This is more of a historical post for me so I don’t forget where I’ve been. 🙂 We have been so busy with the new kiddos coming home and the release of the new album that I have had to take a hiatus from my blog for a while. I’m trying to get caught up so I can get back at it, and didn’t want to miss 6+ months of events! Here are the ones I didn’t write about while I was on taking a break:
Just before we left to adopt Ethan and Anna, on July 27th, I sang and spoke on the morning services at Bethel Presbyterian. This was to update them on Noah (this church was incredibly supportive of our adoption of Noah, hosting a benefit concert and just being incredibly faithful and lovely to us in prayer and support), and also to tell them about Ethan and Anna and have a time of prayer for that. I just love them – what a faithful, wonderful group of people! I also introduced my new song “Nothing to Fear” doing an acoustic version, and telling them that we were working on the new album.
July 27th, bright and early, we left for China, meeting Ethan and Anna on July 31st and adopting them on Aug 1st. It took a couple weeks to finish all the paperwork, and we returned home on August 12th. If you’d like to read about our adoption trip, you’ll find the first post here.
The next two months were a blur of adjustment, starting school, learning English, and medical appointments.
On Oct 18-21 I went to Nashville to record all the vocals for the new album and do the photoshoot for the packaging.
On Nov 17-19 I went back to Nashville to shoot the majority of the footage for four music videos, a pretty insane weekend and shoot schedule!
On Dec 1st I had my first event back after the adoptions. I spoke and sang for the Christmas banquet for Dublin Baptist Church, and then left immediately after that to drive up to Marion Ohio where I did the Christmas brunch for Cornerstone Alliance Church the following morning, speaking on the topic “Worth the Wait.” I’ve been with Cornerstone before and just love working with their women’s ministry! And it was great to get to know the people at Dublin Baptist too. 🙂
The following weekend I drove to the middle of Pennsylvania to do Christmas events at Roxbury Camp. Their event has grown so much in the past years that they can’t fit everyone, so they do two identical, back-to-back events. I got to stay at the camp, and just can’t tell you how much I appreciated the camp staff! They were just the kindest, most lovely people! And the program director was a missionary kid in the Philippines growing up and decided he wanted to throw a staff party on the night between the events just to bless the staff and us. He made all Filipino food and taught me how to make lumpia, basically a Filipino spring roll, and they were great! We made so many, he sent some home with me, and the kids just cleaned those up!
On Dec. 17th, I went back to the church I served as music director for over twelve years. It was their 40th anniversary year, and they invited people back to do a retrospective. It was so lovely to catch up with everyone, and I sat in with the worship band and spoke and sang some too.
On Feb 25th I spoke and sang at the worship services for Grace Polaris Church in Columbus. This is the church that did my assistant, Donna’s, funeral, so they have a special place in my heart! And I did the services to help promote the women’s conference I gave there on March 2-3rd. I did a concert/testimony time on Friday night, and then Saturday did a one-day conference on Esther. Sadly, the women’s ministry director (who is lovely!) lost her mom that very week and was unable to be there, and I just appreciated how her team pulled together and did a wonderful job even without her there.
March 4th I was the guest worship leader at Karl Rd. Baptist and also did a few songs from the new album. I always love being here – this church is absolutely outstanding in serving their local community and I love the diversity here too which totally reflects their neighborhood. It’s a picture of heaven to me!
On March 11th I sang at all the morning services for St. Luke’s in Gahanna, OH. This is also a special church with a great heart for outreach! I just love being with them, and did a full concert for the new album later that month on March 21th.
On March 16th and 17th I did the regional women’s retreats for the Nazarene denomination at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. This was a beautiful facility and a great team, so we decided to bring in my video guy, Jeff, and film it too. I spoke on the life of Peter, one of my favorite topics!
The next day, since we knew we had Jeff in town, we did another cray-cray day of filming, getting additional footage for two of the music videos that needed it. We hit about 5 locations and still got Jeff to his plane with minutes to spare. That was nuts, but I’m so glad we got it done!
March 24th I did a one day women’s retreat on Esther at Fulton Creek Friends Church. I was with them last year too, and just love their heart for special needs families. And as an amazingly sweet surprise, they had two girls scheduled to do a dance to my song “Your Child” that they had planned even before they knew I was their speaker!
April 13th and 20th I did benefit events for Remember Nhu in Indianapolis and Cleveland. Remember Nhu is the organization we went to Thailand with several years ago, and I wrote the song “To Be Love” for them. They fight child trafficking, and just do great work. I am so excited to see how fast they are growing and how God is blessing their very needed ministry, even as I am so sad that their ministry is necessary. It’s a privilege to help their mission.
April 21st I sang for a “last roll call” service for the Veterans Association here in Columbus. It was a memorial service for the more than 600 service men and women lost in the last quarter. That was a hard event to do, but again, just a privilege to be asked.
After school got out, we headed to Florida, all eight of us in a mini-van! And we had a vacation mixed with a few events. 🙂 May 28th I was on Moody Radio Florida for a couple of hours in the morning, and on June 3rd I did the morning services at Pillar Community Church in Vero Beach. On June 8th I went to the international headquarters of Campus Crusade which are in Orlando and taped segments for several of their radio programs which will broadcast over the next several months. And then on the way home, I did the morning services at First Presbyterian Church in Hickory, North Carolina. All in all, it was a long and fun trip with some great ministry mixed in. 🙂
Then on June 17th I was at Living Waters Lutheran Church in NJ. This is my aunt and uncle’s church and we were visiting after my daughter Rachel played at Carnegie Hall with her youth orchestra. They really touched my heart with their support for our Compassion kiddos at that church!
Now I have a bit of a break until later in the summer. Anna had to have some pretty major surgery, and I didn’t want to schedule things without knowing how it would go.