I'm not. But I always loved that line (word? very SHORT line) from The Mask. Which some of my children are too good to watch, and others, as bad as I am, occasionally enjoy. I especially like the dance sequences...is that really Jim Carey dancing?
Anyway, I digress....a lot.
It is really smoky here in the foothills of Northern California. One of our ward members believes that when the CA Supreme Court confirmed the legality of Gay Marriage (a few weeks ago), we were given a gigantic warning in the form of a dry lightning storm that started a thousand fires up and down the state.
I'm not in position to confirm or deny that this was divine retribution, but we definitely had/have a lot of fires. All of a sudden, all at the same time. And they're not stopping. Nothing is going on right in my neighborhood, but we had two fires within twenty miles of us right after the big Lightning Storm, and now that those are contained, more or less, we have three more within fifty miles. The firefighters have decided to just let one fire (the Government Fire in Blue Canyon) just burn on, since it's not threatening any structures. It has consumed thousands of acres.
We have been just BURIED in smoke for almost three weeks. It's bad enough that we've been advised not to go outdoors unless we have to. And it's summer vacation! This could go on all the way up til the beginning of the rainy season in October.... Looking outdoors, you can't see more than 50 yards, and everything is a yellow/gray haze.
We're accustomed to wildfires here. Fires are our regional natural disaster of choice...no earthquakes or floods or anything. But usually the truly awful fire season doesn't hit in our area until August or Septemeber, when we can count on a few scares each year, and a real bad fire close to home every ten years or so. We've never had to evacuate, but we've come close. Life is an exciting adventure. I guess I prefer fires to say.....street crime, or.....living in a subdivision.
On the adoption front, I contacted the National Service Center for the US immigration service yesterday (USCIS...don't know what all the letters stand for....US central immigration service, maybe?) and found that our 1-800 A was received on June 16. They told me that the adjuticator (official person who will probably tell us to redo our homestuy) will contact us by letter in about two weeks. So, things are happening, if slowly.
Lou Juan's best friend from the orphanage was adopted this week. Lou Ming's family will be back home in Texas in a few days. I'm excited to hear how things are going, and about their China experience. They already have an adopted daughter from China, and they took her with them. She's six now, and they were a bit anxious about how the trip would affect her, emotionally. Some kids are excited about going back to see their homeland. Others NEVER want to go back. We sent a package off to Lou Juan with Lou Ming's family...candy and stuff. The most important gift was a disposable camera. We hope that she'll take pictures of her friends, her teachers, her room...anything important to her. She's lived ten years there, and the pictures may be the only part of her old life that comes home with her.
9 comments:
Yay...
I hope you share some of those pictures.
I have had a very hard time with this whole gay marriage thing. Pieces of me believe we should just live and let (others) live the lives they have chosen. And part of me realizes why it's important to protect the "sanctity" of marriage between a man and a woman... sort of. Not really. Truthfully, I really don't understand it at all, but then that's what prophets are for. To lead us in the right direction while we (imperfect as we are) discover the whys. Obedience, and then comes the spirit and testimony and manifestation or what have you.
I can see fires as a warning. It's unfortunate that not many people would get it, though. So a piece of me doubts it... though, I guess that's the way man has always been. God speaks and only a small fraction of the population understands and listens.
Well, if the fires are punishment, they're punishing the wrong people, because as far as I know the government buildings in Sacramento are intact. And most of the fires are in politically conservative rural places. But I don't know.
Knowing people who are gay makes it hard for me to rant about gay marriage.
One long-term couple I know (from school and business dealings) good, kind men, got a marriage license on June 17, the day the law took effect. They're people I individually like and respect.
I'm not at ALL at ease with same sex marriage. But I feel compassion for these men, and other people like them, knowing that they do love each other, and are, perhaps, in their kindness and dedication to one another, better candidates for marriage than many heterosexual couples.
That doesn't change what Heavenly Father expects, but it prevents me from depersonalizing the issue. We're talking about human beings, like ourselves, who are just trying to live their lives.
I support Heavenly Father's law, and His plan, without question. But, when we get to Heaven, I'm hoping that there's an informative lecture available to explain this,and various other things I "don't get" in earth life.
I have noticed that this time, unlike when Proposition 22 (marriage between a man and a woman only) was on the public ballot several years ago, church members have NOT been asked to go out and be activists, going door to door and making phone calls. I had a very hard time with that last time around. I don't think I would do it this time. If someone asked me, I would tell them what I thought. But I can't go around arguing with people about such a personal thing.
I don't like the "gay agenda" any more than I like any political special interest agenda. And I think there are some AWFUL people out there really pushing their gayness in other people's faces, just to be obnoxious. I would be just as repelled by 'straight' people advertising their sexuality in a similar manner. It's a private thing. Why do we have to know??
Anyway, I am glad Heavenly Father is in charge, and I'm not!
did you know we were on the top of skyline and we woke up at 6 am and saw a luminus red bright sun and i said the world is ending and someone else said, no that is the moon and i said then the world is starting and someone said no that is the california fires, and that night i saw the sun again and said flip, i'm not allowed to say anything else even"smokin" and someone said no awesome
p.s. my high priest lesson sunday is on obdieance, and to answer allison{is she one of your trillion girls i see in ll the pictures?} you guys are obdient enough to ge through this fire thing, just hinch up your horses and get ready to go to spring city, but only after the moon turns to{i don't remember what the moon is supposed to turn to....turnips} and then start to worry
Hi Allison
I found your blog through Sarah. This is Shannon Clement by the way. Welcome to the blog world! I am so excited for your family in adopting a little girl. That is one of my goals to fulfill one day. It wont be for a long time, but eventually I would love to adopt. Your little girl looks adorable!
I read your thoughts on gay and lesbian marriage, and I agree with everything you said. I feel pity for those people who cant help who they love, but I know that whatever the prophet says we need to try to understand and to obey.
I read the book you let me borrow, Five Chimneys. I read it so fast that Mark told me not to tell you because you might think I am a twisted person. He was joking of course, but I feel a little bad for getting into it so much. I spent most of the day researching concentration camps, daily life, Nazi war criminals etc. When I get into something, I usually go nuts and research it until my head hurts. Anyway, thanks for letting me borrow those books, and I am discovering things I never knew about and some things that I dont wish to remember anymore.
loan me your orphen kid a week per year, and she can see nosurf every day here in utah...i guess you will still be down there in gentile, barely above the righteous line, california, when i told you to get ready to go back, i meant sRING HILL MISSOURI , not spring hill utar...p.s., i'm a blogger junkie, that's whay you hear so much from me(allison, the mom and not the daughter)
i have mentioned you and your daughter(NOW WHICH ONE AM I TALKING ABOUT) ON BARLOW PUTZ, the very first post if you hurry, i think you are either i or j
Putz, I am Allison the Mom of nosurfgirl and all those other girls (and one guy). The only picture of me on the blog is my profile one, and because I think I am getting old and ugly, any future pictures will be few and far between. It's weird how time passes and we change.
And...the moon did turn to blood a few times when it was so smoky. But nothing else horrible happened, so we stayed here and waited it out. So far, CA is still attached to the rest of the continent, and we haven't burned to the ground yet. The smoke has cleared (except in Nevada... on our drive home yesterday from UT, it was VERY smoky...maybe they're getting a message from Heavenly Father about gambling.)
Shannon, I'm glad you wrote. Reading about the holocaust is really hard. But I think (just my weirdness, maybe) that we have an obligation as human beings to be witnesses to the truth. Visiting Auschwitz changed my life. It was almost impossible to comprehend that people could be so inhumane and heartless, destroying other humans in such a calculated, methodical manner. I knew about the Holocaust, and had read a lot about it before. But having been there, and having read the first person accounts of what happened there, and the stories of those who risked (and sometimes sacrificed) their lives to save others, I have to stand up and say I will do what I can to prevent that kind of horror from happening again.
That's part of why we're adopting. I can't save the world, but maybe I can help one small girl. My younger kids laugh at me, but I think that that's the way only way the world will change for the better...we each have to do our own bit to change the little bit of the world that's in our care.
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