I said yes. She said, "Are you crying?" I said yes. She said, "I thought you said you were OK." "I can't cry and be OK?" Haha. I started to tell her the story and I had to pull over. I could hardly get the words out. I seriously have not cried like this in a while. Jeanne-Ann then got Kynzi & Karston on the phone and I told them the story. I finished and said, "Isn't that cool?" Karston said, "Yup." I laughed and Kynzi told me she thought we were calling to tell them we got the referral. I felt so bad. But this was great news...just not THE news. Not yet. Soon.

I told the story to a friend that night, he told me that he wanted me to deliver something for him. It was a check for $250! Wow! I am so overwhelmed with God's goodness. I have never been good at asking for money. When I was a boy scout I didn't like going door to door to ask people to buy stuff. I do know that God has our finances in control. I do know He is good. I know that He is and will provide.

This is truly something that God is using so many people to be a part of. I am overwhelmed at how many of you have joined us in this journey and support us with your kind words of encouragement, your prayers, your dollars, your gifts, your time. Thank you. Thank you. Seriously, thank you. I knew when we ventured forward with this we would have to trust God completely. It is not easy every day, but it is good. As I dream of our babies my heart swells with joy and longing. I love praying with my family every night for some many things and I love to hear my kids pray for their siblings. I love sharing with them how God uses people like you in so many amazing ways. I love hearing them thank God for you. Thank you for being part of my family.

It's Over

2010-11-14T20:37:00.000-08:00

I want to thank you so much for voting for my video. It was a close race all week long. It was back and forth by only a few votes the whole time, until last night. I was behind by 5 votes. This morning I woke up and was behind by 20 votes. I kicked into high gear with my facebook pleas and people came out and voted! t was awesome. At one point I was 50 votes ahead.

In the end the other video had 1,183 votes and I had 1,097 votes. They came on strong. So I will not be going to the video finals. No $500 for our adoption. No $500 for McNary high school.

That being said, I learned a few things through this process. I learned that I could really get caught up in this and still trust God with the money even if I didn't win. I have known since we started this adoption process that we could not afford to do it, but I have also known that I have not worried about the money. So when I realized I wasn't going on, I was OK with it. I was disappointed because I am competitive, but I was OK. I also learned that the power of people getting behind something is huge. So many of you reposted the link for my video in your FaceBook status that I was blown away. The video I was up against had a whole bunch of people involved, so it was me with your help against a bunch of people and their friends.

I also learned how generous people are. You may have read my last post where I shared some of my friends were giving me a % of their sales if you put "Erik's Adoption" in the order. And now my friend Joshua Becker is giving me 50% of his eBook sales for any orders he gets from my website. I will try to have that up on Monday or Tuesday. I will be interviewing him about what "minimalism" is all about.

Anyhow Thanx for your support. Thanx for bearing with all my updates. Thanx for your prayers. We will be bringing our babies home before we know it...I am sure!

Erik w/a "k"s Crazy Life Moments

Favorite Christmas Videos

Merry Christmas from Grolsch & the Swingtop Philharmonic Orchestra

A Nashville Getaway

Shepherds and Angels

Living Nativity

Luke 2

The Birth of Jesus

Christmas Tradition...Festival of Lights

Christmas Tree Lighting

12 Days of Christmas Blog

Guest Post: Extreme Makeover: Minnesota Style

A crazy Few Weeks

Pinterest made me a Hero

30 Day Photo Challenge

Father/Son BBQ

Book Review

Welcome Home

We Got Custody of Our Children!!!

A Typical Day in Addis Ababa

Our Court Date

2nd Visit with the Babies (and prayer request)

Meetcha Day! We FINALLY met our babies!

Day 1 of our Ethiopian Journey

How You Can Pray

Dreaming of Ethiopia

WE ARE HEADED TO ETHIOPIA!!!

End of the World Credit Card Debt

An Update

Follow Up To One Day Without Shoes

An Ethiopian Welcome Home Experience

One Day Without Shoes (update)

A Blog Napping!?!

Memory Lane Makes Me Think of the Future

Winner of Caption This

One Day Without Shoes

Don't You Just Love A Good Giveaway? (Caption This)

Names?? Yes, our babies have names!

We Got Our SECOND Referral!!!!

We Got Our First REFERRAL!!!!

Sooooo Tired!

Being Prayed For

Valentine's Day

7 Months

Top 5 Superbowl Commercials

My Son Won a Wii...Adoption Update?

A weekend with middle schoolers

Creative Juices Flowing Day 2

Creative Juices Flowing

Jump Rope

You Want Me To Fry That?

Game Nights

Happy Birthday Baby

Intentional Walks and Partying with Friends

Ducks in the BCS Championships

6 Months

Ethiopian Christmas

Top 10 News Stories of 2010 (that I paid attention to)

Top 10 Memories of 2010

Top 10 Movies of 2010

Top 10 Viral Videos of 2010

Top 10 Songs of 2010

Sarcasm...I speak it fluently

My Heart...Christmas Eve

I won an iPad!

Christmas Wish List

Warning: Buying on Craigslist? Test it before you buy it.

Thanx...and further endeavors

5 Months

Adoption Raffle (lots o stuff) Help Bring Our Babies Home!

Armless Pianist Wins China's Got Talent

Is December Our Month?

My Kids in the Paper

Thank You

Simplicity - simplifying your life

I need to tell you a story

It's Over