Wednesday, May 28, 2008

More news to make your day...

This is the last story today about evil people doing evil things to kids, I promise.

There's so much wrong here. I don't know what to say...

What homeschool kids are missing...

...socialization. You can't get socialization like this at home:


Thursday, May 22, 2008

Tragedy...

Hey folks, sorry I've been absent for a while. My life has taken a turn for the hectic recently.

I did want to jump in for a second to ask you to pray for Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. He is a Christian musician who has sold about a bazillion albums. He and his wife have also adopted 3 children. They are big supporters of adoption, including giving a substantial amount of money each year to make it easier for families to adopt.

Yesterday, tragedy struck their family. Their youngest girl, who just turned 5, was hit by a vehicle being driven by one of her brothers in the driveway of the family home. She was killed. You can read more about it here and here.

I've got a lot of thoughts, because it reminds me of something a very wise woman told us when we were having some problems with our adoption. But, right now this just hits too close to home. I think I'm going to sneak into our kids' rooms while they sleep and love on them a little. Or maybe a lot...

Monday, May 12, 2008

A note from Little MacGyver...

i love
you dad

Adoption Anniversary Day!

Today is a special day at the J house. 2 years ago today, our little DisneyGirl's adoption became final!

This is her, in a pic from a few months before the special day. It's hard to
believe how little she was then, and how much she's grown. In this picture her arms are stretched up so one of us can pick her up. Snuggling is always much more important than taking pictures...


Adoption days are kinda odd. They are such happy occasions, but they take place at the children's court building here in LA. That is one of the most depressing places I've ever been. The amount of human tragedy that goes on their every day is overwhelming. I'm not sure how the lawyers and judges that work there get through it.

Anyway, you have to get to court first thing in the morning, but you don't know when you will actually be called in to see the judge. (The c
ourt hearing is really just a formality. All the work that makes the adoption final is done beforehand.) When you're finally called in to the courtroom, the hearing is pretty quick. The judge looks over the paperwork, makes you affirm that you are willingly taking this child as your own family, and then it's over. It happens really quickly, then comes a round of pictures:

Here we are with a couple of family members who could get off work and join us. Also, there's the judge, holding DG, the world's greatest children's lawyer holding Little MacGyver, and our other lawyer, who's also terrific.









There's really only one place to go after you've adopted DisneyGirl. So we headed out to the Magic Kingdom to celebrate. DG got to meet some important people, er, dogs...















Then we had dinner with the princesses at one of the Disney restaurants. Since DG considers herself one of the princesses, she had a great time:




























And this is my wonderful girl, in a more recent picture. (She's graduating from preschool; Little MacGyver graduates from kindergarten.) She is a great blessing. She is so full of energy and life. She is passionate and fun. She's kind and she loves people (and animals). We are blessed to have her in our family...






















Sunday, May 11, 2008

A great woman...

This is just a quick post to publicly say I married the best mom and woman in the world.
















And she is very cute too!

Monday, May 5, 2008

A bit of levity...

Since there seems to have been a bit of interweb drama since I last posted, I thought some comedy might be in order. Some of you might find this amusing.

This show is a fake, but I'm not sure if Gary Busey knows it. Actually, I hope he doesn't because his reaction to this "pastor" is classic:



The best Busey line? "Yeah, let's go to a commercial. I hope it's about toilet fish."