]]> http://danscottblog.com/2009/11/08/happy-birthday-ellison/feed/ 0 danscott77 http://danscottblog.com/2009/11/08/happy-birthday-ellison/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/danscottblog/paAo/~3/0d1sGoxqytc/ http://danscottblog.com/2009/10/01/10-in-10/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:43:33 +0000 danscott77 http://labairi.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/10-in-10/ ]]>

Disclaimer: I wrote this post on an iPhone. Please excuse any errors you might find.

This weekend is Jenna and my TEN year reunion at Cedarville. In… Um.. Celebration I guess of this momentous occation I figured that I might recap the past 10 years in 10 bullet points. (After all, I need to be prepared in case anyone asks, right?)

1999: Jenna and I were married in Princeton, New Jersey at the most elegant wedding that we’ve ever attended. I also had my first (and last) teaching job where I realized that I’m just not cut out for 7-3 life that requires homework not only for my students but myself too!

2000: Jenna and I made one of the hardest decisions in our marriage and desided to move out to Grand Rapids, MI where I enrolled in seminary. I’m pretty sure that we moved never thinking that we’d fall in love with this place and stay.

2001: We decided (perhaps impulsively) to buy our first home in the Alger Heights neighborhood in Grand Rapids. a little known fact is that we did this without telling our parents that we were even looking! (I said this was rather impulsive, didn’t I?) I was in school.

2002: We lived the life of D.I.N.K.s and traveled all over from Cape Cod to the Dominican Republic to Chicago to New Jersey and Oklahoma as well. I was still in school.

2003: Liam was born on a snowy day in May. (Yes, you read that correctly.) And yes, I was still in school! But there was hope as I began working at Ada Bible Church in the family ministries department… Little did I know that this is where I’d stay.

2004: I surprised myself and my entire family when I competed in an adventure race with a good friend. God also decided to give a surprise. A BIG surprise: Ellison was born in November. We also moved closer to the church where I was now full time. The stress of it all was stressful, but God sustained us through it all.

2005: Most of this year is a blur. And I took a year off from school.

2006: I took a trip to remote villages in Tanzania. I read Donald Miller’s Searching for God Knows What. Both combined changed my life. I couldn’t live the way I was living. Addison came into our lives. And I finished seminary!!

2007: Jenna and I travel sans kids to Mully Children’s Family in Kenya. We came home completely impacted for the poor and disinfranchised. I knew that setting our sights on expanding our family would stretch us radically. We began settlng our house in order and settled into the crazy life of three kids!

2008: This was a great year for us. God gave us a new found clarity. We were loving life after making some significant changes (mostly mine but that’s a story for another day!) Finally we wouldn’t have a baby who came as a complete surprise! We began the process for Taye to join our family.

2009: We went to Ethiopia to get Taye. God is shaping us everyday. The adoption process taught us so much about ourselves. Mainly throughout the past year, God reminded us that we are richly blessed with more than we could ever hope or imagine (4 kids and a great job at a growing church: WHAT?!)

Reading this back over I see that this post took a serious turn along the way. Sorry about that. Well, maybe not. Ten years ago I never thought I’d be where I am today. The ups and downs and ins and outs have brought me here. Sometimes those moments were laugh out loud funny, while others would make you cry your eyes out. But that is the journey of faith to which we’re called. I wouldn’t take back a minute lived – OK, yes, maybe I would. But all of that brought me here. And I really like here.

Yes, it’s been a busy week with little time to write, not to mention post. Yet, we have had enough time to make faces.

Taye. Is. Awesome.

Today is Taye Day in the Scott house.

What is Taye Day?, you ask. Well, let me tell you.

When we accepted Taye’s referral for adoption, his date of birth was unknown.
We chose September 18. So for us he’s 2 today.

It’s still a bit surreal to think that about 2 years ago he was born. We didn’t know him. He didn’t know us. But God knew that he would someday be part of our family. It is amazing how God works in this world. To think that he had a child born on the other side of the world to be part of our family blows me away.

We are beyond thankful for, Taye. He is a joy…

even when he’s not…

Here are some pics from today… looks like Jenna and the kids are having a blast!

Photo Booth | September 14, 2009, originally uploaded by dcscott110.

Watching your child sleep peacefully is one of the true joys of parenting. Waiting for your child to sleep is not… usually.

My evening routine now includes snuggling with Taye for a minute while he hugs my neck for dear life knowing full well that he will soon be in the dreaded…. CRIB!

Then I spread out a blanket next to his crib and plop myself down, try and keep Liam quiet, and wait. And wait…

And sometimes I wait so long that I’m pretty sure I fall asleep on the hardwood floor before he’s out for the night. Other times, I swear that Taye is sleeping only to stand up and make my way into the hall before I hear his signature whimper and impending scream.

Lately, however, he’s been asleep fairly quickly, and not having to do this every night is in our sights. Soon, I’m thinking that I’ll be able to put him down and walk right out of the room without so much as a peep.

Until then… here I sit.

In the past week, we’ve done a lot. In fact, much of it seems like a blur. Starting school, a ministry year at church, and miscellaneous projects that need to get done take a toll on everyone. Thankfully, we’ve got the pictures to prove all of it!

My family has been amazing during the start of this ministry year. It is definitely hardest on Jenna who is often left home with the four kids. I’m SO thankful for her constant support and reminder that I need to take breaks and have fun! Jenna, love you so much!

Enjoy some of the fun the Scott Clan has had in the past week…

Liam started First Grade:

Elli started Ballet and Young 5s

(Yes, those are Hello Kitty tights.)

Taye got his first state-side haircut:

We hung out with the families with whom we travelled to Ethiopia:

We re-landscaped our front yard:

We’ve been CRASHING at night and watching TV.
(Don’t worry I’ll spare you the picture of that! Yikes!)

Knowing I was going into a difficult few days, I asked several friends to pray for very specific aspects of where I needed God to show up.

They prayed.

As I received their encouraging e-mails telling me that they were praying, I  soon was at peace. I knew that regardless of the interactions or outcomes everything would turn out as it should. I know this was only because of them bringing these requests before the Father.

On this side of heaven, I will never understand prayer.
I can’t tell you why or how it works.

But it does.

Without question.

All that to say: Don’t stop praying. Don’t think that you can do it on your own. You can’t. Be honest tell the people in your life where you need prayer, and be specific. God wants to hear your honest requests. Don’t be afraid to let him.

The other day, Jenna caught video of Taye watching himself do a jig. He loves to dance. In fact, every time he sees and iPod, he points to it, and does this same jig just to let us know that he wants us to press play so he can bust a move.

Every evening as we pray before dinner, he folds his hands and closes his eyes without being asked. And because the kids take turns praying, he chimes in right along with them as they talk. We have no idea what he’s saying…

…but does it really matter?

On Saturday night, I was holding Taye after church. He wrapped his arms around my neck and gave me a huge, sloppy wet kiss on my cheek…

…unsolicited.

These precious moments make all the other not-so-precious moments seem completely insignificant.

I know that I was rushing.

I know I could have parked better.

I did have to navigate around an on-coming car.

AND, I was totally in the yellow lines. Perhaps, I was a teensy-weensy bit close to the car on my left.

BUT, I was far enough away that I could escape without as much as a scratch on his passenger side door.

When I came out of the store, this note was attached to my driver’s side window:

Now granted, I’m not saying my park-job was perfect. I’m not even saying that I didn’t deserve the reprimand; perhaps I did. However, the person wrote with a certain tone of voice, using an exclamation point. This person was frustrated with me and wanted me to know it…

On his church’s stationary.

I don’t know about you, but chances are that most of us would (hopefully) think twice before writing an angry note on church stationary and affixing it to someone’s car.

Right?

Honestly, I saw the note and laughed, but on the ride home I started to think about the implications of this note had it not been on my car.

What if I was…

someone who hated church?
an atheist or agnostic?
liked Christ but not his Christians?
spiritually on the fence with Jesus?
looking for a church?
dealing with a recent tragedy and not thinking straight?
parking poorly because my kids had a long day and were letting me know it?

What would a note like this tell me about your church and its members?

The stationary reads, “A church like you remember.”

I’m guessing whoever read this note would truly remember that this is in fact the church he remembers growing up that could have been irrelevant, the church that may have offered little grace to someone who doesn’t have it all together, or the church that cared more about the bad parking job than the reason behind it.

I realize that I’m not stereotyping a whole congregation on the grounds of one note. I need to deal with that in my attitude towards them.

We all have broken people, including ourselves, with baggage filling seats in our churches every week. We all have bad days and write poorly thought-out notes as a result of them. That is why the church exists, to be a safe-haven for the hurting and a place where we can grow together.

But if “they” is now “us” and if we attend and belong to a church family, we are now spokespeople for that church and everything for which it stands. We can’t do this sort of thing. Please, let’s not give Jesus and his church (and your local church) a bad reputation. Let’s work together to build the reputation of the Church.

Oh, and I’ll also try and work on my parking abilities.

On Sunday night as Liam was brushing his teeth, he struck his loose one pretty hard I guess, and it started bleeding. He came running out of the bathroom frantically telling me, “My tooth is coming out! My tooth is coming out! Daddy, HURRY!”

He was a bit beside himself. See, he and I are the same when it comes to all things dealing with wounds and blood: not so good. at all. But Jenna was out, and I was left to do the deed. The tooth was hanging on by a thread and needed that last tug to come out. I psyched myself up with the whole “Man-Up, Mr. Scott” mantra. I took a tissue, grabbed the tooth, and pulled. POP!

Now, this is a fairly big deal in the life of a child, but I promise I’m not going to get all sentimental sappy on you.

It’s not like he’s going to be in first grade, is getting too big for his clothes, is starting to read and is doing math, or anything like that…

It’s not like it seems like yesterday he got his first tooth.

It’s not that he’s an amazing big brother when he wants to be.

It’s not that he’s growing up so incredibly fast.

Oh, wait…

He is… and so much more.