The Christmas Song

My son wrote another song…I need to get this recorded so I can share the tune as well.

You’re beautiful.

You’re Glorious.

You’re Wonderful.

You came to save us.

You’re the Prince of Peace.

Above all things,

You’re the Lord of Lords.

You’re the King of Kings.

You’re the mighty God.

Emanuel.

The Messiah.

You make all things well.

Born in a manger,

With shepherds at your side.

Three rich kings,

On December twenty five.

Frankincense so sweet,

Gold so bright,

Myrrh in a box,

Under that big star’s light

You’re beautiful.

You’re Glorious.

You’re Wonderful.

You're Jesus!

Bowl Season Blues

I love college football.  I think it’s because I went to school at Texas A&M and it’s hard not to fall in love with the spirit and rich tradition there.  I’ll watch pro football as well.  I’ll root for the Houston Texans but it’s not the same as the Aggies.

On the twelfth day of Christmas

My true love gave to me, a goat?

How about an Ipod, a new outfit, or even a new tie, but a goat?  This is one of the things our family did this year.  We decided to give a goat through World Vision.  It’s an extremely modest gift really.  $75 doesn’t compare to what we spend on ourselves.

I wrote a post about the Advent Conspiracy back in June or July.  At the time I was seriously contemplating doing away with all expensive and material gifts at Christmas.  In the end, we made lots of reductions and the decision to focus on others during Christmas, but we weren’t ready to go cold turkey yet.

It was really fun going through the World Vision catalog as a family and picking out a gift to give away through their program.  I think this is a new family tradition in our home.

We also decided to start a new birthday tradition.  Each of us gets to choose a World Vision gift for their birthday.  We give a World Vision gift of their choosing, in their name, up to a certain amount.  The birthday person then adds to that if they want to do something even bigger.

My daughter has a December birthday so she chose another goat but the one she chose includes an extra $25 that goes where it can have the most impact.  For the extra donation she’ll get a stuffed goat that will remind her of the needs around the world every time she holds it.

My son has a birthday in January and he is busily working out his list to figure out his World Vision gift.  It’s great to see the kids just as excited about these gifts as any material gift for themselves.

Remember whose birthday it is this week.  Open your hearts and give to those that have little or none.  Be a wise man, and lay your gifts at the feet of Jesus.

Matthew 2:11 (ESV)

¹¹ And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Waiting for a message

Our family has been in the adoption process since about October.  We already have four beautiful biological children but we wanted to share our family and our love with a child that otherwise would be without a family.

We’ve been through the process of deciding domestic or international, country of origin, and agency.  We’ve completed an in depth application with lots of questions about our motivation and heart as parents and as people.  We’ve spent hours with a social worker, hours completing a workbook and hours taking online educational courses on adoption.  Lastly, we’ve completed our dossier.

Well…almost.

As part of the background checks, Ethiopia requires a background check from every country that we may have lived since we were eighteen.  I happened to have lived in the Republic of Panama between the ages of 17-20, twenty five years ago.

In case you are not current on your Panamanian history, the government in place twenty five years ago no longer exists.

Fortunately, the US Embassy in Panama was able to declare that my background is clear and they promised to send us a letter stating that fact, about a week ago.

Now we wait.  It’s only been a week, but in the age of email and instant communication, it feels as if they sent the letter via a bottle tossed into the ocean for the waves to carry it here.

I know there will be lots more waiting as we go through this process.  Once the dossier is ready, we’ll need to wait for our agency to approve it.  After the agency approval, we need to wait for Ethiopia to approve the paperwork and approve us a fit parents.  Then we wait for a child to be referred to us.  And finally, we wait again for the Ethiopian courts to process the adoption.

We obviously had plenty of waiting with all of our biological children as well.  However, I could place my hand on my wife’s stomach and feel our child.  Our new child is thousands of miles away.  The wait is longer when you can’t see what is happening.

It’s like standing on the beach, looking out into the vast ocean, waiting for an expected message in a bottle.

Auto Bailout – Good Idea?

Tis’ the season.  If you’re a bank, insurance firm, and now car manufacturer, it appears that Uncle Sam has a present for you.  The best part - it doesn’t matter if your naughty or nice – or competent.

Living in Obama Land

I’ve kind of run into a rut with my posting here at Seeking Above.  So, I’ve started a new blog, Living in Obama Land.  I’m not abandoning Seeking Above, just trying something a little different.

Living in Obama Land is my attempt at “contextualized” blogging evangelism.  What that means is that I’ll be posting from a Christian world view but hopefully on topics that interest those that may have a secular world view.

Check out my first post, Auto Bailout - Good Idea or Bad Idea as well as my What's this blog about page.


P.S. I'm trying Wordpress on Obama Land.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

(by Mandy)

It's official!

We had our first "Brad and Angelina" comment this past weekend.

I did not get offended or give a sarcastic response. I was really pretty shocked that someone would even think of that. It's just funny that anyone would look at a family that is adopting from Africa and think of it as following a trend. And then actually say it!

When I think of following a trend, I think more along the lines of Chuck Taylor shoes, Twilight books, and... I can't even think of anything else because I really don't pay that much attention.

One thing I don't think of is adopting a child. Following a trend is something that takes no commitment. Even the fashion experts advise us not to spend too much money on trendy accessories because they are not going to last.

Adopting a child is permanent. Our hearts are committed to a child we have not met. This decision was covered in prayer. It affects every member of our family - plus this little guy. We would all be crushed if something happened and it did not work out.

I don't need to defend myself against this comment. I was just surprised anyone would say that. Hopefully, it was just a bad joke. This person does not know us very well, but I would not like to be thought of as someone who would adopt a child so our family can look cool.

Remember - I'm already Hipp.