Rerouted

We have safely arrived in Frankfurt Germany. We are being rerouted to Cairo and then on to Addis. The trip has gone well so far with some thunderstorms, plane maintenance and some heavy turbulence just for fun. I will keep you uppdated as I can. Love and miss you all.

Patrick
Jennifer
Megan

Update on Life

There has been much going on in the McConnell household and most of it has been overshadowed by the pursuit of our 3 sons, so I wanted to give you all an update on a few other extremely important things that have happened in our lives recently.

#1. Arianna Marie Jade Phillips (Jennifer is holding her in this picture) became Ariana Marie Joy McConnell on 6/20/07, her second birthday. Ana has faced many challenges in her young life and it has been God's grace that has brought her to us. We picked Ana up in Yakima when she was 5 months old and she was a beautiful, quietly sleeping baby. Within 15 minutes on the road back to Spokane we became very aware of how she would be for the next year and a half - a constant scream! I mean that literally and figuratively. She has been a great joy (Joy) in our lives and we couldn't imagine life without her. She is only one of two cuddlers (Makayla) among our daughters and has a HUGE laugh when you get her going. I have a tendency to pace around the house when I talk on my cell phone and Ana has picked that up. You will constantly find her walking all over the house by herself talking on one of my old cell phones. If you ask her about it she says, "talking Daddy, talking".

Many family and friends came out to Ana's court date including her biological grandparents, Roy & Charlene, who have become an important part of our family. They are also Bri's grandparents and have basically adopted Emma and Kayla as grandchildren. They have been a real blessing to our family. After the court date we went to Riverfront Park and celebrated by riding the carousel, eating ice cream and playing on the big red wagon with our friends the Streltzoff's and of course Grandma T (Takisaki). Ana is very excited about her brothers and everytime she see's a black or brown person she asks us "Caleb?" or "Noah?" or "Josiah"? It's really cute, but it shows how much we have been praying for them and how much we have tried to include the entire family in the journey.

#2 Katie Heidenreich is like a daughter to us and we had the great pleasure of sending her off to Romania on a mission trip to work with Romanian Orphans. Katie has felt like overseas missions could be a real possibility for life for her and we have been encouraging her in that direction. God made it very clear that she was to go on this trip through a lot of affirming circumstantial moments and the affirmation of the Elder's and the Church Body of VBC. Katie is in Romania this very moment for a week so please be in prayer for her. We are praying that the Lord would make it clear whether or not He is calling her into longterm overseas missions. Katie has been very patient and faithful in prayer as she has waited for the Lord to open this door and so it is very exciting to see her acting on her faith. We miss you Katie!!

#3 This past Sunday the Elder's and VBC body installed me (Patrick) as an Elder at VBC! This was a very exciting and incredibly humbling moment for me. The Lord has done so much in my life personally and I stand in awe that He wastes/spends His time on a lowly creature like me. It has been a great pleasure and an honor to serve among the VBC Body and I work along some truly great men. Currently our Elder Board includes Ben Orchard who is the Teaching Pastor, Doug Snook and Dave Jones. I enjoy ministering with these men greatly and am constantly encouraged by their commitment to the Body of Christ and His mission.

Although none of these men read my blog, I would like to thank several key men who have invested time, sweat, and tears into my life.

1. David Burns - Burnie confronted me in the Spring of 1992 with the Gospel and pursued me like the hound from Heaven. I will never know what he saw in me or what drove him to be so faithful in pursuing a pathetic wretch. But he was extremely faithful in pursuing me every day for 9 months and taking every opportunity to point me to Christ. Burnie is an evangelist and he taught me to love the unlovely and that everyone deserves to hear the Gospel again and again. In February of 1993 I knelt beside his bed and confessed Christ.
2. John Smith - I met John in 1997 and he was/is the most influential man in my life. For me John is the epitome of humility and has become no less than my spiritual father and mentor. Although we no longer serve in the same church I think of him continually and often ask myself, "What would John do in this situation?"
3. John Koh - I initially met John Koh on a church softball team and had no idea at the time what the Lord had in store for the intersection of our lives. At the end of our 3 years of ministry together I would say, "John Koh is the anvil that the Lord has brought to beat my life upon" and I meant every word of it. John taught me faithfulness, purity, "unction" and what it means to shepherd a family.
4. Roland Sanchez - I met Roland in 1998 in a discipleship group with John Smith, Geoff Kellogg, Roland and myself...and we positively did not like each other. Roland was very black and white and I was very....not. But over the years God fashioned a friendship that will stand the test of time. I love Roland as Jonathan loved David and he taught me what it means to make the family central, to be ready to sacrifice self, and how to be honest even when it hurts.
5. Geoff Kellogg - I never had an older brother, if I had, Geoff would be it. Geoff knows the scriptures like I never will and is as steady as a man can be. Geoff has taught me what it means to need a brother in this life and how to be a brother. He has taught me what it means to be a man who must stand up when everyone around him tells him to sit down. I talk to Geoff daily and I love our conversations which range from our current favorite micro-brew to the latest family issue in our sordid extended families. Geoff is a man among men and a brother among brothers.

These are probably the 5 men who have had the most impact in my life. There have been many, many more, ranging from my two Dad's, my two brothers, Mike Rosario, Bob DeLateur, Joe Sousa, Henry Yan, Keith Watson and many, many, many more. But there has been only one woman who has influenced me greater than all these men.

Jennifer and I have been married for 12 years this past March. We have been through soooo much together that we often sit and say, "That seems like a lifetime ago". Jennifer has taught me how to serve others even when you don't feel like it, she has taught how to exercise my faith and not settle with comfort and ease, she has taught me how to pray big, she has taught me how to laugh at myself, how to enjoy my family more than my job, she has taught me how to give love and receive love. The greatest thing that she has taught me is how to be a man. I know, it sounds weird. She has taught me to be a man by not trying to lead, by growing in submissiveness and by being the wife I can not image living without. By not stepping in and trying to run the show, she has forced me to follow the Lord and lead!

So thank you all for your investment into my life. I continue to be a pot in the Master's Hands and look forward to the next spin on the Potter's wheel.

New Pics of the Boys

We received new pictures of the boys today. All three of them are looking good and we hear that they are very anxious to meet us and come home!

keith watson: THE Mission of the Church

keith watson: THE Mission of the Church

Keith is a cousin by law and a brother by Royal Adoption. He is also very like-minded and at one point in our history we were entertaining the possibility of ministering together. We made our plans and the Lord directed our paths, so I am in Spokane and he is in Macon.

He is in the process of following the Lord's command to make disciples in Macon, GA. I was catching up on some of his posts today and stumbled across this one. I love reading Church Planters because they are forced to think through things that an established church usually does not. I loved the simplicity of the mission of the church as he sees it and as the Bible instructs us and wanted to introduce him and share his thoughts here.

If you want to watch the establishment of a local church come together by the supernatural leading and orchestration of God...then read along with Keith!

Congratulations,

your American Embassy appointment has been scheduled for July 31 , 2007.

That is the way an email we received two days ago began. This is the date that we have been waiting on and now it is finally here. One would expect relief, excitement, perhaps overwhelming joy...I will assure you it was all of those things and more. Jennifer kept saying, "We are actually going to Ethiopia, we are actually going to Ethiopia" - I had to keep her indoors so the neighbors wouldn't think she was crazy.

The past couple of days have been an absolute whirlwind of emotion and activity. We are scrambling to finalize some last minute adoption paperwork, confirm airline tickets, hotel reservations, gifts for orphans, on hand money, childcare arrangements for our daughters, adding the boys to our health and life insurance, still working on the house, packing, etc.

We leave next Thursday, July 26th and will return August 3rd. I am planning on taking my Mac so I can record our entire trip as we go. There are Internet Cafe's in Ethiopia so I may be able to get an email out or make a post on our blog. If we are not able to en route then I will make sure it is one of the first things that we do when we get back.

Please be praying that the Lord provides the last bit of money for our trip, for Jennifer's Mom as she watches all four of our daughters, and for our hearts to be firmly fixed on the Lord as we journey.

Tell My Parents...

Tell my Dad and Mom that I am praying for them. Can you please tell me their names? I want to pray for them by name. What are my sisters names? I want to pray for them too. Tell them that the Lord has been so kind to me for providing me with a Christian Dad - he is in heaven now with Jesus, and now God has given me another Christian Dad. He is so kind, praise to God. Please tell them that I love them and I can not wait to meet them. ~ Noah Zelalem Patrick McConnell (pictured with a little boy)

A friend of ours, Rona, met our sons a couple of weeks ago and had a conversation with Noah. He kept asking one of the Ethiopian women there, "Teacher, can you please ask the mom (Rona)..." and then he would pepper her with questions. Rona said she was pierced to the heart by his gentle prodding for answers about his parents and his insistence that she tell us that he was praying for us. She said that there was such a spiritual urgency about him that it left little doubt about his spiritual state. We were very encouraged to hear this about our oldest son. In all the early pictures that we had received of him he usually looked very somber as if there was a deep sadness lurking just beneath those tender eyes.

He told Rona that when he and his brother were at court some Ethiopian officials brought his mother into the courtroom for her to release custody of the boys. "They brought her in on a stretcher." The deep sadness there is watching his father die a slow, painful, messy death and then to see his mother heading down that road. It has made me even more determined to bring him home, love him, disciple him, and pray that one day the Lord may use my children to impact Africa for Him.

Positive Adoption Terminolgy 101

Questions well meaning people ask...And our answers!

Q) So you couldn't have you own?
A) They are our own.

(I really want to ask those who ask us this question - and have 2 children in tow is " Oh, so you've had sex twice?" No offense to the non-adoptive families here, but where does one draw the line on intrusive questions?) Feel free to comment! Really, this is the saddest question we are asked. Noah and Olivia are OURS. No difference. We love the different ways that our children made it into our family!

Q) How much did she cost?
A) SHE IS PRICELESS.

But if you would like to find out what the US Government charges for the services they require concerning international adoption, you can talk to me when the children are not around. ( I would never go up to a pregnant lady and ask her what her OBGYN is charging her! )

Q) Why did you adopt?
A) Because there are 140 million children who do not have a mom and/or dad to tuck them into bed at night.

140 million children do not have guidance, love or acceptance. We adults all complain that our world is going to Hell, but none of us are stepping up to the plate to change things. We, our family, want to be a part of the positive change in this world. One at a time. ...One at a time.

Q) Why don't you adopt an American child?
A) That is a very real question with a variety of answers.

Each family who chooses to adopt needs to find out what type of situation is right for them. International adoption appealed to us because, #1 we didn't feel the need to "blend in" and so we did not care if our children looked differently than us. #2 We felt an overwhelming need in the countries we have adopted from. God has put adoption in our hearts and he has led us to our children. We have been extremely blessed by listening to God's guidance. Our reasons for adopting are as personal as each person who gets pregnant. And our adoptions are as wonderful as each pregnancy! We hope that we educate everyone in this forum to understand that adoption is as real and tangible as pregnancy. Unfortunately, the adoptive parents do not usually benefit from all of the attention and concern that a pregnancy dictates, but they do go through the same set of stage by stage concerns. Often it is a very lonely journey...

(Copied, with permission, from http://www.ourferrisfamily.blogspot.com/; thanks to the Ferris Family)

Dear Elliot...

I stumbled across this video on an adoption blog today, watched it and cried. I hope that it will remind you to hug your child while you can, I know I will.

Lord, Give Me Eyes that See

I have recently discovered that I am inundated with opportunities for the Gospel and I just rarely take them. Usually, I am so self-absorbed that I am not thinking about being interrupted, and instead I am focused merely on the task at hand. Why can I not see what the Lord has for me to see??

Case in Point

This morning I woke up at about 4:58am for my weekly Saturday morning men's group. I head out to pick up coffee for us with a friend of mine before making our way out to SplashDown Water Park to meet. I place my order at the Starbucks counter and just by "coincidence" I am wearing my "Christian Starbucks" t-shirt...totally unplanned by me, just blearily grabbed something from the depths of closet murkiness.

Missed Op # 1

She then says, "Cool shirt, I have never seen one of those!"

"Thanks, a friend gave it to me."

Missed Op #2

The girl who is making coffee (Girl #2) looks over at Chad and I, and also remarks, "Cool shirt, I have seen those around."

"Thanks."

Missed Op #3

I hand Girl #1 my credit card and she notices that it is the church's. She asks, "Cool, so what are you guys doing up at the church so early this morning."

"It's a men's bible study/accountability group."

"Cool."

Missed Op #4

Girl #1 then asks how many guys are in the group and she will give us some larger cups. Which is "cool" because the cups are usually really small. So I count them up and say, "About 5 or 6", to which she replies, "Ok, 6 it is...wait, how about "lucky number 7".

"Sounds great".

Missed Op #5

Girl #2 then says "Hope you guys have a great morning".

To which I reply, "Thanks, you too".


I mean, for the love. How many opportunities hit me square in the face everyday and I just never notice them!?! Lord, give me eyes that see!

Feast or Famine

The title says it all. We go for months with no word and no pictures and then we get flooded with pictures. Here are a few more shots of the boys that we just received minutes ago and we will be posting up another batch tomorrow, hopefully.



Apparently Noah can play some Foosball! Nathan Snook look out! ;)














Caleb is sporting a sweatshirt because it is Winter in Africa...you know...85 degrees outside...oooh, chilly. :0










Here is a group shot with Noah and Josiah buried in there.

New Again

I am a fundamentalist, I am a postmodernist. I am closed, I am open. I am Baptist, I am Presbyterian. I am a Calvinist, I am Arminian. I am Bible Centered, I am Missional. I am a Cessasionist, I am charismatic. I am Elder ruled, I am a congregationalist.

At the center of all of our "I Am's" there is only One I Am - God forbid we get so caught up in ourselves that we forget who stands at the center of all human history and declares... I AM!

Coming Together

Some friends just returned from Ethiopia and we received a few new pictures today. We are very excited to see the boys hanging out together. It looks like Caleb has put on some weight since we saw him in the last picture so that was very encouraging. They are enjoying some candy that a family must have brought over to them. Caleb is on the left and standing on a step, then Noah and Josiah.

My boys are lookin good! :)

My Eyes

Last summer Jennifer and I went out to eat. It's not unusual for us to do this...in fact, this may be the only pastime that we have in common. While I was in the restroom, and I was up close and personal with a wall (I know it sounds crude and I apologize, but it is part of the story) I caught my reflection in the tile. It was a distant reflection as tile has a tendency to do and the only thing that really caught my eye, was my eyes. I have no idea where this thought came from, but I immediately thought "I will never have a son look back at me with those eyes". It was a sadly embarrassing moment for me. I have never longed for a son and have always been perfectly content with my daughters. Jennifer has longed for a son for many years and still desires to adopt a baby boy one day, but it has never been an issue for me. Until that moment, standing in a restaurant bathroom, looking at tile. Honestly, I teared up. We had been wrestling with dealing with some health issues that Jennifer was struggling with that affected her energy level and I had been coming to terms that we would never adopt another child. You have to understand, for many, many years people have always asked how many children were we planning on having and I would always answer "We will probably stop at about 21". The reply was usually a nervous laugh and then they would move on. The heart behind my answer has always been serious. I desire a gynormous family! So, I was seeing that dream come to an end and it struck me that I would never have a son to look back at me with my own eyes.

That fact has not changed. I will never have a son birthed from Jennifer and I, but...I do have 3 sons now, something I would never have thought possible a year ago. And we have to flex and change and adapt to bring more children into our home and to be quite honest, it has been a very good humbling experience for me.

Many of you have been asking for an update on our trip and unfortunately the answer has been the same for many weeks now...we are still waiting. But in the meantime, I have a couple of pictures of the boys that we haven't shared yet and wanted to do that now. Josiah (9) is first and Caleb (8) is the second picture. We didn't receive a picture of Noah (10) in this group. As I looked at my sons I realized something about them. They have suffered greater loss then I could ever imagine. They will never look into the eyes of their birth mother or father again. Broken people loving broken people.

And I take great pleasure, even though we are thousands of miles away, to look into their eyes and know that I have sons.

Enjoy your kids today!

Daddy, Where Do Babies Come From?

The family went out to Zips for dinner tonight. Jennifer wanted to treat me - Zips is one of my favorite greasy hamburger joints but she is not the biggest of fans. As we sat eating dinner Emma, Kayla and myself began to reminisce all of the Daddy/Daughter dates that we had several years ago. On Friday nights I would go over to a friends house and play video games with a bunch of High School students and Jr. High Students. Our friend had a daughter that was a couple of years older than Emma and the girls loved playing with her.

Well, during dinner the girls wanted to know why we didn't do that anymore and I explained to them that he had gotten married and that didn't fit into his lifestyle anymore. The girls took that in stride and continued eating. Then Emma said, so this is his second marriage? I explained to her that he had not been married before and had made a mistake earlier in life. He had a daughter with a woman but they were never married. I was so consumed with my Zip's Papa Joe burger and zesty fry sauce that I never saw Emma's next question coming. But Dad, I thought you said that you have to get married to have babies?!? How did he have a baby and not be married?"

Suddenly my 7 year old, 3 year old and 2 year old were all ears! Never in all of their lives have they all looked so inquisitively at me at exactly the same moment. But no worries, I am a Pastor and have worked around children and with parents for many years. So I said the first thing that came to mind..."Uhhhhhhhh!"

The Elders' at my church would have been dumbstruck...Patrick didn't have something to say. (lol)

So I did what any good Pastor who is scrambling for an answer would do...I turned the question back on her! "Well, where do you think they come from?" Emma wasted no time, "Well, somewhere around Mommie's tummy but that is because you are married. So how does a baby get born between two people who are NOT married?"

I am gathering my thoughts now and am very close to pulling out the old "lifeline" answer..."we will have to talk about that when you get older". Meanwhile, Jennifer is fighting hard not to burst out laughing.

"Well Emma, it takes a man and a woman to have a baby. It is God's design for that baby to be born from two Christians who are married." At this point I think I have given her a pretty good biblical answer as well as some more details and I am hoping that she returns to her corn dog, but it was a futile hope.

"Well, what does the man have to do? The woman has to carry the baby and that's a lot of work." Drats!! She is smarter than she is supposed to be. Jennifer can no longer hold her laughter and the other three see their Mom laughing and join in. Emma says "Whaaaat?!? thinking that everyone is in on something that she is not. I can't really go any further in my explanation because my other 3 are still sitting there and plus I haven't really thought through how I am going to explain this to MY daughter! So I pull out that line that has saved me more times then I can count - "Well, that is another discussion for another time...now eat your corn dog."

They grow up too stinkin fast!

Online Backup Service

I just stumbled across a great website that offers a free solution to making online backups of your important files. I have lost several hard drives over the years and many times I did not backup my files. Mozy takes care of that for you and it's free! You get 2 GB of online storage and the program that automatically backs up your files. There is also a premium version at $4.95 per month for unlimited storage. The application will let you choose what you want to backup from your hard drive. You can let Mozy generate an encryption key or use your own. You can also schedule automatic backups. I am currently using the free 2GB service.

If you click on the link below you get an additional 256 MB of space. Pretty suweet deal! It works for Macs and Pcs.

Mozy Online Backup Service

Big Truths for Little Kids

I was asked recently for a recommendation on a good family devotional book. I read quite a bit and love to find good books for our kids. Big Truths for Little Kids: Teaching Your Children to Live for God is an excellent primer for younger children as well as parents for night time or after dinner family devotions. Each day there is a little story that follows a group of kids through normal modern, everyday life and chronicles the spiritual decisions that they are faced with. At the beginning of each story is a series of questions from the Westminster catechism that have been simplified for a younger audience.

Amazon lists the reading level as baby to preschool, but seriously any child up to 9 or 10 will love this book. I know as a parent it has taught me much about applying theology to everyday life. For 36 chapters this book did not dumb down Christian Theology or be so dry that it lost anyone's attention. My 3 year old, 7 year old and 8 year old all enjoy it and are greatly rewarded in a sense of accomplishment as they memorize the answers to the questions.

I have highly recommended this book to parents in the past as they have taken God's call seriously to train their children in the ways of the Lord and I continue to recommend it today.

Let Your Kingdom Come

Bob Kauflin is giving away this song over on his blog. It is from the "Valley of Vision" CD put out by Sovereign Grace Ministries and includes charts for you music geeks.

We have been thinking, praying, talking and sharing vision at Valley Bible Church lately and this song really captures our hearts in worshiping our Great God! Hope you are blessed by it.





Let Your Kingdom Come

Your glorious cause, O God, engages our hearts
May Jesus Christ be known wherever we are
We ask not for ourselves but for Your renown
The cross has saved us so we pray,
Your kingdom come

Let Your kingdom come
Let Your will be done
So that everyone might know Your Name
Let Your song be heard everywhere on earth
Till Your sovereign work on earth is done
Let Your kingdom come

Give us Your strength, O God, and courage to speak
Perform Your wondrous deeds
Through those who are weak
Lord use us as You want, whatever the test
By grace we’ll preach Your gospel
Till our dying breath

The McConnell Boys

You need to give it 30 seconds to get through the "Title" portion of the video and then the actual movie will start to play