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Sunday, September 18, 2011

What the World Values

We went apple picking this weekend for the Annual Owens-Harty Apple Picking Extravaganza. Since 2008 we’ve been piling our families into two SUVs and driving an hour and a half north of Atlanta for the best apple picking in Georgia.

Here’s a picture of the junior apple pickers in 2008 (minus 2 year old Davis who had gone somewhere with Dan to escape all the girliness):



And here’s the crew from yesterday:


As you can see, we’ve grown quite a bit over the years. Joy and I have 9 children between us. That’s a lot of kids, y’all.

I have five children and Joy has four, with an adoption in progress. Even with the multi-racial thing aside, that’s enough kids to turn heads in stores, to raise eyebrows at the park and to constantly trigger that well-meaning but rather irritating comment “wow! You sure have your hands full!”

And I often find myself wondering why. I mean, what is the big deal with big families? Who cares if I have four small children and a baby on my hip and two of my children are black and we take up an entire aisle in the grocery store?

Big families are counter-cultural. Having lots of kids and then adopting more is just plain weird. Because it smacks in the face of everything our American culture says we should embrace:

Leisure time

Wealth

Travel

Privacy

Life

Liberty

And ESPECIALLY the pursuit of happiness, baby.

Dan and I have decided that we’ll live for more than those things. Because those are not God’s values. In fact, His are the opposite.

Love

Service

Humility

Peace

Dying to self

Tomorrow, Dan leaves, again, for Africa. SixtyFeet business calls. We’ll miss him and he’ll miss us. He’ll miss the boys’ soccer game, my 35th birthday, and all week with his beloved girls.

But our family is weird different and we try not to value what the world values. We’ll kiss Dan good-bye tomorrow morning and, as always, we’ll just be proud of him for going. After all, there's more to life than soccer games and birthday parties.

Even better – this week, his traveling companion is a guy whose value system lines up with Dan’s exactly. I’ll save the details for a post later this week but you should know this: Dan is traveling to Uganda this week with a seriously cool dude.

He’s a crazy talented musician (who y’all might know) who just released a new album. In fact, his album is currently ranked in the top ten on the itunes chart. But he’s not out promoting his new album or doing concerts this week… instead, he’s going to Africa to serve with SixtyFeet.

How’s that for not valuing what the world values? I love it.

By the way, I have an extra CD of the musician traveling with Dan this week. I’ll give it away to the first person who can correctly guess who it is. Just comment below... More later!

30 comments:

Stacy LSC said...

Who is Brantley Gilbert?

Kimberly said...

Hugh Laurie?

the_blissful_mommy said...

Who is Dan Ucherek? (this is fun for me, Trivia Geek)

sarah said...

matt redman?

Jenna Z said...

Matthew West??

Renee Davis Meyer said...

David Crowder?

susan said...

Mark Foster?

anything but LoKEY said...

Shaun Groves...and man that apple picking looks fun! :)

Naomi said...

Mark Hall from Casting crowns

Colleen said...

Willie Nelson!

Nailed it.

Lucas said...

Must be Jerry Jeff Walker...

Unknown said...

i'm going with shaun groves!

Jane said...

Best response to "your sure have your hands full" is "better then empty!" I heard that somewhere and used it when my kids where little.

I have no clue who the musician is - can I get the CD for honesty?

The Fruitful Family said...

So, if I guess correctly, can i get a CD? Guess it's not totally fair, huh!?!? Love living a crazy life with you and all of our crazy kids! Can't wait till I have a little African Emily to compliment yours!

Alisha N said...

Kirk Franklin?

Sara-Beth Noll said...

my guess is Andrew Peterson. I don't even know if he has a new cd out, but I love his music and I know he has a heart for Africa... :)

Allie said...

Hmm, Mac Powell?

Tara said...

shaun groves???

Erin said...

Chris Tomlin?

sheli said...

if francis chan could sing it would be cool.so i will go with...shaun groves...

cakebake said...

I'm going with James Mead from Kutless

Alison said...

Is it Josh Wilson???

Katie said...

how about matt wertz?

erinesosweet said...

I was going to guess Mac Powell, but someone beat me to it! Thanks so much for your blog. We haven't yet "started" our family, but your blog is an encouragement to my heart, as I've always believed in adoption.

Unknown said...

I was going to guess Mac too :-) but also wanted to tell you I'm super excited to meet you tomorrow! :-)

Kimberly said...

Shelly your blog is so inspiring! Thank you for sharing your life with us! Oh and it's the wonderfully talented Daniel Bashta!!

Sarah said...

Ben Rector?????

Sarah said...

Mat Kearney???

Unknown said...

I know I'm not the first, but it's gotta be Shaun Groves! :)

Casey said...

Shaun Groves...no doubt! (Even though I am not the first)