joel's thoughts

Just a little update going on here, nothing to be alarmed about. Carry on…

Looking forward to your rebate check from Uncle Sam? How about a little perspective…

In a few months, every American is going to be getting $300-$600 rebate check to help “spur” on the economy. This is separate from your tax refund, and will cost the U.S. about $170 Billion.

Separately, did you know that the UN estimates that 25,000 people die EACH DAY (that’s eight 9/11 tragedies every day) because they lack access to clean water. They also estimate that $52 billion/year would provide the infrastructure to provide clean water to these folks. (WHO&UNICEF; Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000 Report).

So we (whoever wants to) are going to be sending our rebate checks (part of it, all of it,… whatever) to help build wells in Africa instead of buying more junk to lay around the house (or more fast food, or more entertainment,…).

The org is called BareFootWorld, and their (current) project is to ask people to give them a portion (or all) of their rebate check so they can send it all on to 1000 wells to get clean water to people who need it. Want to give straight to 1000 wells instead? That’s cool too (it’s all going there anyway), just let the folks at BareFootWorld know so they can tally it in their total.

Or, you know, you could buy another toaster or something.

I usually try to think of something witty or insightful or even vaguely amusing or at the very least somewhat relevant when putting up a link that will just send you off somewhere else, but this time there’s nothing to say. Watch the first video for some stats that will make your eyes pop and your stomach sink. Then if you’ve got the guts, watch the second. Yes, that’s a challenge.

It’s high time we stop worrying about offending someone’s sensibilities. God help us…

So Edwards got a slightly higher percentage of the vote than Hillary, and is therefore widely being given media attention focusing on his second place showing over Hillary’s third (and what that means for their respective campaigns). End of story for Iowa, except…

In a mini-replay of the popular-vote-vs.-electoral-vote difference, this page seems to indicate that even though he got more votes, she’s getting more delegates. Isn’t that what counts after all? I doubt this fact has escaped her campaign folks; I’m a little surprised I haven’t seen any “Well, actually…”-type spin from her camp yet.

I’m thinking a Huckabee-McCain ticket would be a pretty powerful thing. Huck carries the conservatives who are concerned with a few of Mac’s social positions, and Mac carries enough foreign policy cred for both of them. It would seem they differ on the current administration’s Iraq policies, but in the heat of political battle that shouldn’t be too difficult to reconcile to present a united front for a way forward.

If McCain were on top, on the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he picked Lieberman for veep. Unfortunately, while there’s the whole bi-partisan appeal going for it, I don’t think it’s as compelling a ticket overall and would most likely fall to Obama-Hillary.

Scratch that. She’d never accept veep.

So I’ve now done a garbage disposal replacement three times now, and this last one was the easiest by far because of a tip I stumbled across on the web. Usually the most difficult and/or annoying thing about getting the old one out and the new one in is the sheer weight of the thing. They easily start at ten or fifteen pounds up to a whopping 25.5 pounds for the InSinkErator Evolution Excel (which we have at home, and highly recommend). The weight factor seems to be amplified by the awkwardness of reaching in a somewhat tight cabinet space to work with it. When you take the old one out you have to use the little hex wrenchette to unlock and turn the retainer ring while somehow holding the disposal unit up so it doesn’t come crashing down in your cabinet when the ring releases. And when you put the new one in you have to hold it up long enough to get all three tabs around the ring hooked on to their respective tracks and turned enough to support the unit’s weight. Not fun, and there usually isn’t enough room under the cabinet for someone else to get their arms in there to help you.

Solution: grab the scissor jack from the trunk of your car. This was a head-smacker for me, as in “why didn’t I think of that?” Some folks recommend using a 2×4 due to a “flimsy bottom” on the disposal. I didn’t have any trouble with that, but if the bottom of yours seems thin it wouldn’t be a bad idea, and would probably help with balance anyway (I just held the side of it). Anyway, this made the whole process so much easier I’d almost say it’s worth the twenty-five bucks to pick up a jack for the job if you don’t already have one.

Right. A few trips to other countries, one to bring home two beautiful kids, and a house move later, and you start to wonder if there’s time to catch up on everything. Right now, no. But in the meantime, I’ll leave you with a couple of interesting reads by Paul Graham.

The Word “Hacker”
Good to clear up any misconceptions, especially since in some respects I consider myself somewhat in the category. Before you call the feds on me, go read it.

And in a not-altogether-unrelated vein, thoughts on why the land of America is rich but ugly:
Made in USA

And just in case you’re still around, thoughts on some of the mental aspects of programming:
Holding a Program in One’s Head
I especially like the image of walking around in a memory.

Go free up the next ten minutes or so, and read Michael Yon’s essay on what’s going on right now in Iraq. Incredibly insightful, and well worth the read.

(Hat tip: Dr. Bob)

So we got some exciting news the other day about our Ethiopian adoption: our court date was successful! We are now the proud parents of two more children! As those of you who’ve been faithfully following my non-existent posts (*ahem*) already know, the court date is one of the final steps to happen before bringing your children home. Really, it’s the first time you can truly refer to them as your children. Up to that point, anything can change at anytime for any number of reasons. But once the judge in Ethiopia has approved your petition, the children are legally yours. Unfortunately, though, you can’t just go pick them up and bring them home. They need immigration visas, which means they need to be seen at the US Embassy, which means you have to wait for another date to be assigned. Once that date comes up, then you fly across the ocean to pick them up and hold them and be with them even though they may not fully understand yet quite what’s going on, and you take them to the Embassy and hang out for a few days to make sure everything’s copacetic, and then you bring them home and there is much rejoicing.

Until that point, though, we’re stuck in this mind-bending limbo. To be sure, the process — any international adoption process, for that matter, and quite possibly a good bit of domestic as well — is almost defined by periods of limbo. You get a bunch of documentation together and then wait for your homestudy. You get all the homestudy visits done and then wait for the final product. You get more documentation together and then send in your dossier, and wait for a referral. You accept the referral and then wait for the kids to be moved to the care center. Etc., etc. It’s just the nature of the process. But this particular limbo, by its very nature, feels the most awkward to me if not flat-out wrong. Not that anyone’s doing something wrong, or isn’t doing what they should — not that sort of wrong. But…well, here’s the deal. I’m a parent, right? Been one for over five years now, three times over before this adoption, and while that’s not “long” by parenting standards and I make no claims to having parenting all figured out, I at least can say that I have the parent mentality somewhat figured out. I love my kids, I want what’s best for them, I want to provide for them, etc., etc. Not that I’m making light of it, but it’s all the sorts of things any half-decent parent would readily say about their kids. And what would any half-decent parent do if a couple of their kids were suddenly stuck halfway around the world and needed to get home? You’d do whatever you had to do, make whatever arrangements you had to make, sparing no expense, to make sure they could get home or you’d go and get them yourself, right?

That’s where I am. I now have two children halfway around the world, and I want to bring them home. But I can’t, because it’s not time yet. And that’s what just feels wrong. Even though they don’t understand it, even though they know nothing about me yet except a single photo I’m hoping they saw today, I’m their Dad now. But I’m here and they’re way over there, and I can’t fix that. It’s not time yet.

I was telling one of our pastors about this on Sunday after worship, about how it just feels weird to suddenly have two more kids and not be able to go get them and bring them home, and his comment became a trigger to a deeper realization for me. He nodded in understanding of what I was trying to convey, and then he said, “You know, God knows exactly how you feel. He has children all over the world…”

And suddenly it hit me. It hit me so hard I couldn’t help but blurt it out even as I was still grasping its reality: “And he wants to bring them home!” Now I’m not talking about “coming home” as in believers dying. I’m talking about people who are incredibly loved by God and don’t even know it yet. People who have no idea how much He loves them and wants them to come home to Him. People who don’t understand how much He paid to give them a way to do that, no matter how far away they are now.

Is that you? Please come home. He loves you so much, and can’t wait to pick you up and hold you and be with you. The ticket’s already paid for, in full. You just have to get on the plane.

Kerry over at the Voice of the Orphan has a good post on the place of submission in God’s order, and the effect its absence can have on ministry.