Something Beautiful

Fifteen years ago now, and it seems like a distant memory, a surreal event that changed our lives forever:  the first time we met Maddie.  We're so busy with Summer Xtreme preparations with costumes and so forth, but we were sure to stop and remember this momentous day fifteen years ago.  It's "Gotcha Day," and we usually post the pictures on social media and so forth, and we recount the stories and we read from the journal I wrote in about all that happened.  The memories grow fainter, and I'm glad I have pictures and written words for that day.  There are of course things I won't forget - the waiting in that room, and looking out across the large room into the doorways that led to a hallway that paralleled the entire room.  There were two doorways.  Maddie came through one of them, held by a social worker and passed on to Mom.  She was not happy about anything, and that's a typical image of adoption for infants and toddlers.  What it must have been like to leave behind all you knew to be handed into the arms of complete strangers.  But Maddie was so tired, and she fell asleep very quickly.  The journey to Nanning was a long one for her, and she was exhausted.  When she awoke, she was more settled and more comfortable, although there was much to get used to.  English, for one thing.  Many other things too - I remember Nana handing her toys, perhaps too many, and perhaps things getting overwhelming at points.  I remember the toy key ring that she would not let go of.  I remember the crib in the corner and the moment she was on her back on the bed, with Mom and I being a bit playful with her.  One of Maddie's first smiles came then, and we were grateful - they were few and far between in those early moments.  She was getting used to us.  I remember getting back to the hotel - all of us with our new children - and wondering if Maddie had been able to walk yet.  She was tiny and thin, and her first steps didn't come until perhaps the next day when we did the Cheerios trick, the thing you saw in the movie "E.T.", but instead of Reece's Pieces, there were Cheerios resting on the carpet there in a small path that led to a table she could reach the top of that had a small pile on it.  Later on she was walking more, which is my favorite memory of her early on - the day we explored that park and Maddie walked and walked and walked and kept on walking.  She was nearly leading the way, pulling us along, suddenly free and suddenly wanting to see the world for herself.  We were with her every step of the way, seeing all the beauty of that park in China - the large fish in the pond, the zigzag bridge, the ponds and statues, the ladies doing the tai chi and the elderly folks playing mahjang.  Mom brought along bubbles to blow at one quiet area, and Maddie reached out to touch them, fascinated by them floating all around her.  The temperature was perfect - the rain had just come and cleared out the park of many residents, and simultaneously cooled things off so that we could have the park nearly all to ourselves, going all the way from one end to the other.  It was a wonderful day.  

There are many other memories from our trip to China, but the first day we met Maddie was the biggest.  We didn't go anywhere else that day, and I'm glad.  The noise and commotion of the first meeting of all the parents - it was a room filled with wondrous chaos.  But the quiet in our room afterwards, and that sacred time together alone, just the three of us for the first time as a family... it was something beautiful.

Tonight we were at taekwondo, and it was a full night with the leadership class followed by black belt class.  Maddie had a good time as always.  She was sparring of course, and working on a few kicks that she's getting better at.  In fact, there's this one kick that she's able to do... which she was pulling off even though she was trying something else... it was funny.  

We got home today, and we read for a bit, and then said our prayers.  We'll do something nice for a big Asian meal tomorrow to celebrate, and it's an equally important date tomorrow- the official adoption date. But today will be the one that goes in our memory even stronger - the day we first met her, fifteen years ago this very date.

Stardew Valley and Dino Nuggie

We have blueberries!  We were out collecting them from the bushes, our own blueberry harvest.  Rather than wait until tomorrow, Mom was pretty anxious to have some blueberry pancakes, so we cooked those up right away!  Yummy!

Maddie was at home today, so excited to get a pillow in the mail as a birthday present for a friend.  Not just any pillow though - it was a dino nuggie pillow!  Yes, these are the things teenagers need.  I am not judging, because honestly, it's pretty fun.

So it's a chill season right now after Forward and before Summer Xtreme.  We'll focus on relaxing more after next weekend's big event, but today Maddie was visiting Stardew Valley for quite a bit of time. That's a video game she's been really into lately, so much so that she's watching folks on social media give hints and tips about secrets within the game.  

We released Herbie today.  That's the name we gave squirrel #53, which yes, is our fifty-third squirrel we've caught on our deck.  This one was swinging off the bird feeders, sloshing seed all around - even though there is a plate with seeds on it right there on the ground.  Annoying little guys, and they just keep coming.  We literally have fifty three squirrel stickers on the side of our trap.  I can't even ...

Anyway, tonight was taekwondo.  Maddie had her leadership class this evening, and also spent some time helping with the younger students as an instructor's assistant.  The weather has been hot lately, and dry too, both of these unusual weather given the year in general lately.  We've had so much rain.  But not today.

Maddie got three Forward t-shirts, and today she was wearing her Forward Team shirt that I got her, one that was made for volunteers.  I didn't necessarily need one this year, so I got a few for Maddie and her friend, the other Maddie.  

We had some big wins in planning Summer Xtreme today.  I went to see a manager at the local theater and got that person to intercede for us when dealing with the corporate side of their service, which apparently has authority but also simultaneously no idea what's really going on locally.  Going there in person really cut through a lot of red tape, as there was a tendency for people there to have you call a specific phone number to talk to corporate.  Which again wasn't as productive.  Anyway, today we got through all that, and arranged a movie in two theaters next Wednesday.  We're seeing "Super Mario World" because the we're a church and can't really see the new Disney movie because they keep inserting small things into their movies that parents won't want their kids seeing.  Meanwhile, "Super Mario World" has made over a billion dollars, so there's that.  Mom was getting some great costuming together for our characters on stage next week in the SX23 skits.  Also, we got some props, and added some background tracks that should add to the fun.  It's going to be awesome.

We read tonight from "Life, the Universe, and Everything."  It's part three of the trilogy, although the running joke I remember was that there was a fourth book in the trilogy, and then much later a fifth book in the trilogy.  Eventually, there was a sixth book in the trilogy.  I'm not sure if we'll get that far with reading, but Maddie will be well-versed on Marvin, Zaphod, Arthur, Ford, and Trillian.  And Slartibartfast.

After reading, it was time for bed.  Time for sleep!

Forward After Party at FCY

 

Maddie was at the Forward Afterparty today, and it was a really fun time.  They had food grilled outside and snow cones too, which is always a plus!  But today's service was all about celebrating the Forward Conference, which meant listening to some wonderful testimonies and sharing memories of the incredible weekend we all just had.  There was a DJ outside afterwards, and there was line dancing too, which was a great opportunity to see Maddie do the Church Clap and the Cotton Eye Joe too.  Her friend Maddie G came as well, so that was great - they both had a really good Forward Conference together.  

We were working a lot today towards Summer Xtreme, and setting up some big finishes hopefully tomorrow.  And meanwhile, Maddie was tinkering with ProCreate, using the program we got for her for her iPad at her birthday.  She also played some piano too today, which was nice.

It was a quiet day, but a busy one.  We got home late and had time to read from "Life, the Universe, and Everything," and then said some prayers before heading to sleep.  We'll be doing a lot of work towards Summer Xtreme tomorrow - it's going to be a good day.

Liberty Bell Message

We're still recovering from Forward a bit here, but it's all good!  Maddie was working on her new iPad today, as she's been on and off since her birthday.  She's learning the ropes of a new art program on it, experimenting a bit, and hopefully you'll see work on that here soon.  It's a Tuesday and we're moving in the right direction with a lot coming up on the horizon including Summer Xtreme and some new messages for KidPak.  We had to come up with one for this weekend upcoming, one that will tie in to the Fourth of July holiday weekend somewhat, so here below is the one thing I came up with - a message that starts with the Liberty Bell.

I just thought it would be interesting - we were looking into the crack in the Liberty Bell and a bit of the history behind the bell itself.  The scripture on the bell was of course our starting point, but the crack on the bell is iconic and it got me thinking about why the thing was cracked, which led to a few articles about the craftsman ship of John Pass and John Stow, and of course the original makers of the bell from England who also made miscalculations with their materials.  If the correct materials were used, the bell's crack wouldn't be there, presumably.  Which of course made me think of the imperfections in our government at the start - most notably slavery - and how that indeed led to a mighty crack that in time had to be dealt with.  Slavery of course, should have been dealt with at the start, but then again there was a feeling that no union could be made without the inclusion of states with slaves in them, and a stronger union was needed, it was thought, to fight for independence and continued existence.  Everyone knew it had to be dealt with, but it kept getting kicked down the generations, with things getting worse and worse until of course 1860, when it all came to a head.  And even for so many years afterwards, the price we're paying for compromise in 1789 is still here.  One thing compounds upon the other, and the only thing that can really give us liberty is repentance, forgiveness and love.  Easier said than done, of course.  Our message focuses on the sound of freedom made by the bell, by our Founding Father's proclamations, and of course by we ourselves when we share God's love.  The bell was tried by fire, in fact multiple times.  And yet so was this nation, as mentioned above.  And of course we are as well, tested and tried by fire to become something greater in the end.  Finally, that crack in the bell is imperfection, and yet somehow that crack is made perfect as the Liberty Bell is the most famous bell in the world, a symbol of freedom for all.  And of course, that is our nation itself, imperfect yes, but still used to send out missionaries to all the world, and still used to proclaim freedom to the captives.  We all are imperfect, but that does not mean we can no longer be used to share His message of love, hope, and freedom.

It was an interesting dive into history, which of course I dive into frequently, but I've never really stopped to focus on this Liberty Bell before.  My family went there a long time ago, and I have pictures of us as little kids visiting Independence Hall, and seeing for ourselves the iconic locations there.  Of course, I was a kid, so I remember Ben Franklin's privy pit about as much as I do the bell.  But it was a memorable trip.  

Tonight we revisited the Liberty Bell, but on our television set.  We saw "National Treasure" again, because we were just in that mood.  It's a super fun movie - we love it!  

We closed out the day reading, and praying too.  We've had a successful weekend, but this is a busy season right now, and we're right in the middle of it!

626

What a fun night - so random!  Before heading off to taekwondo, Mom noticed the date was 6-26, and that meant it is "Stitch Day," or at least "Experiment 626 Day."  All three of us have a t-shirt with Stitch on it, so we wore our t-shirts tonight, and when we got home, Mom had the table looking like a Hawaiian roller coaster ride, with pineapples, Stitch dolls, Hawaiian salt and pepper shakers and more.  We had the soundtrack playing during dinner, and after dinner, of course we watched "Lilo and Stitch."  Because it's a great movie.  I'm wearing my Stitch onesie currently...

It was a quiet day today, a restful day.  We went over to see Nana for about an hour and a half this afternoon.  We changed the sheets and did a little light housecleaning, bringing some snacks and making sure the thermostat was working properly.  It was good to see Nana.  Yes, Maddie brought her Mad-libs along, and we did a few of those too.

We got squirrel #50 today.  Fifty stickers on the side of the cage now, and that is such a shocking number to us.  They are relentless!  We dropped him off and made our way to taekwondo, although I didn't watch Maddie because I was off grocery shopping.  I came back to see Maddie a little, enjoying her black belt class and her leadership class as well.  Mr. and Mrs. Edge got me something when I walked in - and it's hilarious.  It's a Chewbacca cupholder, and I'll be sharing a picture of that soon.  It's great!

It was a good day today.  Yes, we slept in.  We had a big skillet breakfast prepared by Mom, and we got a little work done too.  Mostly, today was about resting.  We're reading tonight before bed, and saying our prayers.  I'm super tired - won't be long before we get to sleep!

KidPak after Forward

KidPak after Forward is one of those services that's one of those that gets you diving into those extra-reserve tanks.  I had planned a movie message to go with our Time Traveler theme, and it went over pretty good.  In fact, it went over the last time we did this message in 2015.  Yeah, that was quite a long time ago.  Anyway, Maddie was there and it was neat talking about her and about the fact that we're coming up on the fifteenth anniversary of her adoption.  Pretty cool stuff.  

Meanwhile, Maddie was taking pictures in service, pretty much now the official photographer of our services at the moment.  She took a lot of really good pictures - her skill is increasing each time.  These were shared with social media, and it's a neat little small thrill to see her photos shared on the official KidPak site. 

The last picture is somewhat of a joke - not shared with the social media side of things, but taken by Maddie right when I was talking about her and asking everyone if they knew where she was and then seeing and going, "Oh, there she is!"  And realizing she's taking a picture... and...

Anyway, it was a good morning.  And we had our Summer Xtreme 2023 Parent Meeting afterwards, which was something we were kind of sleepwalking through, but it was effective - we got everyone their official t-shirts afterwards, and got everyone hyped up for Summer Xtreme.  

We got home, and we rested.  Yeah, we rested well!  After eating, of course.  I picked up some Chinese food from Chef Wang's on the way home, and we had a nice meal this afternoon.  And then I had to take an emergency nap, as I was up since 4:30 this morning, and Forward was crazy.  But upon waking up, we played Disney Infinity's "The Lone Ranger" a lot again, for some reason going off script of what the programmers were thinking and playing this elaborate game of hide-and-seek for about an hour or so.  It was a lot of fun, actually!

Tonight's movie was "Rat Race," which  is another one of those mad race for treasure movies, something like "Scavenger Hunt" and "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."  We watched this one because of the "you should have bought a squirrel" scene, which is epic.  Along those lines, yes, we're approaching a magic number of squirrels here - fifty.  

After the movie, we were ready for sleep certainly.  We read some more, and we said our prayers, and it didn't take long at all to fall fast asleep!

Forward 2023 Day Three

We had a really full day here at Forward Conference.  I had some small involvement today, providing the voice of a robot on stage that we called Cyber Simon.  He basically gave the instructions to a massive game of Simon Says amongst the Tribes, with each winner getting points for various tasks like a massive game of golf, or splitting the entire Tribe in two ("Part the Sea!").  

You can see some points being given here for doing the Macarena.  Yes, that happened.  It was a pretty random and hilarious moment as the entire arena was doing the Macarena.

Immediately I thought of "Hotel Transylvania 3," but maybe that's just me.  Anyway, the games are fun as always, as are the crazy videos.  Maddie had a great time, and was even filming some of them as the conference went on.  The bus ride down was better - the students were tired, but ready for another big day.

This set was so astounding.  There were moments it had this synth wave look that was just captivating.  The worship was great this morning, and the space between services was a little shorter, so the students all went out afterwards to the lawn area.  There was a lot of pizza available for Maddie and the other students, and that was a bit much on the pizza for us, so I got Maddie and a few friends over to a food truck where we all got some other choices.  We sat on the lawn in the shade eating lunch, waiting to get back in for the final sessions of the day.  That was a bit chaotic, but it all worked out - Skylar's mom saved Maddie and her friends a few seats way up front, so she got to head up that way for the final portion of the Forward Conference. 

It was amazing, of course.  Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes were there for worship, which was unforgettable, and really kind of iconic.  But the worship set was reminiscent of "the old days" for some of us, just a free flowing sort of service that led nicely into the message portion of the night, when "Uncle Reggie" came up to speak a message that had us all screaming, "He won't!"

It was a powerful time.  Smoney won the Tribe Wars, but the worship and message and altar service afterwards will be the things we remember most.  I was so glad and honored to be able to sit there amongst the crowd, just resting and enjoying the service.  As a child of a staff member, Maddie was surrounded by people in the audience nearby who prayed for her as directed.  It was an unforgettable service.

Yes, even Spider-man thought so.  Seriously though, Maddie and her friend that she invited both enjoyed it very much and want to go back next year of course.  Maddie got some t-shirts here as souvenirs, about three of them.  I got Maddie and her friend some volunteers shirts as souvenirs.

We got home safely after helping unload things back at the main campus and dropping off the other kids.  We went home after that, and we were certainly a bit tired.  Mom had some dinner for us, because Mom is amazing, and after that we were playing "The Lone Ranger," because why not?  It was a great day, but we were off to bed early tonight.  We don't have to get up as early as the last two days, but it's still earlier and man, we're pretty wiped out!  We read from "Life, the Universe and Everything," and then said our prayers.  And then, we were off to sleep!

Forward 2023 Day Two

 

Day Two of Forward is here, and it was such a full day.  Maddie was there with her friend and thousands of others, all dressed up and ready for great fun, hilarious videos (complete with me as a talking walrus), crazy games (go Team Icy, who won today!), and powerful services.  I was with the youth all day long, there for the morning sessions at the arena, and then spending time at the Gwinnett Campus, and then back to the arena to close things out.  It was a fantastic day, a full day, and a pretty tiring day too.  But it's all worth it.  Lives are changing, and the youth are having an unforgettable time.

Madi Prewett Troutt was the guest speaker this morning.

The Cone of Shame goes as punishment for the losing tribe this morning.

The additional shame and punishment of having to do the "one chip challenge."

Tonight's service was very full - a lot of people.

Pastor Franklin was the speaker Friday night.

Again, the set design is outstanding.

It was a great service tonight.

Passion Music led the way tonight...

...and a guy who looks like Weird Al...

A lot of energy in the arena tonight.

Icy wins for Scissor-Rock-Paper Championship!

Spider-man came to see the event too!

Forward 2023 Day One

Maddie and Maddie 

Maddie snapped this photo from her seat today

Our Forward's Got Talent judges...

Big crowds - growing and growing as the day went on

Mom assembled this Baby Shark costume for a fun moment early on...

Outstanding set for Forward, designed by the same one who did our Easter stage design. 

Really cool visuals today.

Maddie was praying that Anna Golden would sing "Oceans," and was so happy to see a prayer come true.

Of course, Uncle Reggie's been here all weekend.

Levi Lusko spoke tonight - Maddie bought one of his books!

Day One of Forward Conference is here, and it’s a big weekend again here at the Gas Light Arena in Gwinnett County.  So many kids here, screaming, jumping, laughing - it’s been a great first night.  I rode down on the bus with the kids, as there were some unexpected complications with staffing - I was there to help out, so why not?  It worked out because there was a large group of kids invited from a neighborhood, having been given a scholarship to come to the event.  But it’s been a situation very much like in “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” in some ways, if that makes any sense.

Regardless, Maddie was with her friend from school, as well as some other friends from taekwondo, and she was having a great time.  Things went well, with a fantastic opener and a really fun game sequence we’ve been putting together for a while.  The first message was so good Maddie got a book by the author - she had a great time tonight.  It’s been busy.  Lots of little issues, but lots of unforgettable memories for Maddie and everyone who’s attending.  We got back pretty late, and we’ll have to get up pretty early too - that’s the nature of this weekend.  She’s having a great time!

Maddie's pov:

so today was the firs day of Forward. I met up with my friend Maddie at the main campus along with Chloe and her sister, Raina. We hung out together while and hung out before we had to go to our buses. Raina and Chloe werre not on our bus along with Noadiah. Before we had to leave, we had been playing some card games I had brought in my clear bag.

We got onto our buses and left for the Gas South Arena. Maddie and I talked for a while, she read some comics. We also got some food as in granola bars and water.

We got there and met up with Chloe and Raina so we could sit together. We saw Mia, Brenleigh, and some of their friends along with Brayden. We got to our seats and Maddie and I went to look at the merch. I got a book from the pastor that was speaking that night, Levi Lusko.

Team Icy, my team, lost the first tribe wars. Shmoney won, but it's rigged so whatever lol. There was this guy singing, Andy something. we got to worship soon after that with Anna Golden. She sang Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) which was one of my song requests to God for a while. Levi Lusko was the preacher and it was a good message. After the session was over, we left to Free Chapel.