Every Day a Hay Day

Common phrases found in the Toy House:

“I love you.”

“No barking.”

“How’s your book?”

“Who has to go potty?”

“How’s the farm?”

…No, we don’t own a farm (nor farm animals; we have three dogs, hence the barking and potty), but we do own an app on our ipad that acts as though it’s as important as maintaining a real farm for profit.

Sigh. It’s called Hay Day. And it’s taken over my life.

It’s this dumb little game that keeps you locked in like an incredibly engrossing book, only you neglect it at your own peril. If you don’t collect the milk from the cows then you can’t make cheese from the dairy and if you don’t do that, then you can’t fill up the orders that neighboring towns are asking from you, and you don’t get experience points nor coins to buy more cows to make more cheese to fill in more orders…

It’s ridiculous.

And ridiculously addicting.

It’s Giga Pets on steroids. Remember those?

If you’ve read my blog for a while you might be under the impression that I am some super-Christian who reads crazy amounts of Biblical texts when I wake up in the mornings.

Not so.

When I rise early, my thoughts are rarely geared toward thanking God for another glorious day.

Instead, my first thoughts are, “Where’s the ipad? I’ve got to milk the goats!”

After all, the virtual church is asking for virtual cheese

-and I’m a virtual mess.

Maybe you’re a virtual mess as well. Maybe it’s not some free app you downloaded onto your ipad. Maybe it’s too much time thinking about your finances, or how you’re going to spend the weekend, or what sales are coming up at Target that are waiting to be taken advantage of.

Or maybe it’s something more serious. Maybe the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning is your pills, your drugs, your porn. Maybe you shop too much, eat too much, drink too much.

Allow me to direct your attention to a piece of literature about a man who struggled with the same sort of problem. Not with drugs or alcohol, but with a cardboard box.

It was the one thing standing between him and his wife, and his chances of ever becoming the father he once dreamed of being. But then, there was so much unfinished business in Reveloin. He still hadn’t found the castle on the ocean, and…

No! Life inside the box wasn’t real. Even if it were, nothing about it or from it would aid him in being a better man here, in the real world. The point was, it wouldn’t be fair to Rosalynn or the kids if he kept the box around because there was no way he could resist the temptation of going back every time.

Robbie, who is constantly drawn back to a fantasy world he had discovered inside the box just cannot seem to tear himself away from it, and it’s hurting his family – and his whole life.

Download a free copy of The Man in the Box for your Kindle today (the last day to do so … and did I mention it’s free?), here on Amazon.

Oh, and I’d better warn you, it’s pretty addicting.

You can also get a hardcopy mailed to your house on Amazon.

Here’s what people are saying about The Man in the Box, and when you finish it, a review from you on Amazon or Goodreads would mean the world to me and my family and help boost sales. 

“Expect dinosaurs and giant creepy-crawlies. And if that kind of thing scares you, then you’re like me, which means you’ll go ahead and read the book anyway, with no one to blame but yourself for all the flinching you’ll do … There was no going to bed until I’d reached the end. The suspense had me on the edge of my seat with worry about how everyone was going to get out of this, heart thumping out of control the whole time, except for that one minute where it almost stopped.”

-Danielle E. Shipley, author and blogger

“Andrew Toy has created a unique and interesting story that spans several genres from mystery and adventure to fantasy … Toy’s debut novel will leave readers talking and will make them instant fans of his storytelling abilities. This will surely be a must-read for every adult that once created a world of their own when they were young, just by using their imaginations.”

-Nicole McManus, reviewer and blogger

Read more reviews here. Or, just get it already, you know you want to see what happens!

[Image Credit]

The End is – Still – Near

There’s a lot of talk flooding the Web about the End of the World being just days away. My friend and Bible Study leader, Adam has the best response to this:

“So the Mayan calendar stopped. The calendar sitting on my desk ends too at the end of December and we’ll keep on going just like normal.”

Needless to say, though no one will voice it, people are worried, deep down inside. I guess we’re always worrying about the inevitable, aren’t we? With Hollywood reminding us that it’s not a matter of “If” but “When,” and the Bible itself prophesying about hail the size of basketballs falling from the sky and worldwide earthquakes and widespread wars.

The Israel/Iran crisis doesn’t seem to sooth our fears either, what with Israel being tied to so many prophesies concerning the apocalypse, U.S. spies being crucified in Yemen, not to mention North Korea and its missiles and snow in Southern California (my origin).

National affairs don’t seem to be much of an encouragement either. With the oncoming fiscal cliff drop off, investors are withholding their money, the working class is scrounging around for every penny to save up so they can get through the tsunami of taxes headed their way, riots breaking out over Union labor… the list is endless right there alone.

As unsettling as all this is, this is not new. “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). In fact, things have been worse in the past, before and after Christ, and even in America (I keep hearing about the detestable Jimmy Carter days).

Let’s not forget the horrors of the Holocaust and the Gulag, Nero’s persecution of the Christians, the Colosseum’s glory days, the earthquake of 1906, Egypt’s plagues, Noah’s flood, the Y2K panic, e coli, mad cow disease…

So all this worry over the end of the world happening in just eight days is just silly. The Bible is clear that the angels in Heaven, nor Jesus Himself knows the hour at which the world will stop turning (Matthew 24:36). Only God the Father knows. And He knows where you’ll be – if you’ll even be here at all – and precisely how it will happen, and just how long it will take.

There’s all this talk about being premillennialist, postmillennialst, or amillennialist, Left Behind-ist, zombie apocalypse vs. vampire apocalypse, global warming, or an EMP explosion.

I’ll tell you what. I thought that by last March (of 2012) the stock market would crash and there would be anarchy in the streets. Obviously, I was wrong about that. So there is no need to worry about the end of the world any more than a newborn baby has to worry what college he’s going to get into. He may live long enough to have to figure that out, he may not. And once he’s there, it will be over before he knows it.

The only thing that matters is, are you ready? Because when the end comes (and it won’t be in eight days …it could be in four, or three thousand twenty-four), that will not be the time to choose sides. C.S. Lewis famously says, “There’s no point in choosing to join the winning side after the war is over!”

After all, you don’t undergo surgery for the doctor’s sake. No, you undergo surgery in order to have an improved quality of life afterward. If you are a child of God, the end of the world, or just simply death even, is a necessary procedure to bring about your redemption begun by Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection.

Put your trust, hope, fear (yes, a healthy fear), and confidence in that. And anything else that comes your way will just be a fleeting memory or a non-issue, because you know, as any Christian does, that “The End” according to Hollywood’s or the Mayan’s definition is not the end at all, but the beginning of Life the way it was meant to be lived.

Purchase my suspense/fantasy novel here.

[Image Credit]

From Barren to Blessed

Here on AdoptingJames we talk a lot about pop culture, faith, and writing. One institution we like to highlight  - as suggested by the name of the blog – is adoption.

Meet Caroline. She is a woman of God who struggled for many years with the despair of infertility. She struggled so much so that she chose to let her pain come between her and God, as so many of us do. Eleven years ago she decided to take her aunt up on her invitation to come to church, and she still attends to this day, being drawn closer and closer to her loving Father.

In 2006 Caroline and her husband decided to become Foster parents and God was gracious to give them their first placement the day they became licensed. They worked closely with the child’s mother who could not keep him, and they officially adopted him to be their son when he was 20 months old. They received their daughter, who had been abandoned, at seven weeks old. They adopted her when she was just sixteen months old.

They are currently no longer fostering, but are working in child welfare, and their passion for the children is immense. I encourage you to read their story. I have provided two links for you to check out. Caroline is currently writing a book about her life.

Fostering His Will

Around the Fire

Attention Writers, Bloggers and Artists

Greetings friends and fellow writers!

As treasurers of the written word we know that you are just itching for opportunities to write inspirational stories and share lessons with others from your own lives. Many of us want to extend our hand through the powerful voice of a pen (or computer) and touch those lives that are hurting, questioning, and seeking. Now is your opportunity to do so. Or maybe you paint, or write songs, or draw. We’d love to include you as well.

Kelly Thornberry, editor of KentuckyChristianMagazine.com, and I have partnered together to develop a website that will offer hope and encouragement to people from all walks of life – and those words will come from you! The launch date is TBD, but we want to be able to have ample material to post on our site when it’s up and ready to publish, and we need your help.

What are the perks for writing for our site? We will promote your blog, website and a short bio of you when we decide to publish your article.

If you are interested in contributing an article to our site, please write to adoptingjames@aol.com with your name, your city and state, and choose a topic of interest (up to 3) from the list bellow to write about. Also, if you know of any fellow writers or people who are wanting to break into writing, please pass this message on to them so we can build a large portfolio of talented people like yourself. We would love to hear from them as well.

Please choose up to three from the follow list of topics we will cover on our website:

 Adoption

Adoption resources

Adoption stories

Why adopt?

Art that inspires

Art stories

Artists

Books that inspire

Fiction

Christian/Inspiration

Non-fiction

Children

Stories for kids

Games!

Church resources

Nursery

Children’s

Youth

College

Pastoral resources

Couples

Dating

Marriage

Divorce

Infertility/miscarriage

Fiction that inspires

Allegories

Inspirational

Poems

Missionaries

Support missionaries

Missionary testimonies

Prayer requests from over seas

Entertainment

Movies for the family

Movies for kids

Movies for men

Parenting

Inspiration for young parents

Advice from grown parents

All the stuff in between

Seniors

Inspiration for seniors

What now?

Resources for seniors

What is Christianity?

Theology

Hope

Jesus Christ

————————-

Follow my debut novel, The Man in the Box on Facebook.

[Image Credit]

Born Again… Now What?

I don’t give many books a perfect score, but this one sure comes close. What is there not to like in this autobiography by Nixon’s former hatchet man? Part history, part court-room thriller (yes, Grisham fans, you will love this), part Christian/inspiration – Colson’s Born Again has it all. Forget what you know about the infamous Watergate Scandal and read the first-hand account of what really went on. I have to admit, it was chilling reading a personalized account of President Nixon. Reading this book made me feel like I was sitting across the desk from the former President, a place frankly, I wouldn’t really care to be. The movie Frost/Nixon, one of my favorites, did a marvelous job recreating Nixon, by the way.

I could not, for hardly more than a minute, put this book down (just ask my wife). Whether you’re a born again Christian or not, I implore you to pick this up if you have an empty spot on your reading list (or replace it with one of your vampire books, for goodness sake!). There is nothing like witnessing history through the eyes of someone who not only lived it, but was an influential part of it. The thoughts, the decisions, the ego. And once he converts, you really get a sense of the struggle for sanctification that we all ought to be feeling every day. Colson is a man who took his conversion seriously, and is always focused on sanctification, and I’m not sure I can say that about myself.

Born Again has convicted me for the better. I didn’t have a major tear-jerking conversion when I was little. It’s always wonderful and miraculous when someone converts, no matter what age, but the downside to converting young like myself is that I didn’t have a very defined life to turn from. My list of sins went only as far as the cookie jar and the pride inside that I felt I deserved each one of those cookies for myself, with an occasional bad word thrown in. But Colson’s conversion fell on the heels of a life of pride, falsehoods, and a myriad of other sinful habits that he was able to deduce and logically recognize at the time of his conversion. On the flip side, the downside to converting at a mature age is the lifetime of sin that must be repented of, restorations made, and the Holy Spirit will not always (if ever), remove those thorns. Again, any conversion at anytime is an absolute miracle by the work of God, but we still have to deal with the ramifications of our sins and constantly be on guard from future sins as a dreadful result of the Fall.

I converted when I was young, but rarely have I established habits and mindsets to focus steadily on my sanctification. I’ve fallen into the trap and set up camp, thinking hey, I’m saved. Good to go! Colson rarely rested after his conversion. Like Paul in the Bible, he worked out his salvation and in his book, he testifies to the many ways God revealed Himself more and more to him through his sanctification. Born Again made me hungry for that kind of lifestyle. I say this to myself as well as to you: Are you daily working out your salvation, allowing – no, begging – the Holy Spirit to sanctify you, to make you more holy and more like Him?

If you’re not a believer, please don’t be turned off by the religious parts of this book. Though it consists of about half of it, I am certain you will be glued to it, regardless. If anything, read it for the fascinating testimony of what really happened with Watergate.

This is already shaping up to be a fun blogging week for me. Today I got to ramble on about one of my favorite books, and tomorrow I get to share my thoughts about one of my all time favorite movies, and how it’s such a wonderful picture of parenthood the way God intended – and the way God does it.

You can order his book on the right side of this page.

Also visit BreakPoint for updates on Mr. Colson’s recovery from his surgery a couple weeks ago and keep him and his family in your prayers.

[image credit]

From Foster Care to Adoption

Meet Ryan and Sara. When you’re done reading about their journey,  be sure to check out their blog here. Ryan is a professional photographer. Check out his site here. In order to abide by certain privacy rules, we will refer to their son as “D.”

Even before they got married, Ryan and Sara always knew that they would adopt. Being members of a church that advocates adoption really helped in their journey as they walked alongside other couples going through the same process. But it wasn’t until 18 months into their marriage that they realized they weren’t at the point where their home would be ready to bring in an adopted child, for adoption had just merely an idea until this point. And then an earthquake struck Haiti:

“We were part of a small group of families in our town that were considering opening our homes up to amputee children coming to the States on a medical visa. We prayed hard about this crazy idea, and decided that we would do what we needed to do to follow the Lord with this and if He didn’t want it to happen, He would shut the door. For whatever reason, it wasn’t in the Lord’s plan for that to happen. But, through that process we realized that we were ready to open our home up to foster children here in the States, and we began the process of getting licensed.”

Ryan and Sara became licensed to foster children removed by the Child Protective Service in Texas.

“Once we were licensed, we literally spent several weeks on high alert waiting for a phone call that would change our lives. We received that phone call one afternoon, and within a few hours, he was at our doorstep. Other than his name, age, and race, we knew nothing about him.”

The first three months of D living with them were difficult because he missed his birth family. But making the change from fostering to adoption played a big role on their morale.

“The moment we officially moved from fostering into the adoption side of things was also a really great experience. Being able to breathe out and realize that he really would be ours forever… no more worrying about a random relative stepping into the picture.”

They are currently working with a faith-based adoption/foster care agency. It’s not always the case that their journey has been smooth so far, so they consider themselves extremely blessed.

Here are a few more questions I asked Ryan and Sara that they were gracious enough to respond to:

Do you find that you understand the Gospel any more than you did prior to going through the adoption process? 

[laughs] This is a massive understatement!! It is a truly amazing picture of how God pursues us and rescues us from our dispair and wraps us in his arms and calls us His own. I think that we both see our own relationship with the Lord in a completely different light since D walked into our lives. Our journey has also been a very sanctifying proces for us. We have had to come face-to-face with things that were buried deep inside our souls and surrender them to the Lord. We are absolutely still on this journey… finding things to uncover constantly. So, I would say that even more than seeing the gospel through the analogy of adoption, we have just learned to cling to the hope of the gospel in our lives and for D way more than we ever did before.

Where are you in the process right now? How can we pray for you? Is there anything anyone can do for you?

We are incredibly close to attaching our last name to his first! We are hopeful that sometime this May, we will be able to finalize adoption and really begin the journey with him. We would covet prayers for a speedy legal process. We are praying for our son to be able to process all of this as well as a 6 year old possibly can. There is still grief and sadness in not being able to see the family he knew and loved for 5 years. There are also plenty of layers that need to be peeled back in his soul in order to find healing… please pray with us for that process.

Any advice for adopt-ers or couples on the fence? 

The best way to begin your journey through adoption is to simply rid your mind of any ideas you have about how it will go. Be ready for an emotional roller coaster. Expect to be surprised by things. Prepare to have nights where you cry with your spouse and nights where you feel on top of the world. Understand that the journey rarely feels like you’re living in a movie where everything ends up neat and tidy. There will be times when you feel like all the support you thought you had just isn’t there in the moment. There will be times when random people come up to you and say the most inconsiderate things and you just want to slap them and move on. We have learned to have grace with people in our lives that we did not previously have. As we’ve clung to grace in our own mess ups, we’ve been able to extend it to others that may be ignorant about things regarding adoption.

If you’re on the fence about adoption, I would encourage you to simply talk to the Lord about it. We believe that God’s heart is for His church take in the orphan and love them as their own. Even in the hardest times for us, we have clung to the fact that we are incredibly close to God’s heart in this journey. He has His hand on the orphan and is near to them, and when we are close to them and intertwined in their story, we can be sure that we will find God close by. The statistics in our nation alone are quite staggering. The need is there. As the people of God, we need to ask ourselves how our faith is being put into action. Will we only support the cause of the fatherless with our words, or will we radically reorient our lives to care for them?

Remember to check out their blog here. Ryan is a professional photographer. Check out his site here.

If you would like your adoption story to be shared, please email me at adoptingjames@aol.com.