Jake's Thought for the Week

Each Monday I will be posting Jake's Thought for the Week which he sends out to all the parents of the players in his All Iowa Attack program.

Excerpt from Good to Great in Gods Eyes by Chip Ingram:
In each of our lives, if we’re going to have any possibility of becoming truly great in God’s eyes, it means turning upside down the entrenched worldly ideas of our definition of greatness. The difference couldn’t be more stark, as sinfully and culturally defined greatness looks like this: individuals motivated by self-interest, self-indulgence, and a false sense of self-sufficiency; they pursue selfish ambition for the purpose of self-glorification….
On the contrary, serving others for the glory of God; this is the genuine expression of humility. This is true greatness as our Savior defines it.

It was late last Monday evening as I decided to sit down on my couch and finish up the book Good to Great in God’s Eyes by Chip Ingram when I came across the second to last chapter of the book entitled Empower Great People. About two pages into the chapter the author began talking about greatness and more importantly attempted to define TRUE GREATNESS. As you could probably have guessed this topic caught my attention and as I read I could not wait to share all that was in the chapter with each of you for the thought of the week. The only part of the chapter that I did not understand was how real God was going to make it for me this week.

I had thought last week was just going to be the greatest week of my life. All of the kids had off which basically meant I had off and I would be able to sit in section 106 of Wells Fargo Arena all week, eat as many nachos as my heart desired, and watch basketball.

And my week started off going exactly as planned. About mid-week I had probably put on 10lbs comprised of nachos and ice cream. I had watched 16 high school basketball games and even had made friends with the stat keeper who began providing us stats of every game at halftime, as well as at the conclusion of every game. I did have a little hiccup in my previously planned schedule as I had a meeting in Pella on Thursday morning, and then had to head directly to Marshalltown for a funeral as my wife’s Grandma on her Father’s side had passed away. I had only met this particular Grandma a handful of times since meeting my wife nine years ago, and to be honest, in my heart I did not really want to attend the funeral. I know feeling this way was extremely selfish of me, and I did attend because I knew it was important to my wife. Well, many times when we least expect it is when God does His best work.

As we sat through the funeral many thoughts ran through my head, most of which did not include anything of great importance. As the funeral concluded I was walking behind her Grandfather out of the church and he briefly turned around and tears were pouring down his face. Her Grandfather and Grandmother were married 60 years and it was clear what they meant to each other. As I held my wife’s hand walking out of the church, all I could think about was being in her Grandfather’s shoes and having those tears pouring down my face. Would I be thinking about all the great times, or all the times I was simply blind to the great things God had given me until they were gone, because I was out striving for all of my selfish ambitions?

I hope the image of her Grandfather never leaves me and I am pretty sure it won’t as it was one of those moments where God took the hammer and hit me over the head. That same morning I received a phone call that the landlord of our new gymnasium Bob Fligg had suffered a heart attack the previous night. On the way home from the funeral I had tracked down Mr. Fligg’s wife to see how he was doing. As she answered the phone she assured me that he was doing great and told me the story of what had happened that previous night. I could share all of the details but the most important thing I remember from our conversation was she said ‘we had thought we had lost him, but the doctors brought him back, rushed him into surgery, and saved his life’.

I am not sure why but when she said 'I thought we had lost him' it was like God was sending another hammer down to hit me on my head. My first thought was to thank God that he had kept Bob with us and then my next thought immediately ran to what I had been reading that Monday night. The concept of our lives just being a vapor was never so true to me. Who knows when God will call us home but I began to realize that the things I was taking for granted each day was never so apparent. I kept thinking about all of those times I have not answered my phone because I did not want to be inconvenienced while working, how many times I pretended I was too busy to have friends come over for the evening, or all of those times where God was calling me to do more with the time He gave me here on earth.

God did not stop there. On Saturday night following the state championship game I texted many of the boys saying great job and how proud I was of them for accomplishing one of the many goals they had set years ago as 7th and 8th graders. One of the individuals who we had coached for five years texted me back the following: “Great game? I barely even got to play. I have worked by butt off for 4 years and was barely on the floor with my team. They really hurt me.” My heart truly sunk for that individual as I know 10-20-30 years from now he will look back on that evening and it will crush him; he missed the enjoyment of winning the state championship and what that accomplishment means because he was overly concerned with all of the selfish desires our world defines as truly great. But, again it was God hitting me with a hammer to do a better job of teaching each player we have what it means to truly be great!

God certainly worked on me a lot this week, and capped off the eye opening week as we finished up the third place game with the 8th grade boys in the 9th grade state tournament yesterday (Sunday). Coach Seay and I were walking out of the gym with Mike Nixon who was talking on the phone and all we heard was, “So, one died.” That will cause most people to stop in their tracks as we did and as Mike got off the phone he told us that Brett Vanderpool’s (owner of Sports University in Ankeny) wife was killed in a tragic snow mobile accident in South Dakota this weekend. God had finally brought me to my knees as we have spent a lot of time with Brett lately discussing ways our facilities could work together. I did not know his wife personally but during my drive home it certainly felt like I did.

Each day we do not know what may happen or when God might say it is our time to go. But, I do believe that during certain moments in time God sends us messages that are designed to get our attention. Many times it is because our eyes are blind to ways we are falling short of God’s purpose and His design for true greatness. I know true greatness will not always be convenient, will not always be appealing, and will not always be easy, but this week God has worked to open my eyes to what may be inconvenient may actually be a blessing in our lives, what is not appealing may actually be life changing for someone else, and what may not be easy may be the last chance we have!

James 4: 13-14
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Go Attack,
Jake Sullivan

Adoption Update

Just wanted to post a little adoption update! Right now Pastor Sam is working on our behalf to finish the finalization of the adoption in Ho, Ghana. He is acting as our ‘attorney-in-fact’ for all purposes relating to the adoption, so he is able to attend court dates and proceedings for us (still processing the paperwork that Jake signed on his trip a few weeks ago). Once the adoption is finalized and officially ‘recognized’ in Ho, Pastor Sam will then send us the necessary paperwork for us to file with the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services. We then wait for another (final) approval from them which, unfortunately could take up to 3+ months. The wait is so long because we go in line behind all the other adoption cases that are already ahead of us. Once we have this approval we are able to travel to bring Solomon home. Although 3 months (or possibly more) seems like such a looooooonnggg time from now, we know that God is in complete control of all the timing of this. We trust that everything will be finalized when it is the perfect timing for all of us. We began this adoption process in late September last year (2008), so really, it has been a huge blessing that everything has progressed as quickly as it has! If we are able to travel to bring Solomon home around 3 months from now, that will bring our total adoption time frame (start to finish) right in under 10 months! A typical time frame for international adoption is anywhere from 1-3 years, so to be seeing the end of this process within 10 months would be really good. I’ll post more updates as I have them!

Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay.

Introducing Nana Yaw

Meet Nana Yaw Sapon-Amoah. (And, no, I don’t yet have any idea how to pronounce his name!)

Nana Yaw is from Ghana and is coming to live with us for the spring/summer so that he can train with Jake’s All-Iowa Attack teams! The story goes that while Jake was in Africa last month he got to see Nana play during the U18 basketball game that he attended while with the Right to Dream Academy. Jake thought Nana was a great player and went down and talked to him after the game. During their conversation Jake found out that Nana had just graduated high school in Ghana and had gotten a 5 year visa (in which he would be able to come to the United States). So, Jake told him that he would like to help him come over here to the U.S. and train with the All Iowa Attack 17U team for this spring/summer. The hope is that Nana will be able to get an offer for a college scholarship to play basketball while he is here. Nana and his mom are arriving Tuesday morning and Nana will stay with us through July. Nana’s mom will be staying here for a week or so to get him settled, and then will head out to visit some family in North Carolina, before heading back home to Ghana.

I am sure that Nana will be the first of many who we will do this sort of thing with. In fact, I am already getting decorating visions for the guest room of pictures of each player that stays with us! I’ve always wanted to have a ‘busy’ house with lots of life and people coming in and out of it, and I think this will be a great opportunity to get that started. I am so excited to get a glimpse of the Ghanaian way of life through Nana, to hear about how he grew up, and to gain more of an understanding of the rich culture Solomon will be coming from. I can’t wait to share with you the things I learn!

A Little Boy Can Steal His Mommy's Heart

Have I mentioned that a little boy can easily steal his mommy’s heart like no other ever has before? It all started when JJ decided to be born on my birthday! As Jake said on that day, ‘What are the chances!’

Even though a mommy doesn’t know too much about boy stuff, she can still teach her son lots of things. Like…

Girls are not afraid to get a little dirty.

Mommies know how to do cool underwater handstands.

Mommies can show you how to correctly do a birthday dance.

And, that it’s fun to cook!

And, a little boy can teach a mommy lots of things like…

It’s normal for boys to jump off furniture.

And, even energetic boys need snuggle time.

And, sometimes, even girls can make boys cry.

Yes, JJ and I have learned a lot from each other already. However, the best part about having a little boy so far has been getting a glimpse of what Jake was like when he was a little boy. I can only pray that JJ will get the strong character and personality that his daddy has grown into. When I was pregnant with JJ, I knew that Jake wanted him to be a boy so bad…of course he would have been happy with either, but he was really rooting for a boy! The day we found out JJ was a boy by ultrasound, Jake and I drove back to our work office in separate cars. I got to the office and couldn’t figure out why Jake wasn’t there yet since we had left at the same time. In fact, he was no where to be found! About 10 minutes later Jake rolled in, announcing that he had gotten a speeding ticket. I asked him what happened and he said, well, as I told the officer ‘I just found out my wife is having a BOY and I am really excited! So no, I don’t know how fast I was going!’

The thing I look forward to most with JJ is of course, watching him play sports! I’ve thought about what this day will be like ever since the first time I sat in the stands at one of the tournaments Jake was coaching at. I thought, ‘it’s not much fun sitting around watching everyone else’s kids play basketball, but it will really be fun when I am watching JJ play!’ Soon enough. For now, I will soak up the moments of perfecting my homemade ‘JJ mac n cheese’, being a horsey for the 5th time of the night, and interpreting the language of a 2 ½ year old to everyone else who can’t understand what he is saying.

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
-Mark Twain

A boy is a noise with dirt on it.
-Unknown

Boys are found everywhere -- on top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around or jumping to. Mothers love them, little girls hate them, older sisters and brothers tolerate them, adults ignore them and Heaven protects them. A boy is Truth with dirt on its face, Beauty with a cut on its finger, Wisdom with bubble gum in its hair and the Hope of the future with a frog in its pocket.
-Alan Marshall Beck

This One's for the Girls

Have I mentioned how much fun it is to have another girl in the house? Or could you tell from the....

PINK PAINTED TOES

PINK EARRINGS

AND PINK CHRISTMAS TREE?


Here is the next girly thing waiting for Jayla (I borrowed this idea from a friend)….a dress up trunk! I’ve been saving my old scarves, sequin tops, sparkly purses, old dress shoes and other fun girl things so that Jayla can play dress up with them some day! I loved to play dress up when I was little. I believe ‘some day’ might come sooner than I think.

Jayla comes from a long line of baby lovin girls who have grown up into baby lovin mommies & grandmas & great-grandma’s.

Great-Grandma Somers loves to hold Jayla, give her lots of kisses, and give her her bottle. When she is around Jayla she always say, “Oh, what a joy!”

Grandma Lori likes to rock Jayla, read her books, watch her dig through her toy basket, and she loves to see all of Jayla’s cute girly outfits. She likes to tell Jayla stories of what mommy was like when she was a little girl!

Each time the Sullivan girls get together we always try to get a picture of the 5 of us. Here we are with Grandma Sullivan (Jake's mom), Auntie Crystal (Jake's brother's wife), and cousin Dakota.

I can already picture the fun that Jayla and Dakota will have each time they are together. They were born 3 months apart! Grandma Sullivan raised 2 boys, so she could not wait to have a little girl in the family! I love this picture because I know the significance that it holds. Grandma Sullivan’s own mother passed away last year, and it holds much meaning for her that she gained 2 granddaughters during that same year. When she speaks of us she always refers to us as ‘my girls’…we are hers and she loves it!

I can only imagine all the fun times ahead with Jayla…getting to do her hair (once she has some!), going shopping, long talks, picking out prom dresses, helping her plan her wedding, and watching her raise her own children. But, the best part will truly be looking at her and seeing in her all the generations of women who have gone before her, and are a part of us.

My beautiful daughter

You cannot know

How my heart is amazed

As I watch you grow

In time you’ll become

Independent and free

Yet, always my daughter

And special to me

As you grow older

You will see

Through the eyes of a mother

Reflections of me

Past, present and future

All intertwined

My mother, your mother

All daughters you’ll find

Our reflections, not vanity

Mirrored lives we share

Always my daughter,

Always your mother,

Always I’ll be there.

(Author unknown)