Royal Wedding

When I woke up at 4:45 a.m. yesterday to watch the Royal Wedding, I wondered if I was crazy.  After watching the celebration, I realized that something larger than a ceremony between two people was happening.

With the British royal wedding, people were entranced by the pageantry and the love story unfolding before them.  There was a sense of hope and joy at the future facing these two and the British Nation.  It struck me that despite our modern disregard for marriage, symbolically, we still crave it.  We want the fairy tale relationship.  We want the happily ever after.

Women love weddings - the drama, the beauty, the love-laced words, the joy and the hope.  Brides strive to look their best, spend hours planning the event, and afterwards, reliving it through photos and other media. We joke that more time is spent preparing for the ceremony than preparing for the marriage (and unfortunately, this is often true!).

God loves weddings.  Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding.  God likes himself to a bridegroom in Old Testament prophecies.  Jesus talks about his bride, the Church.

As lovely as Catherine Middleton was yesterday, she pales in comparison to Christ's bride, the Church.  The eternal wedding will be one filled with even more hope and more love than anything we've ever seen or experienced.

Despite the pageantry of the royal wedding, the heralds at the Heavenly wedding of The King and His Bride will overshadow our earthly attempts at pageantry.

So perhaps in watching the royal wedding between Prince William and now Princess Catherine, we can glimpse a look at our future.

On to Licensing!

This week I wrapped up my foster care parenting classes and had my last homestudy visit.  If things go well, I should get my license sometime around August 1st or so.  I will still need to take a few classes over the next year to keep my license current, like CPR/First Aid, Mandatory Reporting, and Med Management.

My project for this weekend is assembling the crib I purchased.  I decided since I was going to adopt a toddler from Haiti, I'd need the toddler bed or a crib anyway, so when I saw a good deal online, I snapped it up. 

Now I need to get through the next couple weeks - my choir will be ending in a couple weeks, the mid-week kids ministry wraps up and I have a few school projects to get done too.  For now, it is great to be done with the foster care classes, even though I will miss seeing the people I got to know during them.  Hopefully, we will stay in touch

Knocking God Off His Throne?

I confess I am a planner.  I have owned more schedule books, palm pilots, and calendars than I'd care to admit.  I have dreams about vacations and plans for where to spend next weekend. When everything goes according to plan, I feel amazing and powerful. But, if I'm running late or things don't go quite the way I want them to, then I'm frustrated and frazzled.

For my preaching class, I taught on James 4:13-17, where James takes us to task for planning without God.  He calls those who plan without God arrogant.   James also reminds that God views planning without his input as boasting, and God hates boasting.

I find this convicting every time I reflect on my schedule.  Am I really doing what God wants me to do?  Or am I doing my own thing, hoping that God approves after the fact?

Theotokos: Has the Protestant Church Forgotten the Mother of God?

Theotokos is a Greek term loosely translated as "Mother of God."  It is used regularly in the Orthodox church to refer to Mary, the mother of Jesus.  At the Greek Orthodox church I visited this week, Mary is prominently portrayed in several icons, always with this designation.  Other spiritual giants are there too, as well as several icons of Christ.

In the Catholic Church, Mary is revered as both a virgin and as Christ's mother.  In both churches, during nearly every service, her name is mentioned several times.

Yet in the Protestant Church, Mary is rarely mentioned, aside from Christmas time or when she features in the gospel reading that is set for the day.

In our quest to prevent the "worship" of Mary, has the Protestant church gone too far in setting Mary aside?  Have we missed out on a woman whose faith was great enough to cause God to bless her with the mission of giving birth to God Incarnate?  Is it a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water?

From scripture, we see Mary as a woman with incredible faith, defying social norms at a great cost to herself.  We see a mother who cares deeply for her son.  A woman who remains faithful to her son, even to his death.  Mary stays with the church after the resurrection and continues on with her faith through the early days of the church.  She does not seek privilege, power or honor, instead seeking peace and understanding, remaining faithful.

The tension is how to revere Mary's contribution and faithfulness without placing her above her son.  Do we seek to honor those saints of the past that trod the faith path before us?  Or do we leave that to private devotion?  Or should we continue on, ignoring the contributions of those who lived before us?

One More...

I just finished my ninth foster care parenting class.  Just one more to go, and then I'll be a licensed foster care parent.

I have enjoyed getting to know the other foster care parents.  Tonight, we learned how the Iowa Foster and Adoptive Parenting Association provides continuing education.  Each year, I'll have to continue to take classes to maintain my license.

Later this week, I also have the last adoption homestudy visit.  Next week, the last class and last homestudy visit.

So, everything is coming together.  This week, I got my psychological evaluation.  It is possible that the dossier to Haiti will be able to go sometime this summer.

S.E.E.L Retreat

The SEEL Retreat's focus in the past month has been on the Easter story.  In some ways, this is a dark and gloomy portion of the retreat.

After Easter, we have the chance to embrace the joy of the resurrection.

However, we still have one week until then.  I am anxious to skip over the hard parts of this week and instead focus on the joy that comes with Easter morning. But without the death, there is no new birth.  Without the hard parts, we don't learn how wonderful the good parts are.

For me, the time since the beginning of the year has been great.  Progress has been made toward adding to my family, so anticipation is in the air.  In reviewing last fall's journal, I noted that I felt like I was walking through a desert valley.  I'm not sure whether that was due to the lack of momentum toward the foster care and adoption or if it was the difficulty I had with one of my classes.  Or if it was the struggle I had with the adjustment to this retreat.  In any event, it was very insightful to see how things went once I persevered through it.

Easter Approaches

Easter is coming in about two weeks.  I spent some time thinking today about how Jesus felt as he was approaching the culmination of his earthly ministry.

Did he think "this is the last time that I'll preach?"

Or did he look at Judas and imagine what would happen if Judas refused to sell him out?

Did he consider the loneliness of the cross, when his friends had deserted him?

Was he prepared for the depths of hell?

Did he anticipate God's wrath?

Did he anticipate God's love when he completed his earthly mission?

When the crowds cheered him at the triumphant entry, did he know how quickly they would turn on him?

Nurturing Through the Lifecycle

That's the title of one of my classes this quarter.  I wasn't super-excited to take the course, but since I needed a spiritual formation credit, this was my option.

The class has actually been very interesting.  The readings have dealt with human development, family formation and other issues that speak to my current plans.  I am surprised how well the topics dovetail with my foster care classes and my readings on international adoption.

One issue I read about today was the place of singles in churches.  The author noted that churches are composed of "traditional" families or people who used to be part of traditional families (ie empty-nesters or widow/ers), thus the church is not addressing the needs or  desires of  non-traditional families including singles, single parents, couples w/o kids etc.

There is little question in my mind that this problem exists.  The question is how should the church address it while still affirming families?

Adoption Progress & Regress

This week I am accomplishing nothing on the adoption since I am busy with a jury trial.  However, next week, I get back on track with more home study visits.  While I feel that I am making progress, I still have a mountain of paperwork to gather and fill out.

In some ways, I am just waiting for the home study to be completed so I can get the immigration process started, along with a few other points that require the home study first.  In other ways, I am getting tired of all the things that have to be done before I can even send the paperwork to Haiti.

Meanwhile, Haiti has elected a new president.  And at this time it appears to be a peaceful election.  Praise God!

Losing Connections

I participated in a thought provoking exercise this week.

Think of the five most important connections you have in your life.  These can be people, places, things, pets, dreams, technological devices or anything else you can come up with that are important to you.

Now, choose one you have to lose.

Then another.

And another.

Finally, chose between the last two which one you will keep.

Odds are good that you decided to keep something related to your family or your faith.

For me, the first couple "losses" were not as big of deals as the final two.  While I would grieve those lost connections, with the help of the remaining ones, I could persevere.

Think of all those people in Japan who lost everything.  Their whole town is wiped off the map.  The house is gone. The pets are gone.  There is nothing left.  The corner grocery store is demolished.  The workplace a pile of sticks.

The church has been relocated five miles inland and now only has three walls.

Worse, the friends and family who could help you deal with these losses are gone as well.  Whether they are alive and relocated or dead, who knows?

So, what did you chose to keep as your connection?

Did you feel like a traitor when you chose one over another?  Or was your mind firmly set?

Testing...Testing...

As I am gathering up information for the foster care process, the adoption home study and the Haiti adoption paperwork, I feel like I am tested out.

This week, I had to go for blood tests (after I had blood tests less than a month ago for a yearly physical).

Did I mention that I hate needles?  That I hate blood draws more than virtually anything else?

And I also tend to get light-headed during the blood draw.

So, I had to go in and have this blood test to see if I have HIV or Syphilis.  Naturally, the nurses taking the blood were very professional, but I felt compelled to explain why I needed to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases!

During the test, I asked to have chair that supported my head because I was worried that I would faint.  Fortunately, I didn't, but I hope there are no more blood tests on the horizon.

I also have to have psychological tests (scheduled this month).  Financial tests in the form of letters of credit and good standing.  And still more homestudy exams to see if my house is safe and secure for the children.

Let's hope it continues to go well!