This was my office, in Vail. #toughlife

Four days away from Lisa and our four (very young) children.

Did I feel guilty about this? A little. Should I feel guilty? No.

Every person should leave their family behind for these three reasons.

1. Recharge – Young children can be a bit draining on you … okay that is a bit of an understatement. Young children are very draining on you. They can, and will, burn you out. Getting away for a few days helps recharge the your mind and body.
2. Reflect  - Life moves at 1,000 MPH, we all know that. Spending a few days away from the family gives me time to think about all that is/has/is going to be going on. I end up thanking God quite a bit during this time.
3. Return – Coming back after a few days of being away makes returning home so … umm … awesome? Yep, awesome. I long to return home after being away. There is just something about opening the door and having the smiles of your kids and especially that beautiful wife of mine when I return. That, my friends, is priceless.

I get away for a few days every quarter. That works for me and my family. I can say fairly confidently that it’ll work for you as well.

Summers are crazy for everyone, we’re no exception to that. We decided early in the summer that we wanted to join the sweet gym by our house. Problem is sweet gyms cost sweet cash. So we canceled cable, internet, and phone to pay for the gym. So no internet at home means no blogging for Mike.

With Cooper starting school here in a few weeks (I know, I’m getting old) we have decided that the internet must return. Cable and phone not so much.

So, I’m back. And I’m going to rededicate (one again) to blogging. For me it’s therapeutic and that’s what I could really use right now, therapy.

Just a few bullet points of the fun that this summer has brought.

* Road trip from Colorado to Michigan with a 3 year old, 1 year old, 1 year old, and 10 month old. Overall not as bad as I was predicting. Still very loooooong.
* Lisa’s wedding ring was stolen. *insert long story here* It has made it’s way home.
* All three babies are (kinda) walking. It’s very friggin cute.
* New paint job in the house. New flooring in the house. It’s looking stellar.
* Went to a superb training in Fort Collins called Personal MBA Mastermind. Highly recommend it.

I did get to take Cooper to Pop’s grave site while we were there. We miss ya Pop!

Props to the folks in GR for this awesome video. Way to raise awareness for a cool town in a cool way.

There was a lot going on in the hospital last night, besides our own child’s problems. I heard a code red issued and many feet went a running. My mind raced with ideas of what the code red was all about. More than likely it was a hurting child.

Spending the night here got me thinking about kids in pain, sick kids, abused kis. It’s hard to accept the fact that bad things do happen to good people, even kids and babies. I figure there are three types of people when it comes to this. Here they are:

1. Pretend Nothing Bad Happens To Children – If we ignore the problem it goes away, right? Nope. I’m also thinking that some people just don’t have the emotional threshold to deal with a child going through this sort of stuff. I know I was regretting coming in and seeing our own foster daughter in the state she was in, it’s rough.
2. Acknowledge That Bad Things Happen and Do Nothing – A quote from Elie Wiesel comes to mind “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”
   • Someone else will take care of them.
   • It’s not my job.
   • I have enough on my plate as it is.

   Do something. Step up. Make a difference. Even if it’s something small. We all have special gifts and talents that allow us to lend a hand here or there. I promise you once you step up you will not regret it.

3. People that Act and Help Out – I spent the first 26 years of my life as a #2, I knew bad things happened but did nothing.  Why? I don’t know, mostly selfishness. It didn’t benefit me so I wasn’t going to do anything. I kick myself sometimes at the years I wasted, but then I quickly kick myself again and say you’re doing something now, so shut up and keep doing. It’s easy to beat ourselves up about what we do or don’t do to help out.

Bottom line: Which number are you now … and which number will you be this time next year? You have the power to control that, do something about it.

I thought I’d write about four projects that I have going on … in my head. But once I type them here they will be in my head AND digital.

1. ServeProject - See this post
2. FosterSource (or fosterbook) – A guide for foster parents. It will have stories of fostering, what is fostering, the process, etc.
3. ActionDevo – A devotional that pushes people to DO something. The serveproject kinda morphed out of this.
4. coloradoyouthministry – This was a site I made for Youth for Christ that fell to the wayside cause I refused to buy the domain name again. I believe people should own their own domain names, not me. But, I think they’ll buy the domain and have the site up soon.

So those are the four projects I have floating around in my head … and now here. I wrote down two more ideas during church yesterday. They are so-so, but could launch … someday.

In closing I just wanted to say I’m proud of myself for getting a post out this week. Aren’t YOU?

One thing that has been on my mind recently when it comes to foster parenting is the way I’m seeing biological parents being portrayed/treated. We all signed up to do this for the kids, but I think there is a HUGE opportunity to show God’s love, God’s grace, and God’s mercy to the biological parent.

We could go on and on why the biological parents don’t DESERVE love and respect. They’ve done some awful things to these children. BUT what if we showed them compassion? What if we showed them love, God’s love? What if we said “I don’t care what you did, let’s get you better and get you your kids back.”

We don’t know what sort of life the biological parents have gone through. I put myself in their shoes. What if I was beaten all my life? What if I was broke with 4 kids to feed? What if my family disowned me? I’m not saying those are excuses for what they’ve done, I’m just saying step back for a minute and think about that.

These parents are hurting. They’ve had complete strangers come into their home and take away their kids. Kids they DO love.

I’m as guilty as anyone for making biological parents sound like monsters. I need to stop. Will you join me?

Click here to view the embedded video.

I stepped back and looked at my life and thought “what am I an expert in?” Not trying to be cocky, but just wondering what do I know a lot about. I narrowed it down to three things.

PUBLISHING

Seeing as I’ve spent the last 7 years in publishing I figured I know quite a bit about it, specifically Christian publishing. I’ve worked at Zondervan and now David C Cook in multiple roles at each. I’ve spent time in Finance, Sales, and now I’m the Director of Internet Marketing at David C Cook, which brings me to my next area of expertise.

INTERNET MARKETING

I can’t claim to be an expert in this field, but I do know a lot and I’m always learning more about it. I figured this is one area I can focus in on and give back.

FOSTER PARENTING

My wife and I have been foster parents for a little over a year now, which does NOT make us experts, but we did learn a TON. I’m always getting asked about ‘why’ and ‘how’ of fostering so why not make that another level of focus on the blog.

So there you have it, my three areas of expertise. I will however post about random things that happen in my life that may or may not have anything to do with either of those topics. This blog is a good spot for me to vent, so I may will use it to vent. I apologize in advance for those.

Haven’t had much time to write lately as we are expecting our second child in the next few days. I’m gonna suck it up cause you know what, well, I’m the man. Don’t laugh.

So I have a few blog posts in the can but nothing”publish worthy” quite yet so I thought I’d post a few random thoughts and (one of) my favorite scenes from Disney’s Up.

Random Thought #1 – How long can my wife and I keep up this pace of life? 13 different foster kids, a 2 1/2 year old, a dead dog, mono, baby on the way, new roles at work…and that’s just THIS year.

Random Thought #2 – I’ve seen some bumper stickers lately that just make me shake my head sometimes. Yes abortion is wrong and yes we should stop it, but is putting a bumper sticker on your car gonna make that person who’s thinking about it stop it from happening? I doubt it. One of my favorite sayings “Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin”. Let’s try that.

Random Thought #3 – Why don’t more people use their library system? Free books, movies, video games, magazines, web surfing, and much more. Did I mention it was free?

Random Thought #4 – I really like my neighbors. We don’t live in the greatest of neighborhoods here but we got some good folks around us. Folks that look out for each other. You don’t find that everything.

And now (one of) my favorite scenes from Up.

Click here to view the embedded video.