Carrie Underwood - I'll Stand By You

(You can Google the video if you still want to listen to it)

Above is a video of American Idol 2005 Carrie Underwood singing "I'll Stand By You" The video is a montage of Ms. Underwood when she was visiting Africa for Idol Gives Back. If you purchase the song on iTunes the purchase price will be donated to Unicef, Save the Children, Malaria No More, Nothing But Nets and the Global Fund.

We saw this on someone else's blog and wanted to share it.

Snaffu

It has come to our attention that there was some slight droppage of a few balls with our adoption of the boys over the past few weeks. We were supposed to receive a grant from an agency but it was never sent. They were waiting to receive an invoice from our Adoption Agency who had no idea that we had received the grant. Our Adoption Agency needed to be told to send the invoice by us who didn't know that we needed to do anything except receive it. Soooo....our paperwork has simply sat on someone's desk until Jennifer started asking questions and pushing buttons - she is made for that kind of stuff.

Kingdom Kids came to the rescue! They coordinated between the giving and receiving agencies and expedited all of our paperwork - they went above and beyond what we would have expected and have lavished the love of Christ on us. I told Steve, the President of KK, don't worry about it - you don't have to spend so much time, effort and money on this. We are patient and can wait. Steve simply said, "That is not good enough for us. We need to get your sons home to you and will do whatever it takes to insure that!" And he MEANT it.

We received an email from CWA telling us that our dossier (all of our paperwork) has been sent and should arrive in Ethiopia in 4 days!! We are so excited! The dossier is one of the largest hurdles to jump in this process and now it is completed!! We now begin the waiting process. The paperwork has to be processed/translated in Ethiopia and then we wait for a court date.

Remodel Update

The progress on the basement has slowed considerably with the family being home and a couple of our key guys taking vacations. So far they have hung all the Sheetrock and are about %85 done with the mudding, taping, and sanding. The outlets have been wired and turned on as well as the light switches. We have a few more small electrical things that need to be finished but that portion is mostly complete. The things that remain are:

1. Carpet
2. Texture/Painting
3. Toilet/Sink
4. Doors
5. Ceiling

Just a few minor things ;)

We are excited and can not wait to finally move in. Cutting our living space in half has been quite the challenge but we are adjusting - its amazing what Benedryl and Barney does to kids ;p

We're back!

Hello, everyone! The girls and I are back from Georgia. It was a great visit to be able to see all of our family, but it is also very good to be home. We are quite a bit to do before the boys come home. The basement is looking really good and the guys are really working hard to try and get it finished! We had a few mishaps in Georgia. Emma and Kayla both got metal in their eyes and Emma's had started rusting so that was a huge ordeal. They both were very brave girls, and they are doing fine now. Kayla also got knocked down by her cousin's horse, and it was a very scary thing. God was definitely looking out for her that day and we are very thankful she is still with us. Remarkable she still loves horses, and she would love to have one in our backyard! Well, I just wanted to say hello. Thanks for continuing to support us in prayers and finances! As someone said to me, "It is just not the McConnells who are adopting these boys but all of us!"

Disneyland on Crack is Open!

Everyone returned safely on Wednesday and we have been enjoying family time since then. I took a few days off and we have been taking it easy and just spending time.

Almost Home

Saturday night I had one of those life changing experiences that you encounter when faith bumps up against reality. I have a good friend who has been after me for joining him at En Christo all year long and this past weekend I committed to going with him. En Christo is a ministry founded and hosted by Whitworth College students and has been reaching the homeless and down and out for the past 17 years. Here is a link to find out more about thier ministry.

I joined up with John and Chelsea and we headed up to Otis 5 (5th floor of the Otis Hotel) where we began passing out bagged sandwiches to the residents. We handed out lunches to several of the residents who just took the bags and then retreated back into their rooms. However we had substantial conversations with 3 of the residents - for confidentiality reasons I will just affectionately call them Larry, Moe, and Curly.

Larry was the first guy that we met and probably impacted me the most. The college student who normally ministers on the hall had started a bible study in 1 John with Larry and so John and I picked up where they had left off. Larry is married and as far as I could tell had no children. His wife stayed in the living room and talked to Chelsea so I never met her. Larry explained to us that they normally study the passage all week and then they come together and talk about what they had observed. Honestly, I was expecting a surface level look at the passage and thought our time would be more encouraging to him than anything. I was absolutely stunned by his depth of thinking, theological understanding, and the uncanny ability of applying the passage to real life. He must have talked for 10 minutes about the things he had seen in the passage and took us to several other passages where he saw a connection and I was honestly having a hard time keeping up with his theological implications.

He finally came to the end of his observations and I sat looking at him scrambling for something wise and pastoral to say. All I could muster was, "Have you ever been to seminary? Ever think about being a Pastor?" He chuckled and looked down at the floor. "There are some things that we do in life that prevent us from doing other things in life. You see, I am a sex offender." He kept talking but I don't remember what he said after that because I was stunned. I was sitting across the table from a sex offender. Now it is one thing to read this or to have heard stories, but to enter the home of an offender and to sit across the table, to shake his hand and to share over the Scriptures together...well, that is quite a different thing.

We continued talking and he told us his story and the tragic lifestyle that he had come out of. He said he had hurt many, many people. I have no idea what kind of baggage, guilt and shame that he must carry with him. At the end of our conversation I was profoundly affected by the experience. I prayed for and with him and shook his hand again. My one encounter with Larry opened up so much of the New Testament Scriptures to me. No longer was Jesus' encounter with tax collectors, rebels, and prostitutes just words, but now they had a face.

We then met Moe who was probably a 50 yr. old sitting in the middle of his floor surrounded by at least 20 beer cans and smoking the tip end of a cigarette. He is a member of the Hell's Angels and was even polite enough to show us his tattoo, jacket and some pictures. He told us that a year ago he had crawled into the bottle after a friend had been killed downltown and not found the courage to crawl out again. We stood at his doorway and talked for several minutes - mainly we listened to his stories, gathered a few prayer requests so that we could "shoot them up to the man upstairs, because prayer really works".

Curly was an interesting guy who has a lot of medical issues. He also stood at his door and talked for quite awhile. We talked about the tv show "cops", the nature of man, the state of technology today and man's laziness in the area of creativity.

After I finished meeting these men and hearing their stories I felt compelled to come back again and again. I'm already looking forward to my next opportunity to rub shoulders with the unlovely in this world. I am praying for them this week and hope to build deeper relationships so that I may grow in my own intimacy with the Lord as well as introduce them to the Christ I love.

I have included a song that I heard last night as I was driving home. It was very timely so I thought I would share it along with today's blog.

(Craig Morgan, "Almost Home")

Remodel: Sheetrock

Above: Master bathroom entrance from the bedroom
Below: Master bedroom

Above: Office - extended a little to include a window and add more space to the office.
Below: Family Room closet that holds the bathroom pump

Solitude

I have a friend, we will just call his name David, who is constantly reminding me to be teachable. Don't get me wrong it's a good thing to be reminded to be teachable and I thank God for men like David who are in my life and do not hesitate to challenge me.


So today, this post is in honor of David.


10 Things I Have Learned,
Alone

10. I enjoy silence for short periods of time, but am comforted by the sound of life, activity and energy.
9. My family has become so much a part of my life that I have a difficult time having a direction and acting on it when they are not around.
8. The human body is made to sleep for 6-8 hours at a time with no jarring breaks in the middle of it and when the body is allowed to get that kind of sleep it functions much better.
7. 'Coffee Time' with my wife every morning is extremely important to me and I value her prayers, her feedback and her interruptions when I am reading. :)
6. The Rocket Bakery, a few blocks away, is a great place to have a cup of coffee, eat a day old Danish and watch people laugh, love and argue.
5. I do not enjoy cooking for one person, but love the hustle and bustle of preparing a meal for 6!
4. It takes about 2 weeks and a good cleaning for the weird kid smells to leave a bedroom and I am beginning to miss it.
3. I have been disciplining myself to go to bed at 12 instead of 3, and have learned that the sun comes up well before 6am.
2. I have learned how to take a digital picture from a video camera, how to manage a blog, how to operate a Mac, and how I know nothing about contruction.

1. I have learned that I am a family man. Whether it be a gift or a curse, I love our growing family and honestly have a hard time operating without them. Many people have told me that they are always challeneged and amazed at our faith in pursuing kids - now I know that it has more to do with the way God has built me than it does with faith or courage. I have learned that I have many areas I need to grow in in order to parent my children in a God honoring, life preparing, joy filled way. I have learned that I am not obeying God in diligently teaching my
children the truths of Scripture and that I rely too much on others to do it for me. I have learned that a gentle word turns away wrath and that I need to exercise that more with my wife and children. I have learned that my Mom thinks I can walk on water and that my Dad thinks I have the faith of Abraham and the stength of Samson.

I have learned a lot in the past two weeks and I still have a week to go.

"Wrenching Politics" Concerning Stillborn Babies?

Dr. Al Mohler wrote the following in his blog yesterday as he considered a bill going before the CA Senate.

Should stillborn babies be assigned birth certificates?

Here is the perverse logic of our times comes down to this: A baby stillborn in one hospital room is granted a birth certificate and a death certificate. The baby's parents are required to bury or cremate the baby's remains (true in all 50 states) and the baby is usually named.

Meanwhile, just down the hall, another baby of the same gestational age can be ripped apart in its mother's womb and removed as unwanted biological material. That baby is not named, is not granted a death certificate, and is not listed among the hospital's births. The insanity of this should be obvious to all.

You can read the entire post here.

Remodel Update

Here are a couple of the can lights that are being installed downstairs. These two are in the guest bedroom and are similar to what will be throughout the downstairs..

Wiring has been run throughout the basement.

The floor has been poured and is now nice and level. You can see the pump center-left that was installed for the master bedroom bathroom.

Obediently Irresponsible

We just received another large donation from a giver which enabled us to meet the deadline to send the dossier. We have been absolutely overwhelmed by donations (many of them anonymous, small and large), work on our home, prayers, gifts, and promises of support once the boys get here.

Someone asked the question, "Do you think it is irresponsible to pursue an adoption when you have no money to support it?" My answer, yes! Financing this whole thing was the very issue that made me tell Jennifer "no" when she first brought up the idea of adopting. This is an issue that is heavy on my heart and mind and I constantly fight to give it to Christ. But as I have reflected on this issue I have rested my mind on several points.

1. I would rather be obedient and irresponsible, than responsible and disobedient.
2. Noah was probably pretty irresponsible when he dedicated a huge portion of his life, earnings, and time to building a boat in the middle of nowhere.
3. Moses was probably pretty irresponsible when he led millions of people into the desert with little to no means of feeding, housing and protecting them.
4. Barnabas was probably pretty irresponsible when he approached Saul, the Christian killer, when no one else would trust his salvation experience.
5. Jesus was probably pretty irresponsible when he allowed people to beat Him, mock Him, and ultimately kill Him to save many people who hadn't even been born yet.

We "felt" like God was calling us to obey Him, to exercise our faith in doing something that didn't make sense. In that, we have been put into a place of trusting the Lord with things that we have absolutely NO control over. And He has been very faithful in starting this good work and we are convinced that He will complete it. So when I put it in that perspective, I figure we are traveling in pretty good company.

Thank you all again for making this Adventure with us through your encouraging words, service, prayers and support of irresponsible people. I am sure our sons will thank you when they get here also ;)

Remodel: Master Bathroom

You can see our window down the bathroom hallway looking into our bedroom.
The open space to the left of the shower is the entrance from the bedroom into the bathroom.
The plumbing for the bathroom is in. You will see a black pipe in the walls and that is connecting to the sink which will be on the left. In front of the shower and a little right of the window will be the toilet.

The bathroom, master bedroom, guest bedroom and 3/4 of the office have been roughed in. The plan is to start running the wiring today, do some more framing and finish up some small plumbing things.

Many of you have been asking if we have heard anything else about the boys and the answer to that is no. News out of Ethiopia is pretty limited so we cling to any little bits that we receive. As far as we know all 3 are doing well. Josiah is still at the Infant Orphanage in Sodo and the brothers are still living with their Mom. Our Dossier (all of our paperwork) is getting ready to be sent to Ethiopia now.

Georgia On My Mind

Here are some of the pictures from the family in Georgia. Jennifer's Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister-n-Law and new nephew are pictured alongside the girls. I have been talking with them everyday and it sounds like they have had a good time catching up with everyone and are ready to come home. April 18th seems like a lifetime away, so please continue to pray for us.

The Darkest Day

(Just sharing my journal entry for today)

Most people think that yesterday was the darkest day. It is the day that we celebrate the murder of Jesus. But I think in the moment, today was actually the darkest day for the Disciples. The day of the crucifixion would have raced by - the trials, the crowds, the whipping, the beatings, the mocking, the march to Golgotha. I could never imagine what those men were feeling as they saw their Lord hanging on a cross, I am sure it was surreal. And I do not want to take away from the horrors of that day - it was the day that the King of Glory died. Jesus, the I am, the bread, the life, the way, the truth and the life - dead.

But the next day, the horrific shock would have begun wearing off. Logic, reason, cold emotions - reality would have begun to set in - Jesus is DEAD!...and we may be next.

It's hard when someone you love dies. The shock of the moment is overwhelming, but it brings numbness with it. Death overwhelms the mind so much that you begin to have a hard time thinking, reasoning, making decisions...operating, it's a very pleasant and built-in thing. It's the next day that the reality of that death sets in. It's the vacancy of carpenter smell, rough touch, a familiar laugh and presence. It's not being able to walk behind him down the road and wonder at this man that you follow after. It's not being able to see his feet strike the ground when He walks, it's having your reason for living suddenly torn from you. It's the vacancy of life that wakes you from your terrified numbness.

It's the next day that it wears off and you feel the thundering loss of the whole thing. Today is that day or at least the day we remember it. So as we go about the normalcy of our day today, remember that it was today that the Disciples were waking up to the reality that God had been killed.

The Work Continues

The remodel of the basement continues to go well. They have broken through the concrete floor to install a pump for the bathroom. Some more of the framing was finished today and they created the master bedroom closet. Lot's of heavy hammering and digging went into breaking through the floor. The spaces around the windows were also cemented and insulated. Lot's of good work done today.

Participants
Dave P.
Daryl L.
Kyle B.
and Tom G.

Plumbing Work New Shower & Window Light
Master Bedroom Window Well
After the Day is Done

Daryl Tears Down the Old Closet in Order to Build the New One
Dave Applies the Sledgehammer
Kyle is on the Prowl
Dave Throws Lumber Through our Window

Dossier, Demo & Wordpress

Hi All,

Thank you all for the encouraging words and continually stopping by and keeping up with our happenings. We are very close to sending our dossier off to Ethiopia, so that is very exciting news.

The guys were downstairs today beginning to do some demo and frame work, so I will post some picks up later this evening or in the morning.

We are in the process of moving our blog to a WordPress blog. There are a lot of reasons for our move - mainly customization and an expansive list of options that WP offers. When we make the switch I will post up our new link so you can update your bookmarks.

Remodel: Windows

Here are some pictures of the remodel in progress. Two egress windows were cut last week and new windows installed. Dave is outside right now putting the window wells in place. I was amazed at how much light flooded into the basement with those windows opened up. Wednesday they will start framing and hanging insulation. I am going to go and pick up a new toilet and pedestal sink for the new bathroom sometime this week. Jennifer doesn't have an Internet connection where she is at so you will be seeing this even before she does. I'll keep ya updated.

Master Bedroom Window

Guest Bedroom Window

Master Bedroom Exterior Window

Guest Bedroom Exterior Window