Ni Hao Cowboy

Living on the edge

2012-02-04T15:52:00.001-06:00

With the girls out of town and some moderate temperatures, it was a good day for the boys to get out and explore. We ended up at Ruffner Mountain checking out a few of the trails. It ended up having some terrain I was a bit nervous with as can be seen with D hanging his legs over, and yes it was straight down from there! F kept crawling on his knees to stick his head over and look. I couldn't hang out at this spot too long needles to say.

It was good getting them out to get dirty, throw rocks and sticks, pee in the woods, and generally let their inner caveman out for a while. You should check out the slide show and see how primitive they got.

We topped it off with burgers and shakes and I think I saw one of them loosen their pants and collapse in front of the TV. The girls are still gone so the inner cavemen can hang around a little longer I suppose.

Can Doing God's Work Screw up your Kids?

2012-01-29T17:09:00.001-06:00

I can honestly say this is probably not something most Christians ever even wonder. I think most people I know would say of course not, how could that be possible? I bet if you ask a missionary though, you'd get a response like, "Well.............." If they were being honest anyway. Very few of us are ever put in a position of even thinking about this. We are never pushed to think perhaps there is even a chance of us doing something that might not be in the best interest of our children or even thinking God would ask us to do this.

This had been weighing on my mind a bit lately (more as to why in a bit) when I received an update from a missionary family our church supports. Within it was the following:

It was one of the harder letters I’d ever written. The gist of it was this: “Boarding isn’t working for your child, despite all the support you and we are offering. You need to make a change.”

Let me clarify what a “change” implies: For a bush missionary whose child doesn’t “make it” at boarding school, almost everything about life must change. It may mean bringing that child back to the bush/village and homeschooling them, which may require one parent giving up part or all of his/her ministry. It may mean the family needs to move to a different location where the child can be a day student – giving up home, ministry, church, and friends. It may mean a return to the home country, giving up all the above as well as “Africa”. Whatever the cost, letters like mine are among those missionary parents hope never to get.

You can imagine, then, why this family’s humble and open response brought tears to my eyes. The gist of what they said was: “Thank you for sharing this. What should we do? We are praying for God’s wisdom and help in meeting our child’s needs.”

Seriously? I mean, I can't quite fathom having to wrangle with God on this. Here this family is doing what they believe God called them to do in the middle of stinking no where Africa for a people group they've been lead to, and it's wreaking havoc on their child. How could this not be screwing up their kid, and their family? Just think if they end up leaving and this kid knowing he/she is the reason their parents had to stop doing what they thought God wanted them to do. Holy smokes, that's heavy!

I had been thinking on this just a bit myself because I have been spending a decent amount of time organizing some missions opportunities for our church and I found myself telling my little boys, "no I can't play right now because I have to get this trip organized and some information out tonight!" I immediately felt bad about it, but then told myself this is what God has asked me to do right now, surely it won't hurt my kid's feelings too bad. Will it?

Please don't think I'm at all comparing my few Sunday afternoon and evenings of short term missions planning instead of tossing the football in the yard or playing the Xbox for the umpteenth time with my boys anywhere near this families struggle. It just got me thinking as both events occurred within the same week and as I dive more into short term missions, orphan/adoption advocacy, another adoption, and other generally "Godly" endeavors on top of my regular work a day life.

I don't have any answers other than God has my family and this missionary family in His hands and His grace is so overflowing that it will be ok, I hope, it will, right? So how does one balance God's callings and kids?

C'mon man, this is crazy!

2012-01-18T22:05:00.000-06:00

Do you ever find yourself asking, how did anyone live without the global connectivity and speed of the interwebz? I mean, coordinating a group outing by actually calling everyone on their home phone is so 2007, right?! I even recently pondered, how in heaven's name did missionaries actually get anything done in terms of communicating their activities, vision, and fundraising? How did anyone ever plan a short term mission trip for crying out loud with a missionary in the field? Are you serious, pick up the phone at some predetermined time to call half way around the world to have a sketchy conversation at best and try and organize something? Or God forbid have to do it by writing letters back and forth! How did God mobilize his armies and people around the world? How did He do that without all of this technology? I mean, seriously? C'mon man, how did all that stuff actually get done?! I seriously want to know how Moses created the first flash mob to make a run for it out of Egypt?

Just this week alone I've coordinated a mission trip to Honduras in 140 characters or less, Skype on my cell phone connected to a public wireless access point, and a crap load of email blasts. This alone was exhausting, I'm on the verge of carpel tunnel. I think I'd have to take the pencil to my eye if I had to have written everything i've digitally composed this week with said pencil!

Annnnd, we received a most amazing update on our advocacy for Xiao. Through the last blog post and a few emails from that, we received the following from someone on the ground, in China!

Last night we spoke to a US family living in Xi'an who are willing to bring him into their family as a foster child (and in this way we can get the right investigations done, get their immunisations done to international standards, and get them on ARV's (which they almost certainly are not on when they are in their orphanages)

Seriously, how crazy is that?! Now I'm not saying just because I was killing time surfing Google+ late one night in bed, and emailed an article to Melissa about a boy in China with HIV being neglected, then wrote a blog post about it, which had Melissa bumping around the interwebz for all things China, HIV, orphans, etc... to then run across someone on the ground there, who she emailed, who read our blog, who posted some feedback on our blog with another contact, who we emailed, and then began digging a bit, is why Xiao might be having a family to foster him... but C'mon Man, this is craaaaazy!

What an amazing example of how all things we create, dream up, build can be used to God's glory and to accomplish His mission. Keep praying for Xiao and we'll keep blasting emails, tweets, FB posts, and blog posts until we know he is where God wants him to be.

You are ONE

2012-01-14T08:59:00.002-06:00

What If?

You were misunderstood, isolated, never held, never educated, had to wash your bedpan, had no concept of mom or dad, weren't allowed to touch anyone else, but were actually perfectly normal by all appearances (except one unseen diagnoses)? As crazy as this sounds, this is the story of Xiao Ling, a 3 year old from Zhonshan, China.

For many reasons, beyond being discussed in this blog post, HIV is not something China has a lot of experience dealing with. Subsequently, many of the same misconceptions, misunderstandings, and unjustified fears of years past are the norm. Xiao is HIV positive but is being dealt with as if he has leprosy and can't be touched or isn't worth educating. Through a random posting I encountered this article about Xiao and it has touched something deep within me and Melissa.

I should probably back up and explain why. In November we attended Lifeline's annual fundraising banquet which we always thoroughly enjoy. It's extremely encouraging to be around so many like minded people wanting to defend the fatherless. The theme was ONE, that you can help one, it only takes one person to make difference, etc... is something we've always shared with people who ask why we've chosen the path we have for our family.

Heading into the banquet Melissa and I were at the point of praying for where God would lead us next on our orphan advocacy journey. We both had prayed and agreed we were not supposed to go down the traditional adoption path again; fill out application, pick a country, wait for a referral, etc... We simply agreed we knew we were to be at the ready when God calls to act, and this is where we've been for many months.
In the midst of the banquet while David Platt was speaking, our new path became apparent to me. We were to advocate and seek for the orphaned in China who have been diagnosed as HIV+. I didn't mention this immediately to Melissa as I needed to make sure this "stuck" if you know what I mean. We've all been swept up in the emotion of an event to only wonder later what in heaven's name were we thinking?! The clarity around this never subsided in the coming weeks so I finally shared my heart with Melissa at the next opportunity. I told her we should tell Lifeline we are willing and ready to help ONE child in China who has been diagnosed HIV+, she hardly blinked and said YES.
Very shortly after while searching adoption and oprhan stories in Google+ I found the above article and simply sent it to Melissa because it was in line with our discussions. Not so much to say here is a child, but to begin the discussion around the apparent need. If you had read the article it states this boy is not adoptable (which isn't correct) and it didn't state what orphanage he is in. Through some internet sloothing I believe we've found the orphanage and have talked with Lifeline, who has previous experience getting HIV+ children adopted into the US. They have indeed been able to help us locate him and we are now waiting to hear what can be done for him. At the minimum he needs someone to go there and love on him. So at this time we are advocating for Xiao. Whether he is to be a Freeman some day is unknown but we are trying to see if there is a foster family near him willing to take him or anything to get him out of his "jail" like conditions.
He is ONE boy, made in the image of God, who needs ONE person to make a difference. Please join us in praying for Xiao and how God can use us to help and advocate for him.

Why I celebrate Christmas

2011-12-05T22:17:00.001-06:00

We were singing this Sunday during the observance of communion and couldn't help but think of Christmas.

How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that he should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure! How great the pain of searing loss, the Father turns His face away as wounds which mar the chosen One bring many sons to glory.

Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon His shoulders. Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished.

I will not boast in anything; no gifts, no power, no wisdom, but I will boast in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection. Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer, but this I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom.

This is why I celebrate Christmas, to recognize and celebrate the coming of the one that paid it all for me yet passed His reward onto me.

Why do you celebrate Christmas?

Christmas Card Photo

2011-12-03T21:00:00.001-06:00

When we first had B 16 years ago, it just sort of felt like fun to send out a Christmas card showing of our new bundle of joy. As this year's pic can attest, it just becomes an attempt to tame the chaos just long enough to get something in focus. Melissa's dad wanted family pics made when we were in Tulsa this summer, which included her sister and her kids too. There was no way we were going to attempt to even try and accomplish this again for Christmas cards so we found something from that batch. And when you look at this picture that we actually chose from the pile, you have to ask, what did the others look like if this is the one you picked?! At least in this one, we are all looking at the camera. None the less, the kids look great and are excited for Christmas. As you could probably ascertain from the photo, Melissa and I are just hanging on, in a good way though.

Tis the season!

Navigating Pink Meanies, the penalty box, and losing my jelly beans!

2011-11-09T22:21:00.000-06:00

Well, it was about 5 1/2 months in the making but Saturday morning at Ironman Florida finally arrived! I made it down in time Wednesday evening to check in before the big rush on Thursday morning. It wasn't much different checking in for an Ironman than other shorter triathlons around the region except that I noticed on Thursday the lines were huge. Glad I got down Wednesday evening.

A friend of mine (he completed 2 previous IM's) who talked me into this, but later bailed decided to come and provide support which was huge! He and I went out Friday for a short practice swim as I had just purchased some new goggles. A weather system had passed through Thursday night and the surf was rocking and rolling! So much so that I eventually got slammed into a sandbar, up-ended, and lost my newly purchased goggles to the Gulf. I guess it was my sacrifice to the Gulf for what I hoped would be calmer conditions on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning began at 4:30 with the alarm. I quickly gathered my special needs bags (bike and transition gear were checked in on Friday) and dropped them off, put my bike computer and bottles on the bike, checked tire pressure, then went back to the condo to eat breakfast. This was huge as a lot of the athletes have to mill around the transition area waiting because they were staying outside of reasonable walking distance; it was dark and cold, so not ideal in preparation for a 10+ hour day. At 6:30 we walked down the beach toward the start area.

The pros went off 10 minutes prior to us so it got everyone pumped up and ready. I eased my way toward the wide side of the pack on the beach and about 4 rows back. The cannon went off and 3000 people merged into the Gulf. As an acquaintance of mine who's been age group XTERRA world champ multiple times says, it was asses and elbows everywhere! Even though I was attempting to stay wide and out of the middle, the first of the two loops was action packed with people everywhere. The swim is a 1.2 mile out and back loop, run on the beach and do it again. The 2nd loop thins out some, but turning around the buoys is an activity in self preservation in the water to say the least!

By the 2nd loop, the sun was fully up, the water clear, and we could then see the plethora of Pink Meanie jelly fish all over place. At first the thought of, why are all of these plastic bags floating around out here came to mind until you almost swam into one to only realize they weren't plastic bags. I was fortunate to not have gotten stung, plenty of people did.

After an hour and 10 minutes in the gulf it was off to the bike. Getting your legs under you, grabbing the transition bag, and putting on gear in the scrum of men in the change area was a close body contact activity for 5 or so minutes for sure. Volunteers handed me my bike at the end of the rack and off we went. Overall the bike was good, albeit extremely windy for for the first 3/4 of race. So much so that the first 20 miles saw a ton of drafting penalties handed out because you simply couldn't get away from each other for fighting the wind. I was one of the unfortunate ones to get flagged and had to go to the penalty tent just after the 20 mile mark. There were so many people there the timers couldn't keep up and were having to time 3 and 4 riders at the same time to keep up. Fortunately the timers let use the time as a potty break and head off into the bushes so all wasn't lost by being put in the penalty box. It was a bit silly actually, especially when late in the race officials seemed to have disappeared and huge packs would roar past me like it was a weekend group ride with no consequences to be had. Oh well...

Fighting the wind was tiring but with 3000 other cyclist out there you could shield yourself a decent amount, even if you were the legal 7 meters from someone and not incurring a penalty. Upon turning onto the infamous bumpity bumpity HY388 I was thinking it wasn't as bad as everyone had made it out to be. This positive mental outlook lasted for about 10 minutes before I was finally cursing under my breath and wondering what wanna be road engineer paved this road. Perhaps it was one of those orange clad prison crews and done on the cheap. It was a rhythmic jarring for miles upon miles! Our bike special needs stop was on this road which provided a welcome few minute break. I made a new drink mix for 2nd three hours of ride, scarfed a PB & J, made a quick break adjustment, threw my bag of jelly beans in my tri suit back pocket. I was set and ready to go for the next 60'sh miles with some well deserved sweet calories awaiting me. But alas, HY388 had other ideas. Not long after leaving the special needs area, the constant jarring of the road tossed my bag of jelly beans out! I was already into a full head of steam and didn't want to cause a pile up behind me by abruptly stopping and attempting to double back for candy so I had to reluctantly let my well planned out "treat" go by the side of the road. HY388 claimed another victim, arggghhh.

Just over 6 hours later I handed my bike to another wonderful volunteer and was off to put on run gear. The run was as expected for me, tough as I am a terrible runner. The first loop of 13.1 wasn't too bad for me, sub 11 minute pace. The second loop of course was considerably slower. At mile 17 I thought for sure I was done until I finally decided to grab a cup of chicken broth and almost instantly I had a burst of energy. I did a run/walk pattern for the whole 26.2 miles taking chicken broth every other mile from mile 17 in. My run/walk pattern paid off for me as I was able to continue this all the way to the finish, passing many who had finally packed it in to walk the remainder. Usually a 2 loop marathon can be a bit mind numbing, but given the time of day and my snail like pace, it got dark and much of the 2nd loop took on a totally different feel and perspective in the dark so it wasn't too mentally exhausting. Not to mention that at some point on the bike my right eye fogged over. No, not my sunglasses, but my actuall eye. I've never had that happen before so had all sorts of bizarre scenarios running through my head as to what was going to happen upon finishing and telling someone my right eye had totally fogged over. So needless to say I was a bit on high alert once it got dark and attempting to see out of 1 eye. Oh, and for those of you that don't know me that well, I wear glasses to see but don't exercise in them so you can imagine what a 1 eyed half blind guy might look like attempting to see straight 17 miles into a marathon. (I must have gotten sunscreen, salt, sweat in my eye because it was finally back to normal the next morning).

Coming into the shoot 13 hours later was exhilarating to say the least. It was well into the darkness by this point, but the last part of the finish is lit up like a runway with the entire route lined with screaming supporters on all sides. Always fun to give out high fives to kids sticking their arms through the barriers that you don't even know, but you can tell they are excited for you none the less! My longtime friend was in the chute screaming for me and I hit the banner with a huge smile and sense of accomplishment.

It was a great day!

Knowing that several people joined me in the journey and we were able to raise $1500+ for orphan care in the process is simply icing on the cake. Thanks to those folks for their support and willingness to partner with me and Lifesong for Orphans in this adventure.

11 Takeaways from Together for Adoption including cottage cheese

2011-10-23T00:21:00.000-05:00

For the past 2 days I've had the privilege of representing Lifesong for Orphans at this year's national Together for Adoption conference in Phoenix. What a great honor and blessing this has been to be in the middle of such an amazing group of people and to share about the great work Lifesong is doing!

I've got so many things flinging around my head that it's difficult to string them together, but a few takeaways from the 2 days in no particular order of priority or seriousness:

it's still seriously hot in late October in the middle of the afternoon in Phoenix (the exhibitor tables/booths were all outside!)

there isn't near the volume of hipster christians at an adoption/orphan conference as there is at a Catalyst conference, but they are still seriously committed and crazy about orphans!

young couples with no children who travel to an adoption conference to learn about advocating for orphans and knowing God has called them to this journey deserve a HUGE amount of praise, respect, and support (and no they aren't infertile and don't "have" to adopt)

Noel Piper can draw a crowd!

God never calls you to do what YOU can do, but rather what He can do so there's no doubt who's pulling it off! @JeffVanderstelt

American Christians have to figure out concept of "enough" to make big kingdom impacts in areas like adoption

Christians should be about social justice because we have God's grace, shouldn't do social justice to get God's grace

If I was anywhere near Memphis I would definitely be trying to get to Bryan Loritts' church Fellowship Memphis

Black people, for the most part, don't/won't eat cottage cheese (see Bryan Loritts above)

Young pastors with families who start new churches in difficult places amaze me! (see @JeffVanderstelt above)

There are some crazy cool organizations doing amazing things for orphans and adoption in general and I'm learning so much about God's grace through it all!!

Going the distance for the fatherless!

2011-10-13T08:04:00.000-05:00

This past year or so has been a very transformational one for me and my family. We saw the 5th addition in a young and energetic 3 year old from China. Fisher is our 2nd adopted child and even though we already had adopted Eli five years ago, God really began a work on the hearts of our entire family for the orphaned, the fatherless.

We have truly come to believe in the redemptive picture we see in the earthly adoption and care of orphans in how God loves us, his children and has adopted us into his heavenly family.

Isaiah 1:17 implores us to "...learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause."

James 1:27 provides a directive for what religion should like: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

In that vein the Freeman family is committed to advocating and defending the fatherless in any way we can. Even in painstaking ways like swimming, biking, and running for 140.6 miles at Ironman Florida on November 5th! (yes, in one day)

I have had the fortune of partnering with Lifesong for Orphans along this journey. I'm hoping that you too would consider partnering with me, and Lifesong, to plead the cause for the fatherless and those who need defending, visiting, taken care of, and adopted.

Follow This Link to visit my fundraising page and help me in my efforts to stand with these children.

Were you building something? Yes, relationships

2011-10-10T20:36:00.001-05:00

The first question we get upon our return from Zambia is some variation of the following:

Were you building something, a school, a house, a well, or what?

This seems to sum up the American Christian perception of missions; it's all about "doing" something. Or put another way, it's task oriented, it's about the accomplishment of something, the to do list of items to be completed, etc... There isn't anything inherently wrong with wanting to do these things for other people, but they seem to often take on the central purpose. Much has been written, spoken on, blogged about the whole short term mission idea and if it's even the right thing to be doing. Does it have to be all or nothing? Is there any worth at all in showing up in far flung places for a week with gifts, cameras, a VBS program, hammers, nails, and then leaving a week later?

There has actually been formal research on this and couched under the oxymoronic notion of When Helping Hurts. This is a great book by the way and should be required reading for any church sending short term mission teams out. It will challenge just about everything you probably thought you knew about taking the Gospel to the far reaches of the planet and especially the poor or "least of these". There has also been much anecdotal discussion from the perspective of those in the field and sometimes even heatedly so amongst fellow "brothers" and "sisters" in place like here, and here.

So what has my answer been to this ever present question of, so what did you DO?

We built relationships.

We didn't build anything physical in nature.

We spent time loving on and playing with 200+ orphans and highly vulnerable children.

We listened to the Lifesong for Orphans school staff tell their stories, their testimonies, their dreams, their prayer request.

We listened to 12 and 13 year olds share their horrific life stories to date and how grateful they are for God's grace in rescuing them and a new found hope.

We listened to a caregiver in the local village share what she has to go through to scrape together enough for her $10/month rent and her dreams for her children.

We wrapped our arms around the missionary directors and their 3 children under the age of 6 and prayed over them.

We praised our creator and Father with a freedom rarely seen in the American Christian church.

I look forward to God cultivating these new relationships. And from these relationships will come true understanding of need, mutual respect/love, and Kingdom building opportunities.

Because at the end of the day, everything we saw Jesus model was relational in nature.

Prayer in the town square and drunks

2011-09-30T09:15:00.001-05:00

Wow, what a day it has been! We started it off with the staff members of the Lifesong school getting their praise and groove on African style. You couldn't help but move yourself and grin imagining the angels in heaven singing along to such heartfelt praise.

We then got to see the children begin their day in praise and bible teaching. This isn't a passive activity either mind you. The Africans are the epitome of kinesthetic learners, always moving and grooving.

It is so apparent the love these staff and teachers have for the 200+ children here. It makes me want to take a sabatical and come teach with them for 3 months!

The picture of Dutch was taken just after the children surrounding him asked if he'd pray for them. So he did, right there on the spot! So proud of his heart with the other children this week.

Unfortunately just after this, a few of the town drunks started causing a scene so we found our way out of the market center. We had just walked what through what they call the compound and met with some of the children's caretakers or moms. Most either have only a mom or neither parent and are simply living with someone else or an aunt or uncle. It seems that while staying with an aunt or uncle is the norm after both parents die or leave, that's not much better than a stranger sometimes. I see my own children in their eyes and smiles and can only glimpse how God must look at us, His children, and his outpouring of love and compassion for us.

What a day!

We are ALL children of God

2011-09-30T01:16:00.001-05:00

We have successfully arrived in Zambia at the Lifesong school! Needless to say we have been greeted with an amazing outpouring of excitement and love.

I can't help but walk around and sing, red and yellow black and white, we are all precious in His sight!

Riots in Zambia - trip canceled - trip back on...

2011-09-23T17:48:00.000-05:00

What a roller coaster of emotions the last 24 hours!

I somewhat jokingly asked my Sunday School class who had not prayed as I had requested regarding the Zambia elections and potential unrest as news was reaching our team yesterday regarding riots and markets burning in Kitwe and Ndolo. This is where we are going to be traveling and working, the orphan ministry is in Kitwe and the missionaries there said to not come and had everyone staying inside for safety. Roads were blocked from the airport in Ndola to Kitwe!

Melissa and I had just made a run to Big Lots for school supplies, soccer balls, footballs, candy, etc... for me and D to take with us and were eating lunch when I got a call from Lifesong. Melissa said while I was listening it looked like my face was going to fall into my lunch. In lieu of the unrest, it had been determined to not travel today. Devastation! I just looked at Melissa and said, well it's God's timing and plan, but I don't have to like it! D cried in the car on the way to football practice.

Fast forward to mid day today and we receive the following via email:

Friends,
Well...as you probably know, the election results came back, and the opposition supporters got what they desired - a new president. Looks like there is great celebration right now in Zambia & our contacts there have given the "green light" for safe travel.

Below are the re-bookings we received from travel agent, for departure on 27th... Please look at your itinerary because some flights/times/city connections have changed slightly.

See you all very soon!

Holy cow, we're back on and leaving Tuesday! God is great and I now have time to pack properly this weekend. :-)

As always, any help is appreciated on what is no doubt going to be a memorable experience if the last 24 hours are any indication: http://www.razoo.com/story/Changetheirstory

Soccer balls, candy, elections, and prayer

2011-09-21T14:14:00.001-05:00

I was talking with one of the missionaries in Zambia today about needs, including items and prayer. I didn't get a lot from him other than basic school supplies (pencils, spiral notebooks, etc...), candy, and soccer balls. He said they really go through soccer balls and can always use them. I had already picked up 2 today but if anyone has any used ones in decent shape, we could probably take those too. His main item on the prayer front was for stability in the city as the national elections were held yesterday. Votes are being tallied and he's prayerfully hopeful there will not be any issues. Great, just in time for us to show up! :-)

From what I've read, it's a fairly stable situation and doesn't seem to have much unrest although there were some recent demonstrations that turned ugly leading up to the elections yesterday. So I'd ask for prayer for the citizens and the process in the coming days. I'm also asking for prayer for the children and the native staffers we will be working with, that they'll be receptive to us and we are able to serve them appropriately.

We've made some modest headway on fundraising but have quite a ways to go. We'll still be raising funds upon returning. If you are wanting to partner with us, you can do so here: http://www.razoo.com/story/Changetheirstory

I'll be trying to update everyone while we're there as time and access permits.

Thanks for everyone's continued interest in our trip. I'm looking forward to sharing upon our return!

He's party rockin fine, thank you

2011-09-05T21:13:00.000-05:00

It's been 18 months since F joined our family from China. Having come to our family as a 3 year old, it's logical to wonder how a child of that age will adapt to a new family, new language, new culture, etc... We quite often get the question, "how has F adjusted?" Well let's see...

For better or worse, I'd say he's doing just fine, thank you for asking.

But, but, but...

2011-08-20T20:54:00.004-05:00

We've all been there right? We whole heartedly believe God wants us to do something spectacular, jump in with both feet, do something requiring stupid faith, right? Right! So we commit, and we tell people we have committed to _____, and we say to ourselves,

whew, glad I'm obeying that call, glad I've got some time to figure that out, i've got some time to figure out how to ask others for $$ to pull off this God sized project

And then.... it's "some time" later and we/you/I have that, oh crap! moment, it's just around the corner! We then go through the but syndrome.

but God, I'm so busy right now
but our septic tank just went out
but work is really chaotic and time off might not help my career
but that's a really long time to leave the wife and kids at home
but that's a stinking long way from home
but those travel arrangements are ludicrously difficult
but I feel REALLY cheesy/grimy/slimy asking people for $$ to do something God asked ME to do
but....

I'm now at that point where I asked God to open doors for me to use my education, training, experience in missional ways, and you know what, he brought them to me. But... they are in Honduras, Zambia, India, Liberia, etc... and those are a long way from home and cost a lot of $$$ to get there and back.

Dutch and I are going with Lifesong for Orphans to their orphan care ministry in Zambia at the end of September. So here it is much closer than I had in my mind, and we don't have extra piles of $$$ laying around to get us to Africa and back (we do have 5 kids after all). Those of you who know us, know we've been to Guatemala and Honduras this past year or so, but didn't have to raise any money. Going to Central America isn't much different than California these days, airfare and other things included. But going to Africa is on another planet for airfare and logistics!

However, we are being faithful, committed to going, committed to using the skills and knowledge God has provided me to help their teachers and 200+ orphans and highly vulnerable children. Will you consider helping us go and serve these children by donating $25, $50, $100?

Will you help us begin to change their story? (link to fundraising page or you can talk do me directly)

Brush to Berries from Lifesong for Orphans

Tower of Babel

2011-08-08T14:54:00.001-05:00

I don't think there is hardly a single day that E doesn't miss an opportunity to construct a fort and/or tower in our house. He's been doing this for several years now.

I joked to Melissa the other day that had he been born over 2000 years ago, I swear he would have been the architect and foreman for the Tower of Babel project. It's no surprise he LOVES this story every time we read it in the Jesus Storybook Bible.

So come to our house at any time and you are sure to find something looking like these:

I never hate to discourage his creativity, but I can't begin to tell you how many times I've picked up every single one of these pillows to just be able to sit down when I come home from work!

So in about 20 years, if you see a story about the tallest building being built, you should check and see if E is part of the project.

E is certainly having fun but as Christians we all seem to have our pride points and towers of babels. Mine seems to revolve around "justice", but in all of the wrong and misplaced locations. My tower comes out in what i've begun to call the "justice police" mode which in turn props me up as being more righteous than others, or smarter, or more... fill in the blank. We all seem to create works drivin pathways outside of faith and love to reach a higher level of recognition and "closeness" with our creator. The more I self reflect, the more I see that I too attempt to be a master tower builder nearly everyday!

What are your towers of babels?

After posting yesterday, I was greeted this morning with this after hearing, "Dad, come look how high this is!"

Gas and go pit stops

2011-07-03T12:04:00.003-05:00

On Friday morning we set out on what for sure has to be our most round about (i wanted to put circuitous here but Melissa says I shouldn't use big words like that too often) trip to Tulsa ever. As you can see from the map we had to first go nearly in the opposite direction to pick up D from camp before progressing toward the great plains. All was well until about 45 minutes from arriving at camp shortly after we exited the interstate and headed into the Smoky Mtns. Our van began lurching and not accelerating at all in low gears before it would "catch" and began to accelerate like a mini-van with a complex. As long as we were traveling along at a reasonable speed and didn't have to stop or seriously slow and go, it would limp along, begrudgingly. Upon hitting the windy 2 lane road snaking into the mountains, I thought I was going to have to go all Fred Flintstone to get there. We were lurching, sputtering, spitting, accelerating all over the mountain road. The only solace was it didn't look much different than all of the grammies and papas attempting to drive the same mountain roads and decide if they should stop yet again at another fudge store.

We limped into camp and hoped the short rest would do the van some good, but alas while attempting to leave and accelerate up a hill at a stop sign, we died. At least we had a view and an ice cream shop to enjoy. While the rest of the family enjoyed some fresh mountain ice cream, I began looking for the nearest Honda dealership I could find. Fortunately there was indeed one about 30 miles away in the direction we needed to be heading. We had to get there before they closed, it was going to be close. I'm sure the guys at the service center let out a big groan as we rolled into their service bay about 10 minutes before closing time. And of course, what happens anytime you attempt to take a car to the shop to diagnose a "mysterious" problem? Nothing! The 30 mile drive to the dealer was flawless, no lurching, no lunging, no sudden decelerations! So of course they couldn't find anything wrong. Great!

I will say they graciously tested, retested, drove around in it, etc... well after closing time in attempts to help us. Maybe it was the fact that kids kept pouring out of the van while I was desperately explaining the issue and that we were over 5 hours from home and 10 hours from our cross country destination. They surely felt sorry for us. None the less, despite their best efforts to reproduce the issue, none could be found. So off we went to dinner and then off toward Oklahoma. We had no further issues that evening. We headed out yesterday morning after staying somewhere in TN and drove most of the day yesterday without incident, before...

This was by far not as nice a spot for the van (which we have now named Lurch) to decide it was done for a while. So we grabbed some snacks, sat in the shade at a gas station for a while, topped off the tank and finally rolled on. We did this off and on for the last several hours until we finally got into Tulsa last night. For whatever reason, pulling over, topping off the gas tank and waiting about 5 minutes settled Lurch down for a while. It was like watching the later stages of a NASCAR race with splash and go pit stops, gas only, gas only! Don't you think we need 2 right side tires? No, just splash and go, go, go! We will be here until Thursday and will have to make some decisions about Lurch before schlepping back to Alabama. Of course everyone is voting for leave it, leave it! This is coming from everyone without a job, no financial planning time on their resume, and no responsibility other than to shower themselves occasionally and help do some chores, so we'll see what happens this week.

No one comes for us, the teachers...

2011-06-19T19:09:00.009-05:00

A week ago today, Dutch and I were resting from an action packed 4 day trip to Honduras. We had the opportunity to visit Plan Escalon which was in full swing as compared to my trip there in January. This time around we had some ground to cover with their teachers and staff as well as trying to work in a service trip into the mountains (food supplies and teeth pulling, ouch!).

Ever since the girls got to go to China to help us get F, and I took them on a mission trip to Guatemala, D has been like that little dog jumping up and down and nipping at your heels wanting to go on a trip out of the country. Honduras was a great opportunity for his first trip oversees and for some missions related activity. He was our de facto videographer and photographer for the trip. A long time friend from my doctoral program at Pepperdine who currently resides outside of Boston joined us. (this is a post in and of itself on how God brought us back together and his endeavor into this Gospel oriented outreach as a devoted Roman Catholic) We left on Wednesday and were back home Saturday night.

The main purpose this time was to work with a core group of the teachers at Plan Escalon (they teach about 550 students who live there full time) and begin the process of developing a plan and vision for utilizing their newly installed learning labs in their core curriculum. This was a major flashback for me as it is exactly what I used to do for public schools as a technology specialist and eventually director of technology for a school district. It's like God has taken everything I've been doing since I started a career in Education 18 years ago as a middle school teacher and all of my formal education up through my doctorate in Educational Technology and put it into a ministry context. It's hard to put into words other than to say, it's an amazing feeling to be in phase with God's frequency. And mind you when I say to be in phase, I'm not suggesting I worked hard myself to make it happen. I simply became open to God's urgings, prompts, external variables, and have found myself in a position where everything He's had me doing the last 18 or 20 years is pouring out in missional opportunities.

On many levels this was a hugely successful trip from the outward facing teacher aspect to exposing D to something much larger than the context he's used to and being shaped by in Vestopia, as well as my buddy Eric and God's pulling at his and his family's heart. The depths of how God works in 2 1/2 days is amazing! I've been summing up the trip by the following scene we found ourselves in the last night there.

Eric and I were enjoying watching all 500+ kids going nutty for their Honduran national soccer team put a beat down on Grenada (in a big revival looking tent used as the Church) and visiting with a few of the teachers and faculty when we started into a somewhat serious conversation in Spanglish with one of the teachers we'd been working with for the previous 2 days. He finally began telling us thank you and how much it meant to him for us to come work with them. He then started telling us how most people coming to visit them come one time and do a service trip; fix a wall, work on the soccer field, repair a bunk room, stairs, etc... And then he said the one line that caused Eric and I to pause, catch a quick glimpse of each other, and know it without saying it, we're committed my friend, there's no turning back now. Our new friend Ever said, "...and when they are finished with their service trip, we never see them again, no one ever comes to work with us (the teachers) and on the education of the children, you two can be our mentors." Eric and I of course smiled and thanked him for his kind words and assured him we would be willing to continue on this relationship and helping them as much as we can. Upon returning to our bunks shortly after I simply said to Eric, that's a heavy burden, are you ready? Without hesitation he said, I'm in! I don't know what this will look like moving forward, but I'm confident God knows and has an amazing plan that will blow my mind and heart out of the water! I can't wait for it unfold.

Here are some images courtesy of my son...

Short video from the mountain village we went into. Required some serious 4 wheel driving plus a hike to get into and out of.

Technorati Tags: orphan

We are officially way over the white trash line!

2011-06-04T12:52:00.004-05:00

There is a radio personality here in Birmingham who has a large family and is always cracking jokes about his non-environmentally friendly passenger van, the never ending "handles" a plethora of children can get you into, as well as the Lord's ultimate blessings through them. One thing he has always joked about is that once you hit 5 children, you are now white trash. To note however, there is absolutely no financial or socioeconomic consideration in this designation according to him. Once you have 5 kids, you've crossed over the white trash line, no matter how big your house is, the size of your 401k, or disposable income. It's of course all in fun and tends to go hand in hand with the discussion around what kind of defensive scheme does mom and dad have to play depending on the number of children.

So we've obviously already crossed over this line into white trash territory with our 5 kids and now that we live in a house with no garage, more often than not it looks like a toy box has exploded into the front yard adding to the WT moniker. We are fairly old school and "kick" the kids (especially the boys) out of the house on a regular basis. I just know there have to be people who drive by and think, that's sweet that family lets their maid's kids come over and play when cleaning, until they realize we must have a maid over a lot after they continually see two ethnic children roaming around all the time.

We are now officially sprinting across the WT boundary and not looking back when it comes to kids in the Freeman household! It's sort of like that scene in Forest Gump where he's running the kickoff back for the University of Alabama and he just keeps running past the endzone and keeps sprinting into the tunnel of the stadium; run Forest run!

Yes indeed, those are adoption papers for the agency we work with here in Birmingham. We have submitted our initial papers to add number 6 to the quiver! I had told Melissa under no circumstances could we do this until she had completed the re-adoption paper work for both E and F with the state of Alabama. Melissa is a pro at getting the kids home, not so much on the follow up details after they get here. I guess that's what makes us a great team! (or something like that) She finally held to her end of the bargain and now I have held to mine. This had become such a running joke with our friends at Villa Hope that every worker there had a directive to not let us turn in new paperwork until we "proved" we had submitted re-adoption papers to the state for E and F, they love us!

Psalm 127 tells us, blessed is the man who fills his quiver with children, so I'm guessing we should be getting some serious blessing sometime, right? I like to think we are simply increasing our odds of a great retirement plan, or at least enough kids to share responsibility in taking care of what for sure will be two seriously ornery people in our old age. More details to come as we progress down this path with God again.

I AM Kungfu Panda, No I AM Kungfu Panda

2011-05-30T21:12:00.001-05:00

One of our boy's favorite movies is Kungfu Panda. Until recently I had never actually seen the movie, but I had "heard" it dozens of times probably. It's one of the kids mainstay travel movies to play in the minivan. Because the wireless headphones are so stinking expensive we've never forked out the $$$ for more than the standard 2 that came with the van. The incessant bickering over tangling over the other "wired" headsets coupled with keeping up with the splitter for 2 or 3 more headsets has just about insured Melissa and I are destined to listen to every movie the kids watch on any road trip any more. We finally just figured it was easier to turn the sound to the back speakers and either talk to each other or sleep. All that being said, for years I had listened to Kungfu Panda many times over. It quickly became one of F's favorite movies once he figured out the entire movie took place in "his" China. As the sequel approached I figured it would be worth my while to actually watch the original. In true "guy" format, E and F just about recited the entire stinking movie line by line! I could hardly watch the movie with the boys sitting on either side of me giving me the play by play like it was the final game of the world series.

So it's no surprise we went to see Kungfu Panda 2 over the long weekend. E woke up Thursday morning letting me know it was opening day and we could go after I got home from work. It was like the always anticipated opening day of Major League baseball to usher in Spring! It was a great movie to say the least, probably as good or better than the first. It was always odd to me in the first movie that there was absolutely no explanation of a panda having a duck as a dad. This awkward and perplexing relationship turned out to be at the crux of the sequel. Po explores his adoption and seeks knowledge regarding his birth parents and his childhood. So the boys are now exclaiming, "hey, I'm just like Po, he's adopted like me!"

At one point in the movie Po tells one of the other characters, almost ashamedly that he has discovered his dad (the duck) isn't his real dad. The other character says, oh you mean the "duck" isn't your "real" dad, as if if to say duh, no secret there. While adoption seems to be more prevalent, we still get amused when people ask us this question, does E and F know they are adopted? I always want to say, you mean does the Guatemalan and Chinaman know that their caucasian blue eyed mom, dad, and three other brothers and sisters are vastly different from them, with a slight smirk? This has never been any secret and is a topic that comes up often regarding where everyone was born where they are from, how God brought us together as a family, etc... F who is 4 will sometimes simply say, I had a China mommy and daddy and now I have a new mommy and daddy with the biggest grin on his face, as if it to say, how cool that I have had more than 1 mommy and daddy, how many have you had? I win! (everything is a competition to him)

Anyway, Po discovers the story of his mommy and daddy and how he came to be orphaned. It was a great story and I believe one that will be like many adopted children's stories, minus the maniacal peacock who uses wolves as henchmen in attempts to kill all of the pandas. While E and F bring this up from time to time, it's like a different conversation each time as their maturity and comprehension gets greater with age. The story told in KP2 is one we can use to explain to our boys how they came to be a part of our family and it appears the writers received good input in addressing this topic.

In the end, the duck dad welcomes Po back from saving China with trepidation. Po says he figured something out in the midst of his adventure and with much worry in his eyes, the duck dad hears the following: "I figured out that YOU are my dad!" As an adoptive dad, I'd have to say that was a touching ending to a great kids movie.

While leaving the movie, E and F began arguing about who was like Po more. F finally trumped E by pointing out that while they are both adopted like Po, that he in fact is from China, just like Po. I think I heard E exclaim, ah man, I wish I was from China too. And then E's creative juices kicked in and said to F, hey there was a KP1 and a KP2, so we can both be like Po, I'll be like Po in KP1 and you can be like Po in KFP2! As long as they both continue to openly discuss their situation and that I am indeed their dad, they can both be like Po for as long as they so choose. Thanks Disney for a great family movie and one that includes such a positive adoption story.

Tooth Fairy or Tooth Rat?

2011-05-16T21:34:00.001-05:00

It's not his first, but seems to be the most memorable so far; E lost one of his front teeth a few days ago. Given that he is such a tender and weepy boy, it's no less than a miracle in and of itself we got it out.

A little back story... Melissa and I have to be the worst tooth fairy parents on the planet! I can't tell you how many times now going onto child number 4 we've had to pull out the "i'm sure the tooth fairy was just super busy tonight and will surely come tonight"... I'm sure you are on the list or the database given it's 2011, right? All the while feeling like such slouches for not thinking to run out to the ATM or scrounge around for some change in the cushions or something, sheesh!

The good news is the first 3 love their tender hearted little E so much, they can't stand to see him sad or heart broken. So now we have 2 momma birds and a daddy bird nagging at me and Melissa, DON"T FORGET the tooth fairy! Well D had a stroke of genius in the midst of reminding us and he said, hey you should give E some Guatemalan money from the tooth fairy. While we NEVER seem to have dollar bills or enough change to equal $1 (for those of you driving up tooth inflation cost by giving $5, $10, or even presents, please stop it! You are killing those of us with more than 1 kid and your economic model for valuing a tooth is stupid crazy) but we do have a bunch of Quetzales. And besides, it's about Q7.50 per dollar right now, so we are coming out pretty good on this exchange rate for 1 Guat tooth.

E was pretty excited he got something the next morning and when he figured out it was Guat money, he couldn't believe it. He said, "Daddy, the tooth fairy knew I was born in Guatemala!" He had the biggest, toothy grin knowing the tooth fairy knew this about him.

Turns out though, they don't have a tooth fairy in Guatemala, they have a tooth rat! Seriously, a rat? Now my friend in Guatemala says it's a mouse, but they still call him Ratoncito, which according to Google translate is still a rat! I have a little time to figure out what crazy creature will show up at our house when F begins to lose teeth, but I'll be seriously disappointed if it's not seem really cool dragon creature.

What fun cultural traditions do you attempt to bring into your family?

Orphaned in RIO

2011-05-10T15:25:00.002-05:00

So I finally took the boys to see the new movie RIO on mother's day. For those of you with multiple children (especially multiple boys below the age of 10) you can understand this is actually a gift to mom! Not to worry, Melissa had already received her share of motherly appreciation from her children, including lunch to her favorite Chinese restaurant, and she had had her fill of "love" from them. Going to a children's movie these days for me is like looking for a needle in a haystack; find a theater NOT showing it in 3D coupled with a time that suits our schedule and is for the matinée price. I know why the movie companies want to pump all of these kids movies out in 3D, they charge $4 or $5 dollars more for them, cha ching! The little ones end up taking off their glasses or smudging them beyond usability with greasy popcorn fingers anyway, so the extra cost and "experience" is certainly not worth it. I can actually buy the popcorn for the price difference, sheesh!

The movie was cute enough and I'm sure there are plenty of good summaries regarding the story line and the main characters, the animals. I however was keenly focused on one of the non-animal characters playing a key role. You see there was an orphaned street boy that was being paid to steal exotic animals. At one point, the bad men (after paying him 1/2 of what they had promised him for stealing the birds in the first place) told him to get lost, to go home to mom and dad. He told them he didn't have a mom or dad, or no home to return to. To which they slammed the door in his face and the boy makes his way to a lean to overlooking the splendor of Rio. While the boy did play a redemptive part in the movie by helping the good doctor and bird owner rescue their birds, this orphaned street boy was not rescued. In fact, the movie ends with his ongoing daily plight unresolved. While my boys will not have realized this, it stuck with me like a serious case of heartburn (which I did have Monday after too much popcorn). At one point he was asked, why he would do such a thing; steal the birds that is? He replied something about how he knew it was wrong, but he just needed some money.

I couldn't help but think of E and F and what they might be doing in Guatemala City and Hohhot at some point if God had not brought them to us. We've seen glimpses of what many of the boys end up doing in Guatemala City if left to the streets and it's not a pretty sight. In fact, Melissa and I were just talking about his gentle spirit the other day and how he would struggle mightily on the "streets". Getting to see the movie this week was also timely for me as I'm blessed to be attending the Summit VII conference being put on by Christian Alliance for Orphans this week (http://www.christian-alliance-for-orphans.org). In the midst of all that has been raging around us after the storms, this has helped me begin to focus on what God has in store over the next 3 days regarding His calling of orphan advocacy for me and Melissa. Through conferences and awareness opportunities like this, I can only pray we help find as many redemptive opportunities as we can for the children like the orphaned boy in RIO.

You have 17 volunteers? No, 70!

2011-05-08T19:33:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was a day I'm sure many from our church will not forget. We were allowed the opportunity to help in part of the clean up in Pratt City, one of the worst hit areas in Birmingham. Our church had done a little immediately after the tornado rampage on 4/27 that left so much destruction across a large swath of the Alabama landscape, but this was the first big organized attempt at getting deep into the community.

We had finally been able to get a bit organized and in touch with some relief groups in order to be able to bring a group of willing volunteers into an area in dire need. We didn't want to be one of those groups just showing up and getting in the way. The guys carrying big guns don't seem to care too much for that these days! I just happened to be the lay person asked to be an organizer for this Saturday trip with one of our youth leaders. When we got to the staging area in Pratt City I found the volunteer sign in location and began the process of getting our group signed in. It was chaotic to say the least but everyone was trying to be patient and helpful. Once they understood I had a large group out front they finally just gave me the clip board and asked me to get everyone's name down. I had originally thought we had about 40 people maybe when we lef the church parking lot. After we got everyone to put their information down, I counted 72 people that had caravanned out to help! The ladies attempting to get people signed in about fell out of their chairs when I brought the 2 pages of names back. One of them finally looked at me and exclaimed, "Praise Jesus!"

One of the ministers directing volunteers to head out (usually in groups of 4 or 5) was finally notified I had our group out front and ready. He kept thinking they were saying we had 17 volunteers ready to go. I kept saying, no we have 70. After restating this at least twice, he finally said, "oh crap". Then he asked, "do you have chainsaws?" Once I said yes, we have 4 or 5, his face lit up and said, "follow me"! We then regrouped our 70 folks with chainsaws and tools in hand, and he led us on a car caravan past the police and national guard barricades to the farthest part of the residential area that had not yet been cleared of trees and said "GO"!

We met some wonderfully nice families who expressed heart felt appreciation for the assistance. It was a bit overwhelming at first to see such destruction. We learned that whatever can get cut and hauled to the street will be removed within the next 30 days. After this, anything left will be up to the individuals to deal with. So we worked as diligently as we could with all of the leg work we had to get as much as we could to the street for these people. We got to hear their stories, let them talk, hug on them, and pray with them. It was a good day. Below are some images (click on each for larger versions) from what I have started to call the Covenant Presbyterian axe men.

Tornadoes Part Dos

2011-05-05T21:57:00.001-05:00

Ok so I never would have dreamed I'd be posting again about tornadoes, and certainly not 2 weeks apart! Unless you've been under a rock for the last week you are fully aware of the massive tornado outbreak last Wednesday.

As can be seen by this Google Maps overlay, it was a busy day to say the least!

It was a looooong day that began at 4 a.m. Melissa and C had to be put on a bus at school for a choir trip to Orlando for 4 days so I took them to school and dropped them off. About 5:30 or so the tornado sirens began blaring again and we lost power around 6 and the first wave of serious winds and weather ripped through an area about 3 or 4 miles from here. It then cleared up and was fairly decent for a large part of the day, until late afternoon. We spent all day on the front porch and playing outside because we had no power and could only get weather updates on the radio in the car. It turned into an entire day of listening to the inevitable headed our direction. Things finally exploded around 5 in Tuscaloosa. We didn't have any way to fix dinner and I knew we had about an hour so we rushed down the road to where they had power and grabbed some Arby's. Just as we were leaving the sirens sounded again and we raced home in time to listen to the massive destruction via the radio skirt by downtown Birmingham. Once I heard the all clear for our neighborhood I threw the gang in the car and drove up to Vestavia drive because I knew we'd be able to see the once in a lifetime tornado over the mountain tops. Here is how wide it was:

We watched it cross the entire way across the Birmingham metro area and out of sight on into Northeast Alabama. It was surreal knowing what was happening under the mile or so wide swath of destruction.

Since then it's been a whirlwind of activity, information, and support for the entire Alabama family. It's been amazing to see the faith based organizations and churches step up to the plate and swing into action. So far it's been a model that when fully exposed will likely dumbfound much of the country and our government as to what is going on between neighbors. Twitter and Facebook have been abuzz with needs, needs being met, mobilization of resources, distribution points, etc... It's been an amazing thing to be a part of as the social media tools have seriously expedited the relief efforts. Even during the storms because we had no power, I could get some cell service and was able to stay abreast of the situation via the constant flurry of Twitter updates as these storms ravaged across the Alabama landscape all throughout the day.

I'm thankful to say the Freeman abode had no further damage in this round, our roof has been repaired from the last tornado whacking, and now we are on to repairing the fences, yard, and storage house. I hope to not be writing about any further tornado events in the near future.

Why yes, that was a tornado that started in our back yard!

2011-04-18T10:53:00.001-05:00

A week ago today I was headed to Denver for a conference. I was scheduled to return Wednesday night. Melissa had sent me a text letting me know there were bad storms in the area right around dinner time. After an afternoon of meetings, a couple of coworkers and I were going to see the Denver Nuggets at their last home game of the season. As we were getting dinner and about ready to sit down for tip off, I shot a quick text home to see if the weather had passed. This was the response I received:

We've lost two trees, one is on our house. The house next door is destroyed. Should I call your dad?

It was at this point I set all of my food down, told my coworkers they better go on into the game and I'd be in later. I then began calling anyone and everyone I could to get someone over to the house. Everyone was ok, but indeed the house next to ours was toast! After what seemed like a million phone calls to friends, insurance, airline, etc... I had done all I could from half way across the country and went inside to watch the second half of the basketball game. Melissa and the kids all spent the night at friends and family's houses. I changed travel plans to leave the first thing Tuesday morning and returned around lunch to find the following:

Crane removing trees from our roof

This tree put about 18 inch hole in our roof

Neighbors house in shambles!

Looked like bomb exploded trees everywhere

Thankfully our neighbor had gone to dinner and wasn't killed! After several days of clearing, cutting, and splitting, we now have enough firewood to last 2 winters in Alabama. We were able to get the hole in our roof repaired before the 2nd round of storms rolled in Friday evening so we don't have any water damage that I've found so far. It could have been a lot worse!

For several days we had gawkers all over the place, we should have charged admission to come down our road. Some people actually stopped, got out, and took pictures! Melissa was interviewed by a local tv station and the National Weather Service even came by to take photos and ask questions. It took several days, but it was finally determined that yes, we did have a tornado drop down in our back yard and shoot across the neighborhood. No wonder Melissa and kids never heard the sound of a train because it started in our yard! From the National Weather Service:

0727 PM TORNADO 5 S BIRMINGHAM 33.45N 86.79W
04/11/2011 F1 JEFFERSON AL NWS STORM SURVEY

PATH WAS .4 MILES IN LENGTH AND 100 YARD IN WIDTH. PEAK
WINDS WERE ESTIMATED AT 100 MPH. AFFECTED THE VESTAVIA
HILLS AREA. DAMAGE PATH WAS FROM THE VESTAVIA HILLS
POLICE DEPARTMENT...ACROSS BIRD PARK...TO JUST NORTH OF
THE VESTAVIA HILLS COUNTRY CLUB. NUMEROUS LARGE HARDWOOD
TREES WERE UPROOTED...INCLUDING 30 PINES THAT WERE
SNAPPED IN BIRD PARK. ONE HOME SUSTAINED POTENTIALLY
SIGNIFICANT STRUCTURAL DAMAGE...WITH OTHER HOMES
SUSTAINING DAMAGE DUE TO TREES FALLING ON THEM.

Vomiting House

2011-04-02T12:18:00.001-05:00

Last year our family went through a spiritual transformation due to a lot of factors. We came to a point where we didn't feel the Christian-American dream was exactly aligned with the Gospel and began making some changes. One of the biggest was we downsized our house. Our missionary friends from Guatemala who stayed with us recently had some differing takes because they had never both stayed with us. Erin continued to comment how big and nice our house was as compared to hers in Guatemala City. On the other hand, Jose, who had stayed with us in our previous house said, wow, you really did downsize! Perspective makes such a huge difference.

There are lots of things we like about our new digs but it is challenging at times with 7 people bumping around inside of it. We laughed this morning as we commented it appeared the house had vomited already this Saturday. One of the things we do miss is storage and pantry space. After a recent grocery store run I came home to see the kitchen looking like we were preparing for meals on wheels.

You just about have to have a degree in warehouse logistics to utilize the cabinets we have for food storage for 7 people! Thank goodness we have deep counters and can use the corners for storage of easy access stuff for the kids. So while some would say, what a mess, my perspective is at least I have the empty counter space to use, the ability to have the food, and thankful just about all of our kids can self serve themselves with some level of reasonableness!

Perspective is always an important ingredient.

Seriously, no sour cream?!

2011-03-30T15:48:00.005-05:00

Well yesterday was Tortilla Tuesday at the Freeman house. If you've been following along this was part of Lifesong for Orphans Honduras blitz to raise funds for their ministry in Honduras. Tortilla Tuesday was to be an event with family, friends, coworkers, etc... to be able and share about the ministry, the children, and all of the amazing work God is doing at Plan Escalon. Of course I had plans to take pictures of our kids eating and discussing the children of Honduras, the 3500'sh tortillas they make every single day and generally having a good time as we discuss our support of these children and ministry (I went in January and will be returning with D in June). And then blog about it in hopes of showcasing the event and what we did in honor of them. Given there are 7 of us, it didn't exactly go as planned, it went something like this:

* Please get F out of the kitchen, he is driving everyone insane!

* Where's the salsa? I don't know, can we have salsa? Do the kids at Plan Escalon get salsa? Uh, sure...

* I want sour cream. I don't think the kids get sour cream, maybe we shouldn't get it either. Lot's of eye rolling, are you serious, i want sour cream! I think I remember having some when we there, ha!

* Crap, we're totally out of sour creme! Seriously?! Ugghhh!!

* F, don't eat yet, we haven't prayed for the kids of Honduras yet, dang it!

* So let's talk about the kids at Plan Escalon and what we're doing as a family to help them... "can i have a friend spend the night on Friday since I was promised last weekend but didn't get to?"

* What, are you serious, right in the middle of my sentence about the children and what we're doing to help?!

* Return to table after having to walk outside and calm down, 2 oldest already scarfed tortillas with rice and beans and have vamoosed, great! No pictures, no deep discussion, no thankfulness of what we have compared to others, SUCK!

So if you want to see what it was supposed to look and feel like as we attempted to honor the children at Plan Escalon in Honduras, you'll have to go check it out here, where this family got it right. At least they got it right long enough to take some pictures and look happy about it.

Isn't family great some days? What's the last spiritual activity you had all planned out in your head that got wrecked when "life" took over?

Oh, we are still supporting the effort with time and $$ and thankful for Lifesong and their efforts in Honduras and the opportunity to have our giving doubled!

pequeños, medio, or grandes?

2011-03-26T12:39:00.004-05:00

When B and C and I went to visit Hope for Guatemala last May, these were the first three words we had to learn within about an hour of landing in Guatemala City. Very shortly after arriving we were tossed into service helping with the 3 lunches being served to the children. In order to be efficient and not waste food, each child coming in the door states the portion they would like for that day. It didn't matter the age, size, or gender of the child, each could eat to their hunger needs of the day. The amounts of each small, medium, and large request were quickly tallied and the ladies in the kitchen began feverishly dishing up plates for us to hand out. The kids tried to generally sit in groups of portion request size, but not necessarily so we had to learn these words really quickly to make sure we gave them the right amount of food. It was great to see nothing go to waste, and no they didn't all order grandes, in fact we probably gave out more pequeños than anything, and even to the older children. They all understood there would be more the next day and there was no need to hoard and/or waste.

I always think of this story anytime someone mentions Starbucks and their stupid size ordering words. A friend posted this rant on FB yesterday which immediately had me thinking of the children of Hope.

How many times I got to tell ya (Starbucks hipster java server), I ordered a 'medium' - not your change-the-coffee-world-train-the-lemmings 'Grande'. I aint sayin it! Quit attempting to correct me. My apologies to my adworld/branding friends.

Don't you hate it when marketing people try and out smart us or come up with stuff because they think we're obviously too dumb to figure it out otherwise? Children seem to get it though, small, medium, large, and don't waste any. Sometimes children are so uncomplicated, they just see through all of the nonsense and just "get it". Jesus made a habit of telling us how the children got it, as described in Matthew 19 and Luke 18.

I saw children first hand who get it this past January in Honduras on my trip to Plan Escalon with Lifesong for Orphans. Children like Edgar who understand there is a bigger story God is penning and how his character in the story matters, despite his father being killed and his family leaving.

The children at Plan Escalon are a microcosm of living out the Gospel, of not perpetually staying in a state of victimization, of realizing their value in Christ, and how much they now have to offer others.

As part of our trip we got to spend some time reviewing their annual budget and plans. Due to a large donor having to pull out this year, the 2011 year is one on paper that is going to be in the red. They do however have someone else willing to match as much as we can garner in monthly or one time donations. Lifesong is looking for 100 sponsors. So Lifesong is on a Honduras blitz:

They just want and need you and me (we are doing 5 sponsorships) to give up a few of those stupid "grandes" from Starbucks each month, surely we/you can do that! And on top of that, you get to double your money on this investment. Click on the logo below and read all of the details and stories related to children and their pursuit of living out the Gospel story.

Surely you can forego a few trips to Starbucks a month, right?
So next time you here someone ordering a grandes, you can take solace in what is happening in places like Guatemala and Honduras.

These children really do get it, let's help them continue in their efforts!

$450 a night? How about $175?

2011-03-24T06:33:00.002-05:00

Having had the opportunity to travel to China, Guatemala, and Honduras in the past year, one thing i've learned is almost everything is up for negotiation. There's the regular price, there's the gringo price, there's the we know you're not from here price, etc... So unless it's at a world wide chain at a mall, you should always ask if there is room for negotiation if you feel there might be.

For those of you that follow along, we found a good deal at Thanksgiving at the beach, well we certainly out did that this past week. It was spring break for the entire state of Alabama so we hadn't even thought of going to the beach again, certain the crowds and prices would be at the max. On Monday we decided to see if we could find any places still empty and we scored a major deal! We ended up at a single family home right on the beach in Blue Mtn. Beach along our favorite stretch of the panhandle for less than we could stay in a hotel with our clan of 7. This was the throwback beach vacation you always picture, house right on the beach, covered porch, yard to play in dumping down onto beach, big windows open 24x7 with gulf breeze blowing in, etc... We were very blessed to have found such an affordable opportunity. We had originally thought about kicking around Atlanta for a few days which would have cost significantly more, so this was a huge savings for us.

We certainly had our normal ups and downs; i was sick, the cable was out (no march madness!), everyone wanted to do something different all the time, both boys went on a stretch of apparent potty amnesia, mommy daughter spats (after all we're not all 7 this close together for this many days in a row very often anymore), yet overall we probably had our best beach trip ever. It reminds me a bit of how an entire day can be really good except 1 minor detail and we let that 1 detail dictate the mood of the day. Well every single detail of this trip was not perfect, but overall it was an amazing 4 days!

Just like our daily walk with God, every detail isn't fun or perfect, but the whole experience when said and done is going to be fan-freakin-tastic!!

The 3 Amigos!

2011-03-10T22:15:00.002-06:00

We had the privilege last week to have one of the missionary families in town for our church's missions festival stay with us. It was Mr. Jose and Ms. Erin as our kids affectionally call them. They run Hope for Guatemala in one of the worst parts of Guatemala city and we love them dearly. Jose stayed with us two years ago when in town for the festival but it was the first time he was able to bring the whole family.

So our normally chaotic and loud house of 7 turned into an even greater cacophony of noise and activity the likes we had only seen before during a sporting event. E and F instantly bonded with their son Daniel and it was a great week of boy mania. Thankfully it was a beautiful week and they lived outside for the most part. I'm sure all of the neighbors were thinking, oh great, more kids running around over there and now there's a spanish speaking mexican looking guy hanging around, what the heck!?

It was such a privilege to be able to serve them while here and be just a little part of their amazing ministry to approximately 200 vulnerable children. Being a part of nearly 45 families in town for the missions festival is always such a great experience for us and our kids. It's so humbling to be in the presence of what I call Kingdom Heroes and those who stand in the gap with their time, resources, skills, lives. I was so stoked to see our church turn our hall with their information into a Hall of Fame hall, they are so deserving of our admiration, praise, and support.

They also have a little girl and the boys were so great with her and made special efforts to watch after and take care of her. Of course B and C did their part in taking care of a temporary little sis too. E was especially enamored by this precious little girl and was very sweet and loving with her. Melissa has taken that as a sign that we are supposed to have a little girl in the near future. All I can say is when God gets a hold of your heart, what are you gonna do?

Soccer for the Freeman's was a disaster!

2011-02-28T16:53:00.002-06:00

For about the first year after bringing E home from Guatemala at the ripe age of 13 months we consistently got two questions from people something akin to the following:

Does he speak Spanish, do you speak Spanish to him, or does he understand you when speaking English? To which we began replying, no, do you speak Spanish to your 13 month old?

The second question would typically be, are you going to enroll him in soccer? Again to which we began replying, we don't know, are you or did you decide to enroll your child in soccer at 13 months?

The above responses generally resulted in that quizzical dog like look of head slightly tilted sideways and an expression that said, huh? Of course no one really meant anything by these innocent questions but they were pretty funny given E's age at the time and misplaced, yet somewhat funny, stereotypes.

Given E's inability to throw anything without hurting himself and continued view of anything coming toward his upper body, balls included, must be avoided, we decided to let him attempt futbol. So the first day of soccer for any of the Freeman children finally arrived for child number 4 and as you can see, he was certainly looking the part. This is one of those under 6 leagues where they simply "practice" for about 30 minutes before the real "game" each Sunday afternoon, just our speed. It's also the one sports league in our community where you finally get to see all of our international families show up in one place, it was great! If you want so see how many nationalities are actually in our community, show up for the kids soccer on Sunday, you'll be shocked by all of the countries represented. Anywho... All was well until it was time for E to actually play. He'd already practiced with his new friends and watched from the side as the first wave started off. This means he'd already received some basic instructions, met all of his teammates and the coach, and even watched for a while as to what the "real" action was supposed to look like.

Alright, it's E's turn for his wave of 4 or 5 to sub in. Here we go, watch out, the Guatemalan is on the field and ready... There's a phrase in college sports called the all american bus player, meaning getting off the bus a player looks like an all american but just doesn't produce to the all american level on the field. Well as you can see from E's pic, he was all american bus material! Shortly after (and I mean short, like 1 minute in) the first scrum for the ball enveloped E and quickly dispersed, to which he simply walked over to the sideline where we were standing and burst into tears and stated he wanted to go home. Well there was no way I was going to have drug everyone out there, waited, and watched, to have him stand there and bawl like that, no way! He was going to have to explain himself and get back in there. So when we were home about 10 minutes later (yes, we finally just left because he wouldn't stop crying and wouldn't even stop long enough to tell us what was actually wrong), I began to think how often do we as adults do this with God?

How often does God prepare us, get us ready, spend time training us to be ready for certain things, and then when it's time to come off the sideline we just stand there, lost, and eventually in defiance (and sometimes crying depending on who you are)? I know occasionally I'll just not even speak about why I'm not about to do what I think God has asked of me, just like E was standing there, crying, and not saying a word.

E did apologize to me later that afternoon and we hugged. He still has yet to verbalize what got him so out of whack, but he did say he's ready to go back this Sunday and give it another try. Yes, that's my non Spanish speaking, I can't run in a straight line, soccer playing Guatemalan boy!

What was the last thing you stood there and stared blankly at God about and didn't want to do it?

Ambulance, sirens, near broken neck, ALL boy!

2011-02-17T12:49:00.000-06:00

So we are at what was supposed to be an all day wrestling tournament this past Saturday when we received an early exit invitation. Now of course I would have rather not gotten home an hour or so before we thought we would be doing so that night with a near broken neck and spinal injury scare, but I at least did get out of sitting on bleachers for almost 12 hours.

Dutch had already wrestled twice and we were nearing the lunch break and awaiting for a few more matches to conclude on his mat. Because D wasn't up anytime soon, i was reading, talking with other parents and what not when I hear crackling over the intercom, "Chris Freeman, please come to the front of the stage". Now mind you they had only used said intercom to pray at the beginning of the day and announce lunch was being served, so needless to say it was a shock to hear my name come screaming over the loudness of the gym. I look over toward the stage and mat area where I last saw D and the other boys hanging around their mat to see a circle of folks huddled over a lump on the floor, oh great!

Once I get over there several other team coaches have him on his back, holding his head still, and asking him if he can feel anything in his hands and feet. Someone is chirping at me that he flipped on his face/head and hasn't moved since crashing over someone while goofing off. Well, you never want to see your child motionless on the ground with others asking him if he can feel his feet and hands and can he move them, yikes! Eventually he does begin to move his extremities but has nearly no strength in his grip and is in excruciating pain, so here come the paramedics. We get to do the whole board and neck brace thing and get him wheeled out of the gym to a round of applause. We've all watched this scene play out at various sporting events, but I can honestly say I've never been the one walking along side the person on the stretcher. We careen through traffic at about 80 miles/hour to get to the hospital where we spent the remainder of the day getting X-rays, CT scans, and eventually an MRI. Thank the Lord nothing turned up on any of them, and as much as a boy as D is, he was about to bounce off the walls by the time we got out of there.

We finally got cleared by the neurosurgeon to go home and have a follow up this next week so he can get his neck brace off. I'm pretty sure we'll be cleared as I'm already having to keep him from jumping off stuff, running, jumping up and down, etc... all to his consternation and cries of, "but Daaaaaaad!" He didn't even complain of a soar neck in the days following. If I roll off the couch, my side aches for a week to come! I can't fathom flipping over my neck with every bone cracking like your knuckles and not having any soreness. Oh to be 9 again! Even D is tired of the attention and telling his story and can't wait until Monday to be cleared for recess, Amen to that!

When she was 13 she became pregnant...

2011-02-08T21:47:00.000-06:00

I have been gathering the necessary paperwork this week to finally get Eli's application for a Social Security number submitted. Yeah, yeah, yeah I see you rolling your eyes, just stop it. I am doing E and F's together, at least that sounds like a good excuse to have waited, right? Anyway, in gathering the needed documents I began reading back through the official translated papers from Guatemala and the narrative...

Personal Information of the minor to be adopted: Lilian states that when she was 13, she became girlfriend of ___ (she ignores his last name), who was 20 years old. He was Lilian's boyfriend for 4 months and after having relations, she became pregnant with her son Eli (note: this is his given name by us). When he found out she was pregnant, he left and she never saw him again. This woman is an unwed mother and underage. She needs to work to provide for herself; working as a housekeeper and earning Q.400 ($51) a month. She provides for herself and lives a difficult situation, it being impossible to raise a child. Due to the above, Lilian, underage, decided to give up her son in adoption...

Opinion of the Social Worker: Taking into account the home study of the adoptive parents and the home study of the minor to be adopted, in which the biological mother and maternal grandmother expressly and voluntarily state their consent for the adoption of the minor, the undersigned issued a favorable report for this adoption, considering that the biological mother and grandmother do not have the financial resources necessary to raise the minor. In the same manner, taking into account that the adoptive parents have a warm and adequate home for the minor, being mature, physically, mentally, emotionally and financially stable, offering the minor a home fully of opportunities for his development. The minor has the right to have a family that loves him and cares for him.

Thank you Lord Jesus for Lilian being a surrogate for our son Eli. Thank you for his foster home who took care of him until you could unite us with him at 13 months of age. Thank you for all of those around us who came along side and aided in prayer, support, and "stuff", in the process of uniting with our wonderful son Eli. Thank you for an amazing 4 years with your blessed child Eli and for gracing our family with his addition and orchestrating the knitting of him into the Freeman family fabric.

I couldn't have said it better than did the Guatemalan social worker; The minor has the right to have a family that loves him and cares for him.

God says taking care of these is pure religion, why then are there so many in need, when there are so many supposed Christians who can take care of them? My heart overflows with joy and sadness tonight. God forgive us...

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll in Vestopia?

2011-02-04T21:40:00.000-06:00

Well we've hit that part of parenthood where your kids get influenced by all kinds of things outside the walls of your home and you pray that so many of the things you've discussed and prayed over actually "take". Having two teenagers down to a 4 year old runs the gamut of parenting skills and we can only pray we cover both ends of the spectrum as best we can and mix/match where necessary. In the past week or so, we've covered ground on underage drinking, drugs, and inappropriate sexual overtones here in the land of Vestopia.

Last weekend B went to her first Sadie Hawkins dance at the HS and there was plenty to talk about afterward and the days to follow. Apparently a 9th grader was inebriated or pretending to be or wanted to be or... the stories and explanations ranged all over the place and spanned several families in the community. Regardless of the "real" story it made for some interesting discussion with our teen and tween for several days.

Pot was a hot topic the week prior to the dance as a middle schooler (7th or 8th grader) was tossed from C's school for attempting to sell some to a classmate. Thankfully the shocked and responsible classmate alerted an administrator. As is often the case, C's classmate (who actually had no idea what to do with it) obtained the pot from an older sibling, who probably really didn't know what to do with it either but was attempting to be cool or who knows what. The girls just rolled their eyes and said with that tone and disdain only a teenager can pull off, how stupid. As in, if your gonna do that, you don't bring it to school, duh! Just kidding on that, but their duh and stupid antennas were on stun when discussing the incident.

I get copies of all the girls incoming emails and I occasionally flip through them, especially when I don't recognize the name of the sender. They're not really emailing very much, but they're so stinking active on FB it fires off email notifications in rapid fire. I can always tell when school is over in the afternoon because the FB email notifications from both of the girl's accounts begin to light me up! Anyway, one name caught my eye as unfamiliar and I began to flip through some of the many FB wall postings and comments. While I didn't see anything totally out of bounds, there were a few things Melissa and I would deem inappropriate for a young lady to be reading/discussing. That lead to a discussion on appropriate language and comments with sexual overtones with our soon to be 13 year old. We were able to have a candid discussion with her about this "friend" and our thoughts about it. C befriends all sorts and we certainly encourage her to reach out to those around her and be a good witness. We didn't want her to un-friend this person and dissociate with her, so we worked on some possible solutions and what she might be able to share with her friend about some of her FB activity.

Thankfully we were able to have pretty candid and frank conversations about all of these situations with the girls, and do so from what we believe was a Gospel centered approach. While not always comfortable and sometimes awkward, so far so good in covering these topics relatively openly with the girls and so far it's "taking". I'm thankful for where we live for the most part as other parents in the community approach many of these topics similarly, and their kids will speak up with their parents when they see things out of alignment with the Gospel and how they believe Jesus would have them representing themselves. But even in Vestopia things happen and I pray we'll be able to continue discussing them and working through them with our kids and a correct Christian response to these situations.

What "earthly" situations/incidents have triggered those around the table discussions with your kids lately?

Increasing your odds of further success by 4600%!

2011-01-23T17:53:00.071-06:00

One of the most staggering things we learned while in Honduras is the typical % of those finishing high school that go on to further their education at any additional level. The national average is in the 1% range, that's right, only about 1 out of every 100 students finishing high school in Honduras goes onto another level of schooling. Contrast that with the students that finish school at Plan Escalon who go onto further their education at a rate of approximately 47%, that's a 4600% increase in odds! It's no wonder the young teenagers we were fortunate to interact with stated they are privileged to be at the ministry and view it as their only opportunity to break their life cycle of doom and despair. It should also be noted these aren't students "choosing" so much to come to this ministry because they are good students looking to get a further leg up like we might expect here in the US at a private school. These are orphaned, abandoned, 1 of 13 sleeping on a dirt floor, kind of kids and they are far surpassing their counterparts across the country. Truly amazing what a loving, Christ centered, environment does for these desperate souls.

We had the opportunity to travel into the mountains with several of the students to do a ministry outreach to one of the 47 community churches Plan Escalon has planted in the past 15 years around the scattered hills and mountainside of this part of Honduras. After putting our trucks in 4 wheel drive and crawling up the mountain at about 10 mph due to the terrain (i was exhausted just riding along after all of the bumping around), we finally reached a village of about 50 people or so. Why in the world there was a village of people up there working the land and living in such isolation, I have no idea. They were mainly living off the land, only had a few horses for transportation, and lived in conditions that are nearly unfathomable. Despite these apparent obstacles, the children and adults alike were happy to see us and we had a wonderful time doing outreach with them, praying with them, and distributing clothes and supplies. Their faith was/is strong due to Plan Escalon's persistent work with their village "leader" and pastor over time.

If all goes as planned I will be blessed with the opportunity to return in March to work with their faculty on implementing sound technology strategies into their curriculum. It's hard to imagine improving their educational success more than what has been done already, but they are just scratching the surface on using technology to remediate and provide individualized instruction to their student population of 550'sh students. I love it when my work passions and knowledge intersect directly with God and His workings amongst his children. Needless to say I am extremely excited about the possibilities!

Below is a slideshow of the day spent distributing wheel chairs to many in need and spending time at this remote mountain village. Enjoy!

How many gringos does it take to repair a drive shaft?

2011-01-17T23:06:00.001-06:00

I don't know exactly how many, but it would have for sure taken at least 1 more than we had today! It wouldn't be a trip to Honduras if you couldn't tell at least one broken down bus on the side of the road, talk to the cows and cow farmer, and get honked at by every passing car, truck, and bicycle story now would it?

I landed in San Pedro Sula this morning to hook up with a team of folks coming in from various locations to visit Lifesong for Orphan's Honduras mission located in La Entrada. We left the airport in what by all accounts is a pretty new school bus. There are technically no "real" school buses here, only public and private transportation buses, that just so happen to be yellow school buses brought in. About 2 1/2 hours into our adventure, there is a large clunk and the shrieks of metal gouging into the asphalt and the bus lurching as we swerve around a two lane road through the Copán hill side. A quick peak under the bus reveals everyone's fear, drive shaft hanging onto the road. So... while our much more industrious Honduran hosts attempt to repair said shaft, we begin making conversation with the cows and farmer who pulled up in his field to do "something" with a few of his livestock, but more likely coming to check out the gringos wandering around both sides of the road looking conspicuous. Our friends from the mission were able to call ahead and send back the "old" but reliable bus to pick us up. Old steady had holes in the floor, missing windows, and ripped seats (isn't this what we really expected to be careening around the hillsides of Honduras in?), but she got us to the compound, or Escalon as they call it. Upon arrival we were greeted by a few hundred smiling faces, making the long drive worth it.

Due to the delays in getting to the Escalon campus this evening we didn't get a tour around tonight. Instead just before dinner we were privileged to hear the stories of 4 of the newest enrollees at Escalon. I couldn't help but think of my daughter C having to stand up in front of about 10 gringos as one of these 12 year old girls did and describe how her father left after she was born and how her mother abandoned her when she was but 1 and how privileged she was to have the opportunity to come to Escalon, get a good education, a safe place to live, and Christian training. A young 15 year old boy described, to the date, how his father was murdered for not wanting to sell a piece of land and how his mother and other brothers moved to another part of the country afterward. He chose to stay behind he says because he knows Escalon is his only hope of changing his life's story. The other two children's stories were similar and just as heart breaking. What was evident though was their joy of having such a place to call "home" and a love that surrounds them in a way that is palpable as you watch the children interact, play, and talk with you.

More to come as tomorrow we head into the mountains and a village or two...

Some of the surrounding beauty of the countryside in Honduras today.

Difference between Guatemala and Inner Mongolia China

2011-01-10T17:08:00.000-06:00

So here is E after about 30 minutes or so of playing outside in cold and "sledding" on the ice:

And here is F after nearly 2 hours I think with no intentions of going anywhere near the inside of a house:

These images contrast pretty nicely the variation in our 2 youngest. E turns 6 next month and F turned 4 on Saturday but both weigh nearly the same. Needless to say E is built like a popsicle stick and gets cold when he feels the movement of air from a ceiling fan, just like his mother, uggh!

It's been a fun day with basically everything closed in Birmingham but ok enough for us to get out and enjoy the snow/ice with some of the neighborhood kids and parents. Melissa said it felt like a holiday without all of the obligations and to do's on a holiday!

And no, Melissa is not in any of these pics as she was with everyone in spirit by the indoor fire. Truth be told, I believe some of these are single moms with big hearts making great memories for their kids.

They were all enamored with F and helped him roast who knows how many marsh mellows, no wonder he kept saying he didn't want to go in for lunch!

Redneck sledding!

Future Olympic luger?

It's Fisher and Elvis' Birthday!

2011-01-08T21:27:00.000-06:00

Today is the day Fisher's legal documents show as his birthday, although it's not at all exactly clear as to the exact day because he was left on a train in Inner Mongolia shortly after birth. The number 8 is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture so it's our understanding this birthday is given to many orphaned new born found shortly after the new year. The word for eight (八 Pinyin: bā) sounds similar to the word which means prosper or wealth. So it's a bit ironic and I suppose hopeful thinking for these children considered unlucky or cursed due to imperfections to be given birth dates associated with better fortunes in attempts to improve their chances of success in life.

I don't know about all that but I do know that our life and our family is more blessed with F in the mix. Ever since he began understanding birthday and going to other people's birthday parties he has been enamored with the thought of when his birthday is and when is HIS day. Well today was it buddy and he has been about to burst all week! Below are some images from F's first birthday as a Freeman and it's been a great one.

Looking cautiously excited about a really big box

Great to have brother to get into trouble with!

Mom putting on the finishes touches, i.e. stickers

Big brother Dutch

Fisher (eating icing off of toy from cake), Eli, and Hamilton (who is from same orphanage in China and lives a few blocks away, how cool is that?!)

Oh yeah, and it's Elvis' birthday today. This is sort of a running joke because sometime after we returned from China, upon learning F's birthday was January 8th, D nonchalantly said, hey that's cool, it's Elvis' birthday that day too. How a 9 year old even new that when we never have discussed Elvis is beyond us!

I hate making disciples

2011-01-01T15:08:00.000-06:00

As I reflect on this past year and look forward into a new one, I have to admit I am really challenged by other people at times. My natural tendency is to pretty much be off the grid so to speak. I could just about disappear into solitude if given the chance and be perfectly content. I'm just wired that way I guess, but it certainly doesn't coincide with the great commission and the notion of making disciples, because after all, making disciples requires interacting with other people, warts and all.

Years ago Melissa and I lived in Vail (I'm probably the only person you'll ever know that moved away from Vail to a place like Oklahoma twice. The strings attached to a wedding ring are pretty strong if you're serious about the whole vows and commitment thing). Just a few miles west of us down HY6 there were some narrow roads headed into the mountains with residential homes peppered across the landscape going into the wilderness. The paved road eventually transitioned into a hard packed gravel and dirt forest service road. Many miles into the great Rocky Mountains this forest service road hair-pinned and meandered into some of the most amazing scenery you can imagine. Remarkably there were a handful of homes way out there in the middle of nowhere! When I say homes I don't mean mountain cabins, I mean real homes, huge, beautiful, amazing, tongue wagging homes nestled into the landscape as if they had sprouted out of the ground in perfect harmony with the surroundings. Some of these folks appeared to live there year round even, which for about 8 months of the year isn't a big deal, but the other 4 months... well lets just say you'd have to REALLY want to live there. The county keeps the main residential road passable but of course stopped at the end of the pavement. If you went up to the end of the road during the dead of winter you'd see a smattering of cars and snowmobiles parked in alignment. These hearty souls would ride their snowmobiles from their picturesque homes through feet of snow down to the paved road, park, get their car and go into town.

I describe this scene as one that depicts how I would prefer to be living my life; in isolation, surrounded by God's abundant natural beauty, with a bit of adventure tossed in. Those of you that know my wife know this would be laughable in her view of how things should be and makes our partnership all the more perplexing at times. The fact that I am married to someone who would prefer to live in Manhattan, have 5 children, and have nearly 300 employees I'm responsible for, is nothing short of a miracle in an of itself. Needless to say, the Great Commission is a real struggle for me, not because it may mean following God to the ends of the earth, (that part actually appeals to me) but because it means I am supposed to be building relationships with people, to which I mostly grit my teeth, shake my head, psyche myself up, and wade into the task.

While I typically don't do new year's resolutions, after reflecting on this past year, recent events, and looking forward, I do know I need to commit to more intentional relational interactions this year. You see, I spend the majority of my day in a virtual world. As a leader of an online college most of my interactions are virtual, email, web based course delivery, and sometimes phone conversations. This habit of doing everything "behind the screen" has a tendency to spill over to my leadership of employees, my wife, and even my children at times. While it's so much easier for me to communicate and work digitally, (and a ton of my day demands it) I am recognizing this as an inhibitor to actually making disciples, which I am supposed to be doing, if I'm serious about my faith. So while I would much rather tick off email after email, twitter posts, and web based delivery of content to lead and communicate, I recognize I must get out from behind the screen more and be more intentional with my relationships, in person, as much as possible in order to truly make disciples (note I'm not referring to necessarily leading bible studies or mentoring others, but merely leading by example and through personal relationships). This especially includes my own children and I have 5 of them. This means I really need to be intentional with my time once I'm at home and not so easily drawn back into my digital comfort zone when they demand and deserve my time.

As a starting point, it's taken me nearly all day to write this as I've attempted to be in tune with each of their needs today for time in various forms. Making disciples of all nations, for me, quite often means my family and those I encounter on a daily basis and not necessarily those in far away lands, which in some ways I find more appealing to ponder at times. So while I loathe the responsibility of making disciples, I know it is these personal and relational interactions that lead to the making of disciples, and I need to work on this throughout this year. I sense some amazing things on the horizon but I don't believe they will come to fruition without me getting out of my comfort zone and actually dealing with people.

So what are your houses in the woods obstacles to making disciples in 2011?

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This Christmas thing is strangely exciting

2010-12-23T16:35:00.001-06:00

It's been a while since we had a first Christmas with any of our children until this year. E was just a pup so his first Christmas was like most babies and he's since learned Christmas like any of our other children, by watching their siblings and following the societal queues and absorbing those first few years. We weren't really sure what to expect with F being that he's 3 and never been through Christmas, it's been hilarious to watch for sure.

A few weekends ago we began pulling out all of the boxes with decorations. He probably thought we were moving again already as he had just seen this whole boxes piled high in the living room scenario in October. Melissa began locating all of the stockings and each one has a child's name on it, but of course F didn't have one yet. Now he didn't understand what we were getting ready to decorate for, but he darn sure knew there wasn't one of these over sized puffy sock looking things with his name on it and he let us hear about it! "Where my stocking, where mine, you get me stocking"? Over and over and over again. Melissa knew if we didn't have one for him come the Saturday we got ready to decorate full force, we'd have a pint size hurricane blowing through the house for sure. So the Friday before she bought a stocking like the other children's and had it monogrammed. She even took it up to school when she picked up E and F that afternoon. Needless to say he was about to explode with pure joy! The kind of joy that most of us quite frankly have probably forgotten about. It was HIS stocking, not one he had to share, but his. When I got home, I got the play by play from him about every stitch on that stocking. Several minutes into his description of everything, and I mean everything on it, I of course wandered a bit in the conversation. He promptly stopped talking and said, "Daddy, look at me, look at me, look at me!" Upon eye contact he promptly picked up where he left off and continued describing each image, color, and nuance of that precious stocking that was ALL HIS. He played with that thing for 2 days straight! Oh to get such pure joy out of the simple things in life.

Getting the Christmas tree is always fun too. We go to the local boy scout lot and pick one out as a family. We usually get it one night, set it up, let it settle a bit after it's been wound up in string and still standing at attention that first night. This was more than F could take. "Why we put tree in house? What tree for?" Once we explained about decorating, he couldn't stand to wait, are you kidding me? "When we decorate Christmas? When we put Christmas up? Why we not putting up Christmas?" All night we heard this! Much to F's chagrin we didn't give in and waited until the following day to put up lights and ornaments and he was a big helper for sure.

A few days later D. had picked up some gifts at a school function for a few of us and C. helped him wrap them and promptly placed them under the tree. The next morning F. came and grabbed Melissa in a fit of excitement, come here, come here mommy! He drug her to the tree and said, what are those? Melissa told him they were presents. Wheels turning, wheels turning.... "they from Santa"? No those are from D. Wheels turning, wheels turning.... "I open them now?" No, you have to wait until Christmas day. Wheels turning, wheels turning... "oh, ok". It seems every day there is another question he asks and begins the whole processing piece again around what in the world this is all about. If you ask him though, who's birthday is it Saturday, he get's a big grin and exclaims "Jesus!" I think he's getting it.

Oh, and he loved seeing his name on hanging from the mantle along with everyone else's. He has a home to call his own, and it's all his.

UConn Women’s Basketball and Jesus Christ’s Ministry

2010-12-22T16:30:00.000-06:00

Last night there was a small ripple across the sports landscape with the women’s basketball team winning 89 consecutive games to surpass the 88 by UCLA’s famed men’s hoops team from the 70’s. There has been some interesting discussion around this leading up to the game last night and it struck me while running this morning some of the similarities of this team and coach to that of the ministry of Jesus Christ.

Love or Hate

Geno Auriemma is either loved or hated, almost nothing in between. Apparently he’s loved by his university, administration, and players, he’s been there forever. Of course winning never hurts one’s longevity and covers up a multitude of dislikable characteristics. He’s almost unanimously disliked outside the UConn circles as a brash, arrogant, loud mouth and loathed so much in Rocky Top country for dissing the queen of women’s bball he’d probably not make it out of Knoxville if he crossed into the city limits.

Jesus was loved or hated throughout his ministry by those he came in contact with and caused disruptions for. He was loved by the common man and those in his inner circles, so much so they were martyred in his name. He was loathed by the religious leaders and too was labeled brash, arrogant, and outright defiant of authority. How could he claim to be the son of God, forgive sin, and talk to such characters he chose to talk too? Didn’t he know the laws of the land? How dare he?

Not the “real” thing

Some are arguing there shouldn’t be any comparison between the women’s streak and the men’s streak. How can you compare apples and oranges like this? Women’s bball competition doesn’t have the parity of men’s, it’s not as difficult to whip just a few decent teams over the years, etc… If the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater continues to win games at their current rate, there’s no way it would be compared to Oklahoma’s behemoth run of victories in the 50’s, right?

Many during Jesus’ time argued he was a fraud; he can’t really be God can he? The temple leaders, Sadducees and Pharisees were quick to point out Jesus wasn’t following the rules, he doesn’t represent “real” religion does he, surely not!

He said what?

The administration at UConn probably cringes every time they see a news story with Geno Auriemma as part of the story. They’ve got to be afraid just about every time he has access to a microphone around reporters. There are even pages upon pages of Auriemma quotes that I’m sure UConn would rather not persist in cyberland forever. After winning game 88 he went on a rant that likely had administrators looking for the delete button.

“All the guys that loved women’s basketball are all excited, and all the miserable bastards that follow men’s basketball and don’t want us to break the record are all here because they’re pissed.”

You could just hear the breaks on the UConn PR machine screeching in the distance. One step forward, two steps back for Geno.

The disciples had to have just about soiled themselves with some of the things Jesus let loose during his ministry time. Filthy rich young successful guy wants to join up with Jesus and his merry men, and what does Jesus drop on him? Sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and then you can hang with us. Uh, do what?! The disciples had to have wanted to tackle Jesus! You know they wanted to rush to the rich young ruler who was slinking away and begin the spin machine to get him back on the team. This was a prize recruit, how can we let him get away? Surely they wanted to scream at Jesus, we’ll never be the fastest growing church in the tri state area without the resources and influence of a guy like that, what are you thinking?! Eat my flesh, drink my blood, let the dead bury their own, oh please Jesus, stop the insanity, we’ll never get anyone to follow us if you keep talking like that.

It’s over, this is it?

So the game is over, UConn has won 89 games in a row, now what? (no, there isn’t a Disney World promo here) I know, let’s get the outspoken, obviously mad at the world coach to do a drawing to give away a couple of Wii consoles after the game. That’ll make this celebratory moment a highlight and make some memories, right? I could only watch with what must have looked like that confused look a dog gives you with tilted head when I saw this, huuuuhhhhh? The coach is pissed about women’s basketball not getting the respect of men’s and someone in the athletic department thought it would be a good idea to do a quick raffle and give a way some Wii’s like it’s bingo night in Storrs, awwwwkward! Somehow I don’t see Coach Wooden, Coach K, Dean Smith, or heaven forbid Bobby Knight actually taking the mic and giving away video games after such a momentous moment! Heck, no one would even dream of asking them to. I could only scratch my head in disbelief.

The clouds have rolled away and the breath has left Jesus. The disciples have to be looking around and thinking, this is it, where’s the bolt of lightning smiting these jerks, where is the phoenix rising up to squash all of these punks? This is it, what the heck? I left my family, my friends, my job and there’s no apocalyptic judgment reigning down on these heathens?! They had to be scratching their head in disbelief and thinking, great, what do we do now?

The good news obviously is that Jesus did indeed rise like the phoenix in triumph over death and sin just like he said he would. And oh yeah, Geno didn’t provide any further quotable moments in the midst of having that open mic last night. Whew!

Charter Customer Support Redemption and now Alabama Power Fail

2010-12-20T14:34:00.000-06:00

I never like to have someone's good redemptive stories go unnoticed or unannounced so I need to take a moment and praise Charter customer service for stepping up. They apparently have a group of social media hounds in their customer support group and one of the snooped out my Twitter posting leading to my blog post and screen shot of my instance the other day. He subsequently left a comment on my blog with contact information and through a few email exchanges has been tracking down my issue for me. So in this instance I'd have to say nicely done Charter.

Now onto Alabama Power and their paperless billing system. I currently pay all my bills online and getting a paper version in the mail isn't all that necessary for me. At one of Alabama Power's promptings I signed up for paperless billing, which apparently has an infinite loop in the system and I now can't pay my bill.

I receive my first paperless bill email notification last month, click on the link to access my account online and dutifully make my payment. Alas I am met with the screen prompts above which are asking me to set up my account, including providing an access code that is only found on, you guessed it, the paper bill! I contacted support to have them activate my account so I could actually pay them, but I once again was met with the above screen today upon receiving my bill notification via email.

You'd think once you set up to receive your bill notification electronically it would pass you through to the account to let you actually pay it. Uggh, best intentions.

Charter Customer Support Fail

2010-12-17T14:24:00.000-06:00

Seems like everywhere you look these days there's a fail blog of some sort around various topics. I'm thinking about starting my own customer service fail blog and this is my first entry (not really but this did happen to me today).

So we purchased a new tv after our hand me down one we've been using for at least 10 years finally broke. I was having issues with HDMI cable and getting sound. I had a few minutes and customer service chat is usually way quicker than wading through all of the phone prompts so I went that route to ask a simple question or 2 regarding the cable box we have and the HDMI connection. Apparently this was a question too difficult for whomever they had on the other end of the computer as evidenced by my screen capture here. I didn't even get an attempt at a response from this, ahem, customer support person.

So Charter Communications gets my first ever customer support Fail blog post for using really good technology simply to tell me to call them on the phone.

What kind of scary a%$ church do you go to?

2010-12-13T07:54:00.003-06:00

I tend to ask a lot of questions. At work I'm always asking, is there a better way to do this, is there a better delivery method for this curriculum, are there better systems, better technologies, why do we do things "this" way when "that" way seems to be more efficient, bigger, better stronger? "Because we've always done it this way" is one of my least favorite phrases, gets my hackles up, and is an open invitation for a barrage of targeted questions and pinpoint accurate statements intended to unveil the errors of continuing to do it "that" way.

I have a bit of this in me when it comes to churchy stuff too, but I find myself in no mans land these days. While I do have a tendency to ask why a lot, I'm watching what appears to be a fad of intellectual church questioning that is beginning to look/sound like young hipster Christians with nothing better to do with their time than attempt to stick it to the man, err church, by nit picking anything and everything. So much time and energy seems to be spent in the blogosphere and twitterland marketing statements like, "i quit Christianity", "Calvin was a racist", dropping f-bombs in the middle of "keeping it real" Christian commentary, etc... I ask questions for better understanding, these folks seem to be asking questions for attention, to be disruptive, or just generally lost in their own self absorbed thoughts.

Reading some of these and the flood of pandering, look at me, you so "get" me and my plight comments does make me feel for some of these folks and their apparent doom and gloom outlook with their view of Christianity and life in general. You'll see, "oh so and so, as always you've made such a perfect posting about how the church doesn't get it", "i have felt so oppressed in the church all of my life and i can't tell you how refreshing your blog is to me", "i'm an outcast in my church and only you get me", etc... In a Chandler Bing moment I want to ask these Joey's of the faith, what kind of scary a#$ churches have you all been going to?

I just can't imagine being in line waiting to enter into heaven and see my name in the book of life and the guy behind me tapping me on the shoulder and asking me if I am a Calvinist, or Armenian, or Southern Baptist, or if I believe in whatever "-ism" is being heatedly discussed these days. While I find much of this movement interesting in as much as I love a good intellectual conversations, the amount of energy, passion, and complete faith in these time and emotional sucking discussions is worrisome. None of them exude a child like faith, unless your children are some super crazy intellectual freaks well versed in social justice by the age of 10. Mine are good if they can remember where they put their back pack let alone be able to argumentatively discuss the finer points of church doctrine and why the church is right, wrong, or otherwise. I was once discussing variations in bible translations with my wise old father and law and he finally stated, they're all good for me because I choose to have the faith of a child and the faith of a child doesn't spend time nitpicking the Greek translations and nuances and explaining why the English language doesn't do justice to the true meaning of blah, blah, blah. Hard to argue with that I suppose and makes a lot of sense.

It's also interesting to note that many of these avidly followed self doubters of "church", yet committed to Jesus, folks are also hawking their next new book or attempting to keep their brand relevant until the next book arrives.

It will be interesting to see if this wave of self doubting Christians goes the way of the most rebellious stages of life... trickling away once the "leaders" of these movements have made their money and eventually become "the man".

In the meantime, unless you're in the Pacific Northwest where choices are limited, find a bible teaching, loving church that "gets" you and is ok with you asking questions. While I will never be asked to be a deacon at my church, i'm comfortable in my skin there and will keep asking questions for clarity.

Thanksgiving at the beach

2010-12-03T10:29:00.001-06:00

So this year we decided on Monday before Thanksgiving it would be a nice change of pace to take the kids and head to the beach for Thanksgiving. We did this 2 years ago and had a great time and the same can be said about this year! On Monday when I saw how nice the weather was going to be, I checked out some options and found a deal that was too good to pass up. Sometimes it's the last minute trips and plans that end up being the best as there are no expectations leading up to the point of pulling the trigger. We hadn't been as a family in several years and the kids have been pretty good about not asking to go every summer as we went through another adoption process and other financial milestones over the past several years. Needless to say when I got home Monday night with the news, they were very excited!

We ended up at Splash in Panama City and to say the weather was "nice" would be an understatement. The water and beach lived up to it's name of the Emerald Coast this time around! We went down Wednesday and came back Sunday. We spent the majority of our time on the beach it was so nice. Thursday morning I got the turkey ready and in the oven, then me and the boys headed to the beach until lunch was ready, it was a great day for everyone I believe. A little turkey, dressing, thanksgiving, sun, water, and sand. The smell of Thanksgiving mixed in with the sights, sounds, and smell of the ocean had all of our synapses firing for sure, it was great! Here are some images of the gang enjoying our time together relaxing and decompressing.

Fisher running from the surf!

Fisher thought he was going to swim with the sting rays!

Dutch boogy boarding away

now how did Dutch make this thing work?

98, 99, 100, whew!

just taking it easy

Eli's favorite thing, just playing in the sand

sand castle number 20, at least...

how do we get off this island?

the 3 amigos!

my fair ladies

are these all your kids?

the whole gang

Chaos theory, the butterfly effect, and comfort

2010-11-21T10:41:00.001-06:00

I am sitting quietly this morning on this corner of the couch as one of the few spaces not currently being occupied by laundry or some other object belonging to 1 of 5 children. I only say quietly because I am sick and the others shlept off to church. It's funny how disruptive 1 parent being under the weather changes the entire dynamic of what occurs inside the home, especially over a weekend.

It's a bit like the butterfly effect, made famous in 1972 by Edward Lorenz in a paper titled "Does the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?" In other words, do small changes in initial conditions of a system, in this case our household dynamics and me being sick, cause a chain of events leading to large scale phenomena? For the most part I spent the day yesterday holed up in bed, another location void of other people's stuff encroaching into my space, although I am only applying that to my half of the bed. Upon emerging from the cave this morning and attempting to locate a spot to sit upright in, I couldn't help but think of this butterfly effect and chaos theory. I know, call me weird, but it's just what I do sometimes. I have to try and justify all of those years in school and teaching Physics somehow, right?

Initially I am always totally frustrated by this chaos as I truly believe in being good stewards of what God has provided and being slovenly is not that in my system view. However, as I used to point out in discussions with my students around this theory there are often strange attractors in nature and after enough time what looked chaotic and random at first, begins to look like a beautiful pattern. This too is applicable to our household system as the kids know we have an unswerving faith in Jesus as our savior, they are comfortable in their own skin in this system (which is critical for our 2 adopted), and they know love will always be given, even in the midst of the chaos. So while I am sitting here bemoaning the state of affairs (as it relates to clutter) I know the attractors that are key to our household system will at some point reveal the overall pattern again of a picked up and functional home. Given that I am feeling a bit better today I am guessing that will be by tonight!

For now though I am going to sit quietly with a cup of coffee on this corner of the couch.

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Orphans and the Windy City

2010-11-17T17:43:00.000-06:00

This past weekend Melissa and I were fortunate enough to get some time away alone in Chicago on an invitation from Lifesong for Orphans. Each year they have a Celebrate Life get together for their partners in ministry and orphan advocates to get together, share experiences, share ministry updates, and pray with and over each other, etc... It was a great way for us to see where we might take our next steps in contributing to God's plans relating to James 1:27.

Some of the folks we had the pleasure to hear from included a really cool ministry called Both Hands. You HAVE to check out what they've got going on, it's simply amazing! They are a ministry example of "two birds with one stone". Check out their stories and see how an amazing idea has lead to taking care of the widow and the orphan all in a single project, what an incredible method!

We also got to meet and listen to Kendall, a 17 year total rock star when it comes to advocating for orphans and the least of these. Check out her own non-profit started when she was 11, Kids Caring 4 Kids. She's so good at what she does, she's been on Oprah, worked with Bill Clinton to raise over $1million, and is now working to raise funds for one of Lifesong's projects in Zambia. Needless to say we were pretty energized about the possibilities as we listen to God's persistent calling on our family.

It's always great when you can mix spiritual refueling with personal refueling so it was a much needed, albeit short, time together as a couple to recharge , discuss, pray, and plan some together, sans little munch-kins. Alas it didn't last long as within 2 hours upon returning home Sunday evening, all heck had broken loose and multiple children were sobbing and dragging their knuckles around the house in despair. My mom and dad couldn't escape fast enough! We do love them, but it was a shock to the system even after such a short respite from them.

It'll be interesting to see where God leads as He begins to uncover these paths for us, so stay tuned.

Oh and for those of you following, I did keep a pocket of $1 bills on me this time, unlike in Boston, while strolling the city.

Loveliest Village on the Plains

2010-11-09T10:10:00.000-06:00

All of the kids are always jealous that I take Bailey every year to Auburn's home opener for her birthday, so I hear every week through the rest of the year, can we go to the game this week? Now keep in mind we don't have season tickets and they have no concept of market value as it relates to football tickets and when teams like LSU come into town. Not to mention Auburn's meteoric rise through the rankings this year driving tickets up even more, couple that with a family of 7 and well we now have a financial crisis on our hands. Thankfully homecoming this year fell late in the season and we could actually get something at face value from the ticket office, yeah! The whole gang took the trek at the crack of dawn this past Saturday to Auburn to watch the dismantling of a helpless Tennessee-Chattanooga.

As irony would have it though, after weeks and weeks of So Cal type weather we woke up to a freeze warning and it was a noon game, great! So where are all of those mittens and hats since we moved? None the less everyone but Melissa (her comfort zone is between 65 and 80; am already imagining the pleas to move to Florida by the time we hit 50 yrs old) enjoyed themselves as we hooked up with quite a few other families from church at the Covenant Presbyterian tailgate tent just outside the stadium. All in all it was a fun day for most everyone and boy has the whole rolling of Toomer's Corner improved since I was there. I don't think it would have ever looked like this for a easy romp over a DII school back in the day!

Tank You!

2010-11-04T07:52:00.000-05:00

So explaining to our 3 year old who's been with us since February that if you put this costume on, ring the doorbell on a stranger's house, hold out a sack, and they'll give you candy, was a treat in and of itself this year. I know very few 3 year olds have any real clue what this odd scene is about, but they at least have been immersed into this enough to know it's just something you should do, especially if they have older siblings. Some friends of ours have a newly adopted middle school aged boy and girl from Ukraine and I understand there have been some really funny conversations leading up to Halloween this year. Needless to say they were dumbfounded by what appears by all accounts to an "outsider" to be some strange and acceptable form of begging while dressed crazily.

F was so business like in his approach it's as if he had planned out some strategy in his head and was methodically ticking down the list as we went. He didn't run from house to house, he's more of a saunterer, taking in the scene, always forcing E to have to stop and wait, much to his consternation. He'd wait for E to say trick or treat, hold up his spider man pillow case, say Tank You, and calmly walk away. Just the facts ma'am, just the facts.

I can only imagine some of the folks around here wondering what in the world are these 2 foreign looking kids dressed as super hero characters doing in this neighborhood? They were quite the pair for sure, the international version of Phineas and Ferb.

32 Hours in Boston and Luke 6:30

2010-10-25T08:02:00.035-05:00

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Boston for about 32 hours for work related purposes. I had never been to Boston prior to this and honestly wasn't really sure what to expect from this city. In my head I was thinking more akin to New York but was pleasantly surprised to find it much more subdued and ridiculously clean. Now I realize, after the fact, the population is not near that of NY, but I fully expected way more foot traffic and congestion, but I just didn't experience it when walking/traveling in the downtown area.

I was absolutely amazed by the beauty and history dripping from just about every nook and cranny of the city. I felt like it was a living museum as so much of the historical artifacts are simply embedded into the existing DNA of the city, many of them still in use. Walking up to the Old North Church as if it were the 1700's was easy to imagine given the condition of the surroundings and period buildings still in place. I was shocked that most of these churches are still active today and open to the public during the week. Wandering around the flash point locations of the American Revolution unencumbered was a refreshing way to recall our country's history. I kept thinking, shouldn't all this stuff be roped off or something? Maybe middle school trips to Boston would make more sense than Washington D.C. given that so much of D.C. consist of memorials to historical events, not necessarily access or proximity to the events themselves.

While walking a fair amount of the Freedom Trail (a designated path through the city that leads you past most of the major historical locales), I found myself in an a spiritual quandary. As I was enveloped by the city's historical artifacts, my reality was slammed back to spiritual, current day reality as I found myself face to face with "the least of these", or as some would say, panhandlers. Through my deepening understanding of scripture and God's love/plan for those less fortunate, it has been relatively easy to deal with this where I live/work, because quite frankly it's not a frequent occurrence to simply bump into the least of these in my daily traverses.

In the midst of enjoying the beauty of Boston though, I was confronted by Luke 6:30 in a direct and palpable manner, probably 3 or 4 times within an hour time span. Was I supposed to help ALL of these as suggested in Luke without question? I'm pretty sure it doesn't have qualifying criteria or filters like, give to everyone who begs from you that you can determine isn't a scam artist, it simply says give to those who ask of you. I was unprepared for this, I failed miserably and didn't help any of these! I found myself asking, I wonder if they really need this or are they just lazy and don't want to work? Funny thing though, I never stopped to find out so I will never know.

I'm still struggling with this and my inability to take this simple scripture at face value without laying my own filters across it. I don't know if God views my inability to stop and give to these people as disobedience, disappointment, or what exactly. I do know that I believe I'll be more prepared the next time I have the opportunity to be a pedestrian in an urban area, I'll try to remember to have some ones in my pocket, a smile on face, and hopefully the heart to stop and at least acknowledge the least of these created in the image of God.

I Challenge you to run the gauntlet (if you think you have the moxie!)

2010-10-14T16:59:00.002-05:00

Here in SEC country there is always a stretch of 3 games for Alabama and Auburn that all of the talking heads and local homers look at the first of the season and say, if we can run the gauntlet of these 3 games… So far this year, Alabama tripped on their 3^rd part of their gauntlet run and laid an egg against South Carolina. Auburn is heading into their gauntlet of 3 this coming weekend, if they come out the other side unscathed, it’ll be a truly memorable season in the making.

I recently ran through my own personal gauntlet of faith and came out the other side broken and spiritually wrecked! I challenge my fellow brothers and sisters to run this gauntlet in the near future, if you have the moxie! I referenced these books in some previous posts but want to call them out more specifically here as part of my and Melissa’s spiritual awakening in the last 6 or 7 months.

It began innocently enough when I picked up Francis Chan’s Crazy Love. Melissa had picked this up at a recent orphan ministry conference, I had briefly heard Francis’ name in some other online reading and seen a video clip or two of his on YouTube. Chan takes the reader down a path leading to a point of questioning if perhaps as Americanized Christians, we have been missing the proverbial boat as it relates to the Gospel and how Jesus desires us to live out our lives for Him? Something deep in our hearts should be bothered and troubled by the status quo. “It’s crazy if you think about it. The God of the universe – the Creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and e-minor – loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss.” There are some good examples in here of how “normal” folks have changed their lives to better align with Jesus’ example of living the Gospel. I began to reflect back over the past two or three years of our families’ journey and attempt to process and view our choices, decisions, and events through this optic of what Chan calls a Crazy Love. This was one of the catalysts to us quickly pulling together a trip to Guatemala with my two daughters in less than a 3 week period.

Part two of this literary journey took me to Tom Davis’ book, Red Letters. I picked this up a few days before our trip to Guatemala to read on the plane and while there. The premise of Red Letters is the following: those words written in red, in many Bible versions, are specifically red because Jesus spoke them, maybe we should do what they say. Now there’s a novel idea, Jesus said them, maybe we should do them?! If you don’t want to hear/read about the ravaging effects of HIV AIDS on our 3^rd world brothers and sisters and the millions of unsuspecting children, stay away from this one. Davis has a huge heart for the plight of children caught in this terrible, deadly cycle of disease and poverty, and he uses many of their examples and his organization’s work in “doing” the red letters with these people groups. I will have to admit, my own pride and prejudices kept me from fully grasping what Davis was driving at in this one initially. For as long as I can remember, my general outlook on this horrific issue has been one of, you reap what you sew. Being truly honest, I have to admit that when hearing of the plight of AIDS ravaged countries and villages, I would internally say and think, “these people are being judged to earthly damnation for their immoral culture and behavior”. How hypocritical considering I too deserve earthly and eternal damnation as my judgment for my own sins. The syncing of Tom Davis’ message with our time in Guatemala, serving and working with some of “the least of these” was palpable in my heart. I was seriously beginning to question my own understanding and application of Jesus’ words, the ones in red.

The 3^rd leg of my book gauntlet took shape the week after we returned from Guatemala. I picked up a copy of Radical by David Platt, a pastor here in the Birmingham area. The first two books were building to a crescendo of emotions and clarity of my spiritual immaturity and lack of understanding of living out the Gospel. Radical, as the name would suggest, pulls no punches and kicked the door down of my emotional/spiritual protective barrier I had so meticulously pieced together over the years. This book peels back the layers and layers of spiritual lies we’ve painted ourselves with over time; you regularly tithe, you support some missionaries, you volunteer for VBS every year, you’ve adopted an orphan, you’re doing just fine. In the end though, what I’ve been doing is keeping a debit and credit tally handy for my spiritual successes, comfort, and more layers of fool heartedness. The statistics in Radical are staggering, sobering, humiliating, and dreadful. Platt challenges those of us who are calling ourselves Christians to action and to do something with these statistics that are really human beings, many of them children simply looking for someone to hold them and comfort them. I haven’t done enough!

Needless to say, just like Alabama, and probably like Auburn over the next three weeks, I did not run this gauntlet unscathed. I am broken and wrecked spiritually and emotionally having run through this trilogy! I’m still processing it all and determining where we will continue to make changes as a family, what we will be investing our $$ and time in, and what it means for my job and other life factors. We have already begun making some changes and openly discussing these issues with our children and why we are doing what we are doing. We’ve since sold our home, begun sponsoring 3 children from Swaziland, jumped onto our church’s mission committee, and are exploring other avenues and Kingdom building opportunities to put our time and resources into.

So, if you are reading this, I challenge you to run this literary gauntlet, in this order, in relatively quick succession. Let me know how you feel coming out the end and what you think.

And now, the rest of the story….

2010-10-01T13:59:00.002-05:00

Ever since I spent a summer in college in the Philippines with Campus Crusade for Christ I have wanted to do more short term missions and mission related activities. Like so many excuses we fall back on, life just seemed to be in the way of doing this. In May I was able to break this justification cycle and was able to take B and C to Guatemala for a quick trip to work with Hope for Guatemala. Somehow, we magically had enough $$ to purchase 3 plane tickets and didn’t have to pay for much else while there serving and helping at Hope. Just before going on this trip I had picked up Crazy Love by Francis Chan, which Melissa had lying around the house. It really got me thinking about what we were doing with our time, resources, lives, etc… It was a really thought provoking read and meshed nicely with the trip we were getting ready to take. In the back of Crazy Love are some examples and information of places that are doing Gospel powered work. Due to our “bent” towards orphans I was intrigued by the description of Children’s Hope Chest and I recognized the name of the director, Tom Davis. He had been mentioned in a note I read from a member of our church discussing orphan ministry and one of his books. So while looking for a good read on the plane, I ran across the one and only book at Amazon by Tom Davis, Red Letters (this was not the one mentioned in the letter above). Now, here me and my 2 oldest daughters are in the middle of one of Guatemala City’s worst neighborhoods loving on the most beautiful children and this book is talking about doing the things that Jesus said, you know, the ones that are written in Red in your bible? There’s a novel idea, if Jesus directly said them, maybe we should pay attention and actually do them! Now I’m REALLY beginning to question what the Freemans have been doing the past 3 or 4 years with our finances, resources, houses, etc… as we spend our days “ministering” to these children of Hope. Funny who really got ministered to, huh?

There is local pastor here in B’ham really making waves in the Christian community for his outspokenness and uncanny ability to teach the bible like you’ve never heard it. I had heard he recently published a book called Radical. While looking for more Tom Davis materials, once again I ran across a single copy of this book while at Amazon. I’m beginning to wonder about these single copy books just sitting by their lonesome waiting for me to come along and find them, God is sneaky like that you know. Coming off our trip to Guatemala, Crazy Love and Red Letters, I devoured this book in 2 days I think. I was visibly crying at times and Melissa was really freaking out! When I started reading some of it out loud to her, I could hardly contain my emotions, she knew God had snatched a hold of my heart and wasn’t letting go! It was going to be a wild ride; you could see it in her eyes as we talked through all of this, God was capturing her heart anew as well.

We knew we had to sell our house for sure then, no doubts about it. Note, it had been for sale for a year already, but it wasn’t really for all of the right reasons. I then had to pay the electrical bill for this house and said enough is enough! Even if making the mortgage payments on this house weren’t an issue, I could no longer justify the utilities for it when there are sooooo many more things I should be doing with those financial resources to help the poor, the orphan, the widow, etc… I came home from work on a Monday afternoon and declared that we needed to be out of this situation, asap. This was not only for our financial stability, but for our spiritual stability as well. We called our realtor and dropped the listing price $100k.

I won’t say how much less this was from what we paid for it, but remember the time machine? You can go back and do some figuring, based on the market flopping like that annoying gold fish on the psa commercials, between 2007 and now. We had a contract in hand 48 hours later! God finally quit laughing at us with Jesus rolling His eyes and wondering when we’d ever “get it”. On that Monday afternoon He finally saw us grow up, and He responded! We closed on this house that has been an albatross around our necks for 2 years and has stifled our ability to live in a Gospel powered way this past Tuesday. We are moving into the house we had unknowingly been “flipping” for our own family to move into next Monday. I mean seriously, who has ever heard of a nearly 3 year flip project? Only God and only Chris and Melissa!

We will in essence be debt free for the 2nd time (excluding a modest mortgage) and will have lost well over a year's salary in the process. WE are humbled, broken, saddened, and so freakin overjoyed in God's glory and love, all at the same time! It's hard to explain, but we feel awash in God's love and power in a way our family has never known. I can't wait to see what's in store after closing down this chapter and beginning a new one next week, just down the street from where we are leaving this weekend, but spiritually and emotionally a million miles from where we have been "living" the last 4 years.

Obey My commands, check, downsize house, check, give more resources to those in need, check, serve on missions committee, check, "lose" more than a year's salary in the process, che..., Hey wait a minute, come again Lord?!

2010-09-30T07:18:00.001-05:00

Hop in the DeLorean with me for a moment, pull down the door, buckle up, wait for it to hit 88 miles per hour (we've been watching all of the Back to the Future movies lately) and go back with me 3 years. Ah, it's 2007, we have 4 children, I have a new job with massive amounts of upward earnings potential, the real estate market is solid as a rock, the birds are singing, and the planets are all in alignment for the Freeman's and our pursuit of the Christian-American dream/lifestyle. During this year we are debt free, have a house at the lake, are tithing, enjoying life as we know it, and dreaming about bigger things. Bigger things morph into a bigger house and a flip house project, all projections/systems are looking good for leveraging our assets into more "things" and more money. Bigger house comes, some creative financing, some real estate speculation (hey, the market is rock solid and stuff in our area is selling great), and another adoption process begins for number 5. On all fronts we are the picturesque Christian-American family (don't look at me in that tone), doing things by the book, tithing, consistent at church, helping orphans by adopting and wife starting an adoption ministry at our church, all systems go!
You can see where this is headed, right? Do the math on the years, when did that pesky housing crisis begin? Ah yes, smack in the middle of leveraging our real estate equity into other real estate! Smart move Chris, I can just see God poking Jesus in the arm on the throne and saying, watch this unfold, it should be a doozy while rolling His eyes. You know, just like I might do with my wife as one of our children says, hey watch this, while doing something we just know inevitably won't end up well. But hey, we all have to learn sometime or another, right?

Fast forward a bit to Fall of 2009 as we approach finalizing our adoption of F from China. We now have 4 mortgages (1 is a rental) and a looming trip to China that we can't pay for. The thought of telling our adoption agency and the Chinese officials upon approval to travel, sorry, we'll have to wait a while before we can afford that trip, was nothing less than sickening. So... we sold our lake house to free up some funds. Keep in mind this was my sanity control and haven from all things stress related. Hmm, now that I type that, perhaps it was a bit of an idol and worshipful and took away my attention from the one truly deserving of my worship and attention. Of course I don't mean my beautiful wife, although she's running a good second place race on this one. All the while we had full intentions of selling our "flip" house, making some money to make up for some losses, and pressing on. Remember that image of God and Jesus coyly watching things unfold and how we'd react? Flip house is now going on 2 1/2 years to complete and our primary house has been for sale for a year with no takers, all the while the real estate market shriveling up like a (place some funny analogy here, use your imagination). Needless to say, while the outward Christian-American dream was looking good on the cover, inside it was crumbling and becoming a sad, sad story.

However, through this process, God really began to work on our hearts and our heart's desires. Through this fire, we have been shown how truly foolish we have been. We have seen that the Christian-American dream is in direct contrast to Gospel living, that we were saved by grace so that our works can glorify Him and help the many, many in need around us. We had become "house poor" in attempts to have more stuff, and could not help anyone but ourselves, and only barely at that. We were now spiritually poor in so many ways because of these things that we had placed our time, energy, and resources in.

To be continued......

A week in limbo

2010-09-25T10:27:00.001-05:00

If you have ever moved you know the feeling of the week before moving day. Moving prior to kids or doing so in college when everything you own can be jammed into your hatchback and plastic garbage bags doesn't count. That entire time of life is in limbo, a prelude if you will. Like one of those Pixar short films you sit through before the full length movie begins. Like one long transitional period in an alternate reality before "real" life begins as a grown-up, with little humans who's entire existence is dependent upon you!

So we're down to one week before moving day and the house is obviously a partially packed up disaster. While I am far from a type A person, this mess and disorganization makes the hairs on my neck stand up like soldiers waiting at the ready to do something about this! Alas it's just part of the process and a week of being in limbo, what to pack that won't be needed during the week, what isn't worth boxing and unboxing because we are only moving 3 blocks away, etc...

Makes me wonder if we have too much? We do a pretty good job of regularly purging, but.... Also makes me think of the orphan and poor, do they inheritantly feel in limbo and unsettled because they have so little or nothing, or is it possibly freeing to some extent to not have much "stuff"? I would like to think I would feel content with less stuff but great personal relationships. As Jesus said, the foxes have dens and birds have nest, but the Son of God has no place to lay his head. He had everything wrapped up in relationships and others, never in stuff. As we simplify and attempt to give away more, I am praying we too will be able to invest in more personal relationships for kingdom building purposes and put less energy and time into stuff.

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The President must be encouraging devil worship...

2010-09-13T20:29:00.002-05:00

I admit I have pretty much been on a news fast for a while now, choosing to read more wholesome materials like my bible and other more uplifting literature like Jamie the Very Worst Missionary. In my attempts to avoid vast amounts of wasted ink and electrons from the news drones, did I miss somewhere that the President is going to attempt to indoctrinate our children with cult like propaganda in his back to school speech, or attempt the Vulcan mind meld via the television in attempts to make them all march out of the house and prostrate themselves facing Mecca?

I have to ask because D brought home a permission slip for us to sign to "allow" him to watch this recorded speech from the leader of the free world. Note I didn't state the permission slip was for excluding him from participating but rather the reverse, implying that the norm is to not allow them to watch our President discuss staying in school, staying off drugs, etc... unless the parent ok's this activity.

For those of you that know me, don't think someone has hijacked my blog and is now writing in jest on my behalf as if I have had my brain melded and suddenly become a raving fan of big O. I do however believe our culture has absolutely gone haywire and pure respect and civil discourse has gone the way of Mayberry. While I admit I have a difficult time watching/listening to this man, mostly because of his speech giving skills, or lack thereof anymore, I truly can't believe I am having to sign a piece of paper that states, yes, I give permission to let my 4th grader watch the President of THE United States in his annual/traditional back to school speech. The mere fact I am having to do this speaks volumes to what we are "teaching" our children, they are watching us you know, right?

If I truly believe the theology I proclaim, then I have to let my kids see that I KNOW God is at work, through all things, for those that call him Lord, Romans 8:28. Or that the Bible for Dummies was summarized by Jesus by providing the 2 greatest commandments, Love the Lord with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself, Matthew 22: 36 - 40. There's a ton packed in those 2 versus, but it's really that simple. The command for us, especially Christians, to love our neighbors as ourselves seems to simply be dismissed anymore as fairy tale. We teach our children the Golden Rule, in just about every world religion, but apparently this doesn't apply to adults. Os Guinness wrote "The Case for Civility" a few years ago and addressed this inability to have civil discourse in the town square anymore. I do believe as he does, if America can't bring this back, it's down hill from here.

So while I do not like our President's policies, I do respect the position, and the man as my neighbor, and I will "allow" my son to hear/watch him during school time. My small contribution to civil discourse in the town square as he is watching me during these ridiculously partisan times.

One on one meetings, you never know what will be discussed

2010-09-07T07:44:00.000-05:00

Whew what a great 3 day weekend we had. It was the weekend of Bailey and according to her FB status, at one point it was the best weekend ever! I will admit it was a pretty splendid weekend all the way around, great weather, football kickoff, friends, and fun activities. For me though, what made it great was the one on one "meetings" I had with the 4 oldest. At this point in my career I am fortunate enough to have a fair amount of folks under my oversight. For those that report directly to me, it has become more and more important to have regular one on one meetings as we've grown larger and I can't possibly meet with all of the front line staff individually with any regularity. It's during these meetings that all kinds of things get discussed from long range plans to how to deal with the day to day petty stuff that sometimes can swing the floor one way or the other. You know, the really important stuff like why our break room didn't get the standing monthly birthday cake like other break rooms, one time. It's amazing what can distract from the mission at hand.

The same can be true for our families and especially our children. Their world is so self revolving, it doesn't take much to have things perilously close to spinning off axis and into a crisis. I wish I could say I was more regular with these one on one times, but I at least try and seize the opportunity when I see it coming. This long weekend was one of those times.

It started Saturday with most of the day spent with my oldest going to the Auburn game, 2 hours down, 7 hours at Auburn, 2 hours back. You can cover a lot of topics in that amount of time, and we usually do.

Due to having yesterday off and some great weather, I picked up the schedule with number four, E. I can tell he's been wanting some Daddy time lately.

In the morning before going to work, Daddy when you get home will you play Star Wars with me? When I get home, before closing the door behind me, same question. He's really been wanting to go bike riding but usually ask immediately after I've returned from a 30 to 40 mile ride as I'm sprawled on the floor under the ceiling fan. Needless to say, due to the timing, I have to decline. So yesterday morning he asked and I immediately said yes, to which he lit up and added, can it just be you and me and not number 5 too? So off we went, just the two of us. E loves to discuss what he will do when he grows up, so we spend a lot of time talking about his grownup dreams, like having his own house he shares with his brother, being able to drive to the playground on his own, whenever he wants, and other "dreamy" ideas. He was sufficiently worn out after what was a fairly lengthy ride for him. It never hurts to take a pit stop for ice cream in the middle though to refuel.

We made it home just in time for me to tag out with E. and grab D. for a run to the dollar movie. The place was packed! I took the opportunity in the car to discuss some school related issues and how the things we stress at home like first time obedience, respect for others, I'm 3rd, do all to the glory of God, etc... apply to school and not just home and church. It wasn't a long drive to the movies, but just enough and just about the right length for a 9 year old attention span to discuss "life". Movie was fun, we were silly and hopefully some of that serious stuff followed by some laughs will stick. Got home, realized we had plenty of time and good weather to hit the pool for one last time before they closed for the season. So me and the 3 little pigs hit the pool one last time and we closed it down. Dutch will love being able to tell everyone, and I mean everyone, that he was THE last person to go off the diving board and swim in the pool for the season. It's always fun to be THE person at something or other I suppose, at least in the world of a 9 year old.

I realized that during all of this one on one time I hadn't yet squeezed in my 2nd oldest. This isn't something she would likely overlook either and I'm sure I'd hear about it sooner or later. Just like employees, the one person you inadvertently forget to say good morning to will come back to haunt you down the road. So I checked in the 3 youngest, said tag your it, to C. and off we went to walk to the yogurt shop.

I'm continually amazed at where our conversations go some days. Last nights ranged from general silliness to wanting to be a missionary some day. We somehow got on the topic of The Declaration of Independence, pulling it up on my phone and discussing, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", and how God never promised us happiness and what this declaration means through the lens of Jesus and what He desires for/from us. I can honestly say, for a 12 year old, I was blown away with her thoughts on these things! You never know where these one on one meetings will lead, so parents, you just have to have the radars up, take the queues, and go with them when the opportunity arises.

Now, I think I need another day off!

Daughters and Traditions

2010-09-05T14:14:00.003-05:00

Finding common ground for Dads and daughters is sometimes a tricky path, especially as they grow into young women. Finding traditions they will cherish into their adult life is even more difficult. One such tradition that I totally fell into, I wish I could claim some long range purposeful plan, was one with my oldest daughter 5 or 6 years ago. Having been away from Alabama ever since graduating from Auburn in '92, I was determined to go to some football games once we returned. Oh, and some Nascar up the road in red neck central, Talladega. You know, as in Talladega Nights, "momma i'm going fast", in a car and in life? Yeah, that's the one, but I digress.

It just so happens that opening weekend of the college football season falls on Labor Day weekend and B's birthday is on the 3rd (it's also opening of dove season in Alabama, but I chose the football route as I didn't envision her pining for the days of sitting in the middle of a hot field waiting for birds to fly over when she's married with her own children). So, a handful of years ago I grabbed 2 tickets and we headed to the Loveliest Village on the Plains for her birthday. Well, it's now a tradition and one that she inquires about every August, we ARE going to the game, right dad? No pressure on me to find tickets that are reasonable, not in the blazing sun, etc... or anything.

There have been some close calls in finding some decent tickets but we've managed to make it 5 or 6 years running, we've been debating on the exact time frame. This weekends trek was an especially fond one for me mainly because of how God provided this time. Money for anything extra has been very tight as of late, one of the reasons we are downsizing, and we've been extremely purposeful with our funds and giving as God leads. To be honest, I just didn't have the $$ to purchase tickets, gas, food, gift, etc... this time around. I was really not wanting to break our tradition that has become one of our great memories together. Once again, God's providence reigned, and we were able to get 2 tickets for free this year, in the lower deck, in the shade! We had a great trip down and back, spent some time with some church friends, and B ran into more friends in one afternoon at the game yesterday than I think she had combined in years past. It was one of our more enjoyable and easy going games we've been to. We stayed until the very end, which we normally don't, because it was such a beautiful night and we were enjoying the moment. She got to see Toomer's Corner in full glory afterward for a change.

I'm thankful this tradition and this uninterrupted time with my daughter. I pray God allows us to continue on this tradition. Now, don't ask me about my other 4 children, I'm still working on falling into a tradition with them too. Oh and believe you me, they let me know about this shortcoming every September as B and I head out the door.

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MIssion Minded Conversations with Kids

2010-08-29T20:13:00.000-05:00

It's been an interesting weekend of emotions around the house varying from normal teenage and pre-teen emotions, to toddler discipline and training, to discussions about what it means to follow Jesus and the gospel. On Friday it started with the oldest feeling down about high school, not making the squad of the activity she had her heart set on, and watching said group preparing for the first game of the season. This obviously brought back a lot of emotions from this past Spring regarding disappointment and the feeling of defeat. This quickly morphed into general conversations regarding us selling our house to move into a smaller one, what's "fair", and change in general. Earlier on Friday I had run across this moving reminder of how blessed we are and where our focus should be as it relates to our culture around us and what Jesus would have us do with the resources we have, and how we should be responding to those times when we don't get the things we want.

At some point Friday night the two oldest watched this and needless to say it put just about all of the things they had been whining about in check. I didn't show it to them to shut them up, but it was a good visual of what we had begun talking about as part of what we deserve versus what we actually have and whether what they were emotionally struggling with was founded in anything other than self pity and selfishness. C told me tonight I should just bust out this video anytime they start whining about stupid stuff as a reminder, hmmm. Nah, couldn't parent out of that much guilt, at least not all of the time anyway.
Later that night I also showed the girls some really cool mission trip opportunities through Adventures in Missions. Before long some really animated discussions broke out regarding the pros and cons of going on the various trips coming up next year; that place is too humid, i can't go into the Amazon jungle, I think ministering in the Amazon jungle would be the bomb!, we wouldn't want to go to Guatemala because if we go there we HAVE to be going to work with Jose and Erin at Hope, Ireland would be a tough place to minister, etc... While we certainly don't encourage arguing, this was some really great "debate" on the merits of who would potentially attempt to go where on one of these mission trips in the future and why.
On a side note, C recently said she thought the house we're hopefully downsizing into was painted a boring color and she wished we could have it painted something fun, like turquoise. Melissa of course attempted to point out the inherent issues this might cause in our ultra conservative, well to do area of Birmingham (sometimes referred to as Vestopia), why it wouldn't be prudent, respectful of the neighbors, blah, blah, blah. To which C responded incredulously by stating, it wouldn't be an issue where she would be living one day. Puzzled, Melissa asked if she had plans to live at the beach? Again with much consternation as if to say, Mom, duh, Guatemala, doing mission work! What ya going to say to that? Keep dreaming big sweetie!!

The rest of the weekend was sprinkled with eternal facing discussions, attempting to weave the gospel into various disciplinary opportunities (including the one going on behind me right now about disobeying your mother), and a discussion at the dinner table about the sermon we heard this morning about Isaiah getting his lips seared with a lump of coal by an angel and promptly raising his hand to go on a mission for God. This might translate into E's rear end getting seared by his mother in a few minutes in hopes he'll raise his hand to be the first to obey next time.

Whew, trying to lay gospel centered decisions and instruction across all that we do with our children can be exhausting some days. It's so much easier to simply say because I said so! I even asked Melissa at one point today, what is the gospel centered response/correction to pain in the a#@?! I'll let you know if we ever figure that one out.

Just glad some of these stories we are attempting to be involved in are taking some roots and hopefully will keep us mission minded where possible.

Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child...

2010-08-21T19:46:00.000-05:00

Some days I wish I could remember the pure joy of running through a sprinkler. I'm sure God wishes we would remember that too as He has provided so much for us to enjoy. He even told his disciples that we should receive what He has provided us like a child would, with whole hearted abandonment. It took my boys and a friend about 2 seconds to whip on some swim trunks and begin zipping through a sprinkler today once they heard I'd hook it up for them. They didn't question me, they didn't question or weigh the merits of having to change, dry off afterward, change again, stop playing legos in the interim, they just went big baby once they knew I was serious.

I ran into a friend today I haven't seen in quite some time, who is the epitome of what God was trying to teach His disciples in this verse. She seems to live life to the fullest and experience everything and everyone God puts in her path, and I mean everyone! I can only imagine her dear husband trying to get anywhere on time with her. In the end though, she has the most amazing stories! Been reading a lot about stories lately, and she has some of the most awesome encounters. I can remember times when she would in SS class hijack a conversation or get so rapped up in someone's encounter and I'd just want to move on already. But as I become more aware of what a child like faith looks and feels like, I think she has it, and I want more of it! Thanks Liz for always being you and trusting in God in such a child like manner, one that we should all emulate more.

So while I may find myself trying to run through the sprinkler like these boys are, you might find me looking more like this, but hey, I'll be doing it.

The Decline of Self Sufficiency

2010-08-15T16:38:00.000-05:00

One of the things we were amazed about was how self sufficient Fisher was at the ripe old age of 3 years and 1 month. He could do so much for himself we were constantly amazed during our three week time with him in China and would quite often find ourselves looking at each other, mouths agape, with a look of, "did he just do that himself?"

We were discussing this with a couple at the birthday party on Friday who have 2 young boys from China as well. When I asked them if their two were self sufficient when they got them, their eyes lit and up and they immediately blurted, "Yes! Scarily So!" We immediately began laughing at some of the stories, folding their own clothes, brushing their teeth better than my dentist does during a cleaning, tearing off the lid of a sippy cup because it's just annoying and limits the flow of liquids, throwing away trash, etc... We then bemoaned the stories of today which lead to, what the crap happened after we got them then?!

For example... On the second day in China with Fisher, he finally had to go poop. He hopped right up, no stool, no special seat. I hung around to of course make sure he didn't fall in. When he was finished, I did like any good parent of a toddler would and began getting ready to clean him. This was instantly met with screams and a flurry of Mandarin that could only have meant, No, I do it myself! To which he did, tore off the correct amount of toilet paper, folded it just so, wiped, checked himself and repeated until he was clean. Fast forward to now, 5 months later. Door flung wide open in the hall bath of house, Fisher's voice reverberating throughout the entire house announcing, "I'm doooooooone!" As if to say, the royal highness is finished with his business and someone better come quick or their WILL be consequences. Oh my how we have digressed.

It does lead us to believe two very important things; these children were treated like little adults and if they didn't do as expected, there would be harsh consequences, and secondly, toddlers are capable of way more than we think and can be accountable for more than we presume. Our tendency is to enable inability and dependence on us too much, when in fact, within the correct loving boundaries, they can quite often wipe their own tushes just fine thank you, all by themselves.

Wondering if other adoptive parents have seen this behavior?

United Nations of Vestavia Hills

2010-08-13T20:03:00.004-05:00

Went to one of our friends houses tonight up the street for their sons 4th birthday. He happens to be from the exact same orphanage in China as our most recent edition. They traveled and came home several months before we did. We arrived back home with Fisher in time to celebrate Chinese New Year with them and another family this past Spring. It's a bit ironic that in this upper middle class, white, suburban area of Birmingham, Alabama how many ethnically adopted children we encounter. It's like our own little children's United Nations around here between, China, Kazakhstan, Gautemala, South Korea, Romania, biracially adopted, etc...

As you can see, Fisher is quite the dare devil at the age of 3. He bolted out of the car and immediately did his best Superfly Jimmy Snuka into one of the wading pools.

Our own little Phinas and Ferb posing just long enough before off to do the next mischievous activity they can dream up together.

You'd think as much "junk" as this boy eats he'd be more than the stick and bones that he is!

It's such a blessing to be able to share so many of our stories with other families nearby; cultural adventures in foreign lands, hurdles with government agencies, speech classes, issues in school and the overall experience of living out James 1:27 as best we know how.

What Defensive Scheme Are You Running?

2010-08-10T08:33:00.002-05:00

There are a fair amount of different defensive schemes or strategies a football team can employ depending on a myriad of factors. These might include overall philosophy, athletic ability of players, how much depth is available, down and distance, time of the game...

There are 3 basic defenses:

Man-to-Man: each player is assigned to defend and follow the movements of a single player on offense

Zone: instead of each player guarding a corresponding player on the other team, each defensive player is given an area, or a "zone", to cover

Prevent: A prevent defense backs up the coverage so far that it will often give up long yardage, but it makes scoring a touchdown in a single play very difficult

As our family has grown, it's funny how the defensive strategy so closely aligns with these three general football strategies.

Child 1 - this doesn't really count, is more like a practice game, and no particular defensive scheme is required, simply understand that whomever is closes to said child defends at that particular time. This is sort of like having a pet, just make sure you feed/water/change it, surely between two grown adults this can be handled without much fuss.

Child 2 - ok, now we're getting down to a game plan, for sure you can play man-to-man on this one. Honey, I'll take number 1 tonight and you take number 2. If things get too messy we can switch on the screen and pick up the other one, just don't forget to switch on the screen.

Child 3 - you are now out numbered and are forced to play a zone defense for sure, make sure you cover your area (chores, homework, carpool, etc...) and keep open lines of communication so as to not get confused with your area. And by all means don't get the hand signals mixed up or someone will be running free in an uncovered area of the field.

Child 4 or more - this is prevent defense the vast majority of the time, just drop back, keep everyone in front of you at all times, and don't lose eye contact, whatever you do, don't let that fast sneaky one get behind you! Again, communication and eye contact with each other is vital on this one as you are attempting to "herd" multiples in an area without hanging your teammate out to dry with unfair numbers.

Even within these schemes there are slight variations. Last night after coming home from work, it was evident I needed to run a cover 2 (ok, this isn't technically a cover 2 but it makes sense for this illustration) and drive Eli and Fisher to another part of the playing field as far away from mom as possible. While this did leave Melissa having to defend 3, they were fairly pre-occupied and not "in the play" too much while she was preparing our fixins for the evening. It gave me a chance to just go be silly like a 3 and 5 year old away from everyone. Sometimes culling a few from the herd is good for the spirit, laughter, and self preservation on my part when mom has that Ray Lewis crazy eyes thing going. I love a great defense, but a personal foul penalty usually only hurts your teammates and is detrimental the overall strategy.

What kind of defense are you running most days and under what circumstances does it change?

God's Eternal Family is Interracial

2010-08-08T13:02:00.001-05:00

This image by Norman Rockwell has certainly taken on new meaning for us in the past 4 years. Adding a child from Guatemala and now China into our existing brood has changed the legacy of the Freeman family into an interracial one, forever. To say the least, being conservative Christians in the deep south adds a bit of irony to the story! Christianity in the deep south juxtaposed with deep rooted conservative racial views makes for some interesting looks and conversations some days. Note that I didn't say racism, but conservative racial views, I believe these can be mutually exclusive and not necessarily the same thing.

Thankfully we live in a community that seems to have begun taking Jesus' calling of pure religion (James 1:27) at face value and not a mere suggestion. Every time we go to the pool it seems we run into another interracial family that has opened their hearts and home to an orphan or two from the far reaches of the globe. Of course this could be that new car purchase anomaly. You know the one where just about the time you've made a final decision on the type of car you want to purchase (or have just purchased), you all of the sudden become keenly aware of how many of the same make/model are on the road already? I never paid attention or noticed how many of those old (late 80's, early 90's), white, 4 door, Toyota Corolla's were on the road until I had to drive one for several years. All of the sudden they were EVERYWHERE! It became known as the poor teacher/professor mobile in several circles of mine.

I'd like to think it's more than this though. I'd like to think that Christians at large, especially those with "means" and access to resources are finally waking up and realizing we haven't been using what God has provided us wisely, or at all correctly for that matter. If we are adopted into God's interracial family, why would we hesitate to do the same with our family? I recently heard someone say that many people are certain to have a rude awakening when they get to heaven and realize those _____ people (fill in whatever race you want) are here too?!

Mine, MIne, Mine, Can it be all Mine?

2010-08-08T12:51:00.001-05:00

If your kids are anything like ours, this scene from Finding Nemo seems to play itself out nearly every day in our house! This seems to become exponentially true the larger the quiver of children. It has always been part of raising kids and dealing with who has what and what is fair for each of them depending on their ages and maturity level. It has come to the forefront even more since Fisher joined the ranks 5 months ago.

He is 3 years old and in serious competition with his 5 year old brother for everything! Every object in the house, even this silly pink hat of his mothers, becomes a conversation around, "can it be mine, all mine?" Of course we initially go down the path, of no that belongs to so and so, or no we all share that, etc... Only to be met with a few more pleas of mine, mine, mine, can it be all mine?

At times we are left contemplating is he just being a typically selfish 3 year old, or he is outwardly expressing some repressed feelings of belonging? Does he have a deep rooted need to "know" that something is his and his only for the first time in his life, or is he just wanting everything to be his, as is our sin nature?

Needless to say we try to find a balance between feeding his selfish nature to control everything, and everyone, versus his need to have comfort and ownership and control of something given the first 3 years of his life has had only a modicum of these things. This wasn't really an issue with Eli as he joined at us at such a young age and his age difference to the next sibling. We'll keep doing our best to balance hard wired longings due to his circumstances and normal toddler aged behavior. In the mean time, I'll keep trying to laugh as I envision the birds from Nemo attempting to make everything edible, theirs, and only theirs.

...unless you turn and become like children...

2010-08-07T19:30:00.002-05:00

I had the opportunity to see Matthew 18 up close and personal today. Several families in our Sunday school class have been organizing some items for what had been a homeless mom and three boys, attempting to get out of a bad family situation. This morning was the day they were moving into a rent free apartment that had been procured for at least the next 4 months or so.

Melissa and I had been saying for quite some time now we needed to have a serious garage sale and find a way to donate the money. This is always one of those task that sounds excellent in principle until it comes to actually organizing it, planning the date, putting an add in the paper, pricing everything, deciding what actually should be up for sale, etc... Whew, it's tiring just writing out what needs to take place. Then there is the whole back and forth of what should be drug into the driveway for the general public to rummage through. This is never fun as the merits and value of every item has to be discussed/argued, reminisced about (oh, remember that one day that was used for one time, and it was so sweet how the kids....) until I am ready to turn the garage sale into an estate sale, put a price on everything, and just see what happens.

After much procrastination and good intentions, like those of getting up early and going to the gym but just not quite getting there, God put us out of our misery. I guess since we were dilly dallying around so long about selling this stuff and donating the $$, He decided to simply march a family in need directly into our paths, hard to ignore those signs. We were able to contribute a fare amount of stuff to furnish their empty apartment this morning, I don't think they had much more than the clothes they were wearing.

It was good to see a handful of families we know all there pitching in along with a plethora of children there to help as well and play with the three boys moving in. It was so refreshing to watch the kids interact, both in wanting to help and interact with the three boys. It was as if they had known them forever and it was merely a family reunion with cousins. At one point there were a scattering of black, white, Chinese, and Guatemalan children ranging in age from 5 to 14, carrying items and playing like crazy together.

Not once did I ever see any of them pause as if to question each other's motives, intentions, thoughts, or hesitate to engage. At one point, Dutch broke into sharing about Jesus' love for him and them as well in the midst of just hopping through the apartment. While all of us adults know we were doing the right thing by attempting to provide for this families physical needs, leave it to one of the children to attempt and provide for their spiritual needs.

It was a great example of Matthew 18:1-6. It was a great reminder of how we should have a faith more like our children and refreshing to learn once again, we are all created in the image of God and His love is not spared for only those who look or act deserving.

Love Hate Relationship

2010-08-01T20:24:00.004-05:00

I love my children, but I hate the destructive power of 5 that can inevitably demolish what we had just recently cleaned and/or picked up. The speed and voracity rivals the best of any SEC top notch defense (maybe Auburn will have more of this in the coming months). The cacophony of noise that rains down from all corners of the house during a full weekend of everyone being home is enough at times for me to simply wish to walk out the front door and melt into the draining heat.

While I am far from a type A personality, I do like order and believe things have a place, and that usually doesn't mean any randomly open spot on the floor throughout the house (i.e. How/why in the world is "this" in my bathroom!?). The real irony here is that it doesn't bother my wife too much, go figure. Maybe it's the math/physics background in me, every variable has a purpose and everything in nature has a formulaic approach to it and the study of chaos theory doesn't apply to household order/disorder.

The good news is I truly believe the kids all feel safe and comfortable and can explore their personalities in a loving environment. I also take comfort that eventually (hopefully before they all are put to bed tonight) they will chip in, do their part, and restore some order to the two days of playing, frolicking, fighting, fussing, laughing, and loving on each other to awaken tomorrow to a new week and some space to walk through the house without worrying about breaking my ankle.

"Did you get your poop hole fixed"?

2010-07-31T11:37:00.001-05:00

This is what one of my colleagues continued to ask me every day this past week as it related to our ongoing sewer saga mystery. Classy huh, considering I work at a college? We just had to laugh though at the mystery of where the "stuff" was going because no one, and I mean no one could figure out what in the world was going on with what could only be described as a mystery pipe running through the yard.

The county just couldn't believe what I was telling them so I finally hired someone to start digging. Once the mystery pipe was exposed, I requested they come look. You could just feel the brain power as inspectors, contractors, plumbers, county sewer mucketee mucks all stood around and like a really bad choral echo, they all kept saying, "dang, that's really weird, I wonder where THAT pipe is going", one after the other. All the while just scratching and staring into the hole.

It was like a blue collar don't blink staring contest, no one wanted to commit to the next move. After much discussion and hypothesis building that would rival any Ivy League research department, we dug some more, it's just more dirt right?

After only a few more minutes, the guy turns off the back hoe and says, huh, what in the world is that?! Certainly not something you want to hear from your plumber, or doctor, when working on your poop hole. He says, hey there's another sewer line in here, what the heck?!!! After determining this line was indeed running properly to the main sewer line the real hypothesis began; where did your contractor connect to, where's your "stuff" been going for the past 5 months, etc...? Turns out during the remodel the contractor's plumber somehow never saw where the house was supposed to be connected, kept digging and found the original 1957 house connection, which no one knows where it really goes, but the dirt being dug up certainly didn't look or smell good. Can you say eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwhhhhhhhh!

So after tons of emotional ups and downs relating to the ridiculous amount of $$$ that was going to be coming out of our pockets, the original contractor finally says, wow, we really messed that up didn't we? He's paying to have it done correctly so we're not having to come out of pocket, the best news all week! I can honestly say I hope you don't have to have your poop hole worked on any time soon.

Mamby Pamby Land

2010-07-28T09:39:00.000-05:00

I know God is a loving and gracious God, but some days I have to wonder if he wouldn't rather respond to our sniveling more in this manner? I know we sure do with our kids and it's hard not to, especially during especially stressful times.

You know like when your back yard is being ripped up by a back hoe because no one can figure out where your families' personal business is flowing to and the estimate before even breaking ground would purchase a steady used car for your driver to be teenage daughter. Then getting the boo boo face from your 5 year old because you wouldn't just "drop by" and pick up a brand new Wii game while on a run to the grocery store for milk, I want to just drop the old drill sarge on them some days!

I can only imagine my reactions if placed on the throne next to God watching our daily lives unfold.

Thoughts wafting up to heaven:

"I hate this mini-van, it's so uncool and constantly needs upkeep"
"I need a new flat screen, i can't go another college football season without watching it in HD"
"I hate cleaning this house, it's too big to keep up with, we need a full time maid"
"Why are these children asking so many dang questions, they sure are needy"
"Everyone in the neighborhood has been to the beach at least once already this summer, why can't we go?"

God:
I sacrificed my Son for you.

If i was sitting there I'd be rolling my eyes like i do at my kids and telling them to stop wallowing in Mamby Pamby land and get some perspective.

Note to self: see above....

Found, $475 a month: We'll take it!

2010-07-26T22:12:00.000-05:00

God always cracks me up when it comes to finances and money. Several months ago Melissa says, "it's going to cost blah, blah, blah for Fisher (newly adopted from China) and Eli (adopted 4 years ago from Guatemala) to attend preschool/kindergarten at the church. After doing some quick math in my head and picking my jaw up from the ground, I said ok, we'll figure it out.

Fast forward to today and several instances of being presented with the opportunity to give sacrificially to something God had placed in our path, to which we did what we were lead to give.

We're in the midst of a major sewer issue (which will likely cost something akin to a monthly mortgage payment) and Melissa received a call from the church, we have a need for you to work at the preschool next year.

And here I thought "we'd" figure out how to make this work next year. Turns out God had it figured out the whole time. Melissa will work 2 days/week at the preschool and Fisher (3 days a week) and Eli (5 days a week) will have their tuition waived. That's approximately $475/month thank you very much!

Now we'll have to find a way to pay some, if not all of it, forward.

Our Family Has Grown... Again

2010-07-26T21:55:00.002-05:00

We'd like to introduce Mhlengi (age 19), Mduduzi (age 14), and Zandile (age 7) from the Manzini region of Swaziland. We are now supporting these three with their monthly expenses at the Beveni carepoint in conjunction with Children's HopeChest.

Swaziland is sometimes called the nation of orphans because it has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world and the average life span is only 28 - 30. This would mean that our oldest daughter of 14 is considered "middle aged" in Swaziland. We had a great sit down with the kids the other night and discussed the bio's of these three children and statistics of Swaziland, needless to say they were a bit taken a back as they internalized their own circumstances and life span compared with these children. They are pretty excited about beginning monthly communications with their new "siblings" from across the globe.