Getting ready… emotionally for our trip to Haiti

One week left until we hop on a plane and fly over the entire eastern coast of the United States and land inside of Haiti.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more worried and excited all at the same time!

I have three beautiful, wonderful children here at home that I’ve never been without for more than a day. Three children that I haven’t ever spent as much time as I would like with, three children that have so much potential and possibilities and capabilities if they can grow up in a loving and caring home filled with their mother and father.

If something was to happen to us, they’ll live on, I know they will, they’ll adjust, they’ll have to, and they’ll be loved and cared for, I know they will, but it just won’t be the same for them… how would they cope, would they be raised the way we long to raise them, would they have a loving relationship with God their father? Would they blame God, and if they do, who is going to help them understand and accept His will?

And then I have two beautiful, wonderful little girls that are in Haiti. I do not know them very well, except that they are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of our Father and creator, that they have no home of their own, and no family of their own, and that I have this indescribable desire to love them, and hold them, and give them out of everything great and small that the Lord has given to me. And what if they lose yet another set of parents?

Would they all have the wisdom to say: “Blessed be the name of the Lord: Blessed be his name in a land that is plentiful, where the streams of abundance flow: Blessed be his name when the road’s filled with suffering, when there’s pain in the offering, Blessed be his name… He gives and takes away, but my heart will choose to say, Lord, Blessed be your name!”

While life is always on the edge, and at any moment something could happen to me or Amanda or both (may it never be), I weep for the possibility that my children could lose their parents, and also that our daughters from Haiti wouldn’t ever get to know the love that we have to offer them. The fear that no parent wants to face, and yet, it’s always there…

To leave my children without a father (or mother) would be something I hope they never have to face, but don’t misunderstand, I don’t fear for my own life (well – except that I hope I don’t go painfully ), because I truly believe for me “To live is Christ, but to die is gain…”

Lord protect us, and give us the strength to face anything you send our way!

It is disgusting…

 

You know, with the 10 million some odd children around the world that do not have families, it disgusts me that when you’re looking to adopt, everybody and their brother is sticking their hands in your pockets.

 

We just found out this morning that we need to have our papers signed by the state and the consulate – we knew that part – but didn’t know that it was at 10$ a piece… we have over 80 unique documents, that’s 800$ to get them signed and sealed.

AND THEN – if there are any problems with any of the documents 6 months down the road when they’re actually reviewed, we have to have them resigned and resealed.

AND we also found out that we have to be fingerprinted for each of our daughters we are adopting at 650$ for each fingerprinting… my town office finger printed me for free a few months ago – why 1300$???

 

The greed in this world disgusts me….

Homestudy…

 
 

It was a very humbling and emotional experience, and one that creates excitement for our future redemption! We felt going in like we were going to be somewhat on trial, everything we’ve ever done, how we’ve done it, and why was going to be examined, and dissected… and yet, the social worker understood that we were human, that we have frailties, but that we love our children, and we strive hard to give them the very best we can – both in love, and direction and in safety and health…

It was amazing how good it felt to have a complete stranger (even one as amazing as Grace turned out to be) feel so confident and be so complimentary on how we’re raising and taking care of our children’s physical and emotional and mental needs, how good it felt for someone that knows families and children to say “You are doing a good job”…

And I pause and think: if it feels so amazing to have someone you don’t even know say “Well done”, to have someone who we don’t know who has the ability to deny us or accept us, to have someone we don’t even know who could judge us, our motives, our intentions, our failures, instead look with an understanding eye and judge our successes and understand our weaknesses; just imagine, that day, someday in the future when the Lord and creator of all will say “well done good and faithful servant”.

Won’t that be wonderful!

 
 

  

My Phone ate it…

I remember back when I was a kid, the typical excuse for why you were late, or didn’t do your homework, or forgot about something was “The dog ate the calendar”, “The Hamster ate the homework”, etc.

Today it seems in our day and age of connected gadgets and doohickeys; we are now turning to more sophisticated excuses.

For example; the most popular one in the white collar world of the Treo and Q’s and Blackberries is “My phone ate it”…

Bad Phone! Put that Calendar entry down! J

 

This is why I have such a hard time with Math….

Do you think it’s possible to be too logical for math? Follow this thread below, and see my question and my professors response… It legitimately looks to me like you can’t figure out the order of operations in a word problem unless you know what you’re answer is supposed to look like… does that mean the rules of the order of operation doesn’t necessarily apply without some other external logical application?

 

I think this is why math frustrates me – I probably just over think everything. =(

 

My Original Question:

Content Author: Jed Logiodice

When determining BAC (page 34), the following word problem is given:

BAC = number of oz X % alcohol X 0.075 / body weight in lb – hr of drinking X 0.015.

To simplify the question let w = number of ounces, let x = % of alcohol, let y = body weight and let z = hours of drinking.

When the book gives the BAC equation of being:

w * x * .075 / y – z * .015

This can create an order of operation like this (w * x * .075 / y) – (z * .015) [which results in the answer the book is looking for], however, why could one not equally contrive the following equation out of the above word problem:

(w * x * .075)
___________
y – (z * .015)

The way the word problem is written, it appears equally valid to assume either order of operation – however, unless one assumes the first, the answer will not match what the book states it should.

Is there some rule of order of operations that I’m missing for word problems that says “Never use fractional notation, unless the question is asking for a fraction”?

Thanks!

 

My Professors Response:

(w * x * .075 divided by y) – (z * .015)
Note: I have added parentheses to show that we do ALL multiplication and division from left to right before any addition or subtraction.

w = 4 * 12 = 48 oz

(w * x * .075 divided by y) – (z * .015)
(48 * 3.2 * .075 divided by 190) – (2 * .015)
= (153.6 * .075 divided by 190) – (2 * .015)
= (11.52 divided by 190) – (2 * .015)
= (.060631578) – (2 * .015)

Remember, we do ALL multiplication and division from left to right before any addition or subtraction so our next step is to multiply 2 * .015

= (.060631578) – (2 * .015)
= (.060631578) – (.03)

= .030631578

Rounded to the nearest thousand (3 digits to the left of zero), we have .031 as our answer

 

My Follow up Question:

Author: Jed Logiodice

But when I read the statement I saw this:

(w * x * .075)
____________
y – (z * .015)

instead of this (w * x * 0.75 / y) – (z * 0.15).

i.e. how was one to know that it was intended to be a linear equation (where the rules of operations went across from left to right, instead of above and below the division line separately).

I really thought that (w * x * .075) was the dividend and (y – (z * .015)) was the divisor…

Does that make sense?

I know it might seem like a foolish question; but I literally spent like 20 minutes doing that question over and over and over and never getting the right answer (but always getting the same answer); until I accidentally figured out that it was just a single linear equation, and then I started to ask myself “How was I supposed to know that, other than just assuming, was there some clue I missed”?

My single biggest problem with math is that I way over-think things!

 

My Professors Follow up Response:

One should always assume that we should follow the order of operations unless brackets or parentheses or a fraction bar is in the formula. OK?

 

My Follow up Request:

 

Even in word problems?

Take for example this problem: If you take 6 eggs and divide them among 2 women and 1 man, how many eggs does each person have?

If we always keep the order of operations (without brackets in the sentence) then the answer is (6 / 2) + 1 = 4; 4 Eggs a piece is obviously the wrong answer in this case – although it meets the rule of the order of operations we’re describing.

However, it would seem more logical (and in this case correct) to do 6 / (2 + 1) = 2. This gives the right answer (which we can verify because we know what the value should be), but doesn’t follow our prescribed operational rule.

Taking this discussion back to the case of the BAC – the same logical argument could be applied to the word problem, causing one to interpret the problem with a numerator and a denominator as a fractional statement, rather than just a linear equation – but one wouldn’t necessarily know that the answer was wrong (and what real order of operation was intended), unless one knew what the answer was supposed to be…

So I’m still left wondering – how we can tell in a word problem like the BAC what the real order of operation is supposed to be – without knowing what the answer is supposed to be?

I apologize if this appears as sophistry… I’m legitimately trying to figure out why I had the wrong answer; when from my viewpoint the way I executed the problem was equally as accurate as the way the book did.

Perhaps I’m too logical for math? 🙁

Caricature of Mandy

Ok, so I really am, honestly, the worst artist in the world – I know that, I’ve accepted that… but tonight, while using Skype to talk to Amanda in the next room (to her annoyance) – I decided to draw a caricature of her. Now, the funny thing is, I envisioned this skinny lean face with this big round nose – because of the way she was looking into the monitor of the computer screen – her nose looked accentuated – bigger than it normally looks..

 
 

So I grab my pen, and start inking – and this is what I came up with… then I laughed for about 15 minutes – but apparently she didn’t find it as humorous as I did.

 
 

Oh well – not everyone has such a great sense of humor…

My statement of Belief

I believe that the creation of the universe and life is the act of an intelligent creator; that contingent beings or creations cannot be created except that there be some non-contingent being whose very nature provides and requires aseity and eternality in its nature.

I believe that true science and true religion do not contradict each other rather they uphold and support each other, and as Sir William Bragg said that Science and Religion are opposed, only such as the forefinger and the thumb are opposed. That with Science and Religion together, you can grasp anything.

I believe that the state of the world today is not as it was intended to be; the wars, the hunger, the death, pain and dying. I believe it is the result of a disobedience to a given mandate provided by the creator of life and the universe.

I believe that our cultural mandate as human beings is to work to restore the original state of creation; by learning to love and provide for other people as we love and provide for our own.

I believe that our religious experiences should not be held separate from all other experiences in our world, and that a world view must remain consistent in all areas and portions of life and existence.

I believe in life after death, that mankind was created with value that extends beyond the dust of the earth and that our experiences, our trials and our undertakings here encourage, strengthen and prepare us for a future life that will unfold through the annals of history.