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.

Bachelor Week

So I am sure everyone is wanting to see how daddy and Jonas are doing while mommy is enjoying a vacation to Reno....Well let me begin with three simple words: schedule, schedule, schedule. Although I thought I was going to be able to put in office time or even perhaps go to a coffee shop for a meeting, I was sadly mistaken. A two-year-old dictates your schedule and as long as you can roll with that flow, you will be all right. For instance, injected into my daily work schedule, we now have designated swing time (side bar story: Recently Jonas was the proud recipient of a slightly used, but new to him swing set from one of the most awesome families in the world: The Owens/Hohn clan. It has become the highlight of most days), run around the yard time, cuddle time, bath time, read story time, and make meals time. The best time to get work done has become nap time (which I must admit would be a lot more fun if it was participatory). But all in all, the week hasn't been too bad. Jonas is a joy bringer. So even though he may test one's patience from time to time, He is the joy of mine and Crystal's life. I just wish she were here to help me experience the joy;)Besides a couple of pics of the first day with the swing set, there is also a pic with no caption needed.

Kids say the darndest things...

Jonas is becoming such a big boy and such a BIG talker.  We laugh a million times a day over some of the things that come out of his mouth.  He really is the funniest kid EVER.  Here are a few examples.  While my dad and step-mom(pa and me-me) were in town we took Jonas to the zoo for the first time.  While we were there we went into this monkey house.  In the monkey house on one side they had an enclosure for the lion and lioness to be held after their feeding.  So there they sat behind glass with a wall in between them.  I guess they felt lonely because they started roaring at each other...it was so loud.  Jonas was a little scared, but very intrigued.  Finally they stopped roaring and we started to leave just then Jonas turned, waved and said "ok bye, bye dinosaur." It was hilarious.  Another funny example happened just this week.  Our church held a CPR class and since we forgot to get a sitter Jonas had to go with us.  He mainly just played around until we got to the AED (Automated Electronic Defibrillator)  training portion.  For anyone that doesn't know an AED is a device that shocks a persons heart back into a normal rhythm...it works pretty much like the paddles in the movies, but anyone can operate it because it has voice prompts that tell you what to do.  So anyways once these were brought out Jonas totally wanted to play with one and since they are just training AED's and don't really work the instructor gave him one to play with in the corner of the room.  All of a sudden in the middle of Andrew's CPR test Jonas looks up and says "don't touch the patient" (which he had heard from the voice prompts on the AED) everyone in the room busted out laughing...we laughed so hard we were crying.

Other cute phrases he is saying now is:

"hold you" this is when he wants to be picked up

"your funny" or "that funny?"

"Uh-oh what happened?"

"Where IS it?"

He is also singing all the time.  He usually starts with a song from a show or that we sing to him and then does what Andrew calls the remix and just sings it however chooses.

babies, adoption, and fundraising...Oh My!

Well we are starting our adoption process again and we are SOOOO excited! Jonas is 2 1/2 now and he is ready to be a BIG brother. It has taken a while, but we have decided to use an agency called Adoption Options World Wide that is based in Detroit. They only work with ten families at a time so they are a small agency but we have heard GREAT things about them. We are just now starting our application process, but we are already thinking about fundraising. (if its anything like Jonas' we need to start now...7 months total that was crazy). My (Crystal) friend Amanda is helping us with a lip-gloss fundraiser through Arbonne where we sell lip glosses and all of the proceeds go to us. We also plan on setting up a website or someway where people can just send donations if they want. Please let us know if you have any ideas, would like to help sell lip-gloss, or want to help in any way. We are really excited, but the cost are quite a burden...for this agency their fees range anywhere from $8,000-11,000. We know that God has opened this door for us and we know that He will do it!...thank you all so much for your prayers for our family and we look forward to sharing our journey as we embark on a new path for our family. Again we are SOOOO excited ( I guess I do say that a lot:D)

This is the website to our new agency: http://www.adoptionoptionsworldwide.com/

I love to ride my bicycle... I love to ride my bike....

So as you can see Jonas got a "new" bicycle thanks to our wonderful neighbors and their generous grandchildren. He just got it yesterday and he looks so grown up on it. He doesn't understand the concept of peddling at all and he doesn't even really like it for anyone to push him on it. So basically he climbs up on it, sits there, smiles for a while, gets off, and pushes it around the yard. It is so cute, and he looks so sweet in his little helmet which he calls a hat. He is getting so big...its so crazy to think that just 2 yrs ago he only weighed like 5lbs and was so dependant. He is really turning into such a big boy now. Its exciting, but a little sad too. We love watching him grow and seeing all the new things he learns and figures out each day!

iShine Live

So I mentioned iShine Live in my earlier posts, but I don't think you grasp the magnitue of 800 eight to fourteen year olds gathered to rock out to students their age who are using their talents for the kingdom. It was pretty awesome and I am attaching some pics below so you can catch the vision a little more. 

Jonas and Waking Up

So we have discovered through trial and error that Jonas is not a morning person. He is not really an afternoon person either if he is woken from his nap abruptly. Jonas is...how you say...someone who requires a waking up period before direct interaction.  On average this time can be from thirty minutes to an entire hour. Only after this time may you interact with our little angel. Otherwise you may be interacting with a little devil.

Things have been fun here the last week. We had a v

isit from Crystal's dad and stepmom (Meme and Paw per Jonas) and everyone had a great time. We all went to the zoo in Lansing on Friday (pictures below) and we even got two new shower heads out of the visit. :) I was able to enjoy the visit Sunday, but was also wrapped up with the iShine Live tour (www.ishinelive.com) that came through on Saturday. Imagine a concert with 800 8-14 year olds and an 18 hour day. But I had a blast. 

Jonas sentence str

ucture has been improving but his favorite phrase has become, "Are you excited?" Evidently Crystal says this a lot. So whenever we are about to eat, go somewhere or do something it is preceded by the phrase, "Are you excited?" So yes, we are excited.

Grace and Peace

So what good is a blog...

So I am asking myself this morning, what good is a blog if you don't maintain it? So from here on out it is now my goal to update the family blog at a minimal, once a week. That way you can still know what is going on with the Arp clan way up north. So here we go...

Crystal is full swing in school. This is her last quarter before the summer so we are excited about that. We just found out this quarter as well that she can take most, if not all, of her classes on the Flint campus instead of having to drive to Auburn Hills all of the time. FLint Campus 2 miles; Auburn Hills campus 45 miles. Woohoo! We have also had visits from Crystal's mother and stepfather twice in the last month or so and her Dad is coming in two weeks. Crystal also hosted our first ever ModesTea (pronounced Modest Tea) at church for our 5th - 8th grade ladies as a Self-Esteem workshop/Big sister pairing day...yes, you read right. Hosted, as in stood up front for about two hours and facilitated. She is Awesome! 

Jonas is going and growing like crazy. As I tell everyone lately, Jonas has two speeds...fast and sleep. He really wouldn't stop if he didn't need sleep. Even two weeks ago when he was battling rotovirus, he really didn't want to stop. He has begun to sing quite a bit and rarely lets Crystal and I get a word in edgewise anymore. His animal noises are his greatest feat as of recently and he particularly has mastered the pig and the llama. He also decided the sound that a truck makes is the hissing sound of air brakes because that is what the garbage truck in front of our house says every week. But Jonas continues to be a blessing even on his most typical terrible twos days.

As for me, things have been busy. At the church, we just opened up our new "Stuck in the Middle Youth Ministries" room for our fifth through eighth grade students. The following week was m Ordination service and I am now an ordained elder in the church of the Nazarene. Otherwise we are just staying busy at the church. We are still looking for that lag/down time in our schedule, but it doesn't really seem to exist. But God has been good to us with a great church family and a great place to minister. We just wish it were a little further south.

Grace and Peace

PS Enjoy the pics:)

The great vaseline incident of 09!

 whenever a two year old gets quiet you know you 
should probably suspect something...

especially when jonas gets quiet...

This was definitely true today!

Jonas was quiet and Andrew went to check on him...all I heard was you have to come see this...I walked into Jonas' room to find him sitting on 

the changing table COVERED in vaseline!...my first question was how did he get on the changing table?...well it appears that he climbed up his chair onto the changing table opened the vaseline and rubbed it all over his     

clothes, ha

nds and hair...what could we do but laugh? (and take pictures of cou

rse)...it was hilarious he had so much vaseline in his hair it was turning white...so 

Andrew and I divvied up jobs..he took the room..i took the boy...I got him in the bath and thought...this is vaseline it repels water..how i

n the world am I going to get this out of his hair...I brainstormed and thought...dish

washing liquid...we have some dawn and if its good enough for the animals in the oil spills it should work for this right?...wrong it just soaped up like 

crazy, so we tried regular shampoo..yeah right...at this point andrew was finished...

So he got online and thanks to google we learned that this fastest way to get vaseline out of hair is...cornstarch...who knew?...well being that we arent big cookers Andrew went downstairs and found Cornmeal...thats pretty much the same right?...I know what you're thinking but believe it or not it actually worked...I think its safe to say that Jonas doesnt have to worry about being ashy for a while:)...For your entertaining pleasure we posted the pictures and video...Happy Valentines Day!

Our Jr. High Retreat

Well we are now two weeks out, so I guess we can officially say we survived our first Jr. High Mid-Winter Retreat in Michigan. Our retreat consisted of us driving three hours north (and yes we were still in America) to Kalkaska, MI with 40 7th and 8th graders. We had a band from Olivet lead us in worship and Mark Thompson was our speaker. It was pretty rockin'. We even went snow tubing for a couple of hours on Saturday and had an amazing time all weekend. And as I always say...it's a great event when nobody cried, nobody died. I am attaching a few pictures for your enjoyment. 

Grace and Peace