diary – Page 10 – Jediah Logiodice's Blog

Christmas Irony

There is nothing that brings out my nature as a fallen human more than being dragged out shopping around Christmas time. If you want to cure a humanist – send them Christmas shopping with me. It becomes very obvious very quickly that I’m not “inherently good”.

And that’s the most ironic part of Christmas, I think. The weeks leading up to the celebration of the birth of our Lord, seems to make the most obvious, exactly why I need a savior.

I think I just heard an amen coming from at least one other person in the crowd… it must have been another Logiodice.

When they passed out the brains…

So this morning I awoke to a sound similar to the sound of someone dumping a bucket of legos down a set of stairs – very loud crashing, followed by very loud crying.

“Braeden, are you ok, are you ok Braeden?”

Well, I’ll save you the drama except to find out that Braeden had taken the whiteboard, put it on the top of the stairs and slid down on top of it (and rumor has it Bella was on it too – because I heard her say “I didn’t get hurt”, to which Braeden replied “that’s because you’re feet didn’t stick out”..

Amanda had decided to let them watch Dennis the Menace this morning without parental supervision.

I am so used to our children’s dangerous antics, that I lay in bed thinking:

“Well, if he is crying he is still alive. If Donnie isn’t screaming, then there is no blood”.

Braeden came wandering into the room crying:

“Donnie said it was safe. Donnie said I wouldn’t get hurt.”

So, I said to Braeden:

“Braeden, you have to learn to use your common sense.”

To which he replied:

“What is common sense?”

I said:

“Braeden, if Donnie told you it was safe to jump off the roof, would you do it?”

He replied, “No”, between sobs.

“And why not”, I asked?

“Because I would get hurt” (whimper).

“Well, that’s what common sense is”, I replied.

Braeden went quiet…

A few minutes later he said “But Pappa, how would I get on the roof anyway?”.

OMG! I thought, he sat there the last couple minutes thinking about jumping off the roof, and his only concern was how he would actually get up there. This boy is scary!

As my mother always used to say to me; “When they passed out the brains, Braeden thought they said drains and said ‘Give me a little one with a lot of holes in it’”!

The Christmas Gift…

In Haiti, a little girl died today, it happens every day, all around the world, and it leaves a feeling of sadness and emptiness and hurt, and pain, and often even anger. Why should children die, why should anyone die? This isn’t the way God began his creation, so why?

Rom 8:20-21 NIV
(20) For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
(21) that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

But Jesus overcame death, and with His final triumph on the cross that began with a journey some 2000 years ago, with the incarnation of our God, comes the hope of victory.

1Co 15:55-57 NIV
(55) "Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"
(56) The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
(57) But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So let my weeping heart be comforted, let me find rejoicing in the Lord, let me celebrate his great love, celebrate his birth.

For while this little girl has been separated from God’s creation, from her body, from those who love her, yet only for a little while, and with Jesus, she now has the hope and expectation that she shall come again to be reunited to all the things she was intended to enjoy from the beginning of creation.

The day in which she returns in the company of her Lord, she will be made new – all things will be made new, and this was all made possible by the gift from God that we celebrate every December 25th.

Isn’t that the greatest Christmas gift of all… Thank you Lord Jesus!

“Today was her second birthday, so I am sure that she is celebrating that as well! Just so you know, Schella’s real name is also Gaelle, and Baby Gaelle was her assigned little sister. Schella loved her SO much and spent a lot of her time rocking her on the balcony, helping her eat, and spoiling her. Baby Gaelle loved her! Baby Gaelle woke me up at 2AM, and I sat up with her. As sick as she was, I couldn’t understand why she would not give up, until Schella came up to say goodbye this morning. With Schella stroking her hands and tears running down Schella’s cheeks, Baby Gaelle finally was ready to go. What a touching scene! Such compassion and love! Please be praying for Schella, as she will miss Gaelle…

Gaelle went to Heaven to spend CHRISTmas with Jesus this morning around 7 A.M.”

The new Rubik cube…

My wife pointed me to a new Rubik cube that was recently released call the Rubik touch cube:

I have to admit that there is some “wow” factor in the having the technology (although the technology integrated into the iTouch devices is old, this is certainly a new use for it), however, how many people would say that they would be fulfilled by sliding their finger across the top of a device to move different colors into place?

For me the entire urge to play with a Rubik cube is the shifting, twisting, turning, spinning and strategizing that comes with touching a square box that has little interlocked pieces that slide around and making a “clicking sound”.

Additionally, part of the fun of the Rubik cube is to see how fast you can turn and spin and sift and twist, as it shows motor skill and hand eye coordination and the ability to think at so many different levels; it seems this new cube has completely lost that tactile experience.

And what about the cheats of taking it apart and the challenge of putting it back together right – that’s just completely gone.

So, while there is something kind of cool in this new use for this old technology, I would still have to say that I prefer the old fashion Rubik cube, do you?

Haiti in Feb 2010

Here is an example of what Haiti is up against in the 2010 elections.

http://open.salon.com/blog/chantal_laurent/2009/12/03/outrage_over_rigged_feb_2010_elections_in_haiti

They are facing a very tumultuous election in Feb 2010. The government, economy and society of Haiti hangs on such a thin thread that any type of instability has the potential of having vast negative impacts for millions of people.

Please pray for the leaders of Haiti that their democracy will only become stronger, that they will listen and serve the people of Haiti. Please pray for the people of Haiti in their poverty stricken country, that they will not lose hope, that they will feel empowered to work along side of the rest of the world for the good of their country; please pray that God will continue to raise up people with a heart and compassion for the men, women and children of Haiti, to not only show them the love of Christ in spiritual redemption, but to find ways to offer them food and clothes and medical care and other human necessities, so our light as Christians will shine in what was once known as the Pearl of the Antilles. Please pray for the children being adopted and the adopting families; pray that the laws and processes and people that take part in the adoptions will not be hindered, rather that perhaps new laws will be effective in stopping some of the horrible things like Child Slavery, but allowing the families who are working so hard to bring life and health to the Children of Haiti an end to their wait.

Our God is an awesome, loving and merciful God, and He hears his children when they pray, If you have a heart for Haiti please pray for them without ceasing.

The good news and the not so good…

The great news is that I received a brief note saying that the interviews went “well” – no more details yet – but praise God – that’s got to be good news!

The bad news is that our lawyer was unable to make his November trip to Haiti because other clients papers were not completed; and when he went to rebook his plane tickets, the prices had almost tripled for the end of the year – so now he is unsure if he is going to be going to Haiti before the new year. 🙁

We have still have so many hurdles to overcome – first, the fact that we need a legal waiver to even adopt in Haiti because we have biological kids and our under 35 (we have been married almost 12 years though – so we at least have 1 of the three requirements met); second, if we receive that waiver, we also have to get a presidential waiver; third is that next year is an election year in Haiti, and historically it seems that during election time the country has the ability to become very unstable, and legal processes seem to stop in their tracks.

So, my new prayer is that:

first and foremost we will be able to get into the legal system as quickly as possible,
second that God will use our amazing lawyer to overcome all the problems that are put in our way and our children will come home quickly,
third that for the sake of the people in Haiti that their country will remain stable and the elections of 2010 will show a turning point in the history of the democracy of Haiti,
and fourth that our legal process will not be held up because of the elections.

Pray for us and them today and tomorrow….

The U.S. Embassy has scheduled the interviews for David’s biological mom and Christella’s uncle tomorrow. This is a very important step in the whole process. It is during that interview that they will determine the eligibility of David and Christella to im to the United States as Orphans.

It will be a very trying time for David’s mom too – as she will be faced with a lot of tough questions aimed at ensuring that she is indeed committed to the adoption.

We also found out that the final documents are ready for our Lawyer – so we are hoping that he will be able to submit our papers into IBESR by the end of the month.

Such little steps; such big steps; He guides our steps, may He be glorified.

Pray for us and them – today and tomorrow especially

It will be a very trying time for David’s mom too – as she will be faced with a lot of tough questions aimed at ensuring that she is indeed committed to the adoption.

We also found out that the final documents are ready for our Lawyer – so we are hoping that he will be able to submit our papers into IBESR by the end of the month.

Such little steps; such big steps; He guides our steps, may He be glorified.

Can’t stop…

Amanda told me this evening that a friend’s son passed away yesterday. I haven’t been able to ask the details; because I’m afraid I’m going to just break down in front of her.

He had encephalitis, and was severely handicap, he was somewhere around 10 years old; he rolled over in his sleep and suffocated on his pillow. I can’t stop weeping for his family… and I want to go hug my children.

Lord, please let us never have to face loosing one of our children, that’s not how it’s supposed to happen… but if that day comes; Lord, be there to comfort us.

Please be there to comfort them now.

Winter is upon us?

It started snowing around 10 AM yesterday morning; nothing accumulated; the ground apparently wasn’t cold enough. It kept snowing until well into the night last night – stopped sometime after midnight. This is what we woke up to this morning – I wonder if it is here to stay…