ADOPTION UPDATE: WHERE IS THIS BABY?

Well this has been an exciting year so far for the Artrip family. We announced a few weeks ago that we are transitioning this summer to plant a church in Hilliard,Ohio. Hilliard is a west side suburb of Columbus. We are looking forward to all that this year will bring on the ministry front!

Last fall we did a “Facebook Fundraiser” for our adoption, and God answered our prayers and our goal was met! We are so thankful to all our friends and family from all around the world would gave in support. So now people are asking “Where’s the baby”? Or “Do you know when it will happen”? Those are great questions and we wanted to update you with our status on the adoption front. We had many leads in the fall and winter and pursued all of them. In every case the birthmothers choose the raise the babies themselves. We have not given up and continue to have patience for the right situation to come along and we will continue to pursue every lead we get.

We are aiming to do an Independent Adoption. This means that we are not going through a public agency to be paired up with a child. We simply rely on people who may know of a situation where a baby or child may be placed for adoption. We have a private lawyer who will handle all the legal aspects of the adoption. So here is where WE NEED YOU.

 

If you know of someone who is considering placing an infant or young child (two or under) with an adoptive family please give us a call, email or facebook us! If you talk to someone who knows someone, who knows someone…please help us network get in touch with us. We would welcome the chance to talk or give our family profile if there is interest. It just takes one person to make the connection!

 

Thank you all again for your support and continue to pray as we look to make lots of changes this year as a family and I hope one day soon we will have adoption news.

 

THANK YOU with much love,

 

Mark, Kristin, Malachi and Canaan

Markartrip(at)gmail.com kristinartrip(at)hotmail.com

 

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2012 GRAMMY AWARDS MIND DUMP

• Before I say anything else, lets just admit that this was a down year for the Grammy’s. In my hyped up mind they never really deliver but this seemed like an especially low year.
• Adele is classy, but with no Jay, Kanye, Beyonce, Justin, Usher, etc. it seemed more like a Billboard awards show that didn’t have as many iconic people to me.
• Did anyone else notice that Tony Bennett had his eyes open during LL’s Whitney prayer as they scanned the crowd? Guess he couldn’t hear him:) ?
• Speaking of Whitney, I have avoided tweeting anything but I can’t lie, I have a couple of her albums and I listened to “your love is my love a few times”.
• Chris Brown really can do no wrong if it involves dancing. I don’t have to tell you he is great. He doesn’t have to sing to entertain me or the rest of America…and it’s a good thing because he can’t.
• Bruno Mars is kind of like Chris Brown in that at his worst he would still be a way above average part of the show.
• Rihanna – everyone knows I have a soapbox and always want to point how Beyonce is better but she did her catchiest song of the year and that was cool before the first of 6 awkward mash-ups that weren’t good and made no sense appeared.
• Its funny how the stuff that one person loves another person hates. Although I wasn’t psyched about the bands or the vocals in the Beach Boys reunion tribute it was impossible for me to not be drooling and staring at the TV like the time I saw them in concert at a 6 year old at the state fair.  The fumes of the Beach Boys were better than anything else this whole night. Funny how it took like 3 full bands and 9 guitar players harmonizing to do their sound.
• Katie Perry – you got dumped and you are mad about it, we get it, but that is no reason to put out the least radio friendly song of your career. I am not even saying it was bad, but an awards show is no place to lay a turd and that is what you did by playing a song no one knows when you had multiple number ones to pick from.
• Nicki Minaj made the same terrible mistake by not using the platform to be as radio/pop friendly as possible and making people realize they like her and building her cred. Instead she looked like a really poorly executed “good idea” by her team that wanted to be something Gaga did in 09. I liked her before anyone else and she can flow, but she should have just done a medley and stayed safe with superbass.
• I would say that the Whitney Tribute by Jennifer Hudson was awkward or not enough (like every other station, article, and critic) but that reality is that she die like 30 hours before the show and the tech and execution of the Grammy’s is too technical to stuff anything else in that was planned probably at 9 last night. MTV is saying that Bon Iver.
• Chris Brown won R&B album of the year. I guess that makes his comeback officially over. Not just singing “Man in the Mirror” on the BET awards and winning back teenage girls or certain fans. He is back and America forgets.
• The Chris Brown, David Guetta, Lil Wayne and other forced people performance was bad all around. You can force stuff just to get 7 genres on stage…but they do.  Wayne proved why he has no talent and is a shell of his image.
• Electronic music is the thing that will make people my age old. I view it the way 60 year olds view rap I think.  At least Guetta did a little live mixing and you could see him actually playing with his mixer.  There’s no performance skill so a show is fun but a different vibe than any concert setting. When Deadmaus took the stage you could only see the giant projector and someone standing in the ears behind it from the shoulders up….was that him? Anyone doing anything live, or even talent?….we’ll never know…but I have my suspicions.
• If you are old(er) than me) and reading this you can’t ignore electronic music anymore. It was validated in mainstream by its breaking through to this stage so check out the poster boys that were up for awards like Skrillex and catch up.
• Foo Fighters are the only rock band in the world apparently, because they get major stage time on every awards show and win all awards and get to make speeches proclaiming such.  They are good, but we should get at least two rock bands so they can compete against each other.
• This was only further exaggerated when Dave Grohl appears on stage three times….unless you invented music and the piano you do not have that right. Two is a stretch, three cannot happen.
• They are saying that Bon Iver stole best new artist from Nicki Minaj, but I never thought she would win. There random exceptions when the Grammy’s go in a pop direction like the year Christina Aguilera won that award but for the most part they will always side with something a little less mainstream that all the old industry farts vote for. So even if they go with someone young (Bon Iver) they are avoiding the true mainstream stuff like Nicki. This rule also applied when Lady Antebellum beat out Jason Aldean. They are as young as credible as the Grammy’s could go, even though he has like 4 huge songs and the 5 best selling album in all of music last year.
• Speaking of sales I already eluded to Adele but obviously the night belonged to her. For the first time in like 12 years more albums were sold than the previous year. Album sales didn’t decline in 2012 and that is literally because of Adele’s 5+ million sales of her album. She put the industry on her back and carried it and it was never up for the debate if she would sweep all the big awards. She even had to have vocal surgery (that’s why she was so skinny) and made her first performance appearance in a few months to give it a nice spin.
• Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga were on the show and will still be around and always be famous but its funny to think they are both so young and not because they have done anything wrong but have both peaked and can never be bigger than they were so I don’t have much to say.
• The only time of the night my wife cared or paid attention was when Carrie Underwood was on. She gets a lot of gigs because she can duet well live. It makes or great awards show face time. I guess it doesn’t hurt when the skin on that face is perfect too.
• Kanye is a Grammy machine. In an off year he won at least 4.
• I just realized that Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood sang but I never saw Reuben Studdard, Fantasia, or Taylor Hicks….hmmm, that’s weird.
• Well my work here is done. Those are my thoughts unedited, uncensored and after the show.
• Here is a list of winners.

KALAHARI 2012 MIND DUMP

Seven years ago two churches came together for a retreat at the Kalahari Resort.  One year later we (HSM and The Zone) jumped in.  In the last six years we have grown to 1475 people and 25 churches.  Every year I love the Kalahari retreat more and more because of the way I see God move in my students and the overall weekend.

Sounds like a reason for a mind dump…

 

• This year we finally were able to book Clayton King as our speaker.  I first knew of Clayton through his connections with Steven Furtick, Elevation Church, and Perry Noble and Newspring Church.  He is also a campus pastor at Liberty University.
• I loved Clayton’s style.  He is a seasoned communicator and connected when he joked and in his teaching. I think he gave the best presentation of the gospel I have ever heard in a corporate setting.  We saw many commitments including around 85 first time decisions and more recommitments and students deciding to not date for a year. We have already booked Clayton for next year.
• As has been the case for the last 3-4 years, we had Exodus also from Liberty University lead worship. They lost everyone but one guy from there team last year but totally reloaded and were just excellent.
• If you haven’t noticed a trend Liberty University is pretty awesome and also puts great effort into networking themselves with top notch people and also providing ministry teams at a fraction of what they should cost.
• Because of Liberty’s arsenal, we also brought in their trampoline dunk team Soar Dunk. It was just as cool as it sounds. It brought out my inner 10 year old and my mouth was hanging open most of their show. I also may or may not have snuck in the room when no one else was in there but me and the trampoline and hoops and recorded myself dunking on my phone.
• Sessions went great this year. Ben Framstad worked his butt off and did a great job at coordinating everything from concept to execution. There were so many creative elements and great flow.  I loved the testimonies, choir and art involvement, and games he planned.
• We flipped the room and went horizontal for the first time ever. It had some drawbacks and but it gave us the law of immediacy and put every close to the stage and Clayton as he spoke. I know it lead to greater engagement.
• The tech this year was one of my favorite upgrades. The lights were just incredible.  Zack Pinkerton brought in some great lightbox concepts that took our stage to great heights.  I am glad to be in the LED light era.
• I have been blessed to be apart of Kalahari’s planning but Wooster Grace (Nick Cleveland, Ben Framstad, Rachel Snyder, Dave Rhoad) does easily 80% of the work…and it might be closer to 99%.  They birthed this thing, have grown his thing and handle the finances, administration, and legal liability. I just want to publicly say thanks to their staff and church for that unsung investment in my students and the other churches. That is kingdom minded.
• I know I already mentioned a ton of stuff but the thing that makes Kalahari work is that on top of all this it is a top-notch hotel and the biggest water park in North America. I enjoyed my usual time of water basketball with my brother Danny and some time in the Lazy River.
• I got to host with my friend Jordan Muck this year. He is a great thinker on his feet and reminds me of Ashton Kutcher so of course he made a great emcee.
• Kalahari is close to my heart because of what it represents. I love seeing the Church come together and be the body of Christ. I love seeing growth in ministries of my friends and breakthroughs. I love seeing Marysville’s youth group grow and have to get a bus for the first time, I love seeing our students connect with people in our backyard at Heritage over in Westerville, and I love seeing people come to know Christ because of the efforts of many.
• If you want to check out the hashtag #kalahari12 on twitter you can track all that went on HERE.
• Next years Kalahari retreat is Jan 4-6, 2013.