November 28, 2002

news from ethiopia. court tomorrow for the kids, 29 of them to be exact. pray please that all goes well, this has been a real struggle, so many people working against this whole thing. if all goes well the kids will be coming to the states december 10th or 23rd. yeah!!!

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November 21, 2002

more news from africa. we have heard that they have found another child for us, she is three, maybe four, a little boy will be joining the crew as i said earlier. we have a few hurdles to clear first. when we started this whole thing we thought we might get three kids, one more than the two we originally wanted. well we put three kids down on the INS form and now have to refile for the fourth one becuz our original application says three, pretty silly isnt it. anyway it costs about $600 to apply to INS for the I600A form to get our fourth child to the usa. i realize our goverment needs to keep track of people coming and going but why can't they just amend our original applicaiton, i am not sure. so the rub is we don't have the money right now, work has been slow and cash flow slower, i have a lot of projects but they are all in the early stage which means no money coming in right now. we need some help with this to bring these kids home together, so please pray for this and if you feel lead we could use a little finacial support, we have had such a wonderful out pouring of supoort already i hate to ask but we can't do any more right now. we just want to get our kids here and start to make them part of our family. if you feel lead to give email me

btw our new son is named yohannes solomon, we will call him solomon, and our new three year old is name kasanot, and we will call her kasey



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November 19, 2002

good news from ethiopia this am, it seems all the kid are together and paperwork is progressing, may even be done, the little boy we are to bring home was dressed in girls clothes when our friend picked him up, thats all the nuns who were caring for him had i guess, we sure are isolated to suffeirng and need in this gilded cage we have built. anyway we will be hearing more friday, but casey is still gone :(
more as it happens

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November 18, 2002

horrible news on the adoption front. during the past week our friend in ethiopia has been collecting all the kids that are to come to the usa. well she has a lot of issues to deal with. her phone is bugged, her email hacked and many people out to get her, ( omean death threats) its all about power and control. there is another group, an adoption group trying to push out our friend so they have total control in ethiopia, sick isnt it.

anyway casey our little girl of two whom we have had a picture for about a year has dissappeared, no one knows where she is, the other group when they found out about her placement with us could have taken her to another place and placed her with another family, the whole thing is a mess, anyway they have found a one year old girl who needs a family and we can have her if we want, how do i forget casey? or do we bring home the sisters and the little boy, our ins paperwrok only has three kids listed, so thats all we can have come, do we wait on the 1 year old, what a question/decision to make, i am confused, my wife is confused and the stress level in our house is extreme. :o pray for this situation, please.

i also interviewed for a director of youth ministry position(2nd interview) this am and really liked the pastor, he would be a great person to work with and starting a youth thing from scratch would be cool, i will find out within a week i hope they have one other candidate. i feel this would be a good place to try out alot of my ideas and see if they work and i love working with kids/youth/students

well thats all for today

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November 14, 2002

i had an article featured in off the map's november newsletter missional adoption check it out and let me know what you think, please

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November 13, 2002

feeling down today. i have been looking for a ministry position for a while now, yeah its been on and off but recently on pretty intensly. i can not get away from the feeling that i am suppose to be in a church, some where and feel drawn to work with kids, youth, students whatever the word i am suppose to use. when i explain to people about why we adopt adults ask about money kids ask about relationships. i think there is a message in there. kids even though we think they are foolish and driven by things that will soon pass seek relationships at all costs. being wiht each other is the prize, no agenda to make other think or be like you just being together, an it seesm at time we(adults) do everything we can do to hinder it. we succumb to our fear and fail to let go of the reigns and let our kids take the wheel. too often i am shattered by the wisdom from my kids. not sure where this is going, but i just got done coaching a soccer team of 12-13 girls, we had a pretty good season won more games than we lost and finished second in tournament without winning a game, weel we got one forfiet. anyway it was sad how much these girls just needed attention, some of them tried stupid ways to get others just wanted to be heard. are we creating a generation of people who dont get the attention they need because we are so busy and cant hear their cry for a notice? i think we are and in a generation we will begin to see the damage. i thinkthat is why i am drawn to youth ministry and a pray i will find th right place and all the people involved in giving me the position will have th courage to look past our kids and me to see that our kid need to be challenged not babied and spoon fed, inspired not dumbed down. anyway enuf of my ranting.

i would love to know what you think about youth ministry and why it seems to be absent from the postmodern world of faith. email me

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November 10, 2002

we got news this weekend that our tireless friend in ethiopia has found a 5 year old boy to add to our troup. it started when our four year old was talking to sydney and said he was bothered becuz he was going to be the only one alone when the girls got here. what he meant was that jacob 17 and evan 14 his older brothers had each other hadley 13 and bailey 11 each other riley 8 and avery 6 coming soon from ethiopia and biological sisters) each other cecilia 3 and casey 2 (coming soon also) each other micah and isaiah each other both two which left noah all alone and four. so we felt GOD speaking through this thoughtful and wise little boy and now have our twelve coming along soon.

also i am interviewing for a director of youth ministry in cincinnati, thats where we live. i will find out this week if i make the cut and get the job. the church is very modern and traditional which concerns me but they are giving free reign to do whatever i want with the youth and they are open to a broad range of theological views and willing to have good discussion amoungst each other.

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November 04, 2002

i am presently listening to a discussion on npr about why how and the history of voting and someone just made a comment that we vote in this country with an attitude of what can we get out of it.

so go VOTE tomorrow and let your voice be heard, there is no such thing as a wasted vote, each person has the privledge to cast a ballot let you voice be heard.

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check this out someone is actually asking us to do something important buynothingchristmas when we consume with passion for christmas we deny GOD and the gift he gave us all.

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