Last night my dog peed in front of one of the wealthiest women in the nation. She is an old family friend of our coworker Zach and he brought her to our campus to tell her about the organization and hopefully to receive some kind of donation. She is a very kindhearted woman that gives of her blessings generously. She also brought her rocket scientist boyfriend. Zach brought them to our house so that she could meet one of the foster families "in action." It was of course important to make a good impression. When they came over we had just gotten home. They rang the doorbell just as I was getting our dog out of the kennel. He ran to the door with ample husky energy abounding. As I opened the door the pup ran out to see uncle Zach and almost piddled on his pants. "I'm wearing Dockers stain resistant pants but I don't think that those are the kind of stains that they are talking about," Zach commented. U.B. then waddled to the dirt in front of our porch and let forth a flood of urine. At least he made it outside for the most part. Luckily our guests were all dog people and they loved him to death.

Later in the evening I realized why I love our job. Sometimes it's easy to get frustrated with all the meetings and driving and drama. But last night my job was to give a beautiful little baby boy a bath (you have to love the fresh baby smell), and play with sidewalk chalk with one of our girls. I also attempted hopscotch. After I finished drawing a goofy face on our porch I just sat there enjoying the pink and purple sunset and the mountains that surround us. U.B sat by my feet chewing on a stick. These were holy moments. These are the kind of moments that still convince me that there is a God amidst all the pain in this world. One reason that we came here was to get away from the daily grind and enjoy the life that God has blessed us with. There are elements of this job that are still grind-like; I don’t think that can be avoided with any career. But here we are also blessed with community and relationship. We have already seen lives starting to change for the better and hope in hopeless situations. We’ve only been here a couple months. I look forward to seeing the amazing things that will continue to happen.

Journey

For the last couple days the two oldest of our girls have been trying to schedule a hair appointment to do some highlights and cuts. I think they look just fine as they are but of course my opinion would not matter at all. I've been thinking about getting my hair done as well. Maybe I will cut it short, spike it and bleach it. Then maybe I will finally reach my goal of being "man pretty." On second thought I doubt that kind of hairstyle would go well with my beard. I'm growing it out. If I don't get tired of it and if Jen doesn't cut it while I sleep it may reach Jerry Garcia type proportions.
In more important news we think we have found a church. It is called Journey Church and it is a new plant that just opened a few weeks ago. It is a little flashy for us. They have enough PowerPoint’s and movie clips going during the service to cause an epileptic seizure. But we definitely feel like it is the best fit for us that we have found so far. Although we wanted the worship to be slightly more contemplative and less electric we feel like we will be happy at Journey.
We have visited a lot of churches. We visited one church that was actually pretty hateful and bigoted. That was good times. It’s always hard looking for a church because you feel like you are picking apart every congregation you visit. Aside from the hateful church most that we have visited have been great in their own way. We have just not felt like we would fit there or that the foster kids that we have and will have in the future would fit there. It takes a special kind of church to be able to provide support for some sometimes very rebellious teenagers. We have been trying to focus on where God would have us instead of finding a church full of people that are just like us, or a church that fits our every “need.” The church cultures in the south are definitely very different than in Portland (as we expected), but I’m sure that God will use the differences to grow us.
In the recent sermon series the Journey Church Pastor has been focusing on the last 24 hours of Christ’s life so of course there has been some very powerful stuff discussed. The pastor has some very good insights into the characters of the Jesus narrative. So far our kids have really appreciated the church and so that has been a blessing to see. We have found a place to serve, a home, a dog, and a church. All the major things that we have been looking for have been found. Now the next step is figuring out all the things in our new life that we weren’t necessarily looking for. We’ll keep you posted.

On Pet Sounds and Baby Sounds

Today has been a good day. The organization we work for has a thrift store and yesterday while there I found a mint copy of “The Pet Sounds Sessions” by The Beach Boys for $3.00. Usually it is $63.00. I almost squealed like a little girl right there in the middle of the store. “The Pet Sounds Sessions” is a compilation of different takes and studio recordings that didn’t end up being on the original record. It also has a couple of booklets with information on the recording process. Brian Wilson is brilliant. One of the booklets discusses how “Pet Sounds” was meant to be a very spiritual and healing record. Brian and Carl Wilson would pray during recording sessions. Through lyrically simple, poignant love songs Brian Wilson explores hope, love, God, and feeling lost in this world. Anyhoo today I have been listening to it nonstop and playing with my little pet. Every once in awhile U.B. will look at the speakers, tilting his head in curiosity.
Today has been a much-needed day of rest for Jen and I. This week has been extremely busy. Jen and I have felt like we haven’t had much time to breath. Living with preteen and teenage girls is quite a recipe for drama.
The only negative thing that happened today was this morning when I threw out my back a little when I freaked out at the puppy for pooing on the floor. I kid you not. I had just taken the little bugger out. I didn’t want to kill the pup so I kind of internalized my anger and shook my arms in rage. Now my neck and upper back have been killing me.
We were able to read a bit today, then Jen left with the girls to do some shopping. Now they’re back and the older girls are all watching “Dirty Dancing.” This movie makes me throw up in my mouth a little but it taught me one of the most important lessons of my life. Nobody puts Baby in a corner.
In other news our youngest foster kid has discovered what I call his “awful voice.” He squeals at the exact pitch that makes me want to drill my eardrums out. Then of course I wouldn’t be able to listen to the Beach Boys so I guess I will leave my eardrums intact.

Crying Wolf

This is U.B. A coworker gave us this little Border Collie/Husky mix. His name is taken from the movie Uncle Buck. Jen's family American Eskimo that died recently was named Buck. In the country the dogs run free, are fruitful and multiply so we got a free dog out of it. He is of course extremely busy attempting to manically chew on everything. He is basically like having another kid. But the night after we got him I was very stressed out. Trying to take care of the wife, the kids and a new puppy was exhausting and I had just had a conversation with a coworker that made me feel bad. I was questioning whether getting the pup was a good idea even though we had wanted one for a long time. While I was cooking dinner he came over, plopped down and rested his head on my foot. The stress left for the rest of the night. Other than the chewing thing he is a very good dog. He is basically potty trained and he does very well in his kennel. He loves everyone. We have been introducing him to dogs on campus and he is a very confident pup. He tried taking on a German Shepherd mix more than three times his size. He is very vocal as Huskies usually are . He makes all kinds of honks and moans and whines. It's pretty entertaining.

I was excited to get him because he looks a lot like a Border Collie mix that I had in Junior High. I had to give her up because I did not know how to take care of her. It killed me. So this time we are working very hard at training U.B. and making sure he gets his exercise. It has been good to go on walks with our foster kids and to teach them a bit about taking care of a dog. He is a difficult pup but I figure if I am not able to take care of a stubborn dog than I don't know how I will take care of five crazy kids. He has been a good test preparing me for much harder tests to come.

-Michael

U.B. also LOVES to play with ice...I (Jen) could watch him kick it (and then chase it) all over the kitchen floor!

On Roadkill, etc...

I ran over a cat the other day. There was nothing I could have done. I have no clue where it ended up. I got out to try and find it but had no luck. I also tried to locate the owner of the cat but again I was unsuccessful. It was probably just a stray cat that got bored and attempted an ill-fated game of chicken with a Ford Windstar Minivan. Unfortunately I have a feeling that road kill will be a larger part of our lives living out here in the country. Last night another cat attempted the exact same thing at the exact same turn. This kitty had better luck. I have mentioned the scenic grandeur that is all around us here but I have failed to mention that we are also surrounded by dead animals on every street we travel. Thank God I’m a country boy.
Other than the thump, thump issue we had with the cat we have had a pretty good week. It was a busy and stressful one though. We got a new girl in our house bringing our total to three kids. She had some temporary health issues that kept Jen hopping trying to provide for her physical needs. She is very quiet so it has been hard to find ways to relate to her (and hear her). She seems to be adjusting to our home well though. We got enough snow the other day to have a brief snowball fight. I lobbed a few misses at her and she lobbed a direct ice-ball hit in the one spot that drops every man to a quivering fetal ball. I didn’t want to make her feel bad so I played through the pain and kept her giggling while I cried on the inside.
I have a feeling that we are going to have to do something like that very often: keep going even though we are dealing with something that hurts a lot. I went for a brief walk with the guy that recruited us here and he had some wisdom to impart as we are starting to really enter into these kid’s lives. He told us that we are going to hear all of the hard things that these kids have gone through and for a while it is going to hurt a great deal. As we do this job longer we will learn ways to cope more effectively. Often we will find ourselves using humor to deal with things that aren’t really funny. It seems strange at first but I see that it is a big part of how the long timers make it in this profession. Ironically a bit of hardness is required to love effectively in this environment.
He also discussed the difficulty of sometimes seeing God working miracles and creating beauty in the messes that are these kid’s lives, and sometimes feeling like these kids have been completely ignored by God. There is definitely a tension in having faith and living in the world as it is.
Although we see this job getting harder and harder the more that we get to know and love these kids we also feel excited to be here. Even after everything that Jen had to deal with this week last night she was talking about how much she loves it here. I am so proud of her. So far she has had the hardest work to do and she has been amazing. For me being here feels like the most right thing that I have done since I asked Jen to marry me. We continue to appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

This weekend we got to spend some time with a couple that will be foster parents and our neighbors starting this June. It was amazing how much we had in common. They even grew up in a church with Brethren roots. They were passionate about serving the kids here. They had a lot of great ideas for our foster community, some of which Jen and I have been thinking and praying about for a while. We are excited to have them here. I brought them around to meet a couple of the other foster parents. We went from house to house and heard a lot of stories and advice. I remember the first time that Jen made the same trek a couple of months ago. It was pretty overwhelming. But it seemed like the new couple enjoyed it. I did too. I had heard some of what was said but there was a lot that I hadn't heard. Even after the many days that I have been working here (less than a month) apparently I still have a thing or two to learn.
One thing I heard about was that we live right near where "Last of the Mohicans" was filmed. The fort scenes were filmed on Lake James just a few minutes from our campus. Some later scenes were filmed on Table Rock nearby.
We also went with our two foster kids and the new couple to one of the local state parks. It was a much longer drive than had been expected so we didn't get to actually hike as much as we would have liked but it was still beautiful. We got to see one of the lower falls and the water was freezing into these amazing icicles. Since there was freezing you can probably guess that it was a very cold hike. The younger of our foster kids had a red little nose and rosy cheeks and it was one of the most adorable things I have ever seen. I look forward to going back when we get our dog and hiking those trails some more. It was an amazing weekend. We feel very blessed to be here. It is a great community with many unique and caring people, soon to blessed by two more in June. We look forward to seeing what God has for us next.

God is Good

I began this blog unsure of what I was going to write about. I started thinking about what God has been doing through us in just this short time. We have had a couple of kids for the past two weeks. It has been an adjustment, but a good one. I am learning how to be a mom; how to plan meals, make one trip to town for everything rather than 20 (I am so used to having a grocery store across the street), be a taxi cab, and be firm (my biggest struggle). I love it though. I feel like God has truly blessed Michael and I during our time here. My greatest fear in moving was that I would miss my family so much that I wouldn't be able to fully function and be present. However, the Lord has carried me through the struggles with homesickness (although I really haven't had many). As I have gotten to know the kids in our house, almost daily I hear one say that they can't wait to go home. I understand that desire. I felt it many times growing up. Last night one of our kids became extremely upset and frustrated about some of our rules. I tried to keep my cool but felt frustrated and just wanted to make her understand why this rule is important. After a frustrating conversation, she went to her room and I let her cool off for a bit. After praying with Michael and discussing what had happened, I went into her room to tell her that we loved her. When I entered the room, she apologized for her attitude and shared her struggles and anxieties. It was amazing how the Lord worked. I was able ot pray with her and cry with her. It is amazing when you are able to talk with someone and feel such a connection. I felt like God was in the room. When I left the room, I gave her a hug and told her we loved her and her response was "I love you too. Thank you for making me laugh and taking my mind off of what is going on." It was such an amazing blessing to see how God worked through such a difficult situation and to hear words of appreciation. I feel like God blessed me so much in that short half hour. God is so good! I know that this may not be a common response with all of our kids and I have a feeling that this was probably a very rare case, however, I am praising God for showing me that He is working through us. My prayer is that we will continue to bring our kids before Him on a daily basis and that we will see even the smallest of successes. I feel so blessed to be here and see Him working in me as well as in those around us. I feel that this is exactly where God wants us right now and that our strength and patience come from Him alone. "Always rejoice, constantly pray, in everything give thanks. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18