Weekend in Sedona!

Tiffany and I are spending the weekend with Blaine and Terah in Sedona, Arizona. When the rain clouds lifted this morning, we were greeted with beautiful red rock mountains topped with snow. After adding some puffy clouds and the sun to the equation, we were able to take some great pictures. It was spectacular.

We have posted pictures of the trip on our Flickr page. Enjoy!

A Portrait of God's Love

Before Tiffany and I moved to Arizona, we visited her family for Christmas. During the visit, we met Joel and Nancy. They were in the process of adopting. Their desire was to adopt siblings. Fast-forward to February 2008, early this morning (early our time), Joel and Nancy stood before a judge to adopt two children from Russia. The details of their story can be found here.

Throughout the process, Tiffany and I have had the privelege of being with Joel and Nancy in a Life group and at church. We are amazed to see what God has done in this process. The most wonderful thing about the entire adoption process is the portrait and picture that it depicts for us.

The adoption process is a portrait of God's love for each one of us. Because of God's love for us, He sent His only Son to die for us. Why did he need to send His Son for us? Because we are sinners. All of us are sinners. We have all broken God's laws and turned our backs on Him. As a result of that sin, we are eternally separated from God. The sacrifice for sin is blood. Unfortunately, our own blood is tainted by Sin. Enter Christ. God sent is Son to the earth to live a perfect life and die as our sacrifice. Here is where the adoption process comes into the picture. By receiving Christ as our Saviour, we are brought into the family of God. Once and for all, we become children of God. Christ, among His many other titles, becomes our brother. God the Father becomes our Father. What did we do to deserve it? NOTHING.

Joel and Nancy have chosen to sacrifice their comfort and lives to bring TWO children from Russia. They have been given new names, new clothes, fresh food, warmth and LOVE. What do the children pay for this? NOTHING. Joel and Nancy had to plead a case while the two children were playing with toys. The children are now going to be part of a new family. With time, they will hopefully become part of the larger family of God too.

Wow... Thank you Lord for choosing to send your Son for ME! Thank you for making me a part of your family!

40,000 Pictures and a Renaissance

Tiffany and I went to the Arizona Renaissance Festival this past weeked. We had a great time walking around, looking in the shops, watching shows and eating good food. It was a gorgeous weekend to be outside. It was well into the 70's this weekend and we have a little more color to our skin now too!

While at the festival, I took my 40,000th picture with the Fujifilm S5000. This camera has been amazing over the past few years. Unfortunately, my flickr account does not come close to showing what this camera has seen. As I get some of my projects knocked off the list, I will be posting more photos to flickr. At the same time, Tiffany has a Sony camera that is moving up in mileage. Between the two camera's, we have close to 43,000 pictures centrally stored and regularly backed up.

Little Wonders of Surprise!

This past weekend, Tiffany and I went to Trumansburg to surprise my Dad. On February 7th, Dad will be turning 50 years old. A number of months ago, my step-mother began contacting us to see if we could come for a surprise party. I just "happened" to have two free tickets from bad experiences with US Air, so we agreed to make the trip.

On Friday, February 1st, Tiffany and I flew to Ithaca, NY. It was a long day and reminded us why we had free tickets from US Air to begin with. We barely made it into town. The reward for making it so late was a free car upgrade. So, we got to drive around, in the nasty snow, in a 2007 Ford Mustang (Not too impressed actually).

On Saturday, we all gathered at the church to surprise Dad. It was the first time that all of us boys, along with our wives and children, had ever been together all at once. Dad was truly surprised. It was great to have everybody together. We are all scattered around the country now, so it is very difficult to arrange this feat.

On Sunday, we all attened church together. Once again, it was great to see old friends and catch-up as much as possible. In the afternoon, we drove over to Grandpa Kelly's house to surprise him.

Monday morning was departure day for everybody. Except for Chad and April, we all gathered for breakfast before scattering.

Our trip home was long. It was a very long weekend with little sleep and less than desirable weather (I know why I live in Arizona now).

Another wonderful blessing of the weekend was meeting nephews and nieces for the first time. It's scary and wonderful to see how fast our lives change. Years go quickly. In the end, I am reminded of Rob Thomas' song titled "Little Wonders"

Let it go
Let it roll right off your shoulder
Don't you know
The hardest part is over
Let it in
Let your clarity define you
In the end
You will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours
These small hours
Still remain

Let it slide
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine,
Till you feel it all around you
And I don't mind
If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by
It's the heart that really matters in the end

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These small hours
Still remain

All of my regret
Will wash away somehow
But I cannot forget
the way I feel right now

In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Yeah, these twisted turns of fate
Time falls away
Yeah, but these small hours,
These small hours
Still remain

Yeah, oh they still remain
These little wonders
All these twists and turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These little wonders
Still remain