while this is big news for any parent, it’s especially rocking our world because:

::he was born with spina bifida
::we’ve never seen him, and don’t have access to regular updates on his progress
::his referral information was contradictory - one page looked as though he was completely fine, while the supporting documents indicated developmental delays
::it is somewhat rare that we were able to get more information from his orphanage

c.c. and i shared some beautiful moments of joy and tears together as we read the update. here’s her take on it.

we are overjoyed, grateful and humbled. we attribute this to God’s grace. we were completely prepared to raise a son with motor developmental delays - and would have been honored to do so. we’re praising God for this news. ready to face whatever challenges come along for our family, because we know that God’s grace is with us - before us and behind us.

so, 31 days into this journey, and here’s what we know….

:: henry is 31 days older and we still don’t have him home with us.
:: we love him more and more every day and we still haven’t officially met him.
:: my moustache connects with my beard much better on the right side than it does on the left.
:: henrypalooza is going to be awesome - my friends are blowing my doors off - i’ve heard rumors of some pretty major potential sponsors in the works….
:: (by the way, several people have asked how to get involved. one of the big things we’ll need is lots of volunteer help at the two events - sept 27 and oct 4. to put your name in the hat, you can email kris stoner at kstoner@crosspointe.org)
:: several “non special needs” referrals have been issued for other children in the gansu province, where henry is from. this could or could not mean that we get expedited by our agency to travel with that travel group. unfortunately, it’s not completely up to our agency anyway…
:: responses to my hair growth have been all over the map. one person says i look shady. another says it fits - that my appearance essentially hasn’t changed. c.c. says she’ll tolerate the beard if it means i’ll keep the hair. i was told i look like a wise sage. definitely several votes for “older”…..
:: have you ever had the experience where you get a new (or used) car and suddenly you start noticing the same model all over the road? well, i was at the wilco concert last weekend, and dang if there weren’t dudes all over the place rocking the beard!
:: it’s incredible how you can be dizzyingly busy, and yet feel as though your life is on hold until your son is home.

“love the lord” by lincoln brewster (cd “all to you…live”)
“your grace is enough” by chris tomlin (cd “arriving”)
(quasi medley w/ “grace greater than all our sin” trad. hymn)
—-prayer—-
“knowing you” by stephen claybrook (as yet unrecorded)
“hosanna” by hillsong united (cd “all of the above”)
—-prayer—-
—-message—- Doc
“rescue” by desperation band (cd “live worship for a desperate generation”)

today was just an awesome morning. for me, it had to do with a combination of excellent message (way to go, Steve!), a solid musical day from a presentation standpoint, and just a synergy with all of the elements of the day working together to create a cohesive worship experience.

highlights:
** kelsey - one of our high schoolers. one of those people who has undoubtedly been gifted by God to sing. it seems to be effortless to her. i was even more impressed today knowing that she was terribly sick this morning. she spent a lot of time between sets laying down and or puking her guts out. way to take one for the team, kelsey!
** “knowing you” - there’s just something special hearing your church community singing one of your own songs - and owning it!
** adama/adam, humus/human - “the only difference between me and this pile of dirt is what came out of God’s lungs.”
** “rescue” - sometimes there’s just a perfect song to close the message - really felt like God was up to something today….

to see the reason behind the wooliness, click here.

dates for henrypalooza events have been set.

sept 27 will be a family fun carnival type event with music, games, food, facepainting, and some items for raffle.

oct. 4 will be a concert featuring mindy smith and chris rosser.

look for more details soon….

“o worship the king” by chris tomlin (cd “passion hymns: ancient and modern”)
“let me sing” by todd fields (cd “north point live: louder than creation”)
“made to worship” by chris tomlin (cd “see the morning”)
—-connect—-
—-check presentation to Durham Rescue Mission—-
special music - “surely we can change” by david crowder band (cd “remedy”)
—-message— Doc
“faithful” by kristian stanfill (cd “north point live: louder than creation”)

a highlight for me personally today was the addition of the violin by my friend, matt evans. matt is a gifted player. he has really good musical instincts. i’ve played with matt a handful of times now. the best compliment i can give him is that, when matt says he has come up with something and he’s feeling good about it, i have complete confidence that his part is going to come off well.

for several reasons, the music for today was a lot of work to pull off. the band just wasn’t completely gelling together completely on thursday night. we were missing keyboards and having a little guitar tone trouble. but even besides that, it just seemed like we weren’t meshing together. still, it felt quite a bit better to me this morning.

i was struck with the realization today again of the effect on me when i’m not completely confident for whatever reason going into the morning. i tend to shrink back a bit as a leader because my mind is on technical things or stuck in self-consciousness. i’m still trying to grow through this.

however, on an encouraging note: i met a guy tonight at pizza with the pastors who admittedly is currently being dragged to church by his wife. he’s tried to attend with her sporadically in the past, but church has never really spoken to him. since coming to crosspointe, she has been telling him that he would really like the music - trying to convince him that the band really rocks it out. he was skeptical, but told me that last sunday when he could hear the band in the parking lot before even coming into the building, he knew he was going to be pleasantly surprised. he told me tonight that we rock harder than van halen with sammy hagar!

the changes in the last 30 years in china are mind blowing.
as china is increasingly opening its doors to the outside world, china is now exploding in all directions.
there are obviously positives and negatives that come along with such rapid “advancement.”
there is a widening gap between the rich and the poor.
as many as 500,000,000 people in china still live on $2 per day.

china is working hard to gain acceptance on the world stage.
case in point, the hosting of the olympics.

DID YOU SEE THE OPENING CEREMONIES?!!

simply incredible.
so much for the popular notion that the chinese lack in creativity.

c.c. said it well. we’re very proud that our daughter is chinese.
and of course we’re looking forward to adding a chinese son to our family soon.

i’m not really going anywhere with this post, but just wanted to say that i love china.

good music, good cause.

Carolina HopeFest
Carolina HopeFest is scheduled for Saturday, August 30th at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary. HopeFest is a music festival that benefits Beacon of Hope, an organization outside of Nairobi, Kenya providing assistance to women and children affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Performers this year include Colbie Caillat, Edwin McCain, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, Thad Cockrell and David Spencer. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster, or at Bean Traders Coffee in Durham and Chapel Hill with no service charges. For more information, go to www.carolinahopefest.org . To volunteer, send an e-mail to Jenny Nicholson: jenny@emmausway.net.

day 17 of hair and beard growth until we leave for China to bring Henry home!
(to see the journey from the beginning, click on the “let’s hair it for henry” category link to the left.)

is anyone else curious about what that gigantic zit that’s brewing on my cheek will look like in 7 more days? i knew things would get ugly on this journey - i just didn’t realize the full extent….

i hope to have a substantial “henrypalooza” update next monday!

as far as the musical portion of our worship experience, i think the day centered around the song “healer”. if you missed today, you can see the song story video that we played below. there’s also a video of the original performance which is worth watching.

this doesn’t happen very often, but this was an audible called on tuesday. i had seen the video several weeks before, but for whatever reason when it was brought to my attention again this past week i sensed that God wanted us to use this song as a way of giving some closure to the “pandemic” series we’ve been in.

thanks to the band, singers and tech crew who rolled with it and jumped in to learn and prepare a new song on short notice. i’m very thankful that God has assembled the kind of servants at crosspointe that love a challenge and give it their best even when there’s not much time.

after 3rd service today we had a baptism party outside. it was 95 degrees and sunny - really hot. but we had 100’s of people stay after to celebrate the 40 plus people who were baptized. don’t know how many people ended up coming, but we planned food and drinks for 250 and we ran out pretty quickly. needless to say, we’ll know how to be more prepared next time. still, it was a great to see that many people in our community come out to celebrate our friends and family as they took this important step.

“Healer” song story:

“Healer” original performance: