(not-so) Little Update

Alan sent off some resumes and cover letters this week. Both churches he sent resumes to on Sunday called and/or emailed him back on Monday wanting more information from him. This was AMAZING and a complete God-send. If any of you have ever been in a process like this with a church you know that the last thing most churches do is move swiftly. Whether or not either of those churches works out it was so reassuring to hear back so quickly. Alan and I agreed it gave us hope to move on as we begin this process all over again.

He sent off another couple of resumes and cover letters on Monday and received a phone call today from the head pastor of one of those churches. Not recognizing the number or area code on his caller ID, Alan went ahead and answered wondering who it was. 20 minutes later(!) he got off the phone to tell me that he basically had an impromptu phone interview right then and there! The guy wanted to know a little more about Alan - his experience, what he's doing right now, why this church in this particular state (I'm being ambiguous on purpose...) - and the overwhelming feeling Alan got from the conversation was positive. When he mentioned that he was currently serving and worshiping at an Anglican church (a real point of contention when Alan was interviewing with the church in Virginia), the pastor (a Gordon-Conwell grad with a son currently at GCTS) asked about one of our priests. It turns out he knows him from years ago when they both lived in Wisconsin! He seemed really excited about Alan. As it turns out this church is actually pretty far along in the process with "a couple of candidates" - we're not sure how many - but Alan piqued their interest enough that they were willing to risk the possibility of the process taking a bit longer in order to pursue Alan a little more. Alan hopes to receive a questionnaire from them and complete it before we head to California next week.

All in all, whatever comes from any of these churches and/or any of the few others to which Alan has sent his information, we have hope and encouragement again as we face this process. We also have additional confirmation in multiple forms at this point that the Virginia church really wasn't for us. I am so thankful that God has already revealed at least a little bit of his working in this situation. It makes this waiting time so much more manageable.

So keep us and the job search in your prayers - and pray especially for these three churches that we are moving ahead with. One is in North Carolina, one in California and one in Michigan. Any of those locations would place us closer to family in one form or another and we're excited about that prospect too. Also pray for the living situation as we are looking for a new place - still in the GCTS area. We're basically planning on being here till Christmas, although if that third church is really serious about Alan and having someone hired by the time school starts (or within a week or two of the beginning of the school year) it's quite possible we might just get that miracle that we asked for and really be out of New England by the end of August... although I'm not holding my breath for that one ;-).

For all you Californians, Michiganders, Texans and Hong-Kong-ians (whatever you call people from Hong Kong ;-) we'll be seeing next week, we can't wait!!!


Much love,
Meredith, for Team Conrow :)

First Communion

On Sunday at church all three of us went to the altar rail for the Eucharist as we usually do. This week, however, instead of the priest simply giving Adeline a blessing, he asked Alan and me if she could receive. In the Anglican church, once a person has been baptized, no matter how young, they may receive the Eucharist. Alan and I agreed and Fr. Bart handed us a wafer for her. When the attendant with the wine came by we dipped her wafer in the cup, broke it in half and gave it to her to eat. She made a little bit of a funny face - my guess is that was the tang of the wine :) - but she did indeed take "the most precious body and blood" of Jesus Christ.

Praise the Lord!

Update on Bottles...

I just heard from Lillian's mom :) that when she called her local BRU in Michigan they said they were participating until August 10th. So if you have bottles to exchange, get on it! :)

Bottles

So when I was registering at BRU for baby stuff galore I put Avent baby bottles on my list. Mind you I have been waiting years knowing I wanted those bottles for my babies because, honestly, I liked the way they looked, and I knew they were high-quality. Well, my first exposure to the BPA controversy wasn't until about, oh, I don't know, maybe 3-5 weeks into little Adeline's life when I'd already opened all of my packages of bottles, washed them and prepped them for Adeline's use. I thought, "Well, things are still uncertain, and if it really was that dangerous they wouldn't be on the market, right?" I even emailed Steve somebody-or-another who is the head of the BPA-producing world (sorry for the terrible explanation there...) and even got a personal email back from him. (I was amazed when I learned who this BPA Big Wig was given that he personally responded to my specific questions in my email. It turns out he's the one who's quoted in the all the reports and magazine articles on this stuff.)

Anywho, I ended up using Avent bottles for the majority of Adeline's liquid diet praying daily that it wasn't harming my little girl. Once she was done bottle-feeding, I bagged up the Avents and they've just been sitting around. I didn't really know why I was hanging onto them UNTIL...

Yesterday at church my friend Sarah told me that Babies-R-Us is doing a bottle exchange right now. You can take in any and all of your BPA bottles - as long as you have all the pieces - and exchange them straight up for BRAND NEW BPA-free bottles. This includes Dr. Brown's and Born Free glass bottles as well as Born Free BPA-free plastic bottles. They basically give you a credit for your used bottles as though they were brand new and you have that much money to pick out the BPA-free bottles of your choice.

I was really wanting to do glass bottles for baby #2 (which, in case anyone is wondering, is not on the way and we don't know when he/she will be) so I was able to pick up 3 2-packs of Dr. Brown's 7 oz. glass baby bottles for FREE!! I was really excited about that. Obviously that's not enough bottles so I will eventually need more and I'm really interested in the new wee-go glass bottles - the down side is that they're $18 a piece... So I think I'll start saving my pennies :).

I just thought I'd share this great thing. So if you have any BPA bottles (Dr. Brown's, Avent, there might be others) gather them together and head to Babies-R-Us!!

Pictures!

I've uploaded all of the pictures from May 31, 2008 - the day the Wrights left - and June 22, 2008 - Adeline's First Birthday Party - to Snapfish. You should be able to click here to see all of them. If it doesn't work, let me know and I'll email the link to you.

The files are pretty large and should print well if you decide you want to order any :).

Love,
Meredith

Virginia News

On Wed. the head of the elders called me and let me know they would not be endorsing me as a candidate for the church. This sadly means that the process with the church is finished. The news came as a shock, but after the meeting on Sun. I knew it was a possibility, given that some of my theological views were in contrast to beliefs held by particular elders.

Although we are sad, Meredith and I know more and more that the church would not have been a good fit for us. We are confident that God has led us through this process for a reason and we are waiting upon Him to show us our next step.

We thank you in advance for your prayers and look forward to sharing with you when God begins to open the next door.

Brief Update

Alan's trip to Virginia went well yesterday. The travel was exhausting, but smooth. So smooth in fact that I was 30 minutes late picking him up from the airport because his flight got in 23 minutes early!!

Alan had his meeting with the elders of the church while he was down in Fairfax. They will hold a meeting on Wednesday to vote on Alan and we should hear back either Wednesday or Thursday about whether Alan will continue in the process of candidating.

More soon...

Pictures!

At long last here are some pictures from the last month and a half!

The first few are from the Wrights' farewell at the very end of May. Then there is a series of various photos from June. Some sort of random :). The set of pictures of Adeline in her little pink outfit out on the grass is from the morning of June 22nd before church. Then there are more random pictures from the first couple of weeks of July culminating in some videos from Alan and Adeline's visit to a park today.

I will try to post more birthday and Wright farewell pictures soon. Those are the ones Joshua took that are on a DVD and I need to download elsewhere. Maybe Adeline and I will take a walk to GCTS tomorrow and upload them in the computer lab. Check back!

In other news, Alan heads down to Virginia on Sunday morning. He will be there in time for the worship service at the church, then the doctrinal interview is scheduled for 12:45-about 3pm. His flight back home leaves Reagan airport at 5:30pm and I'll pick him up at Logan at about 7:00. Pray for safe travels and that what God desires to be accomplished at the doctrinal interview takes place.

All Done!

Adeline said "All done!" today. We've been working on it for a few weeks. I've been teaching her how to put her hands in the air when she's all finished with a meal. Today, without any prompting, she raised her hands up and said, "All done!" Well, to be honest it was more like "ah dah!", but it was definitely "all done", because then she did it again :). My little girl is getting so big!

Regarding pictures, for inquiring minds who want to know :)... All of the pix from Adeline's party are on a DVD and the optical drive on our laptop doesn't work. So we have to copy the pix onto a flash drive or post them from another location, and with things as busy as they are and only one car to get places, it just hasn't happened yet. Don't worry, they will come :).

Update from Adeline

Hi!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've been so busy! I walk around all the time, laugh a lot, feed my Daddy Cheerios, drink lots of milk and some juice, sit facing forward in the car, get into everything I can get my hands on, and I say a few words! Sunday, June 29th I officially made my favorite sound "gah-gee" while talking to doggies, so Mom and Dad finally figured out that I'm saying "Doggie"!! So apparently that was my official first word. When Mommie asks me what a cow says I say, "Mmmmmmmmmoo." I've been saying "uh-oh" for a while now. I say "no", although Mommie and Daddy aren't too thrilled about that one. I'm trying to tell them I'm just expressing myself! When I'm eating I'll hold my food over the edge of my tray and pretend I'm going to drop it like I know I shouldn't. I look over at Mom to see what she does and then I shake my head "no" just like she does. Then I take the food and quickly put it in my mouth. I'm such a tease! I also dance and clap a lot. Whenever I hear music - even the organ at church - I start bouncing up and down, bobbing my head to the music and clapping. Thanks, Aunt Megan, Uncle Peter, Amy, Sophie and Abby for my "Learnin' and Groovin'" birthday gift. I'm learning so much about all different kinds of music - and I've even learned to read! ("Is all of that true?" - "Well, yes, everything except the reading part." - Mommie says that's from a movie. Can you guess which one???)

I can't wait to come to California in a few weeks and see so much of my family. You'll be amazed at all I can do! And Mommie says she's looking forward to taking me swimming, whatever that is. She says it's a lot like a really big, kind of chilly bathtub!

Well I should go. Time for bed!

Kisses,
Adeline

Prayer Requests

Well, we have a couple of prayer requests.

First, Alan's grandpa had a stroke on Friday evening. It was mild - in his leg - but he did go into the hospital for tests and things. He was in pretty good condition for having suffered a stroke, but today he got worse. He can no longer move the left side of his body and his speech is slurred. These are things that are not fatal and can be worked on with physical and speech therapy, however there is a long road of recovery ahead. Please pray for Jim that the Lord would heal his body. He really enjoys being active and doing things for himself. Please also pray for the family, that those who are nearby would know how to care for him, and that those who are far away (like us) would be comforted during a rough time.

Also, pray for Alan as he prepares for his doctrinal interview in Virginia on the 13th. The head of the search committee will be sending him some questions that he will be asked, and Alan asked if it would be a good idea for him to write something up and was told it would be a good idea, so he'll be working on that this week. He will fly down first thing on Sunday morning and fly back that night, so pray for safe travels and that he's not too exhausted.

He'll also continue to work on a sermon, although it's a little more up in the air now when his preaching opportunity for the congregation will be. Please continue to lift up this process, the church, Alan and our family as the process continues. Join us in praying wholeheartedly for the will of God to be done in the lives of all involved.

Finally, Meredith's cousin, Wesley, is in Liberia with Mercy Ships. He arrived on the Africa Mercy today and will be away for more than a month this summer. Pray for his work there, his safety, and God's work in his life. Follow the link at right (Wes' Corner) for updates from him from overseas.

Thanks, all, for your faithful prayers. We'll post updates as we have them!

Big News!

Well, for those who have not yet heard, it looks like we're moving to Virginia! Alan, Adeline and I went down to visit a church this last weekend as part of the final phase of a long and involved interview process for a "Pastor to Youth" position. By the end of the visit they expressed quite a bit of interest in Alan (basically said, "We want you, do you want us?") and we received a call today with more details for the next steps.

Alan will go back down for a doctrinal interview with the elders on Sunday, July 13th. It will be a one-day trip. He'll leave at 8am and return at 8pm. Then, as long as they don't rule Alan heretical ;-), all three of us will go down for a similar length of time as this last weekend. We'll head down on Saturday, July 19th. Alan will be introduced to the congregation and he will preach on Sunday, July 20th. It sounds like some other Q&A-type time will be scheduled in there, and we expect to have some time to look around the area a little more at apartments and such. We'll return to Boston on the evening of the 20th.

Assuming all of that goes well, the church will vote on calling Alan on Sunday, August 3rd (we will be in California). I think we'll probably hear back shortly thereafter - maybe even that day - about whether or not the congregation has said yes to Alan. If they do, it's only a matter of time before we move! We're thinking mid-August, maybe as early as a week within our return from CA on August 5th.

So that's the latest with us, and really why we haven't been blogging lately. Things have been very busy!

I have lots of birthday pictures from Adeline's birthday celebration, but haven't had the time to get them on the computer yet. They will come soon, I promise!

While we're on Adeline... She has 8 teeth and walks most of the time now. It's still much of a hobble, but if she falls over she usually gets right back up on her feet. Sometimes she even manages to keep her balance! It is very cute to see this small little person walking around our house. Tonight when I was finished giving her a bath, I used to pick her up and stand her wet little body on my legs. Now she can stand on the bath mat all by herself while I wrap her in a towel! It is so adorable to see her little wet nakie body just standing there. I can't get enough of her.

She also sits facing forward in the car now. And today she was feeding her Daddy some Cheerios. Very cute. We got a video of that one I hope to post soon.

At her 12-month checkup on June 24th we learned she is 29" tall, 21.5 lbs., and her head is 18.25" around. She's basically right around 50th percentile all around. She also got two shots and a toe prick. They tested her lead and iron levels, and the shots were for Hepatitis A and Varicella (chickenpox). On the chickenpox leg she's had some swelling - there's a rather large, firm red bump there. But I think she'll be okay. No fever or anything.

Her hair is getting so much longer. I haven't figured out how to put it up yet, but she's so squirmy I doubt she will let me anyway ;-). It's getting pretty curly in the back and looks awfully red these days! Alan thinks we're going to have a little red-head with a fire-y personality to match!

If you haven't heard, Alan cut his hair. He got it all buzzed off a few days before we went down to Virginia. I have my husband back! I really like having the short hair back. Again, we'll post a picture soon.

Overall we are feeling pretty good at the moment. We still live in this tiny place with the spiders and bugs. It's hot and humid, and everything always feels wet. It's the pits, but it's not the end of the world. The successful visit to the church in Virginia confirmed to us that we were listening well when God was speaking some weeks ago when we had the positive gut feeling about moving in here. And this week some other things have taken place that have just confirmed to us that God is working in our lives. It was so hard to be in what we felt was limbo for a while. But clearly God was working and telling us to be patient. I certainly wasn't patient without complaint! But through Alan God worked on me and through me God worked on Alan, and through Adeline our spirits remained high and our priorities in perspective. Once again we are in a spot where we can see the faithfulness of the Almighty God, and if you don't go through the valley you can't know the mountaintop when it's there. And while I'm not sure this is really a mountaintop - we still have quite a bit of work, not to mention a whole lotta life to live! - the Lord has blessed us with a peek at what waiting on Him can bring. The last time I remember feeling this way was when Alan proposed to me, and I could see His hand moving and bringing together all of the pieces that at the time I felt were up in the air. That worked out well ;-), so I am trusting in God to lead us through every step of the coming way. Please join me in praising God for His faithfulness in the lives of His children. And while you're at it, go ahead and toss up a prayer for the steps we must take in the coming weeks. We're not in Virginia yet!

Much love,
Meredith (for The Conrows)