More Reasons to Love IHOP

We just got back from Kansas City, and I must admit I am even more in love with the IHOP community than ever before. Here are the new reasons I found:

1. You gotta love a community where total strangers come up to you to say how awesome your kids are.
2. You gotta love a community that embraces adopting orphans the way the rest of the country embraces buying your own kids a Wii.
3. You gotta love a community where the adults are full of child-like enthusiasm and the kids are full of adult-like wisdom.
4. You gotta love a community that doesn’t shrink from Scripture, even when the message doesn’t fit with our feel-good, politically-correct-until-you-die way of thinking.
5. You gotta love a community that includes a coffee shop that sells breakfast in the morning, and then again in the afternoon for people who aren’t morning people.
6. You gotta love a community that teaches people to aim at “excellence”, while encouraging them to “press delete” and try again when they fail.
7. You gotta love a community where a short walk down the hallway, at any time of the day or night, will allow you to overhear bits and pieces of conversation like, “Well, I always thought the pre-trib theory had a lot of validity, but I was reading in ‘Daniel’ and…”

What is there to say but, “Gotta love it!”

Too Much Fun

Yes, it may in fact be possible to have too much fun. I never would have thought so before last Sunday, but now I’m convinced it just might be. We took a walking tour of a neighborhood in Brooklyn, shopped at my favorite camera store in the entire world, and topped the day off with a Broadway show. To make the whole day even better, the show wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill Broadway show. We saw ”Slava’s SnowShow”, an extravaganza of beauty, imagination, and just plain fun.

(I had never heard of Slava before, but he is a famous clown from Russia, known around the world. You would think that as a former clown I would have known, but no… Anyway…)

It’s the kind of show that’s really hard to explain, since it lacks all the “norms” of clown acts, like balloon animals, cheesy magic tricks, and tiny cars. Instead, it goes from random silliness, to poignant introspection, to surrealism, to outright, fully abandoned fun.

My Super Power

For a number of years Adam and I have had bouts of a game we get into. I don’t remember for sure where it started, or how, or even when. All I know for sure is that, up until now, I have stunk at it! The game is to decide if you were a superhero, what would your super name be, and what would your super power be. I’ve never come up with anything good for myself, ever. He, on the other hand, seems to be perfectly gifted at this game. Well, his reign as king of this game is finally at an end.

I discovered my super power while trying to write a simple email to someone I had not yet met. I went through my normal struggle to figure out what needed to be said, what didn’t need to be said, and what needed to not be said. After several paragraphs of introduction, I finally got to the reason I was writing. It was then that it hit me;if I were a super hero, my super power would be to take any short, simple story and turn it into a long, involved story in the blink of an eye. My super hero name? “Loquacious Girl”. Take that, Captain T-Shirt!

Fall is Here

Well, it’s that time of year again; time when days are shorter, weather is cooler (praise God!), and leaves turn. Leaves turn, and then they fall. And fall. And fall. Can you guess what I did this week? I’ll give you a photographic hint:

A Chance to Help

The other day I came across an awesome opportunity to help a baby be adopted into a loving Christian family. The family, John and Tracie Loux and kids, is on staff at IHOP-KC, and is adopting a toddler (Aiden) from eastern Europe with Down’s Syndrome. For anyone who doesn’t know, adoptions cost thousands of dollars (international adoptions generally run in the neighborhood of $20,000), and IHOP intercessory missionaries live on missionary support. You don’t have to be a math wizard to figure out how big the financial need is to bring this little guy home. Time is of the essence, since in his country of origin if he isn’t adopted by the time he turns four he will be removed from the potential adoption list and placed in an institution. Aiden will turn three in March of 2009, so time is ticking.

To help raise the finances to bring Aiden home, the family has set up a store at Etsy.com called “Art for Adoption”. I was especially touched when I saw that a lot of the photography they are selling was done by their 16 year old son. How many teenagers would work to raise money so Mom and Dad could adopt another child? I’m thinking not many… There is a variety of prints available, as well as some amazing cards with images of a sleeping baby. If you would like to help, you can find their store here.

Please consider what you can do to help. The need is great, and the rewards are eternal…

Lord of the Dance

It’s that time of year again; the season when the annual Christmas dinner is looming on the horizon. Each year we join the rest of the staff of Brian’s company for a formal dinner, after which a band takes to the stage and the party begins, with all his co-workers taking to the dance floor while we watch from the sidelines, then slink away under the cover of darkness. Well, not this year! This year, we wanted things to be different, so we decided to take ballroom dancing classes. Yep, that’s right. The Beatties are dancing. Well, at least we’re trying. So far we mostly step on each other!

This isn’t our first attempt at dancing.

Another Reason I Love Kids

Friday night we joined the rest of our neighbors in handing out candy to all the little pirates and princesses that came knocking at our door. While I don’t really like Halloween, it’s always fun to see the neighborhood kids having so much fun. When the doorbell rang for the first time, Brian and I both went to the door. He opened it to a cluster of little kids, probably 6-8 in age and number.

As he held out the bowl, a buzz ran through the crowd. One by one the kids reached into the bowl to choose their favorite candybar, and we heard one say, “I got a chocolate bar! I got a chocolate bar!” Another child took off running across the lawn to where the parents were waiting in the street calling, “I got peanut butter cups! Look! I got peanut butter cups!” And I kid you not, from the midst of the group we heard a liitle voice say, “I got a rock…” I don’t know who that kid was, but I love him!

Here’s Your Sign…

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted any signs, and yet that is still the number one thing people come by my blog looking for: funny signs. So, for the entertainment of my loyal readers, as well as all you newcomers, here is the latest installment of signs I’ve come across:

How I Know I Don’t Really Get the Sermon on the Mount

I try to live out the Sermon on the Mount. I really do! I try to put the needs of others above my own; to have grace with others and their failings and/or quirks. I have a long way to go, though. I proved this to myself just recently. I took part in a contest-type thing, where part of the process is to watch the scoring take place. Now, it’s normal to not necessarily agree with the decsions of the judges, but I went above and beyond. As I was participating, the blog entry I would write about the event was forming in my head. It didn’t take long to realize this was a blog entry that would never be posted, primarily because it wasn’t very kind in its tone or attitude. Below is a revised version of the offending post. I removed any unkind phrases or words, replacing them with my favorite word for bad attitude, “snark”. If you’re brave enough, read on…

Lessons from the Laundry Room

I wish there was a way to more adequately imply intonation to the written word. Looking at the title I just wrote, it looks like it should read like “Helpful Hints from Heloise”. In reality, it should read more like “It Came from Beyond”  (cue spooky music). You see, this weekend I painted my laundry room. During the two-day adventure, I learned many things, which I will now share with you, my faithful readers.

First, let me say I love my laundry room. This is my first actual, real, live laundry room. Every house we had before had laundry closets, which is not at all the same thing! The fact that the walls are textured like stucco and haven’t been painted in at least 30 years has dampened my enthusiasm for the room only slightly.