The Fountain of Youth

As evidenced by the hysterical writings of one Mark Lackey, I'm sure this will be the first of MANY hilarious experiences with my son. And so it begins...

After only a couple of days with our little man, Amanda and I had to run up to the store to get some paperwork so Amanda could pay her employees. Being that we're both brand new at this parenting thing and really wanted to get out of the house for a while, we loaded up Zachary and took off.

When we got to the store, the little man dropped a load in his diaper, so we laid him up on the counter to change him. I opened up the dirty diaper and was fishing around in the diaper bag for a fresh diaper when up sprung a fountain. He wet down an entire jewelry rack and a lot of the counter. I was laughing so hard that I physically could not continue the diaper changing process and Amanda had to take over.

Before any of you call the health commission, we did get the jewelry cleaned up and Lysol'd, so everything is good now. But the moral of the story is, never leave a baby's water hose unattended.

Zachary Has Arrived

Let me just say right off the bat--I have missed blogging the past several weeks. Life has just been entirely too crazy to sit down in front of the computer and try to weave my thoughts into a pattern coherent enough for people to read. Since it's been a while and A LOT has happened over the past couple of months, you'll have to excuse the length of this post.

As some of you may (or may not) know, Amanda and I have been interested in pursuing a child through adoption for some time. About 3 years ago we went to an orientation meeting at an agency in Dallas, but God never gave us peace about pursuing it further. We then went through the entire application and approval process with Depelchin, but quickly discovered that also was not God's calling on our lives. So we kind of gave up hope for a while.

In January of this year we felt the yearning again, so we requested some information from an agency that some of our friends have adopted through. It's called New Life Pregnancy Center and is located in Tomball, TX. If you click on the link, there is a bar at the bottom with photos of families. The couple to the far left are our friends Dave and Alicia. They're the ones who originally told us about New Life. I won't go into all the detail here, but our experience with New Life has been absolutely amazing. If you are considering adoption, please talk to us and we'll get you all the information we have about New Life.

In February we turned in our initial application and were told it would be June before we would do the next phase. June came and we interviewed with New Life and received the big application (30 pages or so). But every time we started working on it, we just got depressed and couldn't do anything. In September, we got a call from New Life saying there were 2 birth moms that looked to be a good match for us and we were asked to step on it and get our application done. One of these birth moms was due in November! We completed the entire process, including home study, in the next few weeks. How's that for motivation!

On Wednesday, October 14, we found out we had been chosen by a birth mom...and that she was due November 16! Words couldn't begin to come close to adequately describing the emotion we felt. I was having lunch with my mentor and friend, Rene Rivera, when I got the call from Amanda and it was so cool that he was there when I got the call because he had been praying through all of this with me for some time (thanks, Rene!).

Then the reality settled in that we had a month to prepare for this baby. While we were unbelievably excited, we didn't want to tell too many people because a birth mom can easily change her mind. Nothing is certain until you take that baby home. So in order to protect our emotions as much as we could, we chose not to tell many people.

We got to meet with our birth mom 4 times before the placement which was an absolute blessing. She is a wonderful young lady and we are so blessed to have gotten to know her. Unlike some adoptive parents, we will not have to candy-coat who she is with our son. We can tell him the full truth about her and not feel like we have to hide anything.

So we frantically spent the next month preparing our home for a baby. We knew it was going to be a boy, so that was good. We slowly started telling more people the more certain we got that this was actually going to happen. The due date came and went and we were told the doctors would induce on November 23 if the baby had not come by then. The wait was excruciating but worth it because we got to spend a lot of time praying for the birth mom and our son. Zachary Bradon Camp was born at 11:18 AM on November 23, 2009. He was 7 lbs, 4 ounces, 20 1/2" and perfectly healthy.

We gave him the name Zachary and the birth mom gave him the name Bradon. We chose Zachary because it means "the Lord remembers"--very fitting for our journey through this process.

On November 25, we went to the hospital and spent a couple of hours with the birth mom and her family. She placed Zachary in Amanda's arms and while crying told us how happy she was that we were going to provide a loving home for her son. We cried together for a while, said our goodbyes, and left the hospital.

I know I've said a lot, but I would also like the summarize this whole post and the whole experience. God is a great and graceful God. He is our Redeemer who has adopted us as His own and I have such a greater understanding of that now. Zachary will be a constant reminder that the Lord remembers.

More posts will be coming soon, but you have no idea how good it feels to be able to talk about this openly now. Here are some pictures of our new little man and a very happy new mom and dad!

More to Come Soon

Sorry for the delay in cranking out new posts but it's been a bit hectic lately in the lives of the Camps and not likely to calm down any time soon. Work has been a beast lately and restyle has been performing so well recently that it's almost more than we can handle.

We were able to find Bailey a new home which is great. We miss her, but we don't miss the havoc she brought to our lives. The couple that took her have a 5 year old weimeraner with an energy level that matches Bailey's. They go swimming in a pool and wrestle until they both pass out. It's the perfect match. And, it looks like Bailey will be trained to hunt which is really cool. The couple and their 15 year old soon will be moving to Beaumont soon and when that happens, Bailey will have 2 1/2 acres to run on and get her energy out. I couldn't have dreamed up a better scenario for her.

Some crazy life changes are headed our way that you'll hear more about in the coming weeks. Just pray that God will equip Amanda and me to handle these changes and that we would rely solely on Him for guidance, direction and wisdom.

Talk to you soon!

God's Grace from a Contrarian Point of View

A couple of weeks before we got the phone call saying we had been chosen by a birth mom, Amanda and I made the difficult decision to try to find our dog Bailey a new home. Many of you have kept track of our adventures with Bailey. If you haven't, check out my other posts and this will make a lot more sense to you. When this decision was made, we had absolutely no idea what was about to happen on the adoption front. Anyway, we contacted a brittany rescue organization (who shall remain nameless) to help us find a home for Bailey.

As it turns out, the birth mom that chose us was due November 16 giving us right at 1 month to prepare. That's when our world got turned upside down. Not only did we need to find Bailey a new home, but we needed to do so pretty much immediately. For those of you who know Bailey, you understand this. She's not mean but is very energetic and could easily hurt an infant without intending to.

So, I contacted the rescue organization to let them know we would be welcoming a baby into our home shortly and we needed to find Bailey a home very quickly. Seems reasonable, right? You would think the rescue organization would be happy for us and that they would put in some extra effort to help us find a home for Bailey, right? WRONG! I received an email from the person I was working with basically condemning me for choosing to adopt a baby if that meant we would no longer be able to care for Bailey. Here is a short excerpt from that email:

I am sorry you are in a position that sets Bailey up for losing on this one. There is tremendous responsibility that goes along with caring for and loving a dog... it does not end with the beginning of a new adventure no matter how "inconvenient" the dog becomes.

I just about blew a gasket! How dare this person spit upon our decision to care for and raise a child by elevating the value of our dog above a human!

I spent the next couple of days fuming and dreaming up everything I wanted to say to this person to set the record straight. I even typed out a vicious email in response and thankfully sought Amanda's advice on whether to send it before I actually sent it. During that time I cooled down and decided sending the email was not the Christ-like thing to do.

Also during this time, it dawned on me that I do something very similar to God all the time. Jesus offered me salvation through His death and resurrection and I accepted this free gift of mercy and grace. However, I continue to snub God through my sin. Though I continually spit upon the gift God has given me and the sacrifice of His Son to pay my debt, He still loves me and shows me grace. He doesn't sit up in heaven dreaming up ways to punish me for my less than graceful actions toward Him.

The rescue organization's attitude toward me was less than graceful, but it helped me have a deeper understanding of God's grace toward me. In that light, I'm kind of glad it happened. I love how God can take the good and the bad and teach us about His character.

And for those of you who are curious, I did send an email to the rescue organization politely telling them I no longer desired to work with them and that we would find Bailey a home ourselves. We did so in less than 2 weeks.

Capitalism and the Opinion Police

Recently rumors have been swirling about Rush Limbaugh joining a group of investors interested in buying the St. Louis Rams NFL franchise. Rush quickly confirmed his desire to take part ownership and also confirmed that he was to be a limited partner in the venture (no responsibilities in the day to day activities/decision-making). So it's not like he would be the face of the St. Louis Rams like Jerry Jones is the face of the Dallas Cowboys.

As soon as the rumors started, everyone from Chad Ochocinco to Sheila Jackson Lee to the head of the NFL Players Union began expressing their opinion that Rush should not be allowed to buy into an NFL franchise because he is a divisive personality who has made some racially motivated comments. Since when has a person's desire to invest in a private enterprise been subject to the approval of people who have absolutely no interest involved?

Most of the objections are coming from comments Rush made regarding Donovan McNabb during his brief tenure with ESPN. Most people have construed his comment as a stab against McNabb because he's one of a few black quarterbacks in the NFL. I don't have the exact quote, but the gist of it was that Rush felt McNabb was a very overrated QB who was being overly hyped by the media who only wanted to see a black QB succeed in the NFL. I heard the comment when it was made and it never crossed my mind that Rush meant McNabb was overrated because he was black. He genuinely thinks McNabb is overrated as an NFL QB and his comment was aimed more at a fawning media who, Rush felt, had over-committed to the desired success of McNabb rather than taking an unbiased stance. Rush said that he thought all the media hype focused on McNabb was because he was black.

Did you catch the difference there? Rush never said McNabb was not a good QB because he's black. Rush never said he hoped McNabb didn't succeed because he's black. What he said was he thought the media was overplaying the situation because McNabb is black. His comment was meant to slam the media, not McNabb. And if I remember correctly, after everyone blew up about this and ESPN even fired him over it, Rush repeatedly explained that he had nothing against McNabb personally and that McNabb himself was not at all responsible for all the hype. It was the media blowing everything out of proportion. And honestly, is anyone really going to debate that the media has a tendency to blow things out of proportion?

So recently I saw a headline that Rush has been dropped from the group of investors wishing to buy the Rams. My question is, when did it become the business of the general public to decide who is or is not worthy of buying into a private enterprise? What would happen if Michael Moore tried to buy into an NFL franchise? That guy hates capitalism even though he's made millions because of capitalism. Everyone involved in the NFL--owners, players, union reps, etc.--are capitalistic. They sign contracts and make business deals for the sole purpose of making more money. Since Moore is fundamentally against capitalism, would he be railroaded the same way Rush was? I doubt it. Is Michael Moore any less polarizing of a public figure than Rush is? No.

Or how about this scenario. Should people who think tobacco products are harmful and bad be prohibited from buying stock in Phillip Morris? Should loyal patrons of Lowe's Home Improvement stores be prohibited from buying stock in Home Depot? Of course not. Free speech is a two-edged sword giving people the right to have opinions even if others disagree with those opinions. I don't agree with a single thing Michael Moore, Barack Obama or Sheila Jackson Lee believe or say, but I wouldn't have the slightest problem if any of them, in their individual capacity, wanted to buy into a private venture. Why? Because that's their decision and my like or dislike of their values and opinions is wholly irrelevant.

I'm so sick and tired of tolerance of opinion being a one-way street. If Rush wants to buy the St. Louis Rams, he should be allowed to do so if he is able to offer the best deal to the current owners and the current owners want to sell it to him. Everyone who doesn't think Rush should own the Rams should shut up and try to outbid Rush to keep him from doing it. That's how capitalism works.

Reality Check: Money Does NOT Grow on Trees

We've all seen numbers like billion and trillion thrown around recently and unless you own a billion or trillion dollars, the reality of it probably doesn't set in. I saw a graphic not long ago that puts these numbers in perspective and I couldn't remember if I had posted it anywhere. In case I didn't, I'm doing it now.

Pagetutor.com, using Google Sketchup, created a graphic showing the progression from a $100 bill to $1 trillion. Eye opening to say the least. As a follow up, Pagetutor created a graphic showing the size of the US debt ($11 trillion when the graphic was created).

I tried posting the graphics themselves, but they are too big to fit on my blog, so you'll just have to click on the links to see them for yourselves.

Now that I've gotten your attention, let's get to work.

The US economy, measured in terms of gross domestic product, was worth about $14.4 trillion in 2008. GDP is a basic measure of a country's economic performance and is the market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a nation in a year.

In July of this year, the US national debt was measured at $11.6 trillion. So, logically you might assume the US has a net worth of $2.8 trillion, except that you'd be wrong.

If you are alive and breathing, you are well aware of the debate over reforming the health care system. As most of you know, the US already has government run health care in place for certain portions of the population, namely Medicare and Medicaid. And everyone has heard that these programs are in the hole. What you may not know is by how much these programs are in the hole.

According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, the 2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports show the unfunded liability of Medicare has reached more than $89 trillion in today's dollars! The unfunded liability is the difference between the benefits that have been promised to current and future retirees and what will be collected in dedicated taxes and Medicare premiums. I wish Pagetutor.com had a graphic for this, but I couldn't find one. Just take the $11 trillion graphic above and multiply it by 8 in your mind.

The question is, if the government has run Medicare into the ground to the tune of $11 trillion in unfunded promises, should we trust the government with health care for all? I think the answer is pretty clear.

A Weekend to Remember

This past Saturday (Sept. 26) was one crazy weekend. Let's start from the beginning. We got up and took Bailey to the kennel because we were going to be gone all day. We left from there to go to a 5 hour seminar in Tomball. We got a 2 hour break in there, so we went and hung out with the Peschkes for a while and then headed to the church for the second annual High Altitude Olympics. Amanda and I competed in events where she poured water on my face (a slight modification of water boarding), I threw foam balls at her, and she led me around an obstacle course blind folded. At the end, there was a three way tie for first, so we competed with the Peschkes and Weenases in a newlywed style game for the gold and all the glory. After two rounds we were all tied so we went to sudden death and Amanda and I won because I knew her favorite book of the Bible was Leviticus (I love my wife)!

Solely by the grace of God, and with the help of a UH student who works for Amanda, I was able to get my hands on some tickets to the UH v. Texas Tech game that night. Because of the extended High Altitude Olympic finals, I got to the game about half way through the first quarter. Colin Sproule went with me.

For those of you who don't know or don't care to keep up with college sports, this game was unbelievably good. For about 20 minutes, Colin and I were standing next to Moses Malone, which was pretty cool. The Cougars were trailing by 5 points in the 4th quarter when they stopped Tech on a 4th and goal from the 1 yard line. With 5:37 to go in the game, the Cougars had to drive the ball 95 yards for the go ahead score. They did just that and the largest crowd in Robertson Stadium history erupted. When the game was finally over, the students rushed the field. What a game! Because it was a nationally televised game that didn't start until 8:15, I got home at 1:00 a.m.

Pretty good weekend if I do say so myself!