While we were up in Indiana last week, we asked Brian and Jennifer Stump to shoot some photos of Chase (with a few of us mixed in). Jenn works with Janie at Fishhook and we would highly recommend them to anyone. Their shots are very unique and do a great job at telling the story. If you want to see the final photos stay tuned to their blog here. They have a few photos up of Chase and their son Brady now and the rest will be up soon.
Ironic that the day Janie and I met our son Chase Mehaffey is the same day that the blog goes quiet for nearly a month!
Needless to say, our lives have turned upside down in the best possible way. Chase’s eyes are busy soaking up everything he sees and I want to experience every bit with him.
I plan on posting in retrospect about our journey to Taiwan because there is much to be told and at the same God is up to some BIG things in Miami that I can’t wait to reveal. So buckle up and stay tuned to the blog because the best is yet to come.
This jet lag thing is for real. Right now it’s 1:45 a.m. in Tokyo and I am ready to go.
So I figured I would blog (and download the iPhone 3.0 update) while Janie sleeps. Jet lag has no effect on her. She can fall a sleep any time, any place.
Our trip to the East started normal. We made our connection to Atlanta and boarded the 747 that was supposed to be a direct flight to Tokyo. A 14 hour flight. That plan was derailed when a volcano on a Russian island erupted … 4 days ago!?! Apparently it was still spewing ashes all over the Pacific sky. This forced our plane to take a detour around it. But our new route couldn’t be accomplished without a pit stop for gas in San Francisco. These two factors added 4-5 hours to our flight and caused us to miss our connecting flight to Taiwan.
Our hats are off to the Northwest staff here in Tokyo for the amazing service they gave to us and many other tired passengers. They had our new flight arrangements ready to go, a free hotel room, free dinner, free breakfast and ushered us to our hotel very quickly. Arigato.
The new plan, barring any unforeseen volcanos or typhoons, is that we fly out at 9:20 a.m. (about 7 hours from now) and we should be in Taipei around noon. Which means I should probably force myself to try to get some sleep, but it may be a futile effort. Yes, Janie is still sleeping. Sigh.
This jet lag thing is for real. Right now it’s 1:45 a.m. in Tokyo and I am ready to go.
So I figured I would blog (and download the iPhone 3.0 update) while Janie sleeps. Jet lag has no effect on her. She can fall a sleep any time, any place.
Our trip to the East started normal. We made our connection to Atlanta and boarded the 747 that was supposed to be a direct flight to Tokyo. A 14 hour flight. That plan was derailed when a volcano on a Russian island erupted … 4 days ago!?! Apparently it was still spewing ashes all over the Pacific sky. This forced our plane to take a detour around it. But our new route couldn’t be accomplished without a pit stop for gas in San Francisco. These two factors added 4-5 hours to our flight and caused us to miss our connecting flight to Taiwan.
Our hats are off to the Northwest staff here in Tokyo for the amazing service they gave to us and many other tired passengers. They had our new flight arrangements ready to go, a free hotel room, free dinner, free breakfast and ushered us to our hotel very quickly. Arigato.
The new plan, barring any unforeseen volcanos or typhoons, is that we fly out at 9:20 a.m. (about 7 hours from now) and we should be in Taipei around noon. Which means I should probably force myself to try to get some sleep, but it may be a futile effort. Yes, Janie is still sleeping. Sigh.
Janie and I are sitting at the Ft. Lauderdale airport ready to begin our journey to Taiwan to bring Chase home!!!
We fly to Atlanta to Tokyo to Taipei. By Thursday morning (stateside) we should be meeting our little guy for the first time.
Please pray. The National Visa Center in the US still hasn’t sent our 1-600A approval to the American Institute in Taipei. We need this to arrive by Friday or our court date in Taiwan will have to be postponed and that could get hairy.
We know all of this is in God’s hands and He has brought us this far but we also know how powerful prayer is and we will take all the help we can get. =)
Feel free to follow along on Twitter and the blog. We will be posting our journey and photos as we have internet access.
Our Twitter profiles are: @mattmehaffey & @jmehaffey. Chase even has one at @chasemehaffey!
And the blog is www.mattmehaffey.com
I love the church that God is shaping The Pursuit to become. There is such a genuine love for God and for each other. And today Janie and I were recipients of that love in a big way.
After a great Celebration Service this morning, my friend Jack Montgomery, hijacked the mic and challenged the church to pray for us as we travel later this week to Taiwan to bring our boy home. A large group came forward and huddled around us and prayed for us. It was a moment I want to always remember. I am thrilled that The Pursuit is the church that Chase will grow up with.
To all of you who call The Pursuit your “home church,” I count it one of my highest honors to be your pastor. We will see you soon with our little Chase. Thanks again for your prayers.
Today I used a couple of hours to sketch a baseball Mickey Mouse on Chase’s nursery wall. He’s swinging for the fences and steroid-free.
I am hoping to get it painted on Sunday evening. Here are a couple pics of the final sketch.
The whole situation is surreal.
Chase Gehrig Mehaffey
On Wednesday, Janie and I are getting on a plane and flying to the other side of the world to Taiwan.
There we will meet a man who is going to drive us to the town of Loudong and introduce us to this little guy.
And then we get to bring him home.
Last week I noticed a conversation going on in the Twittersphere called Godin10. Basically, thousands of people were trying their best to creatively define God in 10 words or less. I read probably one hundred “tweets” until I couldn’t read anymore. It was actually pretty depressing to read how many people choose to believe that God doesn’t exist or believe that he created us and now gets some sort of twisted pleasure out of watching us suffer.
Ironically, last week was also the first week The Pursuit started its study of the book of Genesis. And I was confronted with this truth from Genesis 1. God is God, and we are not. We don’t get the right to define God. That’s hard for many of us in the western world to swallow because we have grown up thinking that we have the right (inalienable rights) to do whatever we want. But if you stop to think about it, if there is a God who designed us, it is pretty laughable to think that we could figure him out. That is unless he chose to allow us to get a glimpse of him.
That is exactly what he has done through the Bible and also through Jesus. Both show us what God is like. Love. Just. Merciful. Eternal. All-Powerful. Forgiving. All-Knowing. One. Generous. Compassionate. Holy.
A man named Job once tried desperately to figure out God on his own and God asked him this question, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” In other words, “I am God, and you are not.”
We could use a trillion words and still not scratch the surface of the magnitude of who God is. But, here is my best attempt at God in 10. “We the creation do not get to define the Creator.” He defines us.
Janie and I have booked our flight to Taiwan!
We will be flying out on Wednesday, June 17 and will arrive Friday night their time (they are exactly 12 hours ahead of us in Miami). God’s timing is perfect as always since Janie’s birthday is June 20 and Father’s Day is the 21st. We will get to celebrate both days with our little guy, Chase.
We got the following email from the founder of the orphanage, Ted Skiles, late last week:
There have been some changes taking place that have made our court procedures appear to be going faster and some changes taking place at AIT that we’re hoping will make it easier to make an appointment for your interview. Having said all that, could you plan to arrive in Taiwan no later than the night of June 18th? We have tentatively set your interview appointment for Monday morning, June 22nd, but we have to have one working day (the 19th) to finish up your paperwork to present on Monday morning, plus we need you here to fill our forms and get things ready for the interview. If you are in a hurry to leave, you can leave as early as June 24th, Lord willing, to return to the U.S. If you want to stay longer, of course, you are welcomed.
Thank you to all those who are helping us make this important transition in our life. Alex Diaz will be stepping up and filling in for me at The Pursuit. He is a gifted teacher and I have full confidence in him. We have friends and family members who will be house and pet sitting for us while we are gone. Not to mention the countless people who have been praying us through this process. Please keep it up.
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