Author: Wick

Husband, Father, Pastor, Missionary, Writer, Poet, Friend, reader, coffee enthusiast, hockey Wing-Nut, musical participator, etc...
Posted in Different Moments

different children.

Posted on by Wick

Today we experienced the beauty of each child’s individuality once more.  These are always fun moments.


You’ll notice in the picture, each girl is busy at the task of painting a ceramic item they’ve chosen out.  This picture was taken quite a ways into our time painting.

Ruby is hard at work painting however she sees fit.  She’s decided to make this an imaginative pink car, and wants to make sure every inch of this car is covered in it brightly.  She’ll go over the same spot several times, just watching the brush strokes, and enjoying the motions of getting more paint onto her brush….as well as rinsing it away in the water again.  Don’t forget to watch the water itself, as each brush dipped makes it a cloudy new color!

Sophie is also hard at work, painting as many objects as possible while creatively using as many colors as possible.  She loves to leave spots of white, because it’s “white paint” that has already been done for her!  She looks around the room to see if there are other options for colors she hasn’t been able to use yet, and her brush goes quickly from paint, to object, to water, and back to a new color of paint again.  Mommy, can I go get another object to paint??

Addie, of course, is still only a small ways into  her project.  She’s decided to paint a beautiful brown horse, just like she’s seen in photographs.  She’s taking short, carefully placed strokes filled with the perfect amount of paint, ensuring that the horse itself looks like it just jumped out of a picture.  She has already asked mom if she’ll help when she reaches the face, to make sure she adds a “white spot” just like some horses have.  She thinks about what this horse might enjoy doing, and breathes slowly to make sure it doesn’t jostle her brush too much.  This is artistic detail. 🙂

I love our daughters, and can’t wait to get to know the unique-ness of the one we haven’t met yet. 🙂

Posted in Adoption Journey

Adoption Update: Still Getting Ready…

Posted on by Wick

We haven’t posted an official “update” in a while, so I feel like we should. We have nothing incredibly solid or exciting to share, other than yes – we are still in the midst of the process. We’ve been asked by those involved, to not post specifics about where we are in the process, due to obvious concerns of safety and privacy. But I can give bits and pieces.

The more we learn, the more we realize we need to be learning. We had to write “book reports” as part of our application process, about raising an internationally adopted child, and the books we read seemed to give a lot of words to the topic of “becoming a multi-racial family”. They can just about make you over-anxious about any silly thing someone might say to you or your kids.  They recommend being prepared for just about every conceivable situation/conversation.  The list goes on from there.  There seems to be a never-ending list of ways you can truly mess up your children, by even the simplest and innocent of means.  Thankfully, it’s not about keeping a list with you, freezing time to pour over the options, and then pressing play when you’ve found the situation in your references.  It’s simply about training your heart and mind to be aware of what is happening here.  That there may be unique circumstances, and certainly will be special ways this will transform our experience as a family.

Actually, the entire process has made us think, not only about adoption, but big-picture about our marriage and family/parenting as well. If only having kids required everyone to go through this sort of process, it could be helpful. Page after page of answering “big questions”, examining why we are who we are, and where we believe we are heading as a family.  Too often, it seems people are either very unprepared for what changes parenting may bring, or to answer the large questions of “why” to many issues involved in becoming a family.  If only there was a book that helped prospective/young parents think and pray about what God may want to accomplish in their lives through the act of parenting…..oh wait...:)

We got our first “anonymous” donation toward our adoption in the mail recently…so if that was you…thank you. If you read that last sentence and thought “What a great idea!”, simply click the “Adoption Journey” link at the top of this page, and you can find instructions if you’d like to give!

We are looking forward to getting our Home-Study approved.  Once that has happened, we can hit the ground running with some grant-applications, fundraising efforts (Wanna buy a t-shirt? Got a donation for a silent auction?), and letter writing.  I don’t think I can get on any Game Shows before the adoption happens…but if any producers are reading my blog – I’m open!  Here’s my Wheel of Fortune from 2007!!! 🙂

Posted in Uncategorized

From the Dust: DVD Review

Posted on by Wick

In our beginnings of home-schooling our children, we’ve already been presented with an issue that will grow as our children do. How do science and faith go together, and do we have to ignore modern scientific discovery, in favor of assumed biblical truths? Children’s books that demand humans were friends with carnivorous dinosaurs, and curriculum that guarantees to teach students the evils of evolution….and we’re only in 1st grade, folks.

Several years ago, a book came out by a professor at ONU (my alma mater) that described the scientific truths he’d already been teaching for years. The fact is, with the amount of discoveries we’ve made in recent history, we are more privileged than any generation before us to understand the amazing complexities of the world GOD CREATED. Dr. Colling watched many students struggle with a science that was telling them many things were large, complex, amazingly and freely creative – yet a religion that was telling them God created all of this specific order in 6 24-hour periods. A faith that insisted our world is only several thousand years old, and evolution is a lie from satan to test us. Students had to reject one or the other, and it left many students leaving the faith (as one professor from the movie experienced herself). Because of this, he wanted to reveal to students in his book “Random Designer“, how it’s possible for the truths discovered in science to not actually conflict with the Truth’s revealed in scripture.

I read this book a few years ago, and as someone who doesn’t have much background in science – I was amazed to read the many complex ways God may have purposefully and wonderfully created our world. Not chapters on monkeys becoming people…but a book completely filled with microscopic levels of understanding God’s amazing creation, and the natural laws that God gave to govern this universe. I highly recommend reading it, no matter what your stance on how God created…or even if you’ve walked away from God altogether. Perhaps it will open doors to the possibility of something “otherly” at work in our midst.

The movie “From the Dust” seeks to go in that same direction, to “Be a starting point for dialogue and conversation.” With interviews from some top theologians, professors (Dr. Colling included), historians, and interpreters (hurray, NT Wright!) – the movie highlights some important conversation points that may open up to a fuller understanding of the creative God we serve. Unfortunately, as a conversation-starter, the film falls a little short on the side of input from the 6-Day Creation camp. Simply looking at the “Bios” section of the website, you can see they interview 2 primary sources on this “side” of the issue (Answers in Genesis, and Canopy Ministries, 5 people). These are definitely all leaders in their field, and they are given plenty of screen-time to speak their opinion. But on the “side” of old earth and possible complex processes used by God in creation, they have 20 different experts they’ve invited to speak.

 Maybe they invited 15 other experts from the first camp, and they all declined.

In any case, one of the primary goals is to unite these assumed “sides/camps” to recognize we are all on the same side – of pursuing Truth, and an understanding of God and all that He’s created. As Dr. Colling says on page 3 of his book, “The questions of ultimate import do not center around creation mechanisms, but rather creation purposes.”

The DVD comes with a list of great questions to ask as we seek to be in Awe of our creator, and honor Him, His Word, and all that He has created. These are ways for us to dialogue, no matter what beliefs we bring to the table, about the things that truly matter. To say we have the Truth of Genesis figured out, and not spend time meditating/growing towards the mystery of our creator-God, could be to miss out on quite a bit of God attempting to reach out to us as we understand His creation.

Certainly there are faults. They needed better representation and words spoken from the young-earth folks. They come across as hyper-conservative, full-blinders on, unwilling-to-dialogue- type-people who blame the worlds evil on anyone who accepts evolutionary thought. There are also moments where it feels like a commercial for Dr. Colling’s book, or bringing shame on the close-mindedness of the community that caused him to leave ONU.

But overall, I would definitely recommend it as a dialogue starter. Both the DVD, and Dr. Colling’s book can be used by God in great ways to heal the divide that some imagine should exist between God and Science (the study of God’s creation). The Truth is, the more we understand about our world and it’s mysteries – the more we are guided toward a God that is larger than anything we can imagine…as are His purposes for us…