Grassstains.net

This is a bit out of the timeline, but back in January we were happy to dedicate Emily to the Lord.  The pics didn’t come out well in the dark theater, but in the end this moment marked the continuation of a process where this little girl has been prayed over lots.  Our hope long before we even knew she would be ours to love and care for, is that she would come to know and follow the Lord for the rest of her life.  Grandma and Grandpa Gering were able to come down from Vancouver, and spend the day with us.  Emily adores them, and was very happy to get out of that dress and run and play.

On Friday, my cousin David came into town with his wife Amy and 5 kids – the boys, Josh, Nathan and Danny, and their two Chinese daughters Abby and Elisabeth.  David and his clan live in North Bend, Oregon down on the coast near Coos Bay where he pastors a church.  David and Amy were influential in our pursuit of a girl from China, as they were just heading to China to get Abby when we started our journey towards Emily.  They returned in 2008 to get their second daughter Elisabeth.  They were only able to visit for a few hours, but we enjoyed catching up with them, and introducing our daughter to her second cousins (we think that’s the official designation of the children of cousins – maybe it’s first cousins once removed).

So, some have been asking about the office project, and we are really in the home stretch.  Two weekends ago, we got primer on the walls, and the hard wood floor in.  Last weekend, we got the first coat of paint on, and the doors in.  We also worked on some of the trim around the window and doors, and the electrical trim (installing outlets, switches and light fixtures).  I did run into a little problem with a neutral wire breaking off where the line comes into the box on one of the plugs.  I’m going to have to pull the box off the wall, and hopefully can fix the problem without ripping into the sheetrock.  Mostly at this point we are waiting for the cabinets to be finished, and the trim to be finished.  We’ll need to slap on another coat of paint, but we are close to final inspections and finally moving all the boxes and bookshelves out of the living room.

I particularly like the paint on the teeth – got to love the sprayer!

Covered the floors to paint – they look a bit like this . . .

The Office Project moves steadily along . . .

I’ve been following various friends either on Facebook, their blogs, or in the course of daily conversations, as they set forth with resolutions for the new year.  Like most, I too have considered various things that I have resolved to do in the past, should do for the future, or want to do simply because it will be good for myself and my family.  But . . . I know me, and I know most of these resolutions will start out strong, and die a quiet death – like that resolution to read the bible in a year that finds itself suddenly confronted with the reality of Leviticus.

Anyway, I have found myself considering resolutions a bit differently after reading a recent entry in Don Miller’s blog.  Don approaches the idea of resolutions from the perspective of living a good story, and I found his thoughts helpful.  Maybe you’ll feel the same.  Part one is here, and part two is here.