I Love the Internet

I know Al Gore didn't invent it....but if he did I would shake Mr. Gore's hand (and then wipe my hand off). I love the Internet.

Let me share with you the coolest thing. CHANNELSURFING.NET

This allows you to watch any sports you'd like LIVE and ONLINE and FREE. We don't have TV and I just got done watching the Pittsburgh Penguins STOMP the Flyers. No joke. There are also occasional other TV programs on there. Some NBC stuff....

I just had a conversation with a buddy who moved back to Warren and they decided not to get TV for awhile. He's dying because he can't watch sports. I can't wait to see him tomorrow to tell him his trouble is over. So I thought I would share with my faithful readers.....all one of you. It would also come in handy for a game you want to see that is BLACKED OUT!

Oh yeah.....they often have pay-per-view events on too. Like tonight's WWE event is on. YES! (joking)

Quick update

Just a quick update. We finally heard on Friday that Tobiah made it out of the hospital. That means he was in there for a good two weeks.

New Report and Prayer Requests

So a week ago I posted here saying we had no new news about Tobiah. That has changed.

In the past week I've had a roller coaster of emotions. We got a short letter on Saturday saying Tobiah was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. He was coughing, vomiting and wasn't breathing right. We called our agency Monday to find out the scoop and they didn't have an update on his health. HOWEVER.....they did inform us on our progress......and it was bad news.....for whatever reason, they said things were going to go longer than they originally told us.

Yesterday I got a call saying that Tobiah was doing much better and would be released from the hospital today.

About 20 minutes ago I got another call from our agency saying they had a follow-up message from the doctor. Apparently Tobiah is still running a slight fever so they're keeping him in the hospital for another day or two to get that down before he goes back to Layla House (the complex run by our agency). HOWEVER....I was thinking ahead and asked about paperwork timetable and what was going on.....and was told that as of right now his name is on the next group of kids that goes to court. That could change if they find out that some paperwork is missing or not up-to-date or whatever....but as of right now he's on the list. That could happen next week or 10 days or so..........soon.

So if you could here's things that are on our prayer list:
1. Obviously Tobiah's health. He's just a little guy and he's been in the hospital for over two weeks now without his mommy and daddy.
2. That his paperwork is in the next batch that goes to court. This is a REALLY big deal. When that's done, we're major close to going over!
3. This is silly compared to the first two, but I believe it's important.....we really need to find a minivan or something along those lines. I've been looking. We don't want junk, and we don't want a van that cost the same as a house around here......But with two kids and grandparents that both live 3 hours away....we need something bigger....and soon.

Indexed

Found this fun blog site called Indexed. It's just index cards with funny diagrams. Worth a look.

Nothing to Report

Because I've been asked, I'll tell you that we have no new news about Tobiah. We might get some updates about weight and health soon, but the next big thing we'll hear is that our paperwork is going to court. That's big. Either we pass court and can go get him, or we don't and wait longer. We don't expect to hear about court for awhile yet, but are praying we hear tomorrow. HA.

When we were waiting for Corban I started to get anxious. I felt like part of me wasn't right.....was missing. For awhile I haven't felt that yet for Tobiah....until a week or so ago. Now I"m on the edge of my seat. I want to get my hands on this little guy. I don't want to wait any longer. Our summer/fall is in flex in the constant wonder of when he will come home. It's really hard making plans in youth ministry knowing that it could all go out the window if we need to fly to Africa.

So I've filled my time with other side projects that are Tobiah related. I've been reading a lot about Addis Ababa and things we might want to see while there. Figuring out where we want to stay, places to eat, places not to go...etc. Because I"m a visual learner, I was having a hard time figure out where things were. So I called on the help of some folks who have been to Addis to pick their kids up, along with Wikimapia, and Google Earth...and have created a cool map. What you see below is the home our agency runs. That's where Tobiah is right now. Crazy satellites. I love just staring at that blue roof knowing my sons in there waiting for us. If you're interested in playing with the map I've created of Addis, you can go here and fully interact.

Weather

Our forcast for today....rainy here in Warren PA. We had reports yesterday though of a cold spell sweeping through the gates of hell.

Yep I did it. Facebook. I feel like I have finally lost part of myself. I have given in to the dark side. I'm dirty.

I don't know how much I"ll use the silly thing. It seems like it's a tremendous time waster....which I'm usually cool with...we'll see.

Appropriate music for today....
STP-Creep.mp3 download

Gas Station Politics

I learned a few things from driving taxi all those years. One of the biggest lessons is never talk about politics or religion with people. I have and will continue to leave that out of this blog (I think).....however this was just too dang funny.

I don't care who you're voting for. I don't know who I"m voting for. This video sure shouldn't sway you. This is genius Hillary trying to operate a gas station Cappuccino machine, so she can prove she's "blue collar". You can tell she's never seen one in her life.

Reading and Clocks

I just haven't posted. That's all.

So we read a lot to Corban. He loves reading books and it's a good time to snuggle with him.

He clearly understands that all the letters are joined together and make words....and we're working on sounding things out and all, but he just turned 3...so reading isn't ultra important right now. At the same time, he desperately wants to know what things say. He is constantly asking us "What says?" (that's an exact quote, I didn't accidentally miss a word) So we are always telling him what signs and T-shirts and boxes say.

A couple weeks ago he started taking guesses at what words said. The only problem is that he was making things up. Now it's a game.....and he only uses a couple phrases. No matter what a sign says, he always says "Jesus loves animals." Now I have no idea where he would get that phrase.....but it gets better....on occasion he'll guess "Jesus loves dice".

Also about a month or so ago, Corban started waking up in the morning at weird times and coming into our bedroom. He's always been a good sleeper so we found it weird. 6:30, 8, 7:15, 8:20.....So I came up with a solution.

Corban has known his numbers for awhile now. Even still, he can't put them all together to tell time yet. So I went to the basement and got an old digital alarm clock who's radio has ceased to function years ago. I then duct taped over the minute hands so he'd only see what hour it was.

We then instructed him that if he sees a 6 or a 7 that he's suppose to cover up, go to sleep and stay in bed. However, as soon as he sees and 8 he can come into mommy and daddy's room. He LOVES it. He thinks he's such a big boy because he has his own clock to look at just like the one in our bedroom.

You can sometimes here him in the morning "I see a 7, go back to sleep." But when he finally see an 8 you hear "I SEE AN EIGHT COME TO MOMMY AND DADDY'S ROOM". He then proceeds to tell you several times that it's now 8.