200 +

Dang....that last post was post #200 for me on this blog. Which means in about 2 1/2 years, I'm doing about 1/4 of posts per day. AND it also means I wasted my 200th post trying to clarify an earlier post. AH.

So we got more pictures of Tobiah. BUT, I've been feeling that I keep posting new pics of the little guy and I haven't been post pictures of Corban. So for post # 201, you get some pictures of my little man. He's so much fun to be around.....usually. He's hilarious. His sense of humor is great. And he's getting so BIG.

Just so you know.....the bottom right picture.....we've been talking a lot at home about a new baby. So the other day Corban told Marjorie that he was the baby and he wanted to be taken care of. He even told her how to give him milk. So she wrapped him in a blanket and gave him a tall sippy cup with milk in it, and they sat in the comfy chair until he was done with his milk.

Clarification

I just re-read my last post. I think I need to clarify something.

I include myself in that whole bag. It's easy for me to "be at things" because I get a paycheck from the church. I however find some church functions toilsome. My point was not to condemn "those people".

I have been thinking a lot about church as a community. What the function of church should be etc. I guess I wonder if all these "things" we do as churches that only a few people want to really be apart of...are they what we need to be about? Maybe. Maybe not. It's not so much about 100% participation as it is....being a united body. There are ways to be involved without physically being there. I know that working with little kids is not everyone's ball of wax. I get that, people have 9-5 jobs (who actually works 9-5 anymore? more like 8-4) and don't have the insane flex schedule that I have. Those things are not lost on me.

I'm just asking questions. What would it look like if the WHOLE body would be committed to just one thing?

Taking pictures

This past week our church (like every other church) ran Vacation Bible School. Throughout the week, our secretary (and others) ran around to all the activities taking pictures. These pictures will show up in the next couple weeks on the overhead, in the newsletter and probably throughout the year as well. I was thinking about that. Why?

What would happen if we didn't have to take pictures to SHOW the church, because most of the church was THERE! We always here that it's a small group of people who do the work for the majority. Why? What happened to the body of Christ being a like minded community? Oh right, soccer practice and theater groups, and golf gets in the way of that.

I wonder how much time I've spent in youth ministry taking pictures and writing articles that basically are just justifying my paycheck. How much time have I spent describing an amazing experience that the youth had.

How much programing do we do that the church really just doesn't give a hoot about?

I guess the idealist in me (the small part that isn't cynical) would just like to see a church body come together with common goals and see them through as a family.

Please don't read this as a criticism toward one church, but toward "church" in general. I love my church. It's just some thoughts floating in my brain.

Soccer

I haven't put a video up in a long time and I just stumbled across this one that made me laugh.
Enjoy.

COURT DATE!!!!

No I haven't been arrested.

We got word yesterday that we have a Court date for Tobiah!!!!! That's what we need. Basically this is one of the last major hurdles. If we pass court we go get him!!!

JULY 16 is the big day. We're obviously coveting your prayers from now till then and particularly on that day.

If we get through court, it's possible we could travel mid to late August! For real. We're going to Ethiopia to pick up our son!!!!!!!! I'm stoked.

AND A NEW PICTURE! (except he's in pink. ugh.)

Dentists

I hate dentists. Not personally. Just professionally. I break out in cold sweats just thinking about them. Seriously. I am petrified of dentists. So I have avoided them at all costs for a couple years now.

The problem with this is that I don't have great teeth either. I brush. I floss occasionally. I don't mind mouth wash. But that hasn't cut it. In the past half year I have had two teeth break in half. And yet I refused to call the dentist.

So as we build up to Tobiah coming home....and as part of that Marjorie and I going to Africa to pick him up....I've come to this realization......"Africa is not part of the world you want to go to have dental problems". As much as I believe that dentists are living in the stone ages.....I can't believe that dentists in Ethiopia are going to be more skilled.

So with this in mind, I finally called the dentist. Now realize it took me months just to get up the courage to do that step! No joke. Last week I went in. Freaked out while I was driving there. Freaked out in the waiting room. Really freaked out when they called my name.

X-rays. poking around.....do you know what he tells me? "You really should've come to see me last year...you could of avoided a lot of this." Thanks. So basically it's like this.....my fear of dentist is going to force me to go see the dentist MORE.

Last Friday was session 1. I have one tooth drilled and filled...and another tooth pulled. He talked about possibly doing root canals, but he wasn't sure how he was going to reconstruct it and couldn't promise that it'd take....so out it came.

Session 2 is next week...maybe. Another drill and fill and some reconstruction of the tooth.

Session 3 is a couple weeks after that. Two molars on the same side next to each other get yanked. OUCH. That's not going to be good.

Long term. Partial dentures. Yep. I haven't hit 40 and I'm already thinking about dentures. Sweet.

So since last Friday I've developed a sinus infection that is pushing down on the area that I used to have a tooth in. I'm now on an antibiotic, but I have to tell you, I'm not in the greatest of moods. I haven't slept well in 4 days. I hurts to talk and chew. And all I have to look forward to is more of the same.

The moral of the story kids is this: Go see the dang dentist.....either that or just have them all out and get full dentures....either or......it's kind of a choose your own adventure story.

My shattered NHL dream

So if you're reading this, you probably know I play hockey once a week. During the winter, most of the guys I play with are solid players. A couple of them are real good. Most are just good.

During the summer this changes. We pick up a bundle of younger players. Some of these kids are playing junior hockey. Some are playing semi-pro. One guy played in the ECHL last year a bit. So the play is much faster and more intense. I love it.

Tonight went to a whole new level. I walked into my locker room and found Kevyn Adams getting dressed. [That's a picture of him holding the Stanley Cup which he won with Carolina two years (to the day) ago.] I instantly know that this is not going to be an ordinary night.....I didn't know how right I was....

As I reached the ice I found out that, pretty much every semi-pro/junior hockey player in the area was invited to play tonight. I figure no big deal, I can hold my own. I start warming up and then I realize I have a problem. I can't see the puck.

Now let me explain. As a goalie there are nights where the puck looks huge. You can track it, you can feel where it's going to be. I had one of those nights last week. Then there are nights like tonight where you just have no idea what's going on out there. Now compound that with who I was playing with and it was going to be a long night.

Literally, their team scored 20 goals on me in the first 10 minutes. Literally. The teams were a bit stacked, so they did a swap to even it out a bit. I was still getting my butt handed to me though. I stopped Mr. Adams once though. Yeah. Minor victories.

In case you were curious, he has a house on a nearby lake and spends most of his summers here. He had a knee injury this past season and is starting to do some serious workouts to get back before the season, so he's looking for ice time. A couple guys I play with spend some time with him I guess. He was a great guy and all.....but I realized that I'm a pick up goalie at best.

God is Good

A few weeks ago I made a list on this blog of things we needed prayed for. Most of them had to do with Tobiah coming home. One of them though was for a van. We just plain out needed more space. Both sets of grandparents are 3 hours away. So when we go it's not for an afternoon, we're going to be there for awhile. We are always jam packed into a car.

I've been hunting. Autotrader. E-bay. Craigslist. Locally. Whatever. The problem is that my mom raised me to watch my pennies. So I didn't want to pay what a vehicle was worth, I wanted a deal. A couple weeks ago I found one up near Buffalo. After a bunch of e-mails we made it work. Yesterday we bought our first minivan.

Ok now check out how cool God is. About 3 or 4 months ago I found a van on e-bay that was right here in town. I went and looked at it, and it was perfect. We bid as high as we wanted to go....and got outbid by 100 dollars in the last hour. We could've bid higher but we didn't. So this new van we got......yeah same exact van.......10,000 less miles on it.......3,000 dollars cheaper!

Also, the lady we bought it from wanted to make sure everything was on the up and up so she met us at her mechanics, so we could talk directly to him. Very cool. So we pull into the lot and see the van. I drove right up next to it and pull so we can see the back. IT ALREADY HAS A BUFFALO SABRES STICKER IN THE BACK WINDOW!!!!!! If you didn't know I've been cheering for the Sabres for the past couple years. For me it was as if God was saying, "this is your vehicle."

So now I feel all "American Family". Except for the fact that now families are buying SUV's not minivans.....but I'm usually behind the trends anyway. God is Good!

NEW THOUGHT: I kind of like Facebook. I post a small comment on there about our new van and I instantly have 5 messages. That's cool. HOWEVER.....I'm a storyteller. I want the story of the van to be told. God needs to get credit here. Facebook makes that much harder than here. So I'm going to keep this going and link back to here because there are important stories to be told.

ALSO: Another family went to Ethiopia recently to pick up their new baby. They took lots of pictures of the baby room and posted them on a private picture page online for our agency. I sifted through all 200 pictures and found two new ones of Tobiah. YEAH!!!!!

Tobiah update

Just got some info yesterday and though we should pass it along.

Our paperwork has gone into the court system in Ethiopia. That is good. We should hear soon when our actual court date is. They're guessing maybe the beginning of July. That's also good. That would put us still traveling to Ethiopia in August or September to pick him up.....if all goes well.

NEW PICTURE. Awhile ago we sent some pajamas, slippers and pictures in a flexible book to him. The new picture is in the PJ's we sent with our picture. Very cool. I know I'm biased, but DANG IS HE CUTE!

Picture of the Day

It just seemed like something that needed shared.

Quick Corban quotes

Me-"Daddy doesn't feel very good today."
C-"It's Ok Daddy, I'll be your new best friend."

Another day
C- "Daddy, you're Mr. Incredible."