Todd Hiestand

An Adoption Sermon

November 12, 2007 // 5 Comments »

Intro: Below is the sermon manuscript that I preached on August 10, 2007 after my wife and I and our new son Mason got home from Guatemala. I meant to post this a long time ago, but I had to make a few edits. I didn’t really make all the edits and I am fairly sure that what I actually said is different from what I wrote here but the general idea is here (I never follow my manuscript very closely) . I would link to the audio but it just figures that this was the week that our recorder decided to take a vacation. I hope you find this enjoyable. I am going to print it out to put in our adoption box that we are keeping to give to Mason at some point.

I’m posting this in light of the fact that we just had Mason officially welcomed into our church family this weekend at The Well.

Sermon Summary: We are Redeemed. We are called to be Redemptive
Bottom Line: Put up or shut up.

THANKS
The first thing that I want to do before I get into the depths of my sermon is to say thanks to you guys for being part of our lives the past few weeks. As you know, between the miscarriage and bringing Mason home after a year and a half of the adoption process, our lives have been quite a rollercoaster. Someone asked me this week how we are dealing with it and I said that we could not have gone through it without you guys. Well, that’s not totally true. We would have been able to go through it. But it just would have totally sucked.

ROMANS 12:15
You guys have been a true picture or Romans 12:15. You have mourned well with us as we mourned and you have rejoiced well with us as we rejoiced. In all the years that we have been here at The Well, I realized that we have not been on the receiving end of this community’s compassion in this way. We’ve usually been part of the response. I have to say, that as the pastor here, I fond myself having two emotions. I was so moved and touched by your response to both of these events. Also, I was also so proud of the way you responded. It is my prayer that we can continue to grow and be a community of grace and compassion to those who are hurting and joy and celebration to those who are rejoicing. So, Melanie, Cole, Mason and I say thanks for the way that you have done that with us.

INTRO / SUMMARY
This has been a very hard sermon to prepare. This is the case for many reasons. There is so much I could talk about and there is so much I could say. But, what I want to do today is to take our experience with adoption and put it into the perspective of the Biblical Story and the gospel. What I want to say today is this: “God has adopted us into his redeemed and redemptive family.” If you can get what this means in the next 26 or so minutes, you’ve gotten what I am trying to say. If you fall asleep, just come back to this and you’ll be able to figure out where we are.

Now, I understand that the words “redeemed” and “redemptive” are big theological words. It is not my intention to toss around theological mumbo-jumbo. But I was not able to work out words that fit it better. So, I am going to use them anyways and do my best to explain them as we go.

WHY WE ADOPTED
When Melanie and I started out in this journey in January of 2006, we didn’t quite totally understand what we were doing. Now, we knew that we wanted to adopt and we knew that we wanted a boy and we knew the process was going to be very, very long. But, we didn’t quite have an understanding of the whole of this process. Of course, many people asked us all the time (and still do) “Why did you choose to adopt?”

Well, I wanted to give you an answer to that in two ways. I want to give you some reasons we did and I want to give you some things that are NOT reasons we did.

So first, some things that are not reasons we adopted Mason:

• So we could be like Brad and Angelina
• Because it’s fashionable.
• So he could grow up eating multicolored cheerios
• So he could grow up playing Little League
• Pity.
• So he would be happy.

Now, these are generally fine things. But, I want to make the point that we didn’t adopt Mason just so we could give him the American Dream.

So, why did we adopt him then?

So, here are some reasons we DID adopt Mason?

James 1:27 – “Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress”

Friends, I believe this passage to be very, very relevant for our lives. Also this is not just about adoption. For Melanie and I, this is how we have responded to this verse at this moment. But, I think this goes beyond adoption. This even goes beyond orphans and widows. In the early church times, because of the culture, the most helpless people were orphans and widows. In our times, who are the most helpless people and how are we responding? On a side note, in our culture, I can think of elderly, the aids victims, homeless, mentally handicapped and orphans. I have seen this community respond time and time again to these needs.

To give him a better chance at a full life. The fact is, while money does not equal happiness (there are plenty, plenty of people who have nothing who are very full of joy and happiness) I believe that Mason will have a better chance at a full life as part of our family. That is why his birth mom, out of a deep, deep love, chose to entrust him to us. She loved him so much, she believed that she would not be able to provide for him and sacrificed knowing her own child so that he would be better off with another family. You see, Mason’s birth mom makes about Q400 a month. That translates to about $40.00 a month. Her husband has recently left her to start a new family and she believed that she would be unable to provide a healthy life for her little boy.

Melanie and I do not believe for a second that adopting Mason guarantees him a perfect and wonderful life now that he lives in a family that is not in poverty. But, we do believe that having him as part of our family gives him a better opportunity for a full and healthy life. Please note that when I say “full life” I am not simply talking about the things I outlined earlier like television, little league and multi-colored cheerios.

Because we simply love him (without even knowing him). This is perhaps the most mysterious of the reasons we adopted Mason. It was amazing to me how much you can suddenly love someone so quickly upon first meeting them. The moment I laid eyes on him, I loved him. I love this kid so much and I want him to feel and know love as much as anything in the world.

So, how does this relate to the gospel? How does this relate to us being a redeemed people? Well, as you can already tell, its not that hard of a transition. Look at I Peter 1:3-5.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

If you look carefully, you can see the parallels here between the way we adopted Mason and God’s adoption of us as his children. You can also see the striking differences.

In His Great Mercy – Notice the difference between pity and mercy. This is why I said that pity was not one of the reasons we adopted Mason. To me, pity dehumanizes the recipient. It says, “oh, poor you, you poor sap.” Remember Mr. T in the 80’s, “I Pity the Fool!” I think sometimes in adoption and in God’s love can frame these ideas in pity as if God looks at us poor schmucks and feels sorry for us. Mercy on the other hand says, “You are so valuable and worth sacrificing for.” Can you imagine Mr. T looking tough saying “I have mercy on the fool!” Yeah, it just wouldn’t sound or look that tough. It might look something like this. Who is a little someone I like to call MR. G.

Seriously, though, we saw Mason and all other children needing families as immensely valuable. If you add in perfect love you have how God sees us. We are infinitely valuable to him and he has great mercy on our situation as human beings who naturally broken people. God’s mercy is born out of our his immense value for us.

He has given us new birth into a living hope – Okay so take a look at Mason’s life. In a sense, he has undergone a new birth has he not? Just a little more than a week ago he was living in Guatemala City with his foster mom. Today, he is sitting in this room and has a new mother, new father, new big brother and a community of people who love him. Notice something here, his standing is not only different (in terms of who his family is) but is reality is different. His life is literally changed. He has been given a new hope. He has gone from a child who might have been a statistic to a child who has been given a better opportunity for a full, healthy life. Again, this is an easy transition to the gospel. God has given us new birth to a living hope. But again, the example we have of Mason only begins to be a glimpse of what God has done for us.

You see, with Mason there are no guarantees that he’ll be better off here. Sure, the odds are better. But he is not guaranteed a perfect life here and we are not guaranteed that nothing will go wrong. At the same time, the odds are better. Look at God, we have been given a new birth into a living hope, through the resurrection and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. Never Perish. Never Spoil. Never fade. This hope lies in the fact that one day we, along with the rest of this world, will truly be made complete. All the brokenness of our humanity will be fixed and all the brokenness of this world will be fixed. One day, full salvation will come. This is the inheritance that we hope for. This is the inheritance that Paul speaks of in Romans II Corinthians 15 when Paul says, if the resurrection were not real, we would have no hope.

This is because our hope as Christians lies in the fact that we will be resurrected as well. Friends, this is a beautiful, full and even much more rewarding hope than physical adoption. Our of his mercy, God has called us his sons and daughters, and has given us a hope that through the work of Jesus Christ we can confidently look forward to the day when we and the world will finally be who we were meant to be.

Okay. so, we are a redeemed people.

Hopefully you’ll remember what I wanted to say today is that “God has adopted us into his redeemed and redemptive family.”

God has been about making a family of His people for quite a long time. Whether we’re talking about Isreal in the Old Testament or the church in the New Testament, he has always been about creating a community of people who he desires to be part of what he is doing in the world. It is important for us to remember that God is not simply creating a family for the sake of creating a community. God did not create Israel so that Israel could huddle together and save themselves as the world went to hell.

Remember back to when we called Abraham, Genesis 12:2-3,

“I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Then we get to the Church, we see in John 20:21 when Jesus appears to his disciples after he has risen from the dead he says, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

We just studied the life of Jesus for the last year and we know that the Father sent Jesus to love and care for others. Jesus now sends us to love and care for others. That is our primary purpose. To love and care for others. To be involved in what he is doing in the world.

Scot McKnight says the following,

“The church is not a collection of random individuals who happen to believe in Jesus Christ, who happen to be working out their own salvation, who happen to be living in proximity to one another, who happen to enjoy the same preachers and musicians and liturgy, and who happen to affirm the same doctrinal convictions. The church is a community of faith wherein humans are re-communioned to one another [God and the world].”

In a similar way that we didn’t adopt Mason just so that we can shelter him from the world and get him out of poverty so he could grow up with Little League, God doesn’t just adopt us so that we can get to heaven when we die, or so that we can huddle together and care for one another in this cold dark world and wait for him to save us. Rather, God has called us and adopted us as his sons and daughters so that we may be a part of what he is doing in this world.

While we may not have thought about this when we started, we now know that we have adopted Mason and in doing so we can introduce him to the love of God and teach him the joy of being part of what God is doing in the world. The wonderful thing is that he (and Cole) are not merely going to learn all of this in the context of the Hiestand family. He is going to learn all of this in the context of a community called The Well. And also, he is not only going to learn this in the context of a community called The Well. I pray he is going to learn this in the context of a community called The Church.

We have adopted Mason into our family. You have adopted us into your family. God has adopted all of us into his worldwide family. All for the sake of the world.

PUT UP OR SHUT UP
I want to say one more thing that I was very personally challenged by as I was studying this week. And, I want to say this with as much grace and compassion as the scriptures will let me. But, on some level, the book of James isn’t all about tact and being political. The book of James is pretty much in your face. And, I’ll be honest, it got in my face this week fairly well.

I have already quoted James 1:27 to you guys, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” It continues, “and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” So, it Todd’s paraphrase it says strongly, “take seriously your responsibility for those your culture ignores, and take your discipleship seriously”.

This probably isn’t news to anyone here. We’ve heard this before. In face, you’ve probably heard most of what I have said before. But…

The part that gets me is the section before. Verses 22-25. I interpret it this way, put up or shut up. I am going to be honest here. As a community we have done many, many good things. We are a community of grace and compassion. I have already stated my deep, deep love for you guys. But, honestly, sometimes I think we talk the walk much better than we walk it. We can talk all we want about being a community of that cares for the poor and needy. We can talk about being people that take their discipleship seriously. And like I said, sometimes we do well and shine brilliantly. But, I know (and I know this because I am speaking from my own life) that there comes a point where we need to put up or shut up. We need to stop talking about doing it and just start doing it. Honestly, I am struggling to figure out what this means in my life.

But, I do know that this concept of sacrifice keeps coming back to me. As some of you read in my blog I was very moved by the examples of sacrifice that Mason’s birth mother and foster mother made. What they did was truly amazing.

And, all I know is that the best thing I can do and the best thing we can do is to sacrifice a little more each day.

It’s true that God has adopted us into his redeemed and redemptive family. This is a family that has been given so much. We have been given an inheritance of that can never waste away. We are also a family that much has been asked of. God has called us to be a family that is actively involved in what he is doing in the world. It is not enough for us to just be redeemed people. We must enage in being a redemptive people as well. In order for us to do this, together, it’s going to ask of us more than we can ever imagine.

I want to end with a quote from Fredick Buchner:

“The gospel is not only good and new, but if you take it seriously, a holy terror. Jesus never claimed that the process of being changed from a slob into a human being was going to be a Sunday school picnic. On the contrary, childbirth may occasionally be painless. But rebirth, never.”

The question for many of us is “where do I start?” To that I say, start small. You don’t have to save the world. Shanna Cummings says it best. We need to be obedient to the moment. When you feel God calling you to do something. Do it. Stop making excuses. Just stop and do it.

We have embraced Mason into our home (The Hiestands).

You have embraced us into our community (The Well).

God has embraced us into his family (The Church).

So that we might be a blessing to others…

Posted in Adoption, Adoption Trip, General, Life, Missional, My Family, The Well

Guatemala Adoption Process Questions

September 24, 2007 // 1 Comment »

Since our family finalized our adoption and brought our adorable son Mason Carlos home from Guatemala we’ve obviously received a ton of questions about the process.

• The first thing people usually ask is: “How long did it take? ”
  The answer there is: A LONG TIME! We started the process in January of 2006 and Mason came home to Philadelphia in August 2007. We had a number of stalls and a ton of waiting for it all to happen.
• The second thing people usually ask is “how much did it cost?”
  The answer there is rather easy also: A LOT! It’s no secret that a Guatemala adoption costs around $25,000 when all is said and done (adoption fees + travel). We were no exception. We haven’t added up every penny but our process was somewhere near there.
• Naturally, the question comes next: “Why does it cost so much?!”
  To be honest, I don’t have the answer there. My wife knows this answer better than I do but the answer lies in a combination of lawyer fees, official paper processing and foster care. When it all comes down to it, I don’t really care. All I have to do is hold my amazing son in my arms and I know I would have paid 10 times that much if necessary.
• Of course, no one needs to ask the question, “was it worth it?”
  Just take a look at this kid and answer that one for yourself!

So, those are few quick answers to some frequently asked questions.

Oh, and If you are interested in a flow chart of the adoption process, download it here. (I am sure it will make you even more confused!):

Guatemala Adoption Flow Chart – this is a pdf file

Posted in Adoption, Adoption Trip, General, Life, My Family

Adoption Trip #15 – Cole, Meet your little brother

August 9, 2007 // 9 Comments »

So, we got home last night after a long 12 hour day of travel. But, it was way worth the trip! It was awesome to see Cole again. Its funny, after you have been holding a child who weighs just 14 pounds, you realize just how big your four year old really is!

We’re settling in here as best we can. I am taking the next day or so off and trying to get a play room set up for Cole in the basement (where my home office is, which should be interesting!)

Cole is so proud of his little brother. The priceless moment of the day so far: After taking these pictures of them on the sofa Cole says with a smirk on his face, “I think we should keep him.” We of course replied “Of course we are!”

On a unfortunate note, we seem to have had our video camera either lost or stolen. Of course, inside the camera is all the video we took on the trip (which wasn’t much, but as you can imagine it is completely irreplaceable). So, we’re making a few phone calls and seeing if we either left it at the hotel or on a tour we took. Hopefully it turns up. If it does, we’ll be sure to share it.

Other than that, we’re settling in to life as a family of four. This should be interesting!

Posted in Adoption, Adoption Trip, General

Adoption Update #14 – In Dallas

August 8, 2007 // No Comments »

We are officially in the good old US of A. We got through immigration with no problems and we’re sitting in the D concourse at Dallas / Ft. Worth waiting for our flight to Philadelphia.

Since I had been sick on Tuesday, I hadn’t eaten anything at all. Mostly because i was scared to… It seems strange to say this, but I can’t tell you how excited it was to see a McDonald’s!

Well, we’re almost home…

Posted in Adoption, Adoption Trip, General

Adoption Trip #13 – Headed Home…

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So, sorry for the lack of updates that last two days.  I’ve been laying in bed since Monday night at 8:30 with some kind of food poisoning.   I threw up four times Tuesday.  Yeah, that was a good time.   But, I think I finally have it out of me so I should be good for the ride home.

Our flight leaves Guatemala City at 8:40am and then after we fly through Dallas and then make our way to Philadelphia.  Hopefully we make all of our flights and there aren’t any delays because its going to be a 12 hour day already.

Off we go….

Posted in Adoption, Adoption Trip, General

Adoption Trip #12 – Embassy Appointment Is Done

August 6, 2007 // No Comments »

So this morning we woke up at 5:00 am and headed down for an early breakfast. After that we found our ride to the US Embassy to get approval for Mason’s Visa (no, not the credit card – the document he needs to be able to travel back to the US).

So, long story short, the Embassy was easy. Went through security. Waited. Went into door number 10. Answered three quesitons or so. Waited. Went to window number 8 and answered some more questions. The nice lady behind the counter approved his visa. We went back to the hotel. We are now done with the last hoop to jump through for this adoption. All that is left is clearing customs in Dallas which we understand is not that big of a deal at all.

Now, we are headed to Antigua for the day with some friends we met here. We have a tour guide from our lawyers office to show us the way.

More later…

Now, go write Mason a quick note!

Posted in Adoption, Adoption Trip, General

Adoption Trip #11 – Write Mason a Note!

August 5, 2007 // 12 Comments »

So, I was thinking, here I am writing all these letters to Mason and I know that there are a bunch of people reading this blog who are so very excited about him being part of our family lives.

So, I wanted to invite you to write something to him as well.

Just click the “comments” link under the title of this post and then write Mason a message that way.

I know you want to, and I know that he’d appreciate it (someday!)

So go ahead, and let him know just how much he is loved…

Posted in Adoption, Adoption Trip, General

Adoption Trip #10 – Dear Mason #4

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Dear Mason,

So, today is the third full day we have known you. It still doesn’t seem real. When I look at you I can’t believe you are with us and we are here and that we don’t have to give you back. So many of the other families are down here to visit their children. Then they have to leave and wait till the adoption is done to be able to bring them home. I am not sure I would be able do that. From what I hear, its quite a hard thing to do!

Anyways, today we had a fun day. Though, most of it was just sitting around with a few other parents and their children since it rained outside. But, you’ve been laughing and smiling all day so we don’t really care where we are.

You have developed a bit of a fever again tonight. In fact, when we tried to give your your medicine you decided you didn’t really want it. But, of course, that was after you already swallowed it! So, of course, you heaved it all over yourself. I’ll be honest, it was totally gross. Don’t worry, your did it on your mommy’s side of the bed. Thanks for taking care of me!

Well, tomorrow we have to be up at 5:00am in order to get some breakfast and then get to the United States Embassy by 7:15am. We’re getting a ride from our lawyer and they will help us. Basically, we are applying for a Visa so that we can bring you home. From what we hear, it shouldn’t be that bad. We have great people working with us so they will take care of everything. Its still a little nerve wracking because after all this time this is the last big hurdle we have to face. After that, we can pick up the visa on Tuesday and then on Wednesday morning we’ll head home!

Tomorrow, after the embassy appointment we are going to take a tour of a town called Antigua. Its supposed to be a beautiful place. We’re hoping that you feel okay so we can do it. If not, maybe we can do it on Tuesday.

Okay, well, I need to get to bed. Its going to be an early day tomorrow!

Your Daddy,

Todd

Posted in Adoption, Adoption Trip, General

Adoption Trip #9 – Pictures…

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We hung out at the pool for a while today and then its started to rain so we headed inside. Right now we’re meeting the many new couples that are coming for the week.

More updates later. But click on this picture to the left, or one of the ones at the top right, to view some more shots from today.

Posted in Adoption, Adoption Trip, General

Adoption Trip #8 – Dear Mason #3

August 4, 2007 // No Comments »

Dear Mason,

Hey there buddy. I figured I would put a little picture of you in this note. Its always helpful to see what you looked like when you were a kid. So here you are.

This is actually one of the rare images we have of you not sleeping! Like I wrote yesterday in the last note to you, you’ve been a little sick. We think that’s why you have been sleeping so much.

We went to the pool for most of the day today and not surprisingly you slept most of the time. You did wake up for a bit and you and mommy played in the pool for a bit. You really seemed to like it a lot and we can’t wait to go back tomorrow and swim some more. I got some video of it so we’ll let you watch that someday. I need to edit it a bit and then I’ll share it. The weather here has been beautiful and I would imagine you were quite comfortable as you napped.

I am not sure if you can see it or not in the picture, but you have a little bruise on the right side of your forehead. While you were sleeping in your stroller (your sleeping spot of choice) you jerked quickly and smacked your head on the side. You woke up all the sudden crying and in quite a fit. Right away we saw the little black and blue bump on your little forehead. We’re not too worried though, you seem to be recovering well.

We’re meeting a lot of neat people here who are also adopting. Tonight we ventured out of the hotel to a little authentic Guatemalan restaurant. When we got there one of our new friends had just sat down and they asked us to join them. We had a great time and we also had some great food.

Today was a fairly lazy day for you and we’re glad that you are getting your rest. We’re also glad you are eating too. Though, you could do a little better at that. I guess we’ll have to get you back to the United States and get some good old unhealthy and fattening American food in you. I am sure your big brother Cole will be happy to introduce you to chicken nuggets and French fries!

I have thought a bit more about your birth mom and your foster mom. At our church we have recently been reading a chapter in the Bible called Romans 12 and we’ve been talking about the idea of sacrifice. Mason, these two women sacrificed in ways that you might never experience again. Your mommy and I pray that as you grow up you will understand how much love it took for them to do this. We pray that you understand that their sacrifice was motivated by love and nothing else. We also pray that as you grow up, you will also see your mommy and I sacrificing for you and for others too. While I am not sure we could ever match the way they sacrificed, I pray that you will something similar in the way we live as individuals and as a family.

I pray that as you and Cole grow up in our household, you would first and foremost see our love for Jesus and that along with us you would follow his radical call to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and that love your neighbor as yourselves. (As you grow up learning about God and church and Jesus and you are trying to figure out what it all means, please know that this is always a great place to come back to. Love God. Love Others. On some level its really that simple. On another level, its radical).

I pray, that by God’s grace, when you are old enough to read and understand this you will be able to say, “Yes, that verse describes family (at least most of the time).”

Love your daddy,

Todd

p.s. Tomorrow we are going to spend some time at the pool again and then go to the market in town. That should really be an interesting adventure.

p.s.s. that second picture is from the first time that we met. I told you that you couldn’t stop staring at me!  Also, if you click on that image, you’ll see some other pictures of you.  Most of them are of you sleeping though!

Posted in Adoption, Adoption Trip, General

Adoption Trip #7 – Photo..

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So, our camera (being a little old) is going on the fritz. Oh, its taking pictures. It’s just not letting us get the pictures off the camera. So, while we have some fun pictures to share with you… we can’t.

While I do some troubleshooting, you’ll have to settle for a pic from the camera built into my mac. …

Ok, we’re off to breakfast and then headed to the pool to relax for the day. I know, I know, we’ve got it really, really rough.

Posted in Adoption Trip, General

Adoption Trip #6 – Dear Mason #2

August 3, 2007 // No Comments »

Dear Mason,

Right now you are sleeping in a crib next to our bed. This is quite strange. In fact, this whole day has been quite strange. I know you feel the same way. I can’t imagine how confused you must feel. The woman who has been caring for you for the past nine months, for all you knew she was your mom, brought you this big hotel and you met us. You were all smiles at first. In fact, you wouldn’t stop staring at me (don’t worry, i didn’t mind!). But, as the time wore on it was almost like you knew something was up. You probably couldn’t help but wonder what we were doing in this small room and who these two strange people were and why you were meeting them.

Each time your foster mom would try and let Melanie hold you, you wanted none of it. I don’t blame you. Not only were you confused over the whole situation, you were quite tired. You were well due for a nap so your foster mom actually came up to the room help you go to sleep. She did a great job and soon (after a little fussing) you were off to quietly sleeping.

You do need to know something about the first nine months of your life. Your foster mother loved you deeply (I know that she still does too). For some reason, I didn’t think about how hard it would be for her to pass you off to us. I knew it was going to be for you, but I hadn’t thought about her. For the first nine months of your life she cared for you, bathed you, fed you, held you when you cried and loved you well. And now she has passed you on to us so that we could do the same and make you part of our family. I imagine she finds comfort in knowing that you have changed hands and families for the final time.

Honestly, Mason, I don’t know exactly how to process the role of your foster mom. I can understand your birth mom knowing that in order for you to have a full and best possible life she would have to entrust you to another loving family. I can’t imagine doing that, but I can at least get it a little in my head. But for some reason I think the love of your foster mom fits into a different category. She welcomed you into her home, knowing full well that she would one day have to say goodbye.

So tonight we pray for her and pray that the God of all comfort and peace would guard her heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Oh, another less intense note, you’re quite the sleeper. I was impressed with the way that you were able to sleep for 2.5 hours in the stroller next to the pool. It was rather loud, especially with all the cars going by just over the other side of the wall. I can sleep pretty much anywhere too so I’m fairly proud father.

Tonight you have a little infection in your throat and have a fever off and on. I know its making things even harder for you. Oh, you are also only 14 pounds and all the clothes we brought for you are a little big. Honestly, they look really cute.

So yeah, today was a beautiful day. Much like a dream really. Today was also a strange combination between intensely emotional and kind of lazy.

All that matters in the end is that you are here, sleeping next to your mommy. I can’t wait till you wake up in 3 hours… I guess I’d better get some sleep!

Oh, I just want you to know that I am so proud to be called your daddy…

Love Daddy

Posted in Adoption Trip, General

Adoption Trip #5: A Quick Update.

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So, a quick update. We met Mason this morning around 9:50 am (mountain time) and we’re spending the day sitting around the pool. He’s been sleeping in the stroller for about an hour now and I just came up to get a good book (Embracing Grace by Scot McKnight – seems fitting).

More later, but this morning was acutaully one of the hardest things we have ever done before. Amazing. Wonderful…and hard.

No time to blog though…

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Adoption Trip #4: Dear Mason…

August 2, 2007 // 4 Comments »

Dear Mason,

We haven’t met you yet. We’ve just seen pictures. I’ll be honest, you’re amazingly cute! I think I am safe assuming that you’ll be even more beautiful when we meet you. (I promise, I won’t call you beautiful when you are 13. But, I’m going to now because you are allowed to call babies beautiful).

Tonight, on August 2, 2007, I am sitting in the Westin Casino Real Hotel in Guatemala City and I am fairly overwhelmed when this whole idea. In one sense, your mom and I have no clue what we are doing. We have no clue what to expect. It’s all pretty much like a dream. When we started this process in January of 2006, this moment seemed so far off. Honestly, last week, even when we heard we finally figured out when we would be coming down, seemed so far off.

In another sense, we know exactly what we are doing. We are adopting you as our son. We are bringing you into our family and calling you a very real part of it. We’re not doing this simply because we had trouble getting pregnant after Cole (I really don’t think anyone really adopts only for this reason). While we did have some issues getting pregnant our main motivation for choosing to adopt is because we can’t think of anything more faithful to the Scriptures and the call of Jesus than bringing a child without a home into our loving family. We are doing this not to make ourselves feel good (though, it does!). We are doing this because we love Jesus and we love you. This is not about feelings or pity or anything. It’s simply about choosing to love you as our son.

So, tomorrow your wonderful foster mom is going to bring you to this hotel and we’re going to meet you in the lobby. I am sure your mom and I will be rather strange to you when we first meet you (I’m also sure I’ll be strange to you for the rest of your life!).

But, I want you to know something. You have the most amazing mother in the whole entire world. She loves you so much. She is going to love you in ways you can’t even imagine. The scriptures tell us that each of us are given different gifts. I’ll argue to my death that she’s been given the gift of being a mom. Now, I don’t want to put undue pressure on her. She’s far from perfect. She knows that. Which is maybe what makes her such a great mother. And, in spite of her imperfections and maybe even because of them, she’s going to love you in ways that you won’t be able to measure.

I feel the same way of course. I promise to love you more than myself as well. But, I wanted to emphasize how much your mother loves you. You are one blessed kid.

I should also mention that you not only have a wonderful mother, you have an amazing big brother. Cole is so excited for you to come home. He’s been so patient waiting for the day he gets to meet you. He’s prayed for you every night and I think he’ll continue to do the same. I’m excited to see you two playing together in our living room and getting into all kinds of trouble.

I also can’t forget to mention the church family that you have in Philadelphia. This group of people called “The Well” (I know, its a weird name for a church but the name is irrelevant really), just can’t wait to meet you. They’ve been praying for you for over a year, even before we knew who you were. They are probably going to try and spoil you a bit so if you would do us a favor and learn to say “no” to them early on that would be great. But, I’m excited for you to meet them because I believe with all my heart that who you will become as you grow into a man will be very directly related to their influence, guidance and friendship. They too are far from perfect. But they are doing their best to love Jesus and love others. What more can we ask for?

Honestly, I don’t really know what else to say. I still feel like our meeting you is a year away even though it is only about 13 hours.

I guess all I can do is say “I love you, son.” And, I haven’t even met you yet. I can’t wait to watch you grow into a young man. I’m excited to see what the Lord has in store for you. I’m excited to be your dad.

Your daddy,

Todd

p.s. See you tomorrow!

Posted in Adoption Trip, General

Adoption Trip #3: Hello Guatemala

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So, I am sitting in lobby of perhaps the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen. This place is absolutely gorgeous. I love the architecture and the bed, well the bed is unbelievable! Oh, Apparently the president of Spain stays here when he visits. However, the guy in the shuttle said that George Bush is too good for this place. He stays somewhere else. Whatever.

Aynways, the flights when as smooth as it possibly could have and we landed in Guatemala City at about 8:10pm. (We’re in the central time zone we’re two hours apart from the east coast.  I guess that puts us in the mountian time zone). Customs was easy and we got our bags quickly and were helped by a kind Guatemalan gentleman looking for a tip. He may have been looking for a tip, but if we didn’t have him, we would probably have been quite confused. Once you exit the airport, its slightly chaotic. There are people everywhere in a fairly small area. I was more than happy to tip him. He took care of us well.

I was happy to see that many of the television stations are in English (about half of them). We got most of the major networks and cable news stations. I was saddned however to notice that, while we do get ESPN, its ESPN Deportes (the spanish version). Of course, if anything is universal, it’s sports so I should still be able to follow my red hot Cubbies.

Well, tomorrow we wake up, get some breakfast and then around 10:00am central time, we meet Mason, his foster mother and our liaison. Its all rather surreal and its hard to believe we are down here. But we are, so rock on!

(Oh and internet access is about $10.00 a day so i am not sure if we’re going to pay for it each day but we will be sure to keep you all as updated as possible!)

Pictures and possibly video to follow tomorrow…

Posted in Adoption Trip, General

Adoption Trip #2: The Philadelphia Airport Friday’s Stinks (Literally)

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We’re sitting on the nice comfortable rocking chairs in the A Terminal of the Philadelphia International Airport.  Our flight was delayed an hour so we had lunch at the Friday’s here in the terminal (which, by the way, had the slowest service ever – aren’t airport restaurant’s supposed to have quick and speedy service? Oh, and it smelled like someone had thrown up in there too)

Anyways, since our flight was delayed we have only an hour to get through customs in Miami.  We’ll see how that works out.

If Miami has free WiFi or T-Mobile Wifi, and we have time, we’ll update from there…

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Adoption Trip #1: And We’re Off!

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The trip has begun. Melanie and I will be on the road in 15 minutes (10:00 am Eastern Time).

Hopefully we’ll find some internet access along the way or when we get there and update you on things…

Posted in Adoption, Adoption Trip, General