A Sad but Joyous Day

Some of you know, but many of you do not that my mother has been very ill with an undiagnosed neurological disorder for many years. She has been in residential care for almost 19 years. For the most part she has been healthy but unresponsive. On Saturday I received a call that she was being taken to the hospital with a high fever. They started treating her for a severe infection in her bladder. I stopped by to see her on my way home from a Moms retreat I helped with that was in Malibu. She was not doing well by the time I got there. I was able to hold her hand for the first time in many years and pray for her and with her for about 15 minutes. At that time I told her that I love her and thought it was a good time to go and be with Jesus. At about midnight I got a call from the doctor saying they thought that the infection most likely had spread to her blood and her prognosis was poor. God in his grace finally gave my mother release from the chains of disease Monday morning. It is a sad but wonderful day as she is now at home with Jesus and celebrating the feast of the Lamb with her parents once again. It was not an unexpected day, but it has still been difficult. I covet your thoughts and prayers as my family will soon gather for a memorial service that is a long time in coming. The memorial service will be next Thursday January 25th at Bethany Lutheran Church in Long Beach. We have asked that memorials be given to the Bethany Student Success Program. My mother was a Lutheran Educator for years and she always had time to help kids. Please pray for safe travel for the members of my family as they travel in the coming days. Thank you for all of the support you have given my family already. We have been uplifted in ways you can never know.

All is well

I am not dead or anything. Just super busy. First of all parenting is going great. The other day my youngest went through five sets of clothes for various reasons. She fell on the blacktop right as we were going into the DCFS office and was a mess, then she leaked through her diaper, then, I left her cup of milk too close to her at lunch and she poured it down her front, then she had a massive blowout (parents you know what I mean) than necessitated a stop in the bathtub to wash her off. Of course her sister had to take a bath at the same time so now I have two kids in the tub, right then the social worker calls and my older one needs to go potty at the same time. So here I am with my cell phone curled up with my shoulder trying to hold a slippery wet toddler on the toilet hoping she doesn't fall in while making sure my youngest doesn't drown herself by dumping water on hear head all at the same time trying to talk to the social worker. Ahhh, good times! Thank God most days are not five outfit ones. Most days are spent playing dress up, and dollies, or watching princess movies, or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (I highly recommend this show!!). Not to mention that our senior pastor is away in India on a mission trip so I have had a few more duties and responsibilities at church. So far only one member has been called home to heaven, but there are a few on hospice and could hear heavens bells soon. I also have a member who got into some serious legal trouble and she (yes, a she) is being held in jail at the moment. Lets just say this situation could be on Law and Order for sure or at least Cops. So needless to say I have not been able to post for a while. Thank you to Dr. King for this day off so I can get my breath. Thank you to all who have been praying for our girls and their situation. Please keep praying. We still have many hurdles ahead of us. Until next time....

Windows Vista

So Windows Vista is finally going to be launched soon and I can't wait. As an avid Macintosh user I always love to see what the geniuses up in Microsoft land have cleverly come up with on their own. (Note tongue firmly implanted in cheek) Now thanks to David Pogue of the New York Times we can get a sneak peek of what those wacky guys in Washington are up to. Enjoy!!!

Move in Day!

Just a short post to let you all know that our girls moved in today. As I type they are sound asleep in the next room. We fought SoCal traffic to get out to the foster home by 6:00 and we were a bit late but no big deal. We had a lot of papers to sign when we got there but the girls were ready to go as soon as we walked in the door. After all the formalities, the girls said some good-byes and blew kisses as they got in the car. They stayed awake the whole trip home and they both wanted cereal for a snack. Mom helped us get PJ's on but the girls had a hard time going to sleep. A lot of tears and lulabys later they were both zonked out. Tomorrow is a day filled with getting to know the house and bonding. We ask for your prayers for this time as well as for the girls legal situation. Nothing is ever a done deal until you hear it from the judge. Please pray for us and our situation. I think that is what is most concerning to me. All the other stuff about being a Dad will be ok, but I have absolutely no control over the courts and that scares the you-know-what out of me. Well, I have to wrap a few more presents and then try to get some shuteye tonight. Thanks for all of your cards and emails. We greatly appreciate them. Talk to you when I can...

It's a Girl...No, It's two Girls!!!

Jill and I are proud to announce that we will be welcoming two beautiful girls into our home December 21st. It has been a long process but we will be blessed by the addition of these beautiful girls. Due to their legal status I am not able to mention their names or post their pictures on any public page on the internet, including Blogger.com. I will also need to ask you to not mention the girls by name on any page you may have (including myspace). If you want more information, please send me an email or give me a call. In any event, Jill and I could not be happier and are looking forward to being parents. We covet your prayers as the girls make a big transition into their new home. Thank you in advance for all of your support. Please understand if posting becomes rare for a while. Have a Merry Christmas!!!

I have been wanting to post this for a while now...

In the world of the Internet, this is really old but I think it is one of the coolest things I have seen. The band O.K. Go! shot this video for one of their songs and released it only on YouTube.com. It has received over 2 million hits not to mention how many times it has been shared and copied. The video is all one take (not the first take of course), with no edits to it. It was so popular that the band did the routine live on the MTV music awards this year, pretty awesome. Enjoy!!!



One other thing...Jill and I have a meeting with the Department of Children and Family Services Today. We would appreciate your prayers and we will keep you all informed. I will post about Thanksgiving in a day or so, if I have time. Until then....

Lotsa stuff going on...

Well, where do I begin? First of all school has been kicking my butt. It is not really all the work (although that has been hard as well). It is the drive that is killing me. I don't know how people do it every day. Fighting the traffic on the 405 everyday sucks!! Mind you, I do own a hybrid for a reason and the carpool option is nice but it doesn't always help. My historical theology class has been great but has really stretched me. Going from the beginning of the Christian church to the present in ten weeks is really just a blur. Trying to keep the Gnostics apart from the Antinomians etc. has bee rough. But Hebrew is the killer. Man, I know for sure that I will not be getting an advanced degree in Biblical languages any time soon. Don't miss read this. I am doing fine in the course, but it is soooo hard. My research class is the most I have ever worked for a one unit class. I must have put 40 hours into that thing this semester and I am still not done. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. One more paper to write, two more tests to take, and one more project to do and the semester is over.

Right now I am just happy that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for this year. Jill and I are hosting again this year and we couldn't be happier. My sister Dawn and her family will be here. My brother Josh will be here too. Both of Jill's sisters and their families will join us along with some other great friends including Ingrid, Sarah, Brandon, Laura, Josh T. and possibly a few others. Pavo Bob will make is triumphant return as the main course. If you missed last years Thanksgiving post, you know that I brine my bird and here I stand, I can do no other. In my mind it is the only way to go. Nothing makes better turkey than brine time!!

So my camera died this week. So sad!!! I have to find a place to get it fixed next week sometime. I turned it on and it made some awful sounds and gave me an error warning on the screen. I hope I can get it fixed because I just got an underwater housing for it for when I go SCUBA diving next summer. There are also some pretty cool pictures I took that are stuck on the memory card right now.

This past weekend was our District Youth Gathering. It was held in Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs. It was AWESOME!! Great worship band, great speaker, and my pal Ingrid was one of the ones in charge. She did a fantastic job and the event went off without a hitch (that I could see). It was great to be there and experience it. I also ran the College Ministry booth for the weekend. As soon as that was over I went about five miles to Palm Desert for the Lutheran Educators Conference. Jill is on the program committee for that event and she, and all of her teammates did a great job. It was fun and we got some good VIP perks. We stayed in a suite with an awesome view of the golf course and the mountains. Good times. It is always good to see old friends and make new ones.

On the adoption front, not much I can tell you today. I will have more info soon. If you want to read into that be my guest.

That is about all for now. Thanks for still coming back to visit day after day to the same post. You are all more loyal than think I would be. Talk to you all soon.