We're Off Again!

Well in case you didn't know it, Mary Jane and I are celebrating our 20th anniversary in a couple of months. We've always said that for our 20th anniversary that we wanted to go to Mexico or some place tropical for a few days to celebrate... BY OUR SELF! You see we've always had kids with us for the entire length of our marriage. We had Michael within the first year that we married and have NEVER gone anywhere by our self. So, we always said the 20 year thing was going to be our year to go somewhere alone. Before I tell you where we're going, let me tell you something else first.

This past year has been amazing. Who would have ever thought that we would be where we are at this stage of our lives? 8 kids? I would have told you you were crazy and that you'd obviously lost your mind if you told me we'd have this many kids! It's amazing to see how God 'sets us up' for things He needs us to do...things we never thought we'd do... but things He wants us to do. There have been so many difficult situations that we've had to push through. So many mountains to climb. So many hurdles to jump over. But God has been so good to us. He has allowed our family to grow closer together and closer to Him than ever before. Because of the 'hard times' we've gone through this past year we've grown closer to God because of it. But don't get me wrong... the good times have far out-weighed the bad. I couldn't even imagine not doing what we're doing right not. What's weird is that no matter how difficult the situation we've never worried, doubted or even feared the things we've faced. It's like we're in this un-penetratable bubble where no matter what... we're going to come out victorious. It's pretty cool. I can honestly say that His presence is more real to me today than it ever has been and I know that whatever we face in the future, it's going to be great.

Now back to our anniversary... A few months ago, as we were starting to think about making reservations for where we were going to stay for our 20th anniversary, we had a thought... "Life is short and if it wasn't for the Lord we wouldn't have made it to our 2nd year anniversary much less our 20th"... so why don't we do something different? Why don't we do something to honor God and make an eternal impact all at the same time? Why don't we go on a mission trip instead of going to the beach? If we went to the beach... sure we'd get some sun (i need it... there's nothing more unattractive than my neon white legs in shorts!), we'd get to relax, we'd get to spend some time alone... but wait a minute... we'd probably forget all about it in a few years and we would have missed an opportunity to do something that's "outside the box" to honor God. So, we decided to do it! Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't take vacations or spend time doing nothing... what I'm saying is that in the stage of life the Dunn's are in right now, we want to do this. So in an hour and a half, MJ and I are heading to the airport to catch a flight to Curitiba, Brazil where we will be working along side another ministry speaking in schools, ministering in some of the slums and going back to minister in the orphanage that our kids came from. That's right! We're going back to the place that literally wore me out just a little over a year ago. The same exact place! The same place we stayed, lived, ate and breathed for 46 days last year. The place I was happy to escape from. Isn't God funny? We're excited but also very sad. For most people, they would probably love the opportunity to get a break from all these kids for 7 days... but I guess we're crazy or something because it's difficult. There's already been a lot of tears flowing today and we haven't even left yet! But we know that God is going to allow us to minister in a mighty way... we're doing it for Him! So, We're off again!

We'll post again once we arrive in Brazil.

Love Ya,

Jim and MJ

It's Been One Year!

Well, it's been a year already. For those of you who haven't followed our blogs in the past you can view them at dunnadoptions.blogspot.com to see where we've come from. To put it all in a nutshell (whatever that means... that actually sounds ridiculous if you think about it, anyway...) one year ago we traveled to Curitiba Brazil with 2 of our 3 biological children (our 19 year old stayed behind because of school) and we adopted 5 children. They were a sibling group that had spent most of their lives in an orphanage. Their mother was a prostitute, their father was taken away by the police, in handcuffs, for murdering a woman... it wasn't a good start to their lives. Their ages at the time that we adopted them were 2,4,6,8 and 11. Now they are a year older and so much has changed. They not only live with us and have our last name... but they are acting like us, dressing like us, singing in the car like us, joking and teasing like us (that's a must if you are going to survive in our home) and most of all they are "us". What I mean by that is that they are a part of the family. Not just in name only...but really a part 'of ' the family. I'm sitting here right now as I'm blogging and watching them all in the back yard. Man, we've really come a long way in one year. There have been many 'near' nervous breakdowns, a lot of tears, a lot of yelling and screaming but also a lot of good times. A lot of hugs and kisses. A lot of love. We're definitely not the perfect parents because we're still trying to figure this whole parenting thing out but God has been good to us. It's been a learning process, that's for sure. We really never saw what we've done lived out in front of us and it's not like there's a ton of books written on adopting large siblings groups. So, we're definitely giving all the glory to God for making it this far.

We're starting this new blog because we felt like we needed to change the format a little. It's still going to have stuff in it about us and our family life... there's way too much stuff happening not to blog about...but we wanted it to have more. We feel like we need to be an encouragement to those of you out there who really feel like there has to be more to our lives as Christians than what we're presently seeing and doing. Man, when I read the Bible and see what Jesus and the early church was doing... they were really rockin the world! In John 14:12, Jesus said, "that those who believed in him would not only do what he was doing... but even greater things! I don't know about you, but I think we've kind of missed it a little on that one. And I want more. I want more of Christ in my life. I want his presence to be so powerful in me that not only does it burn all of the 'me' out of 'me' but it also causes those around me to see him and only him. I've got a long way to go, but I've got to start somewhere, right? So, if you want more of God in your life and you know that there's more out there than what you've experienced in life so far, then I encourage you to subscribe to this blog and let's do this thing together, OK? You see, in my position I'm able to talk to a lot of people and a majority of them feel like there's more. People who feel like we've really lost focus on what our REAL mission is on this earth, this blog is for them and this blog is for you. You may not agree with everything I say but hopefully it will get you thinking and looking at your Bible for yourself, so that you can reach your own conclusions rather than what someone else said. Now, I'm not going to bash any particular person, church or denomination because it's not about that. But I do feel like we need to bash some of what I like to call our 'Americanized' gospel and what it has become. So hopefully you'll be challenged to be all that God has called you to be and experience what we're calling the "Real Deal Religion."