Waiting for the paper work that will allow us to go home is getting to be a little frustrating.   I wander if this is a minor version of the Israelites’ frustration after forty year in the desert.  I know it is not the same – we are not escaping slavery and we are not being lead by a cloud of fire but we do have manna which is Chinese food and our rock of water is Coke Zero and Crystal Lite.  One thing for sure is that our home state is not the Promised Land.  (But once I get there I would like to knock the walls of arrogance and short sightedness down around the topic of their not investing in light rail.)

The frustration is that we have a two day trip home and we really cannot start because “The Ten Commandments” of the adoption paper work has not made it back from our home state.  Our concern is that the there was some minor issues in the paper work that the lawyers (The Levites of this comparison) said would not be any problem.   What is a problem is the home state lawyer is getting back from his honeymoon today and birth states “adoption” person does not work on Tuesday’s and Thursday’.

To say the least like the Israelites our little tribe is getting grouchy, testy and on each other nerves in our little three room tent.  It does feel like it has been 40 years and for a four year old two week is forty years.

I know we will be going home soon but, and to quote my fathers favorite comedian “all things considered I rather be in Philadelphia.”

We have been blessed!  We have a new member of family.  Last Friday our daughter was born.  She is healthy, strong and by the way beautiful.  It true, just ask anyone who sees her.

 We did not have any restriction on what kind child we were going to adopt except that it be and infant.  Race did not matter – location did not matter – sex did not matter– we would have taken twins.  For a while we thought there might be two because the birth mother had been telling us it was a boy and talked about seeing his, you know.  Then three weeks ago she called and said it was a girl. 

After we had taken the child into our position and both birth parents signed the papers, we meet with the birth mother’s lawyer to sign some paper work for our lawyer.  One of the issues we have had with the agency we worked with was the legal fees.  We paid $10,000 in fees for the two lawyers and a lawyer finder’s fee. 

When we spoke with her lawyer we asked how much she charges because our lawyer had a max amount that was not close to what we paid and we discovered her lawyer was getting less.  We told her she need to reevaluate her fee and she said she charges less for biracial adoptions because most people who adopt biracial had less means than those adopting as single race (white) baby.

My wife and a were dumb struck.  The implication is that the more wealth the more likely they would want a white child.  I don’t know why this surprised me but it did.  Because race was not an issue for us why would it be for other persons of means?

 The more things change the more they stay the same.

We visited the birth parents last week and the child is a reality now where before it was a possibility that was more costly than expected.  I am getting prepared to have a new child in the house.  Changing dippers, again.  Planning showers around when the child is asleep and so forth.  SON plans on being a good big brother but I am not sure I want to put an infant in the care of a 4 year old who like to through thing and bowling.  I have this picture of the second son in line with the bowling pins and son trying to knocking them over.

We are in for a exciting time but also a exhausting time.

I am getting ready for my first big trip in six months.

Part of me is excited and part already tired.

Going back to Peru and will visit Macho Picchu.

Wish Wife and Son were going to see it two.

Will take pictures, that is if I can fine the “SM” card for the old digital camera.

Either Wife or Son have found good place to keep it.

Will give a travel log while in Lima, Cuzco and of course exotic Houston.

I have finally found my response to the question “Are you saved?”

“Yes,  I am saved in God’s act of creation”

This response encapsulates my understand of salvation. 

Creation is one act of salvation most clearly seen in Christ life, death and resurrection. 

An act that is still alive today.

Is it wrong to hope for a ice storm so that church can be canceled? 

We have been on the run for so long and with Wife working nights this week.  I need a day off.

It does not look like I am going to get one.  Next week I go to North Carolina and then on the 9th I go to Peru for a week.

I know I should not complain when there are many, many people who have many more troubles than having to go to Peru but all I want is to sleep until I wake up for a day or two.

 God forgave me for not appreciating the good fortune life has brought.  

The budget dicussion went quickly knowing that what ever is requested will be cut which does not help set a postive mind set for a meeting.   We then started to talk about the details of the educational event.   The committee had met the month before and brainstormed topics for workshops.  

As the meeting went along it became clear that the topics that were on the list were things they, the committee members, were intersted in and could lead themselves.   I was very proud of myself, this being my first meeting, I did not blert out, as it became obvious, that the event was more about makeing  a place for the committe members and their friends to present and not about what was of interest to the prospective attendees.   I am not saying this was a consious decision.  Sometimes it is easier to work within what we know than have to put time and effort into finding something diffrent.  The topics were either about things that sort of worked five years ago or about about issues that have been dicussed into the ground for the last 15 years.

This is somthing I have have seen in every presbertry I have served and it might be one of the reasons the demonation I am a part of is stagnet.    Everything that is done at the level beyond the local church is more about the issues and topics that important to the planners and not about what would best serve the congregations.  

What I hope these workshops could be about is to address issues and topics that will help churches look to the future.  What I ended up suggesting was that we have a workshop on helping congreagation to get past the stale “praise worship services,” that the baby boomers love (and some congregations think will be the salvation for their dying churches), and help churchs meet the needs of the non baby boom generations that are asking for more structure or in other words how can we recapture our refromed understanding of worship that can be creative within broad litergical structure.

It was obvious that this was outside the box but they were interested, if a little confused.   Their firsts responce was we can not afford to bring someone in from the outside.   My responce was that I knew someone who was already leading this kind of worship and that they did not need to worry about the cost.  Laughing Pastor, I am talking about you  by  the way.  If LP is willing to lead this workshop I will cover his expences.

Well I guess I am still using my friend but it is a topic that has not been driven into the ground and I definantly will not be leading it myself. 

This morning I took Son to his first dental apponitment.  As with many humans know, (and other mammals such as dogs) no matter  how old you get, going to the dentist is not greeted with excessive joyous anticipation, Son felt the same way and was a little hesitant to go back with me to have my teeth cleaned before his apponitment so he could  see that getting your teeth cleaned  was not much diffrent that brushing your teeth.

Whe we got back there he sat on a stool with both hands over his mouth.   After a while he got comfortable enough to start walking around the work station, looking at everything and asking questions like: “Whats That?” and “Wash Hands?.”  Before my cleaning was done he was literally standing next to me looking into my mouth making it hard for the hygienest to work.

Now to the time moving faster with age.  The hygienest made two comments that reenforeces one of my observations about time.  First, she commented about his looking at every thing in the work station and second, that as we were getting close to being finished with my cleaning she said “I bet he feels like this has taken hours.”

I have wander over the years that if the reason that time seems to move faster as we get older is that we continue to take in everything that Son was observing in the dentist office, which takes the same amount of time,  but our brains registers something like “Oh yah” and the time spent does not register in our conscious time.

Like wise, time seems to lengthen when we find ourselves in a place where we have to wait and be on someone elses time table like, in an airport or doctors office or in line at the super market or at a stop light.  The 30 seconds to a minute that we wait at a stop light (particularly in the middle of the night with no other car around) can seem like five minutes and the 15 minute wait in the doctor office can seem like an hour.

Still, a six hour wait in an airport seem like forever!

In the end my point is,  how time is precived is as dependent on our attention span and concentration as it is on the ticking clock.

How else can you explain the three hours gone in an instant when reading a book like Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows.

I have given in. Wife has gotten me to switch so we can access my blog site from home without reliving the early 90′s download speed.

So, Here I am back up to 00′s speed.

I have two day before we start our vacation. First we are going to the Seattle area for the wedding of one of FD’s cousins. I am going to be officiating at the services/public affirmation of their marriage. I am looking forward to seeing all of FD family and seeing fish being thrown around.

After we return from Seattle my best friend (Laughing Pastor) is coming for a week, sans family. I will miss seeing Mrs. Laughing Pastor, Laughing Son and Laughing Daughter. Laughing Daughter has come early before and Son has asked a couple times this summer if Laughing Dauther was coming. I tell him we will see her in on Turkey Day (Even though he will not eat the turkey)

I feel like a short timer at work, two days left until 10 day of relaxation.

I am a little anxious that I will not finish the last Harry Potter book before we go to Seattle and not sure I will be able to wait until my friend returns home to finish.

What a dilemma to have, I could be homeless, afraid and lonely.

By the way I am not sure the spell check on this thing works. It did not pick up waht and delima as miss spellings.