3 months w/Deacon

It is amazing being a father! My favorite things are:

seeing his reaction when he sees me first thing in the morning

picking him up, and feeling him pat me on the shoulder

watching him smile and crawl toward me when I get home from work

feeling his fingers wrap around one of my fingers when I'm giving him a bottle

deacon playing video

weekend in salado

Deacon got to meet a lot more of the family this weekend. Everyone adored him and got to hold him. We had a great time in a house that was rented for the weekend. Here are the pics of Deacon meeting everyone:

with grand-Aunt Lady

with Nana Faulkner

with Pawpaw Faulkner

with Aunt Kelly & Uncle Boomer

with great-grand Aunt Charlie & Uncle Mert

with grand-Aunt Tricia

with grand-Aunt Cindy

in san marcos

We ended up in San Marcos about 3:30 pm this afternoon. We checked into the EconoLodge, then made our way over to the outlet mall. We hit all our favorite spots: Gap, Old Navy, AE, Converse, Borders(!), and some places for Deacon (The Children's Place & Carter's).

We forgot how hot it was down here. It has been really nice in FW recently. But here there is so much humidity.

Now, whenever we chose to visit our old college town, it is a chore to figure out where we're going to eat. There are so many places that have so many good memories. Grins (a favorite right off campus...you can see the music building from the deck), Herberts (the best Mexican), Center Point Station (the best burgers). But tonight we hit a spot that I never remember. Margo picked the Gristmill in Gruene. This has special meaning, because Margo had a brief stint there as a waitress. I'll never forget the night she called from the parking lot, refusing to go into work. She wanted to quit, and never come back. And she did. It is a very traumatic working environment, I think she fell down once, and dropped a tray of food once also. But it is a great place to eat!

first Sunday at Grace

Today was Deacon's first official Sunday at Grace. He handled all the buzz pretty well. He met a bunch of new people and got poked at and passed around a bit.

We also enrolled Deacon in TCU's summer Early Childhood Music Class. We want to give him an early start in the music world. But if he grows up and doesn't want to be a musician, that is fine with me. He can be whatever he wants to be. But I still think he'll be a musician.

deacon video

I love that with my imac, I could record and edit this in about 10 minutes.

5th anniversary

Friday, May 25 was our anniversary. I planned [all by myself] the best date we've ever had. It included:

getting a babysitter to come over at 3:30 pm

taking off to the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine for a couples massage at the spa

going to Saltgrass for steak & shrimp dinner

I think we're going to make a habit of the massage thing. That was my first one, and I'd like to chase that feeling. She said I had a lot of stress in my neck...so we're going to have to work on that.

Gotta love Andy

We're getting close to the trip. May 7 is probably when we'll fly to Ethiopia. Now, I'm at the point where I'm contemplating how each part of my life will change after we get our son. Even the smallest parts of my life.

I have a feeling that everything is going to change. Eating will be different. Getting dressed/ready in the morning will be different. Work will be different [schedule]. Evenings at home will be different. Going out on a whim will be different. Last weekend Margo and I saw 2 movies just because we didn't have anything else going on [Blades of Glory & Hot Fuzz...both 4/5 stars ****].

All that will change.

For the better.

newest pic of deacon

He looks like me this morning. I did not want to get out of bed. But I did. And now the day is done.

I'm supposed to bring the devotional at staff meeting tomorrow, so I need to stay up and figure that out.

our real son

So I had to take down the previous "Introducing my son" post. The main reason being that he wasn't our son. Gladney made a mistake with the photos, and we got the wrong picture.

It's not a big deal in the long run, but a little traumatic at first. Especially for Margo. She was attached/bonded to the first picture. And after you've waited like we have, you're so excited to finally put a face with your new baby. But then they say that face isn't your face.

It wasn't as much a hard thing for me. I liked the first picture, but I like this little guy too. I know God has it all figured out and we'll get the baby we're supposed to. I also know that as soon as we pick this little guy up, we'll forget about the little picture trouble we had.

The hard thing now is trying to figure out what to do with the 40 something emails I got in reply to the original/wrong picture. All saying how cute he was. We had thought about printing them out for a scrapbook or something. But that wasn't the real son...so do we pretend like they were said about our real son and keep them, or do we delete them and move on with life?

margo's hyper-nesting

Now that we know we have 4-5 weeks before our son enters our life in person, Margo has gone on a hyper-nesting rampage. Furniture is being bought and assembled. I have to say, his nursery is starting to be the coolest room in the house.





Here you see the crib with blue, green, and white bedding.






Here you see a cube bookshelf from Walmart. On the right is the floating bookshelf from Ikea. The cool green lamp is also from Ikea.



Here you see the animal paintings. And a cool little pelican toy holder from Ikea. His mouth opens up! And the changing table will go on the wall space.







And finally the cool green night-lite vibe created with the lights off.

what we know

Here are the details about our son Tegene:

he is six months old

he was found outside a music school in Addis Ababa

he was found with another baby boy

when they found him, they think he was about 1 month old

they originally thought he and the other boy were twins, but after some testing it turns out they weren't related

we'll be traveling to Ethiopia in mid-May to pick him up

I don't know how to pronounce his name

We had a great Good Friday service at Grace. It was very reflective, and all the readings were taken from the ReJesus website. It was well attended and we asked people as they entered the sanctuary to be in prayerful silence. It was cool to walk in the sanctuary full of people, and it be dead quiet.




























I used mostly hymns for this service: Beneath the Cross of Jesus, Were You There?, and When I Survey [with the Tomlin chorus]. They were the perfect fit.

It also snowed today. April 7. Snow. Just so you know I'm not making it up:















It is hard to see, but trust me, it is there. Nothing stuck to the ground, but still.

6 nights a week at home

I wonder if it is possible for me to be home six nights a week?

In preparation of having a family with kids, I'm trying to prioritize family and spending time with them at home. The thought kinda came up while listening to the podcast of Catalyst. They were interviewing Craig Groeschel at LifeChurch.tv.

In it he said that he spends 6 nights a week at home, and he has 6 kids. So I figured if he could do it, I could do it. Mainly because I don't have 6 kids, and I don't lead the largest multi-site church in OK.

So Wednesday night is the given. We don't have Sunday night services. So Wednesday night is the night not at home. That means I've got to figure out what to do with Monday night Worship Band rehearsal [7-8:30 pm] and Sunday night Youth Worship Band rehearsal [5:30-6:30 pm].

I can probably move the Monday night rehearsal to Wednesday night, somehow. I'd probably have to lose the last half hour though. Which I don't want to do. Not to mention my Wednesday nights are already packed pretty tight. The whole thing requires a lot of thought/planning.

worst movie ever

Margo is watching Marie Antoinette and it has to be one of the worst movie's ever. I can't stand it anymore, so I had to get away from it.

You know what isn't a bad movie though [well not so much a movie, more a concert video], Heart of Gold by Neil Young. It's a concert Neil Young did at the Ryman in Nashville with music from his album "Prarie Wind" which is very good. Anything that involves Emmylou Harris singing bgvs has got something going for it. The instrumental performances are all beautifully understated, which is the perfect accompaniment to Neil's airy, raspy voice.

The strings and choir are a nice addition also.

We painted the nursery this afternoon. Baby blue [literally, blue, for a baby]. It will eventually get some brown geometric shapes on one wall, says Margo.

Worship, take 3

Our son will soon be saying,















"Welcome to my crib."
The only problem - we bought it from someone on Craigslist pre-assembled...we can't fit it thru the nursery door.

3. Worship should seek diversity and encourage it.

God is diverse in his tastes. He loves spicy Latin worship. He loves chicken fried Southern worship. He loves fancy-shmancy upper class worship. And the diversity represented in the world also represents the diversity of worship styles and forms. Biblical case for God's love of a diversity of styles of worship:

Acts 2:1-12

The majority of participants in the Pentecost experience could have communicated in and understood Greek. But, God wanted them to hear the words in their own language. God wants to speak and communicate with us in our most native and heart-felt tongues. He wants us not only to hear and understand, but to feel and know. And I think just as God spoke through them in a variety of languages, God desires to be spoken to and worshiped through a variety of languages both verbally and musically/stylisticly.

Don't forget though that worship is not dependent on style. We should be able to reach a place of authentic worship despite the style of music/form being used. If you say that you can't worship without a certain style/form, then you're really confessing to the weakest type of spirituality...one that is completely limited to our own desires.

A diversity of styles should be encouraged in worship in order to teach people to adapt in worship. What if we were all forced to worship in a culture other than our own? Would you be lost spiritually, not able to find a way to connect with God? Or would you be able to adapt?

baby threads

If anyone from Gladney sees this, we probably won't get the baby.

saturday conclusion

A rather bizzare day. This might be a little lengthy.

About noon we left the house to begin our day out and about. First stop, mailbox to return Netflix movie "The Constant Gardener." I watched it by myself, because it's my kind of movie, not Margo's. 5 stars.

Second stop, drop off tax paperwork at CPA. No rush, we'll be paying taxes again this year. I've forgotten what it feels like to get one of those returns.

Third stop, drop off books/CDs/DVDs at the library and pick up some new stuff...including Entourage season 1, and the new Vince Gill album.

Lunch time, Margo wanted to try something new. Oohhh, there was also a stop at Babies R Us in there. I've already blocked that out. Just kidding. We didn't buy anything, but we looked at EVERYTHING. By the way, they don't just make simple audio baby monitors any more. They are all video or motion detectors now.

Back to lunch. Margo was hankering for something outside the box...so we went to Razoos. You know, that cajun place. Here is where the fun began. I should have known something was up when I got the feeling that the menus were racialy charged. We ordered drinks, a starter: fried pickels...and our lunch: split the seafood sampler thing...all at the same time. The fried pickels never made it. They were served with our lunch, which was unacceptable. We refused to pay for food we ordered as a starter. We're picky that way. But that all didn't matter too much. Here is why. I was sitting there the whole time staring at this:

















That's right. Captain Jack is watching me eat my crawfish. Not the real John Depp. But someone that looked/dressed exactly like him. A little too much like him if you ask me. I mean, he had the captain hat, the little bandana, the boots, the braided beard/goatee thing, the dangly thing off his hair, the coat, the shirt, the eyeliner, the glove thing, even the little box thing that was the coveted prize in one of those movies.

Bizzare indeed.

So then we start trying to figure out why he is dressed like that. Here is what we came up with:

he is a modern day "clown" that goes to kids parties dressed up as Capt. Jack

he is like the guy in Dodgeball who literally lives his life as though he were a pirate

he works at a restaurant like Magic Time Machine where he is required to dress up like someone famous

he's getting ready for Mardi Gras??? [long shot]

he's on his way to a costume party

Even stranger, he was having lunch with 2 young ladies, and an infant. That's it!!! He's a polygamist pirate!

Needless to say the lunch was entertaining. Then off to the movies. We saw Norbit. Very funny! When you see the trailer, you're expecting Eddie Murphy to be hilarious as the overweight black woman, and the nerdy guy. But what you don't see is the old Asian guy he plays, who is the funniest character in the movie.

Worship, take 1

We went to a meet-n-greet at Gladney today. We got to meet a lot of the staff who have been helping/taking care of us. Very nice folks. I learned that:

• we are an "A+" family/couple [we got all our paper work done in a timely fashion, and correctly...thanks to Margo]
• my predictions were correct...we could possibly be getting our son in late June/early July

This could be tricky...Margo is scheduled to be in Vancouver and I'm scheduled to be in Florida all in mid-June. It should work out though. That will be a lot of traveling for the summer though.

The subject at hand...

I wanted to share some of my core convictions about worship in order to stimulate thought & discussion. These convictions in no way sum up my philosophy of worship, but are just learnings & thoughts I've collected along the way. And I in no way have it all figured out...

1. Worship is for God - not for us.

Worship is essentially an offering/sacrifice. And for something to be offered/sacrificed, it has to be given to someone else wholly [without holding any back]. So when I worship God, everything becomes his - my heart, my life, my song, my thoughts, my will...etc. It is all for Him, not for me.

The problem is when we get too wraped up in what worship does for us. I don't deny that we get stuff out of worship - encouragement, fellowship, peace, joy, Spirit-filled...etc. It's even clear in the first Testament that God rewards the faithfulness of His worshipers. Genesis 22...Abraham got something out of his worship...a ram to take the place of Isaac. Even a portion of some sacrificed animals was kept and prepared as a celebration for the family. But our tendency is to get more wound up over the blessings of worship than the One we worship. We get more overjoyed by grace, rather than the God that provides it.

So worship takes the spotlight off us. God is the central character in the drama of worship. And the sacrifice of worship is for Him, not for us. Any blessings we receive from worshiping God are purely a bi-product of the goodness of God. We shouldn't worship God to get something out of it. We should worship God because He is worthy to receive glory, honor, riches, wisdom, power, strength...etc.

the long awaited xmas video

Here is the video I made of our Christmas with the family. I used my new imac to do all the editing.

xmas pics

presents around the tree
















Kelly & Boomer
















Clayton & Margo