If you want the adoption trump card, then read this e-mail I got from Mandy at Welcome Home where we are adopting our twins.

Hi Brian & Shannon,

I have been through the book with the kids 3 times now. They are getting more excited all the time. They love their beds, know the kids names and Zeus off by heart, and are claiming a bike each. They are really excited about a mum and dad. They are just really jazzed. (Note to self: Um, I guess I better buy some bikes before they arrive )

One exciting bit of news is that I have a family of 4 children available. We visited Jonah Jeremiah, Emmanuel and Margaret’s mother with them today. The mother is getting the dad to come and sign off at the Lawyers on Monday. If you hear of any family who cant have children and would like 4 at one time let me know.

Many blessings
Mandy

Any takers?

I actually have a picture of this family from our visit this summer:

Jonah and Jeremiah are the two twin boys in the front left. Mom and Dad are the two adults. The boy in front of Dad is Emmanuel and Margaret is the one in her sister’s hands on the far right.

I’ve been in this family’s home. They can barely afford the 4 they do have pictured that are living with them, much less the four more that are up for adoption and are living with Welcome Home in the orphanage. Mandy has tried to help them get on their feet with a few micro loans to start businesses, but to no avail. Adoption in the states or another orphanage appears to be these kids only option at survival at this point.

Well, I knew we had crossed the line in the process of adopting Billy and Becky and we were full bore ahead raising funds and making plans.

We discussed that daddy in Uganda loved them but is very worried that he had no food for them. Then Uncle William (the men at the orphanage are called “uncle” and the women “mommy”) told Daddy that there was a lovely mummy and daddy and 3 boys in America who would love to have Becky and Billy live with them and that they had plenty of food to feed them and a lot of love to give them. Even though Daddy in Uganda will be sad he really wants them to live where there is plenty of food and a good life so he will send them to live with their new mummy and daddy.They talked about understanding why daddy wanted them to be able to go to new mummy and daddy in America. They were smiling at this point. They love food.

Then I showed them your pictures and their faces lit up as they recognized you all. They were thrilled. They knew the things they had done with you here like the bike and to the fair with all the kids etc.

You will get to meet the dad and travel down to court with him. It is good to take pictures with him and keep this story and the newspaper article so if in their teens they ask questions you have the things to share with them. We normally send the relative home a different way to how the children travel home from Court.

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 the best the whole thing was a 10. We even got the model plane out and shared about traveling. We told them there are friends from here that will live close to them so they were happy about that as well.

After the whole thing we laid hands on the picture of you all and prayed for you. They prayed out loud to thank God for Mummy and daddy and their brothers.

This afternoon my family went into San Francisco for a wedding rehearsal for Shannon’s cousin.

I’ve never been to, nor officiated a wedding in San Francisco proper, and I’m gonna kick off this experience with a bang evidently. As a pastor, you know all weddings are memorable and you care what people think and how they will like what you do and say on such an important occassion. As a result, they are the only talk I fully manuscript. Add to that the pressure that this one is for family and I’m already thinking this wedding has a lot of weight to it.

Well, then I showed up to see where we are having this shindig and it’s on a bay front San Francisco Hotel ROOFTOP!

Yep, outside on the roof. Literally 1/2 mile from the bay bridge and 100 yards from the Ferry Building right on San Francisco Bay. It is beautiful. But it is super distracting. I’m not sure why anyone would listen to me when there is a bride and groom, a beautiful city scape, the bay bridge, the ferry building, birds, and the bay to look at from a gorgeous vantage point. I think I’m gonna have to wave my arms a lot.

And if that’s not enough, they chose “fleet week“- which not only attracts thousands but has boats and military shows and the blue angels. The rehearsal was right in the middle of the practice for the Blue Angels. It was awesome! However, needless to say, I was super ridiculously distracted. Even though I’ve seen them like 5 times at fleet week in SF and once in Miramar, they are so amazing to watch.

The wedding is Sunday at 5pm. The blue angels fly from 3 to 4pm. Um… yeah. It’s gonna be awesome. It’s also gonna be distraction heaven. I’m going early to watch the show again.

If you have an ounce of A.D.D in you, this wedding is gonna be either the best one or the worst one you ever went to. I’m gonna have to take some some meds before I get there or hope the Blue Angels give me a good fix.

I can’t believe I left my SLR at home. I’m stuck with a lame pocket point and shoot canon and this weekend so cries for something better! What was I thinking? Here’s some pics… even though the blue angels are fuzzy in my pic.

Tyler: “Dad, can I eat a plum with dinner?”

Me: “Sure”.

Tyler (midway through dinner): “Dad, I don’t want this peach, it tastes weird.”

Me: “It’s not a peach, it’s a plum, and eat it. You asked to have it, so you’re going to finish it.”

Tyler: looks at me like I just told him to eat brussel sprouts, starts eating, screams and drops the plum.

Me: “What is your problem?”

Tyler: “There’s a worm in it.”

Me: “Let me see that… yep. Sure enough, that’s some kinda larva worm.”

Gross. Evidently the kid was right. It probably did taste nasty.

Me: “Good news Tyler: It’s still whole.”

I should trust Tyler more. The last 2 times I’ve poured sour milk into cereal without watching, he was the first one to notice something was wrong. Jake- the skinny little runt of our family- just straight pounds it. Maybe Tyler will be some kind of food judge one day.

I have a friend who said that once I started trying to use twitter for student announcements, it means I drank the Koolaid.

However, I’m not sure that is the case. I do think you drink the Koolaid when you tell people the following over twitter:

• what you just ate for lunch
• feel the need to tell the world you are now awake.
• feel some need to tell the world you are going to bed as if some sort of virtual “goodnight john boy” is now our collective technological responsibility

But, regardless, even if I’m about to get initiated into the cult, we are making an attempt to use twitter as a way to send free text messages to our students cells about our high school program.

You can check out how to follow us at encounterhsm here.