teamhuerta

N.A.M pt.4

// November 9th, 2007 // No Comments » // Adoption

“Your home is the single most powerful arena on earth to change a life for God!”

-Bruce Wilkinson in The Prayer of Jabez

When I think of that quote that I recently came across in my quote box, I am reminded of it’s truth.  However, I think there is more to that thought than the quote suggests.  I think it is true but could be expanded to read like this, “Your home is the single most powerful arena to change the world for God!”

When I think of influence and impact in people’s lives, I think of what we are taught in ministry about training and equipping volunteers for ministry. The best way to share the gospel with every teenager in any given community is by multiplying yourself, not like Dolly the cloned sheep but like someone that equips others with the skills and the knowledge to impact students lives that I will never have the privilage of knowing.  So when I train 1 other adult to love Jesus to teens I have successfully multiplied my impact 10 fold.  Consequently, if I train 1 and they train 2 more, the impact of my influence is multiplied by up to 50 times.

So, by sharing my faith and imparting a value system that is Godly and just to my one child; I will hopefully live to see them influence many more people and share the truth of the gospel with them. Thus my legacy, by God’s grace, will have had a long lasting, far reaching impact that may even “CHANGE THE WORLD.”  Just think, I don’t have one to “train up in the way he should go and when they are old, they will not depart from it,” I have three.

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N.A.M pt 3

// November 8th, 2007 // No Comments » // Adoption, Colombia

   Today our friends from Minnesota are going to meet their new 3 children from Colombia.  On tuesday the Dressels flew to Bogota, (just a couple days after a massive hail storm flooded the streets with icy water and caused serious chaos in Bogota, check out the video below, it is in spanish but you see it)

   They should be meeting their kids right now.  I can’t tell you how excited we are for them.  You can read their journey at Dressel Temporary Blog.  Celebrating adoption and seeing others enjoy the glory of adoption is very encouraging to us.  We hope that you will be challenged and encouraged by reading our blog.   Know that even more challenging than the entire adoption process is the entire parenting process.  What have been some of your struggles through your parenting or adoption stories?  Share them with us in the comments.

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National Adoption Month

// November 6th, 2007 // No Comments » // Adoption

So, November is National Adoption Month here in the states and it turns out that I might have something to say on the subject.  The biggest challenge to being an adoptive family for us is that there are no “been there done that” people in our physical lives that we have a significantly close relationship to.  But just imagine this, it’s 1980 and you have just adopted a child from, let’s say, China.  Europe is still stressing from being in the middle of a “Cold War,” the Berlin Wall is still up.

Now you get home with your precious one and everyone oohs and awes and you pick up your big “corded” phone and burn up the phone lines explaining to your relatives and anyone you have a phone number in your rolodex for.  You have spent hours hearing from family about how they are so happy for you and how they could have never done “that,” (“that” being adopting, as if implying it is something more difficult to do than child bearing).

You scan the phone books for support groups, talk to local churches, and hope you meet someone else who has done “that” thing, and maybe you could share your stories and your hurts, your struggles and your joys.  But no luck, so you continue feeling somewhat “alone,” “different,” and “unique.”

Now fast forward to 2007… the web exists, and it has evolved to web 2.0.  The blogosphere has changed how we make connections and how we relate.  Although I must admit, having family that love us and our kids is awesome.  We still feel the pain of being pioneers.  Parenting isn’t new to any of our friends or family but parenting a 9 year old with little to no previous history is difficult.  Giving advice is always hard, accepting advice is just as difficult.  How did he deal as a 6 year old, what were his terrible 2′s like?  Was he a colicky baby?  At what age did he say his first word?  All questions, for the majority of people we know, that have a ready answer usually told with a laugh and an “Oh yeah, I remember that time when _____!”

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Different?!?!

// October 28th, 2007 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

Jesus…Different….

Adoption…Different…

Why?

One of my favorite verses on adoption comes from Romans 8 verses 14-17 which say…

¹⁴For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" ¹⁶The spirit HImself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

   Adoption is different but not for the reasons we commonly associate with it.  Yes, it is different in that we as couple didn’t "create" a tiny person with some of our genetic sequencing. Yes, it is different because we miss out on "X" number of years in our childs life.  But in all honesty, what is it but pride to think we actually "create" anything.  I am reminded of the story of the great inventor who said God was outdated and was no longer relevant and that we had the capability to create a smarter, more advanced "AI" (Artificial Intelligence).  He was upset with how God had messed up in creating us, so he challenged God and bragged that he could create humans better than him, so the conversation goes.

God: Well okay then, lets go.
                        
Inventor: OK
                        
God: Let’s see what you got for me.
                        
(Months pass, God waits)
                        
(Inventor is almost finished)
                        
(They meet to explain what they’ve created)
                        
God: Well, I took some dirt this morning clumped it together in my hand and breathed life into it and Adam was formed.
Inventor: Well, I too took some dirt and began to heat it and melt it down….
                        
God: Wait, wait, wait,
                        Inventor:  What?!?
                        God:  Go get your own dirt!

   We don’t own exclusive rights to anything, we are stewards of what the Lord has given us, the bodies we are blessed with, the children we are blessed with, the wealth we may be blessed with, the creation all around us.   None of it exclusively belongs to us.  We only "create" things with the tools and methods God has given or revealed to us.

   I can’t tell you or explain the looks of awe and wonder that we get when people find out we have adopted 3 children.  It’s kind of like we are from outerspace, to us we feel rather normal.  Normal has been redefined in our lives.  I’m sure after a couple years, when our kids our speaking fluent english, when they behave like angels, and when our kids are 45yrs old we will begin to look normal to other families.

   And that brings me to my first thought.  Adoption is different, I think it is different because of this one verse, verse 17, that people resonate with the most when they look at us in awe and are confused why we would choose to mess up our good lives with having this many kids at once. It is because when you adopt a child, you identify with someone that is not genetically "you" and you give them birthrights, they inherit your name, your money, your family, and likewise, as parents we inherit their hurts, their joys, their pain, their attitudes, their neediness.  Just like God.  Isn’t adoption wonderful. 

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My Next 30 Years…

// October 24th, 2007 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

                ”My next thirty years will be the best years of my life.
                 Raise a little family and hang out with my wife.
                Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear.
                  Make up for lost time here, in my next thirty years.”

      Those words from the song by Tim McGraw resonate with me because I along with almost anyone who meets a big mile marker on the road of life tend to reflect on what your past has meant and what your future holds. I just received a wonderful, probably the most thoughtful, gift I have ever received for a getting old party. Meg just handed me a picture book that had my friends, family, and significant people from my history write happy birthday wishes and memorable pictures professionally bound in a book I will treasure forever. I wish you all could see it and appreciate the wonderful job my wife did, and the fact that I had no idea what she was up to and how talented my wife truly is.

               ”I think I’ll take a moment, celebrate my age,
               the ending of an era, the turning of a page….
              maybe now I’ve conquered all my adolescent fears…
               Lord have mercy on my next thirty years.”

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1st Family Video

// October 18th, 2007 // 4 Comments » // Funny

After reading another adoptive families blog, www.skrebs.com, we were inspired to try out our own video editing and display of video for you to enjoy.  Thanks dearly to Freevlog.org for helping me look like a genius in my first attempt to add my own video to my blog that doesn’t require the use of YouTube or Google or some other less than perfect or slightly diluted video posting. 

This is a video of our recent trip with the Church and our family to a local Orchard and Winery where we were able to pick our own pumpkin, although it was more fun and less expensive at Jeff and June’s place, we got to play with tractors, ride fake porcelain animals, and have a scrumptious meal.  We enjoyed the nice weather and we were dying to try out our new video camera.  As you can see the filming may be a little shaky, I promise to get better with that in the future.  This is a short recap of what our time was actually like last Saturday. 

Click me to Play

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The Mom

// October 12th, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Funny

I know that many of you out there have maybe seen this little video and Meg made me aware of it a few months ago.  I just ran across it again in an email from my mother.  The "Mom tell Overture"  is very funny and true.  I can just hear my wife saying those things and it makes me smile to think that my wife loves our children without strings.  Without mothers to love, care for and rear us as little children; we would be lost souls, floundering young men not sure what a real woman is supposed to look like, or confused little girls not sure how to behave as young women.  Most of us had the love and support of our mothers, they were our greatest cheerleaders, most sacrificial Queens and our steady rocks.  I know Meg is that for our kids, so I thought this little video portrays that very well.

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Daily Quota…

// October 3rd, 2007 // No Comments » // Funny

We had the privilege of going and speaking at an informational meeting for our adoption agency.  To see the adults there interested in adoption was very encouraging to us.  Those days seem so long ago. 

About half way to Louisville Meg and I noticed that "Monkey" had not stopped talking once since we left the house almost 30 minutes prior.  From introducing us to the "twinkle twinkle little star" song in spanish to having conversation with her brothers she just kept talking.   Meg turned to me and says, "she hasn’t stopped talking." 

Then being the intuitive mother she is; she quickly pointed out how it was my fault that our daughter was talking incessantly in the car trying to get her daily quota of words in for the day.  You see, usually she gets to have books to look at and tell stories to her baby dolls during siesta time after lunch but she was disobedient to Papi and stubborn about brushing her teeth so I, being the wise father, sent her to siesta without books, to which she sulked and whined about but eventually fell asleep instead of reading and imagining stories through her books with her dolls. 

Then we took a drive for about an hour and she just kept talking, over the podcast that was playing, over every one, leading the conversation in the car and not breathing between paragraphs.  So I came to the conclusion that a.) girls are different than boys in many ways b.) I love my daughter but will make sure she gets books for siesta in the future and c.) I’m glad I have a wife that is so awesome and is my interpreter of my children’s world.    

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Instant Parenthood (part 1)

// August 31st, 2007 // 1 Comment » // Colombia

This month we celebrated 6 months
home from
Colombia! Wow-wee, we have had fun bonding, attaching,
and adjusting as a family! I’m pretty sure the adjusting part will certainly be
on-going as the children go through different stagesJ  We did have
a few "ups and downs" through these months, but overall we just
cannot stop being grateful for how blessed we are to have such beautiful and
precious children. Luis, Ana Maria, and Jeison never cease to amaze us. They have been so resilient in the way they
just opened up their hearts after 8, 6, and 4 years of not knowing us or having
us in their lives and completely by faith, decided to love us and let us into
their hearts. This is such an amazing honor!


We definitely have had a
wonderful summer, where they’ve experienced and learned many new things. Their
favorites have indeed been swimming (anywhere anytime), biking, playing at any
park, finding out how much (extended) family they have and getting to meet
them, especially their “Nuevo primos!”, (new cousins), camping, and visiting
their grandparents. They had never owned
bikes and did not know how to ride them, so they have done soooo much riding…
Luis literally burned a hole right through his tire! It’s amazing how quickly they learned though. Ana Maria, not wanting to be
"outdone" by her big brother, worked VERY, VERY hard at it and the
day before her 6^th birthday she said "goodbye" to her
training wheels – Yee-haw! then she just had to learn not to lean too far. Jeison is riding hard to build up his
strength and keep up with the other two, but still taking his good ‘ole
time. He says: why rush? I now have a
"Forever Mami & Papi" and they will help me until I’m ready to
ride on my own!

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Instant Parenthood (part 2)

// August 31st, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Colombia

They have so enjoyed all of
the new toys, games, music, and other gear that many family and friends have
showered them with since the day we learned about them back in November
2006. They absolutely love to play
together, and they do so, very well! They have great joy and pride to help around the house with anything
that we ask them to do, especially if they get to “work together” on the
task! You name it… setting/clearing the
table, dusting, taking out the trash, feeding Gato and Nala, brushing their
teeth, helping bake, cook, or make sandwiches…. We have to ask ourselves often “How long will this last?” We find ourselves saying, “this must be the
only part of the “honeymoon stage” that we haven’t left behind!”

They are very adventurous, with
new activities and trying all kinds of new foods. They eat just about anything… and a whole lot
of it! It seems they know the difference
between foods that are just: "delicious but not nutritious" and the
ones that are "nutritious and delicious!" Candy and junk food doesn’t
seem to be a big deal to them, but when it is offered or sitting in front of
them… boy oh boy do they get excited and quickly ask “May I please have candy/a
cookie?” On some occasions, like after breakfast, it’s a “No, but you can have
some more grapes.” They quickly respond, “Mmmm,” and squeal with excitement! Now vegetables were a rough territory at
first. But with Mami and Papi placing it
on their plates and with persistent coaxing :>) “little trees, little
clouds” (broccoli and cauliflower), and green peppers (I don’t have one for
that yet) are no longer the enemy but actually a great friend to their tummies.
Every type of condiment that could be
put on food seems to be called “salsa”, and they reallllly love salsa! Papi just loves to see them eat a helping of
salad without any dressing, just like him!

Spiritually, Luis, Ana Maria, and
Jeison are growing. They treasure
devotion time, and especially enjoy acting out the Bible stories. They just love to pray, especially before
their meals and before bed. And it’s so
sweet to hear Ana Maria be outside in the middle of the day, for example and
say “Thank You Jesus for the sun, es un dia bonito!” (It’s a pretty day!)  Their
prayers are letters straight from their hearts of complete thanksgiving to God
right now, and it’s precious. They have
amazing memory’s and nobody that is a part of their life is left out! We so appreciate how they always thank God for having food and for
Papi’s “trabajo” (work). 

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