Sick, and thus tired

I've been down and out with the flu (or a severe cold virus) for the last three days (Personally, I blame Adam and Eve). I'm beginning to feel better, but I'm still totally worn out. The good news is that we didn't give Alex any extra viruses over the weekend. I called to check on him today, and Wayne (his present caretaker) said that he is healed up from his sickness and is back to his normal self.

We got good news yesterday - praise God! - that the judge officially signed the expedited order for a home study on Tuesday. This means that CPS in our region must schedule and conduct a home study with us, AND get the paperwork back to Odessa within 10 days (10 real days, not 10 business or 10 CPS days). After that, we are told that transitional visits with the aim of getting him here will soon begin.

Now, if only we were all on the same page about what the word "soon" means...

Quick Summary of the Latest

I hope that this quick summary of the latest news with Alex will hold everyone over for a couple days! We spent all day Saturday with him. The first couple hours, he was in a great mood, and we all had lots of fun. However, he had been sick much of the week. So, from about 11am to 6pm, we dealt with lots of crying - probably a combination of him being sick, not being able to sleep well, and being in a new place. We THINK that we will have a home study done within the next couple weeks. Apparently, people were dragging their feet, so the Ector County judge signed an expedited order that forces CPS to get the home study done within 10 days. Whether that's ten days, or ten business days, or ten CPS days (which, I think, is equivalent to 200 normal-people days), we don't know. Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Presidents Day!

Happy Presidents Day everyone! I'm a big fan of one of the presidents we're celebrating today (Washington) and a man of mixed feelings for the other one (Lincoln).
Still, it's a good day to be reminded that we should pray for ALL our leaders at ALL times, no matter what party they are part of. After all, when the Apostle Paul told us to pray for our leaders, he was probably writing under the dictatorship of Nero, a man who impaled Christians, lit them on fire, and used them as lanterns. However much we don't like the policies of that other party, I think we can all agree that we have much to be thankful for in our political realm.

And now, to lighten the mood, a funny comic I read this morning. Go to this link Absolutely no mockery intended (see my previous post!).

Five People I Would Like to Have for Dinner and Conversation

I was talking to some of my fellow grad students a couple days ago, and to pass the time, we thought we'd have a fun conversation. We all responded to this question: If you could have any five people (living or dead) over to your home for dinner and conversation, who would you pick, and why? Here are my responses (at least for today):

1. Martin Luther
Dedicated monk. Bible Scholar. Catalyst for the Protestant Reformation.
Firey personality. He always enjoyed a good meal, always with a good beer. And really - who else, in an intellectual exchange about the freedom/bondage of the will with the most recognized scholar of the 16-century (Desiderius Erasmus) would say that his opponent's fancy arguments were nothing more than dung on a silver platter! Plus, Luther is one of my heroes and has heavily influenced my life.

2. Jonathan Edwards
Perry Miller, one of the greatest historians of early America, and almost single-handedly responsible
for the revival of scholarly interest in the Puritans, believed that Jonathan Edwards was the greatest mind in U.S. History. And Perry Miller was an atheist. I've only read a few works of Edwards and one biography (and much of his thought filtered through John Piper), but his thought has influenced my life, I'm sure, more than I can express. He was a husband, a father, missionary to the Indians, theologian, revival preacher, mediator, president of Princeton, and so much more.

3. George Washington
There's a reason this guy is always near the top of best-presidents lists. He had a rough beginning in the army,
but rose to the highest position of power in the new United States. Although whether he was a Christian is a matter of debate, almost no one argues that he was anything but a paragon of moral and civic virtue. And in 1796, when everyone wanted him to remain in power and many were willing to allow him a kingly position, he voluntarily stepped down. How many presidents since would have done that? Not many, if any at all.

4. Mark Twain (a.k.a. Samuel Clemens)
If I could keep him from bashing Christianity, Twain would easily be the funniest person at the table. He was hilarious,
and always in a smart, sarcastic, ironic way. And he was one of the few famous people in the 1890s who spoke out against the beginnings of modern American imperialism. People in Cuba, Hawaii, and the Philippines would have like him; Teddy Roosevelt didn't like him so much. I wonder who would win in a fight between Mark Twain and Jonathan Edwards...

5. Mishael (a.k.a. Meshach)
I could have listed Daniel, Shadrach, or Abdengo also, but I figure the middle-man often gets left out. Meshach and his friends' stories from the book of Daniel are my favorite in the Bible. I cannot imagine the sorrow, difficulty, and pressure they felt on a day-to-day basis as persecuted men in a foreign land. And yet, they maintained purity, became top-notch scholars, and above all, remained faithful to God no matter the cost.

I invite everyone else to try this out soon. You might have a little fun thinking about it, and all of us will learn more about you in the process.

Andrew Peterson and "Little Boy Heart Alive"

My greatest new music discovery is Andrew Peterson. He's been around a while, and I've heard his name from some of my friends for years, but I've never taken the time to check him out myself. Well, it has been my loss. This guy is one of the most thoughtful, creative, biblically-minded artists I have ever come across. I've been listening to his album "Behold the Lamb of God" for the last few weeks, non-stop. The album is written as a story of the Incarnation. Rather than just songs about the typical "Christmas story," the album looks at the story of Jesus from creation, to Passover, to the history of Israel, all the way to Revelation.

Today, I came across his album "The Far Country." Almost the entire album is made up of songs which meditate upon our eternal home with God.


One song that I have enjoyed is entitled "Little Boy Heart Alive." I'm sure that many of you will recognize some of the imagery:


"Little Boy Heart Alive"

Open the door and run outside
Your little boy heart alive
Into the morning light
Into the deep and wide

Dinosaur bones in the flowerbed
Rockets in the clouds
In a fight with a spider’s web
Tunnels in the ground

Winding to China
To the mist of the distant shore
Better be home by suppertime
Back through the planet core

Feel the beat of a distant thunder
It’s the sound of an ancient song
This is the Kingdom calling
Come now and tread the dawn

Come to the father
Come to the deeper well
Drink of the water
And come to live a tale to tell

Pages are turning now
This is abundant life
The joy in the journey
Is enough to make a grown man cry
With a little boy heart alive

Kings and castles in the neighborhood
Swords on the forest floor
Dragons in the magic wood
Better saddle your battle horse

Fighting Goliath
Better choose your weapons right
Five little stones and a faith on fire
In a little boy heart alive

Chorus

Met a kid at the railroad track
He had a stick and a nylon sack
I ran to the house to pack
I wanted to follow

Take a ride on the mighty lion
Take a hold of the golden mane
This is the love of Jesus
So good but it is not tame

Chorus

Ever the road goes on and on
Ever the road goes on and on and on


If you want to listen to this song or buy the album, use this link to Andrew Peterson's website. Scroll down to the album entitled "The Far Country." You can listen to this album and his "Behold the Lamb of God" for free! But, I recommend purchasing them soon. Support excellent Christian artists!

Next step

News on the latest step in our adoption process:

Last week, we received some paperwork that we needed to fill out. Apparently, we have needed to fill this out for weeks now, but someone forgot to get it to us. So, last Friday, someone sent the paperwork to us. We completed it immediately but realized that we were missing an important piece of information: the address to which we needed to send it. So, this last week has been spent calling, emailing, and cajoling for a mailing address. After a week, we got a hold of this info and....drum roll........we are putting it in the mail today! Oce that info is received, they will begin the process of setting up a home study for us. "That doesn't sound like such a big step," you may be thinking. Ha! If you are thinking that, you have clearly never dealt with the twin monsters of "Overloaded" and "Inefficiency" in a government bureaucracy!

Otherwise, this week has been fine enough. Lots of reading, a new book every couple days. I'm working on planning a mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico, with 6 of my youth this June. This weekend, we will be spending lots of time at the church for our missions conference.

All prayers are continually requested and appreciated...

NY Times says that evangelicals aren't really that crazy after all!

On February 4, a self-proclaimed non-Christian, liberal, Democratic writer for the New York Times wrote an article about American evangelicalism. Here's some of what he had to say:

"At a New York or Los Angeles cocktail party, few would dare make a pejorative comment about Barack Obama’s race or Hillary Clinton’s sex. Yet it would be easy to get away with deriding Mike Huckabee’s religious faith.

Liberals believe deeply in tolerance and over the last century have led the battles against prejudices of all kinds, but we have a blind spot about Christian evangelicals. They constitute one of the few minorities that, on the American coasts or university campuses, it remains fashionable to mock.

Scorning people for their faith is intrinsically repugnant, and in this case it also betrays a profound misunderstanding of how far evangelicals have moved over the last decade. Today, conservative Christian churches do superb work on poverty, AIDS, sex trafficking, climate change, prison abuses, malaria and genocide in Darfur."

Wow. Finally, someone who totally disagrees with me on many issues, and yet acknowledges that the "other side" actually has some good things to say and good deeds to back it up. Now if only Marxist historians would read this and learn...

Diaper Question

For all you moms and dads out there (or anyone who works at a grocery store...) I have a question:

How much should I anticipate spending on diapers for my 17-month old son when he gets here!? What about other random expenses one has with a 17-month old?

We're filling out some paperwork for CPS, and they want us to estimate how much we'll spend on these sorts of things when we get him, as if we should know this already!

You would be helping a brother and sister in need by posting, so don't think I'm negating what I said in my earlier post!

Not Working = Destroying

"One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys." ~ Proverbs 18:9

As it is to me, I hope this verse is an exhortation to everyone today. It reminded me of the sermon Wade preached on the 8th Commandment - "You shall not steal." When we are slack in our work, we don't just become unproductive; we steal from our bosses and destroy their business, dollar-by-dollar. And since we work not only for our bosses, but for the Lord, we thereby destroy what the Lord has given us.

So today, that means I will write a 3-page review of the 1896 issue of the Overland Monthly ("Free and unlimited coinage of silver! Vote Democrat!"), begin a book on marriage in medieval France, finish some paperwork for CPS, and plan some meetings for our youth group's mission trip this summer. A relatively typical day in the life of Brian these days.

Let's work hard today and build up the kingdom of God!