Saturday, September 24, 2011
Almost awesome.
This weekend is the Street Painting festival in a nearby neighborhood. We're super excited because our '71 VW Bus was chosen for the ArtCars portion of the festival! Here's the beginning of the transformation. It should be completely finished tomorrow so I'll post an update then, but I was excited to show the progress!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
The striking similarities between urban ministry and adoption.
The past few weeks I've been struggling a lot, thinking a lot about the future of our ministry here in Northside and thinking a ton (as usual) about our adoption process.
There are so many similarities between what we do in ministry here and adoption. Adoption is not the only way in which Christians are called to "defend the cause orphans" (Isaiah 1:17) As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to say adoption is actually a very small fraction of the way in which we are called to care for orphans. Often in the Bible orphans are referred to as fatherless as opposed to simply using the word orphan. (What I'm about to say is not in any way meant to be insulting to single parents.) When I look around me, I see so many fatherless children. So many boys growing up with no male role model, just wandering the streets and trying to figure out what it means to be a man.
When I look at our world and the brokenness in it I'm left wondering what in the world can we do? I see broken homes, broken school systems, racism in our community, selfishness, greed, loneliness, violence...
And that's just on my street.
When I begin to ponder the HIV/AIDS and poverty crises happening in Africa and the famine currently in the Horn of Africa - it just all seems to much. I am currently reading There is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene and the way in which she writes about the multi-faceted reasons for the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa has begun to haunt me. The role that the Western world of wealth and greed has played in the deaths of so many people and the creation of millions of African orphans disgusts me.
I think the two are connected. I think that all poverty that we see in the world, be it in Africa or be it in Northside, all has the same root cause: selfishness. When I hear the arguments presented for how we ought to deal with poor both here and there I hear a lot of talk about fixing a "problem". I hear about how we need to correct people's behaviors, we need to teach people how to be more socially acceptable, we need to correct bad habits. And while that may sometimes be true - we won't ever help anyone out of poverty by looking down at them. We won't ever help the fatherless by simply attempting to correct their behavior. We won't ever be able to change a situation if we are only doing it for our good instead of for the good of the people who need help. For in the end, we must see that we all need help. We all need change.
First, we must learn to love each other. We have to learn to put others before ourselves. Only then can we step back and truly see how to help those throughout the world living in generational poverty, sickness, and loneliness. Adoption is part of that story. Adoption takes children with no home and gives them a home and a family. But it's only a tiny part. For the 1 child that is adopted there are millions more who aren't. And those millions, both here and there, need people to reach out in love and show them they are important, loved, and have purpose. We need to begin to share resources, to share relationship, to share ourselves with people around us who are hurting.
It's been a tough year for me as I'm quite discouraged often feeling like there are too few people who are truly committed to the cause of caring for the poor and fatherless. But I know that there is One who cares. And He is with us. I know there are many who feel the same, who feel alone. But we are not alone. Hallelujah.
There are so many similarities between what we do in ministry here and adoption. Adoption is not the only way in which Christians are called to "defend the cause orphans" (Isaiah 1:17) As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to say adoption is actually a very small fraction of the way in which we are called to care for orphans. Often in the Bible orphans are referred to as fatherless as opposed to simply using the word orphan. (What I'm about to say is not in any way meant to be insulting to single parents.) When I look around me, I see so many fatherless children. So many boys growing up with no male role model, just wandering the streets and trying to figure out what it means to be a man.
When I look at our world and the brokenness in it I'm left wondering what in the world can we do? I see broken homes, broken school systems, racism in our community, selfishness, greed, loneliness, violence...
And that's just on my street.
When I begin to ponder the HIV/AIDS and poverty crises happening in Africa and the famine currently in the Horn of Africa - it just all seems to much. I am currently reading There is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene and the way in which she writes about the multi-faceted reasons for the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa has begun to haunt me. The role that the Western world of wealth and greed has played in the deaths of so many people and the creation of millions of African orphans disgusts me.
I think the two are connected. I think that all poverty that we see in the world, be it in Africa or be it in Northside, all has the same root cause: selfishness. When I hear the arguments presented for how we ought to deal with poor both here and there I hear a lot of talk about fixing a "problem". I hear about how we need to correct people's behaviors, we need to teach people how to be more socially acceptable, we need to correct bad habits. And while that may sometimes be true - we won't ever help anyone out of poverty by looking down at them. We won't ever help the fatherless by simply attempting to correct their behavior. We won't ever be able to change a situation if we are only doing it for our good instead of for the good of the people who need help. For in the end, we must see that we all need help. We all need change.
First, we must learn to love each other. We have to learn to put others before ourselves. Only then can we step back and truly see how to help those throughout the world living in generational poverty, sickness, and loneliness. Adoption is part of that story. Adoption takes children with no home and gives them a home and a family. But it's only a tiny part. For the 1 child that is adopted there are millions more who aren't. And those millions, both here and there, need people to reach out in love and show them they are important, loved, and have purpose. We need to begin to share resources, to share relationship, to share ourselves with people around us who are hurting.
It's been a tough year for me as I'm quite discouraged often feeling like there are too few people who are truly committed to the cause of caring for the poor and fatherless. But I know that there is One who cares. And He is with us. I know there are many who feel the same, who feel alone. But we are not alone. Hallelujah.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Today is the Day.
DTE Day.
Today our dossier is on its way to Ethiopia! This means we're really here, we're really waiting to find out who our child is. Not that we haven't always been waiting. Even when we thought we had changed to a different adoption route, we hadn't really. God hadn't let us in on the secret that we've really been waiting for this child the entire time. How amazing is that?
I keep trying to imagine what my family will look like once this child is here with us. I know it'll be enough to make me crazy with waiting. But I'm posting this so that when I get feeling crazy I can come back here and see how beautiful my family is even now. I feel like I can't possibly wait any longer to meet my child, but I don't want to get so caught up in obsessing over my new child that I forget about and miss the important moments in the family I already have. I'm sure we'll have many more amazing moments in the time we'll be waiting on our new family member, I don't want to miss out on those while longing for new moments.
I can't even imagine how wonderful it will be to add a new face to our family photos. But for now, our family is still beautiful. Incomplete maybe, but beautiful none the less.
Today our dossier is on its way to Ethiopia! This means we're really here, we're really waiting to find out who our child is. Not that we haven't always been waiting. Even when we thought we had changed to a different adoption route, we hadn't really. God hadn't let us in on the secret that we've really been waiting for this child the entire time. How amazing is that?
I keep trying to imagine what my family will look like once this child is here with us. I know it'll be enough to make me crazy with waiting. But I'm posting this so that when I get feeling crazy I can come back here and see how beautiful my family is even now. I feel like I can't possibly wait any longer to meet my child, but I don't want to get so caught up in obsessing over my new child that I forget about and miss the important moments in the family I already have. I'm sure we'll have many more amazing moments in the time we'll be waiting on our new family member, I don't want to miss out on those while longing for new moments.
I can't even imagine how wonderful it will be to add a new face to our family photos. But for now, our family is still beautiful. Incomplete maybe, but beautiful none the less.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Not DTE yet, but...
I've started to plan what I'll focus on during what could end up being a very long wait for a referral. I've got a few goals in mind and I think knowing that I'm waiting on a referral could give me an all new motivation to accomplish these goals:
1. Be Healthier!
I for sure need to lose weight for several reason: I am uncomfortable in my body, I know I'm not as healthy as I could be, I hear the Ethiopian court does not like parents with "high BMI", I want to live a long time, I want to be more active and have more energy!
2. Be more organized!
I started a project to organize and declutter my house at the beginning of summer after hearing about the book Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider. I was very motivated before it got really hot and then all those consecutive weeks of 100+ degrees made my AC free home run between 86 and 90 degrees and all motivation for cleaning and organizing was lost. The plan for the winter is to get busy and get the house organized and free of useless items. If it isn't beautiful or useful it's gone! We're planning to clean out the small room upstairs we use for storage and move my sewing/crafting stuff in there and then have a true fourth bedroom for guests and use part of the bedroom as a play room for Zeke to play with some of his larger indoor toys.
I'm also going to try and organize my time better and be more productive. I've used Tsh's "Daily Docket" the past few days and it's really helped me to organize my day and to get more done, and faster! I want to be able to have more of a schedule as Zeke gets older so I'm good and disciplined before we have to make any kinds of decisions about homeschool vs. finding a good school.
3. Get a better budget!
We're doing fine financially but we have goals that we won't be able to reach with our current budget. Over the past 6 months we've slowly made some good changes but this summer we spent a lot on home improvement and I'm feeling like maybe we lost site of the goal. I know that isn't the case really, the improvements we made were mostly necessary for the safety of Zeke to be able to play around the house (fencing in the yard), but I have a real desire to meet our financial goals. We long to be free of student loan debt, so we're planning to really focus on making that happen in the next few years. It'll be a long time before we're truly free of our education debt, but it cut it back significantly would be a huge weight off our shoulders. We're so blessed to be able to have such a wonderful life and God has provided so much for us financially that it almost seems crazy to complain, as if we don't have enough when we have so much more than enough! But I want to have more so that we can be more generous with our helping of others.
4. Making more time for family!
There are several things that need to change in order for this one to happen. Some we've already done like - we've gotten rid of our cable for several reasons: saving money, saving time, saving Zeke from unnecessary evil entering his brain. It's been such a blessing to be without that distraction!
Unfortunately as a family in ministry it seems that ministry is the biggest distraction from family time. It's really difficult since Abe has to work outside the ministry in order to support us financially. So between him working and doing ministry and me with Zeke and doing ministry - connecting the three of us to do something other than ministry seems like an impossible task. There are ways in which the ministry brings us closer together since we both work together in the same place. But sometimes working together is difficult as you begin to feel like the only topic you know how to talk about is ministry!
I've been thinking so hard about this one in thinking about adding to our family and it will be vitally important to our adopted child and to Zeke to have time with both parents to bond and to feel important and loved. Some changes have to be made to make that happen. Every time I think we might be headed in the right direction - we're getting more volunteers, we might be headed towards being able to hire staff, things are slowing down in the fall season - something else happens and we take three steps back - we lose our volunteers, our supervisors add additional responsibilities, we find more work coming out of every hiding space!
So, right now it's an adventure in figuring out what to say "Yes!" to and what to say "No." to. It seems like we're needing to pray all the time that the people around us would understand when we need to say no. And we're constantly praying that God would send more workers into this field with us!
So yeah, Those are the goals:
1. Be Healthier!
2. Be more organized!
3. Get a better budget!
4. Making more time for family!
All four of these things play together. If I get more organized with a better budget I'm going to plan meals better and eat better and be healthier - all of which will mean more time with family! Pray for us as we work towards these goals while we wait and pray for our next baby!
1. Be Healthier!
I for sure need to lose weight for several reason: I am uncomfortable in my body, I know I'm not as healthy as I could be, I hear the Ethiopian court does not like parents with "high BMI", I want to live a long time, I want to be more active and have more energy!
2. Be more organized!
I started a project to organize and declutter my house at the beginning of summer after hearing about the book Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider. I was very motivated before it got really hot and then all those consecutive weeks of 100+ degrees made my AC free home run between 86 and 90 degrees and all motivation for cleaning and organizing was lost. The plan for the winter is to get busy and get the house organized and free of useless items. If it isn't beautiful or useful it's gone! We're planning to clean out the small room upstairs we use for storage and move my sewing/crafting stuff in there and then have a true fourth bedroom for guests and use part of the bedroom as a play room for Zeke to play with some of his larger indoor toys.
I'm also going to try and organize my time better and be more productive. I've used Tsh's "Daily Docket" the past few days and it's really helped me to organize my day and to get more done, and faster! I want to be able to have more of a schedule as Zeke gets older so I'm good and disciplined before we have to make any kinds of decisions about homeschool vs. finding a good school.
3. Get a better budget!
We're doing fine financially but we have goals that we won't be able to reach with our current budget. Over the past 6 months we've slowly made some good changes but this summer we spent a lot on home improvement and I'm feeling like maybe we lost site of the goal. I know that isn't the case really, the improvements we made were mostly necessary for the safety of Zeke to be able to play around the house (fencing in the yard), but I have a real desire to meet our financial goals. We long to be free of student loan debt, so we're planning to really focus on making that happen in the next few years. It'll be a long time before we're truly free of our education debt, but it cut it back significantly would be a huge weight off our shoulders. We're so blessed to be able to have such a wonderful life and God has provided so much for us financially that it almost seems crazy to complain, as if we don't have enough when we have so much more than enough! But I want to have more so that we can be more generous with our helping of others.
4. Making more time for family!
There are several things that need to change in order for this one to happen. Some we've already done like - we've gotten rid of our cable for several reasons: saving money, saving time, saving Zeke from unnecessary evil entering his brain. It's been such a blessing to be without that distraction!
Unfortunately as a family in ministry it seems that ministry is the biggest distraction from family time. It's really difficult since Abe has to work outside the ministry in order to support us financially. So between him working and doing ministry and me with Zeke and doing ministry - connecting the three of us to do something other than ministry seems like an impossible task. There are ways in which the ministry brings us closer together since we both work together in the same place. But sometimes working together is difficult as you begin to feel like the only topic you know how to talk about is ministry!
I've been thinking so hard about this one in thinking about adding to our family and it will be vitally important to our adopted child and to Zeke to have time with both parents to bond and to feel important and loved. Some changes have to be made to make that happen. Every time I think we might be headed in the right direction - we're getting more volunteers, we might be headed towards being able to hire staff, things are slowing down in the fall season - something else happens and we take three steps back - we lose our volunteers, our supervisors add additional responsibilities, we find more work coming out of every hiding space!
So, right now it's an adventure in figuring out what to say "Yes!" to and what to say "No." to. It seems like we're needing to pray all the time that the people around us would understand when we need to say no. And we're constantly praying that God would send more workers into this field with us!
So yeah, Those are the goals:
1. Be Healthier!
2. Be more organized!
3. Get a better budget!
4. Making more time for family!
All four of these things play together. If I get more organized with a better budget I'm going to plan meals better and eat better and be healthier - all of which will mean more time with family! Pray for us as we work towards these goals while we wait and pray for our next baby!
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