Overheard In The Eurovan

Mindy:  Joshua?  Are you sleeping?
Joshua (2):  Yeah.
Paige (5):  He’s actually not, mom.

A Modest Proposal

Paige (5): Aidan? Would you get down? I can’t see the world.

Garlic RX

Per our previous post, we’re sick. In search of some alternative medicine, we went to Foti’s Greek Deli (17th and E. Burnside) to pick up a quart of the garlic-iest hummus in Portland. Nay. The universe.

Mia (8): I can feel the garlic killing the germs.

Oh. And if you go to Foti’s, I recommend the lamb gyro with feta cheese. Oh. And the calamari is the best. Add a little cayenne pepper if you like it hot. Oh. And saganaki.

Sick

Let’s say that old McDonald actually did have that farm.  And let’s also say that on that farm he had some Durii.  It’d be a cough-cough here and a cough-cough there, here a cough, there a cough, everywhere a cough-cough.

Ugh.

Paige’s Fifth, Revisited

Click and enjoy!

New Windows Theory

Actually, it’s not a theory at all. Thanks to a grant from the Portland Development Commission, we’re having SEVEN windows replaced on our house at no cost to us!

We’re at, say, step eight of ten steps in completing this process. In order to move from step seven to eight, Aidan, Paige, and Joshua had to have their blood drawn. I want to write about how courageous our kids are and how proud Mindy and I are and how tender these moments were but I’m afraid I won’t do justice to the beauty we saw today.

Papa’s Got A Brand New Job

On March 10th, I start work at Compassion International as their Northwest Regional Manager!

I’ll be working from home so no need to move from Portland to be closer to Compassion offices in Colorado Springs, CO. You may know that Compassion has an extensive advocate (volunteer) network and we’ll be teaming-up in a work that “releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty.”

We’re so excited! I returned from my back-to-back-to-back-to-back interviews in Colorado Springs two Fridays ago. The next morning…

Aidan (6): How was your job interview?
Ian: I think it went well, bud.
Paige (4): Did you win?
Ian: I hope so.

As part of this process, I did some pretty extensive research. I was even able to get in touch with some former Compassion employees and others with unique perspectives on this organization.

What I found was that Compassion International is strong. What I found was that employees speak highly of their organization and each other. What I found was that Compassion’s founder, Everett Swanson, was an evangelist and his ministry had a one-to-one correlation to taking care of orphans. Everett Swanson was social justice before it was cool.

I’m so grateful to the Lord for how he choreographed all of this. I have stories to tell. A special thanks to those I call “Ian’s Eleven”–for your counsel, observations, and prayers. You know who you are. You are righteous men and women and your prayers are powerful and effective.

I’m sad to be leaving my Multnomah family, though. I wasn’t even looking to leave. Either way, I anticipate good things for the place where I spent much of the last two decades at.

Interestingly, as this news has rolled out, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how many people I know are already a part of Compassion’s ministry. Are there more of you?

Joshua wanted Ian to…

…sit on his lap.

Joshua (2):  Lap.  Lap.
Ian (going to sit on his lap):  Okay.
Joshua (having a change of heart):  No!  Big!

The Durias collection is…

…listening to the new Five O’Clock People CD, Temper Temper. It’s worth the six year wait.

(Did I ever tell you that I went to the first five Five O’Clock People shows?  I was there when Jon Weller called Dave Ahl “Accordian Boy” at the tiny Taj Mahal show.)

Tradition

Many of you know that it’s a tradition in our home to have each birthday kid get mom a present, too, because, when you think about it, we really didn’t do anything on the day we were born.

“Paige” “bought” Mindy an iPod shuffle.  Red.