Look who's comming home

Well, we got our second referral yesterday. His name is J He is "officially" 2 years old, and was abandoned around a month and a half ago. We can't wait to get him home!

And here is a new picture of B. The orphanage says he is doing so much better since moving to the transitional orphanage house.

So we will most likely travel in 6-10 weeks to go get the little guys home. 4 boys and a little girl all under 4years old;.... now this is going to be fun! Thanks for the support you have all given us. It has been so humbling to see God provide in so many different ways (many of them through you all).

And though I am filled with so much joy with B and J, this process has opened my eyes to so much more than my suburban life; and I find myself torn up from the inside knowing that 25k kids die each day from starvation/diseases that are so preventable.... I also sometimes wonder about Ben and Joseph's parents. They are either dead or have had to make one of the most gut wrenching decisions in their lives because they couldn't even put food on the table (doubt they had/have a table). I just bought H (one of my twin boys) a $33+$20 shipping used children’s drum set off ebay; that $ would have feed an entire family in Ethiopia for 3 months.... could that $ have been what a family needed to hold on and not have to give up their kid?.... God’s must weep all the time knowing and seeing what he does.

Oh yea, and if your were wondering which moral side won the battle ( click HERE for background) the credit card came in the mail last week with 12 months no interest. The shrewd scripture in Luke 16 beat out the Romans 13 debt passage (I'll explain later how you can pit two scriptures against one another and pick which one you would rather follow later; I have this knowledge from my previous life as a conservative evangelical).

Big South Bend Dork

Friday night, 10:40pm. typing on a Blog.... what has my life come to? What a DORK!

Gone is the distraction...

So shelley & I chose to give up TV for lent. We put it in the un-finished part of our basement (just putting a blanket over it would have led to us cheating/sneaking a peak)... and guess what; we didn't miss it one bit. Really, not at all. I have read more books in the past month than I have in the past year. Shelley read even more. We spent more time as a family, I even find myself window shopping less (I used to make commercials for P&G, you are a fool to think that watching TV doesn't effect your purchase decisions; I have seen so much data to tell you otherwise because your subconscious is so very powerful; be careful what you put in there). Also my wife and I have had more/better "fun" together; that is as far as I will go with that one. I have also found myself writing songs again,... something that I haven’t done for a while.


I really think the TV has numbed me for so many years. I have given it so much of my life watching poor plots and stupid reality shows. So we are selling it. It is listed on Ebay as we speak. We also canceled the cable. You should have heard the lady on the other line when she asked why (seriously, she was silent for at least 10 seconds and then said "what are you going to do?" What am I going to do? Get more sleep, read more, activate my brain, not check out from my family as often, PRAY,....

This isn't a pat-on-the-back post by any means. I still have my Apple Powerbook with internet access. I still have a tendency to check out from my family and go into "my little world". And really, selling the TV is not for "moral/Godly reasons", it's just that I like the benefits of not having it more than the "supposed" benefits of having it (better brain functioning, better time with family, better sex, better songs, better sleep, better connection with others, feel like I know Christ better)...

Although come fall 2006 I will need to start doing "pastoral visits" after Sunday church celebrations from 1:00 - 7:30 (Go Bengals).