Busy Busy Busy

We never seem to slow down! Since our last post Crystal and Jonas travelled to Chattanooga for two and a half weeks (me for 1 of those), we hosted a Jr High Lock-In, a 5th and 6th grade Back to School Bash, and went on Pastors and Spouses retreat to Petoskey, MI. Talk about a busy month. But every part of it was fun.

While in Chattanooga, Crystal and Jonas were able to do all sorts of stuff. They went to the aquarium, the Chattanooga zoo, The Creative Discovery Museum, The Tennessee Valley Railroad, and Pop and Nonni took Jonas and Luke to Lake Winnepesaukah. While all of this was happening, I got to go Salmon fishing on Lake Michigan (I caught a 20lb King) and I hosted a Jr. high Lock-in.

Then there was the wedding of Sarah Elizabeth Brown ad John

Robertson Childs (I officiated, can you tell?). Jonas and Crystal were in the wedding and the fun part is that Crystal walked down the aisle right before our little ring bearer and so she had to trust that he was doing ok. He made it half-way down the aisle before he chucked his pillow and then came straight to daddy, who was standing front and center,

trying to look as much like a professional clergy as possible. With Jonas clinging to the robes, we looked towards our back-up plan and Jonas was able to exit during the opening prayer. But we are attaching some pictures below so you can envision the action.

Two weeks after we returned home from Chatty, Crystal and I let Jonas with some friends to head up north to Petoskey for the Ministers and Spouses retreat. Petoskey is absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed the time away. I was even able to play a little golf with three of the other associates from our church while Crystal got to shop with their wives. So although it has been a busy month, it has also been a rewarding month and we are blessed to have friends and family who think of us across the miles.

Did we mention it has already gotten into the 30s here...so much for a mild winter.

Grace and Peace

Andrew, Crystal and Jonas

God is so Good...

We have already said and I'm sure you've gathered that we are extremely busy. It seems that we are constantly on the move and have very few moments to just sit back and smell the roses. Amid our schedule at the church, our adoption process, and just general life we can sometimes forget or just simply neglect to see how truly blessed we are. Its at times like these that God sends little messengers to remind you of how great the life you live truly is. For us this came Monday afternoon when Jonas started singing "God is so good, God is so good, God is so good He's so good to me..." It was truly one of the sweetest sounds we have ever heard. He has been singing it everyday since at various moments. At moments like these we realize how the simple and sometimes smallest voices can remind us of what is really important, and that even though life is speckled with stress, temper tantrums, and the daily grind for the most part it is bathed in blessings.

Adoption Option....

We are almost through with our homestudy process now. We need a few more things that we will hopefully be able to get in the next few weeks and then we are ready for our new baby. We have been really encouraged lately because it seems like our friends and families are really helping us through this process. We are still very anxious about the money aspect, but as pastors we are used to being anxious about money. We just keep telling ourselves..."God is bigger than money, God is bigger than money" and we will keep saying it over and over again anytime the anxiety gets too much. We have already been told that our process will probably go quickly due to the fact that we are willing to adopt African-American or bi-racial. Now that the homestudy is coming to a close the fundraising will kick in full force. This adoption is probably going to cost some where between 8-11 thousand dollars. That converts to roughly 1200 or so lip-glosses if you are keeping up with our fundraiser. We have received some orders so far and even one donation from an old friend of Crystal's from high school. So we are really encouraged. We are praying for Gods helps and leadership during this time and for our future daughter, who from all indications, could be growing in her birthmothers belly as we speak. (that is so crazy to think about!) We just ask that everyone pray for her and her birthmother. We will keep you updated as we get more information. Thank you so much for everything you have been and will be to our current and growing family!

Summer Summer Summertime...

It has been a crazy-busy here in the Arp household ever since June arrived. Who said youth ministry wasn't busy up here in the North? Boy were we wrong. First, I (crystal) went to Reno to visit Jamie, then Andrew went to Orlando (for Gen. Assembly). Last week we had our Annual Mission Project for our jr.highers (7th-8th grade). Its called ReThink: Flint. This year we let them design their own project and it was in a word...amazing. They decided to adopt a park here in Flint and renovate it. We loved this idea because as you can imagine with the economy and all and people in Flint just struggling to keep their jobs renovating parks isnt a priority of the city. So the students picked a park that hadn't been renovated in 15 YEARS. We will try to upload some before and after pics just so you can see how amazing this project was. It was exciting to see God start to change this city through these kids. We wanted to bring a little joy to this sad city and this week did not disappoint. What was sad when we got there looked like a ray of sunshine when we left! I can't wait until next year when we renovate another park it was hard work but WELL worth it. So that was last week. This week we have "off" even though its hardly been restful because of all the appointments we've had to squeeze in during our one week at home. Next week its off to camp. First its jr. high (7th-8th grade) camp then the next week is pre-teen (5th-6th grade camp). Yes you read that right 2 wks of camp in a row ( with Jonas and the dogs in tow...what are we thinking?). The next week is our 7th Anniversary and VBS week. Then we are off for another week in which we have already scheduled more appointments so that we can finish our adoption homestudy. The week after that we are heading to Mackinac (pronounced Mac-in-naw) Island( I AM SO EXCITED!!!) with Derek and Ketly (our youth pastors) and the Fridlines (a family/friends from our group). Then its off to Chatt-town (for 2wks for me and Jonas and 1 week for Andrew) for my 10 year (that cant be right can it?) reunion and Sarah (and John's) Wedding (I am so looking forward to going home). So all in all we are busy and if that weren't enough to keep us on our toes we are right in the middle of our adoption process. It is a crazy, busy, exciting, and blessed time for us. We are on-the-go but we do live in Michigan so we have to get our wiggles out before the dreaded winter sets in:)

Rare Cinematic Capture

Even more evasive than the African Cheetah is the young African-American known as Jonas. However, in a moment of sheer brilliance we were able to briefly capture him in his natural habitat reciting his own variation of the Alphabet song. Enjoy this cinematic treasure.

Big Ticket Festival and on to Orlando

So as soon as Crystal got home for Reno the traveling began again. First of all, as a family we all headed "up north" to Gaylord, MI to the Big Ticket Music Festival. This is an outdoor Christian Concert Festival with 60 bands in 3 days. We really only cared about 4. But we had a blast. We also spent a day and a night at the Otsego Lake state park (yes Crystal was camping, at least some variety thereof) and that was an experience in and of itself. We stayed in a camp site with four other families from our church and we had a blast. There was an intense soccer match between Andrew and about 6 guys under the age of 12. And that same morning, after Jonas got out of the water, he was sitting with Crystal by the fire. All of a sudden he held up his foot and was kind of groaning, "ehh". Turns out he had a leech between his toes. Crystal was a bit squemish as one of our friends helped out...all I could think of was the scene in Stand By Me. 

After we got home from the Big Ticket Festival, we settled in for a bit and then I (Andrew) headed down to Orlando for a day or so to present at the General Sunday School Ministry Convention for the 2009 General Assembly. I got to 

present on Preteens and had about 75 people at my presentation including some internationals. It went well and there should be a lot of networking opportunities to come. 

But we are finally back home and settled in for a bit...at least until camp:)

Check out the pics from Big Ticket Below! And maybe a video of our fearless son braving the big boys slide.