Saying goodbye

Graduation is always very bittersweet for us. 2 1/2 months of unscheduled time are just around the corner. But at the same time we have to say goodbye to the seniors who are moving onto the next phase of life. Keep in mind that as deans, we spend almost every day of the school year, 8 hours a day, sometimes more, with these kids. We are a strange melding of teacher/parent/friend/brother/sister. As Chris says, we get to see them when “they let their hair down.” We watch them grow (and hopefully mature) from little freshmen to almost grown men and women. Crazy! This must be a bit how parents feel. It is also just part of the chaotic, difficult, joyful, fun adventure of working with high school students. The changes that take place between 9th and 12th grade are mind-blowing. Our hope is that the kids grow closer to our Savior as well as in stature and knowledge.

We have so many pictures from graduation, I can't possibly post all of them...but here are some!

Mother's Day

Yes, I know, Mother's Day was a good 2 months ago, but I forgot to share our Mother's Day happenings.

I traveled to Oregon to spend Mother's Day with my mom and the rest of the family. My mom and stepdad are building my grandma a "granny cottage" behind their home. Almost all of my grandma's kids were there to celebrate the ground breaking. My grandma's house was always my favorite place to be growing up. She made oatmeal sweetened in every sense of the word with lots of brown sugar, whipped cream and butter. She made the best cinnamon rolls. She and my grandpa played the banjo. She and my grandpa (who passed away unexpectedly last summer) had a pool. She gave great hugs and knew how to fix almost any owie (sp?) under the sun. My grandpa had a serious sweet tooth and a "secret" candy stash that all the grandkids knew about. I love my grandma and miss my grandpa very much.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the fam. enjoy!

My mom, Grandma Marita, Uncle Rob and Uncle Howie.

The girls.

2 of Chris' favorite things - his wife and the Smith River.

Me and mi madre.

Lazy Days of Summer??

I think it has been over a month now since I have posted anything. I am hoping I can assume that all of my faithful (?) readers have been putting their precious time to good use instead of checking to see if the Renos have posted anything new.

We have been keeping very busy writing a thesis (Chris - my job is make sure he eats and doesn't despair), working in the dorm (Anna), starting Pilates (Anna - love it!), spending time with family, gardening, reading, etc.... I also decided to start my spring cleaning in July. Maybe the realization that school starts in less than a month motivated me to attack the accumulating dust bunnies and spider's nests.

Anyway, here some pictures that I managed to remember to take along the way...

Aaliyah's First Catch

They are having a good time, despite appearances.

Chris' first Father's Day card.

Believe it or not, I think he is trying to smile.

The Baers came over for dinner and surprised us
with their ukulele and banjo playing skills.

Chris' parents were so kind and took us to SF for the weekend. I saw so many parts of the city that I had never seen before. This was at a coffee shop near Union Square (I think) that made coffee using a vacuum brewers. The shop looked very much like a science lab (MJTarr would have enjoyed, I think).

Maybe halfway there?

Well, halfway to referral at least. We have been waiting for our referral for 3 1/2 months. The time has flown by.

We just received new info from our family coordinator that the wait is now 7-9 months from sending our dossier to Ethiopia (which happened 3/3/08) to receiving a referral. This means we may receive our referral between September and November. Also, the new time frame from referral to travel is now 8-12 weeks, which means we may travel anywhere between November and February.

But we have to remember that this is international adoption, which is very unpredictable. So we are just waiting on God's timing, which is perfect. I do have my moments when I want to a mom NOW, but thankfully I have a husband who is so kind and so loving and so encouraging, so these times of impatience don't usually last very long.

A heavy thought

I have just started emailing back and forth with this kind, kind lady. This post she wrote about the AHOPE orphanage broke my heart. Chris and I have talked about adopting an HIV+ child and each time have been overcome with the heaviness of the thought. But we both know that God can do much more in us and through us than we think possible. Not that we are ready take such a step yet. For now we are sponsoring a child with HIV who lives in the AHOPE orphanage. He wants to be a professional soccer when he grows up.

School is out!

Chris is still at the dorm cleaning up a little but should be home soon. We are trying to think of some inexpensive way to celebrate, but I think he is really wanting to sit down and do some thesis work (which consists of reading 2 of his favorite authors - Flannery O'Connor and JG Hamann).

I will be working in the dorm for summer school, but just a couple days a week. And...I may have to teach summer school (I hope not!) if the teacher is called in for jury duty. The extra income would be helpful, but cramming many weeks of Biology into one class period does not sound fun to me.

Update

Some good news and not-so-good news (depending on how you look at it)...

First, it has been raining in Addis Ababa for the past couple of days. Praise God! We do need to continue to pray for the food shortages in Ethiopia - many, many children are close to starvation in several areas of Ethiopia.

Second, it looks like our wait for our referral is getting longer. Instead of 5-7 months from March 3rd, it is now 7-9 months, which means at the earliest we would receive our referral in September and would travel 6-8 weeks later (October/November). This is all in God's hands. I've mentioned before that Chris needs to write/finish his thesis over these next 6 months and he is teaching next school year, so this will all work out for our good. But we are definitely getting antsy!

Several families in our agency received referrals in May - families who have been waiting a loooong time. I think since October. And, also very exciting, several families are traveling to Ethiopia sometime this week to meet their children.

Catch up

It is the chaotic last 2 weeks of school so blogging is not at the top of my priority list. Yes you read right - 2 more weeks! And then we have Sundays off until forever, God willing. This summer will hopefully hold much thesis-writing (Chris - not me), fishing, camping and catching up with family and friends.

As far as adoption news goes - we may receive our referral in July or August, which may mean travel in November. Key word being "may" as in "maybe" as in "God is in complete control but I really hope we travel sooner but it will probably be later." But really, we trust in God's timing and we know that God hears listens to the prayers of the saints, so....Please pray that we would be able to travel at least before the end of the year!

One thing you can pray for: Ethiopia is experiencing a drought right now and is in desperate need of rain. Because of this the government is enforcing rolling power outages, which is making life for Ethopians very difficult (more so than it already is) and is slowing up the process for adoptive families (b/c gov't offices are closed due to no power). Please pray for rain for Ethiopia!

Also, if you are interested, World Vision is taking donations for both the Chinese and Burmese (Myanmarese??) disasters. They are a very trustworthy, Christian relief organization.

God's work is unceasing

As we continue to explore and learn more about international adoption, Ethiopia and Africa, I continue to be amazed and blessed by the creative ways God's people are reaching out and spreading the Gospel, in word and in deed. AHOPE and CALM Ministries are 2 organizations that I have come across.

AHOPE runs orphanages in Ethiopia for children with HIV. Chris and I just tonight signed up to become a sponsor for one of those children. Here is their mission statement: "The Mission of African HIV Orphans: Project Embrace is to offer a two-pronged approach to the devastation caused by the AIDS virus in Ethiopia.

• Provide a nurturing, stimulating, loving home for infected children orphaned by the disease
• Provide comprehensive, accurate education to families, staff, and the local community regarding AIDS prevention and care of infected loved ones."

CALM (Christian African Leadership Ministry) Ministries is based in Rwanda and is run by a Rwandan couple. They are "committed to glorifying God by enabling and equipping people to do the work of ministry and helping needy people to help themselves." This includes taking in orphans and running an orphanage that our adoption agency is working with.

Please visit both websites to learn more.

As iron sharpens iron

So my thought-provoking friend Mrs. Schwager is not letting me get away with posting a thought-provoking piece of news without actually posting my thoughts. In a comment she left on my previous post, she said, "but the question is: what are your thoughts on this? do you immerse your child in as much ethiopian culture as you can? just talk about it a little as interest dictates? not talk about it at all?"

We have been thinking about this and the myriad of other issues that come with international adoption. Our greatest challenge has been to think about these things prayerfully, through the lens of Scripture.

Through this adoption we are bringing a piece of Ethiopia into our family. In Scripture it is clear that ethnic heritage is an important part of who we are, not THE most important part, but still important. We would be silly and blind to the creativity of God if we ignored our child's ethnic heritage. The most important culture in our child's life will be our family culture and because we are bringing Ethiopia into our home, Ethiopian culture will unavoidably become a part of that. We are not sure exactly how, but I don't think that is something we need to figure out completely right now.

Any other thoughts??

Another "Dappled thing"

In the Hopkinsesque vein of things: this is pied beauty spoken through the flesh of a Colorado Cutthroat Trout

Rippin' Lip

Devin O'Donnell and I (Chris . . . just to make things really clear since my wife does most of the posting here) took a quick little five hour trip up to Redding to fish the mighty Lower Sacramento River. Although we only had a few actual hours of "pree-me-yum" fly fishing time, we did manage to net this beautiful native rainbow trout. The sucker was huge. Unfortunately, as I was pulling him out of the net to take the "trophy shot," I straight up dropped him. I could sense God asking me, "Are you going to thank Me even without the ego image?" Praise God for the gift of fly fishing with a blessed bru and the beauty of creation . . . exquisitely sung by G.M. Hopkins below:

Pied Beauty (1877)
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things--
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings; Landscape plotted and pieced--fold, fallow, and plough
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise Him.

Where are we?

We haven't really posted anything about our adoption in awhile, mostly because we are still in that 5-7 month waiting period for our referral (match). We have been waiting about a month now.

It is exciting watching other families from agency get their referrals...so great to see families who have been waiting and waiting finally see a picture of their long-awaited little one(s).

Meanwhile, we are keeping busy with working in the dorms, tutoring (me), preparing to write a thesis (Chris), praying for a teaching position for Chris next year, getting addicted to Lost (we are on Season 2) and generally really enjoying being married.

We are also wondering what chaos may await next year with Chris writing his thesis and possibly teaching and us having a new baby. We will need much prayer.

Sprouting

I am on a blog posting frenzy tonight. It would seem as though I have lots of time on my hands, except that I need to go workout and make muffins for a baby shower.

But first, here is my first experiment with growing things from seed. Hopefully, I will be posting pictures of the "fruit" of my labor, or rather our Creator's handiwork. All I have to do is make sure they have plenty of sun and water, and I can't even take credit for those essentials.

He is Risen!

Some pictures from Easter with the Reno fam.

Some "Purdy" great music (sorry I couldn't resist)

Chris and I just discovered Joe Purdy and we love his music. Go listen.

Are we playing freeze tag?

I was tagged by my (I am trying to think of a word that describes her) friend Meris to list 6 quirky things about myself. AH! I don't know. I have been putting off partly because it is Spring Break and my husband just finished his last paper for his Master's class (Praise God! - now onto the thesis). So it has been party time in the Reno house. Party time for us is being home together when Chris is not writing a paper and I am not doing any work on the computer or tutoring. On Monday, we watched an insane amount of Lost Season 1 (we are just getting started) and went out for Korean BBQ. Way too fun.

Here Chris is emailing his LAST paper to his professor...



And even now I am changing the subject - ok, 6 non-important things/habits/quirks things about myself...

(1) It takes me all day to finish my coffee. My husband home roasts coffee beans, so our coffee it pretty strong. It more or less lasts me all day, through my 2 hour tutoring sessions and right up until I start making dinner.

(2) Everytime my sweet husband compliments me, I repeat it back to him. I'm not sure why - maybe to make sure I heard it right? Or maybe to hear it again, although it definitely doesn't sound as nice coming out of my mouth.

(3) I am fanatical about making the bed in the morning. My life is chaos until the bed is made.

(4) My husband and I go on midnight runs to Taco Bell every once in awhile after he gets off of work. Yum.

(5) I love, love, love being home. I am the text book case of a homebody/introvert. I am convinced this is one of the reasons why God has me (a) married to a man who makes friends everywhere he goes (grocery stores, airplanes, public restrooms) and (b) living right next door to a very gregarious friend. They make me do things like go to the beach on a beautiful day like today.

(6) My favorite band is a non-band called Brother Down (he he aka my husband and husband's friend). I may sound like a broken record for those of you who visit my blog regularly, but go listen!

Anyway, I tag my mom, PaperPony (has she been tagged yet?), and Caleb, Becca and Sakari.

And here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag at least 3 people.
5. Make sure the people you tagged know you tagged them by commenting to them.

Kingdom growing

Go here. Our adoption agency is partnering with this agency. Exciting!

More t-shirts?

Would anyone be interested in purchasing a t-shirt if we did another round with a different design? Just curious...Go here to see what the design may look like. We would probably do navy or olive shirts.

Great Music

In the midst of our adoption business, I have neglected to mention that my husband's band, Brother Down, (sort of a band, they never really practice or have concerts because they have other jobs and are spread throughout the state of California) has a great cd out, To the Black Land. Check it out and let us know what you think. It was released back in 2003, and we still love it!

Also, our friend, Steven Hansen, who produced Brother Down's cd, just came out with one of his own, The Wounded Dog's Choir. He is an uber-talented produced and musician.

Fun with the kiddies

California Craziness

Oh the joys of living on the Left Coast...

Please pray for thousands of families in California who are homeschooling and doing an excellent job.

Update

We just received some updated information about the wait time for our adoption (thanks Kari!).
The wait time for an infant girl referral is 7-9 months (September-December for us) and for an infant boy is 5-7 months (July-September for us). And...the Ethiopian courts close August-September (or something like that). So even we do get a referral by the earliest possible date (July), we wouldn't have a court date until October and would travel (hopefully) by November. So, now we are hoping to get our little one by Christmas.

This is definitely turning out be much longer that we expected. I need to keep reminding myself that God's timing is perfect in every way.

"Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart, and wait for Lord." Psalm 27:14

Dossier on its way

I'm not sure if you noticed our little ticker up above and our timeline to the right, but we sent our dossier to our agency on February 11th and all the paperwork we have been working on since April 07 has been approved. Praise God! Our dossier was sent via FedEx to Ethiopia on March 3rd (Monday). (I've been tracking it - its still in the states, Delaware to be exact.)

So now the real waiting begins - we probably will not hear anything for another 5-6 months. The next news we hear may be a phone call letting us know that they have a referral (match) for us.

Please be praying for us as we wait, the the little one God already has planned for us and for his/her birth mother.

Thank you for all of your prayers and kind words!

$1,000,000

On another note, I heard about Oprah giving $1,000,000 to people to give to others and I started thinking about how many children could be placed in a family with $1,000,000 - at least 40 (at $25,000 per adoption). So if you get a phone call from Oprah...

Oh right, patience

Many people have been asking me if it is hard to be patient as we wait for our little one. The first 8 days after submitting our dossier weren't so bad. I heard myself answering that it wasn't so bad, we trust God's timing. The latter part is still true 8 days later, but...have I mentioned how much we want to be parents? Those of you who know us well know this. Waiting 4 years, I know, is not that long, but at times, like now, it feels very long.

But God is still good and His plan is still perfect and still for our good. Pray for us to remember this.

Our t-shirts in action

Go here for fun pics of the Johnson family sporting our Mission Threads t-shirts and some smooth moves by AJ and Co .

Yet Another Birthday "Bash"

Here's one from a couple of years ago. Chris' eyes are wild with enjoyment as he smashes fellow dean, Matthew Bradberry, with a tasty chocolate-cherry cake. I'm not sure how much Matt actually tasted. Resident student, Andrew Hwang, snapped this amazing photo.

A Typical Day at Work

Here is Chris enjoying the aftermath of Minsoo's birthday celebration. It's Korean tradition--at least in the dorm--to smash a cake in the birthday boy's face. The guys gather around to sing "Happy Birthday" usually in Korean, then they all cheer as the executioner charges with cake in hand to apply facial mask to said victim. It's quite a hoot. The dorm outlawed it for a while since so many guys were going head over heels--literally--from the smash. Chris enjoyed treating this "special" kid to a new complexion. Happy Birthday, Minsoo! We love you!

An Orphan's Ticket Home

Our adoption agency has started a fund raising campaign called An Orphan's Ticket Home, which is aimed at helping place more orphans with families.

You can provide a "Ticket Home" for over 5,000 children

It's the holiday season, a time when many of us buy a ticket home to see our families. But what if you had no way to purchase a ticket? Or even worse...what if you had no family to go home to? We need your help to purchase a ticket for children across this world to come "home" to see their "family". Your participation with us will determine whether many ever get that "ticket home."

We have embarked on a fundraising campaign to raise $1,000,000 to purchase "tickets home" for children. For some it simply means the initial stage of securing birth certificates and crucial legal documents that provide them with a legal identity that make the dream of a ticket to a loving home much more of a reality. For others it means a safe and clean transitional home where they can await adoption. And for others, it means a loving and adoptive home.

This $1,000,000 will give 5,100 children the opportunity for a ticket to a loving home.

If each America World family participates by purchasing one "ticket" at the cost of $300, we can meet and exceed this goal! Your ticket purchase will allow children "admission" to a system that would move them towards a permanent home. Would you please read ahead and see specific ways that you can join us in this effort?

Purchase an Orphan's "Ticket Home"

The kiddies...

Dress up time - Our beautiful princess niece, ferocious lion nephew #1 and nephew #2 (the Bee)...

I love this guy...