Crazy Weekend Part I- A Day of Simplicity

As I mentioned to you in one of my last posts, I had a retreat (time to get away from the world for Religious recollection) coming up at a place called a Seminary. Some of you may not know what that term means. Simply put, it's a place where Catholic Guys go to be trained to become Priests. That's the translation of the word for the place I go to. I am not in training or anything. You have to be in or out of college. I go there for what they call the Cathedral Prep Program. Its just a weekend for guys considering the Priesthood to hang out, do some praying and have some fun.

This is St' Joseph's Seminary. I don't know what it is about it .Maybe the fact it resembles a Castle or a mansion. Maybe the great memories and friends I've had and met. Needless to say the phrase "Be still my soul" materializes instantly when you go through the gate.

While the usual weekend runs from Friday night to Sunday morning, the "Kick-off day" was going to be simply Saturday from 9-5. We'd start off with a little breakfast for the families, have a pretty extensive tour and then us guys would start our day. Breakfast was kind of short for us because we had gotten there a little bit later, but the tour was extensive and amazing.

These are just a couple of the beautiful things around the grounds. The building directly above is for the guys who are in the college seminary (either doing their four college years or two years of philosophy before entering the four years of major Seminary if they've already done college) to eat, take some classes and pray in a pretty little chapel they have. Oh, and that nice looking chair you might have spotted above? Both Pope Benedict and our dearly departed (and beloved) John Paul II used it when they came to America and visited the place.

The day was great altogether. Praying, having mass, and oh yeah...

                   They've kinda got a gi-mongous gym as well :D. And those Bowling alleys are kinda from the World's Fair on Coney Island.

I think sometimes people get the wrong impression about what religous life really is. They get the idea that its hard, humorless work, and that once you're out of training you sit in a dark room for the rest of your life mumbling prayers. the prep weekends have shown me, in the words of Fr. Joseph Espaillat at http://www.nypriest.com/, "when I was living with the priests in high school at Cathedral Prep, I got to see the human side of the priesthood. A man who ate ice cream, would go to the movies and play basketball. Yet, he had an intense spiritual relationship with God.”

While when Father Espaillat was in prep it was an actual high school program, the message is the same; a priest is a normal guy. He may not wear normal clothes or live a normal civilian life, but at his core he does everything your normal man does, just hypercharged with Christ.

Needless to say, you'll hear plenty more about these weekends in the months to come. And I hope through what I tell you, you'll come to experience the same joy those weekends of simple prayer and fun bring me.

How AMAZING He is

Our God is an Awesome God, he Reigns, from Heaven above, with Wisdom, Power, and Love our God is an awesome God- Rich Mullins, Awesome God

God. He's just awesome. He can turn something tough around, turn your life around, even turn you around for that matter. "He's got the whole world in his hands" as the saying goes. Case in point: Tonight.

I had just gotten back from an amazing Concert with Steven, Caleb, and Mary Beth Chapman (my next set of blogs is my crazy weekend) and was excited after it and kind of tired. I got an E-mail from a friend who has about the HUGEST heart for orphans I know of. She's totally on fire for the cause and works at it with a LOT of persistence. About six months ago, a little bit after we met, she brought a bunch of pictures of kids off http://www.reecesrainbow.com/ and offered them to anyone in her small girl's church group who wanted some cute little special needs kid to pray for. Her leader took one as well. All this time, my friend wasn't sure who had stayed consistent and who hadn't. Well, she was talking with the group leader today and she mentioned she was still praying for that little kid she had picked months ago. My friend asked who it was. It was, indeed,

Our little Jenny.

This is NOT pure coincidence. I am truly amazed at God's sense of humor and providence here. Just as me and my friend were getting to know each other, my mom was praying about adopting again. At that same time, a lady began praying for a little girl with Down Syndrome who didn't have a family. Coincidence? Hardly. It is, without a doubt, without question, without error...
     
God.

Experiences

Well, it's been a packed first two days of school. My program I'm using is GREAT, but it's definitely a full day's work. I've kind of made it my focus aside from saying my Morning, Evening, and Nightly prayers (I'll explain that another time). But Today, adoption kind of came back to perspective. We had an event kind of shake up a family we've been in contact with and it really made me think about getting Jenny home. I can't wait to get over there. I can't wait to hold her, kiss, hug her, play with her, and get to experience her native culture (however interesting that may end up being). I thought about something else though: what's she gonna think of these strangers coming in, plucking her out of the only environment she's know? When we get to the hotel, is she gonna flip that suddenly these two strangers (maybe three) are the only ones around, and that she's completely a fish out of water? Is she just gonna roll with it? How well will she sleep? I guess we could try lullabies, but I'm not exactly a lullaby virtuoso and I don't think "Blessed be your name" isn't exactly gonna cut it. What started this whole train of thought though, was that I found myself humming "You are my sunshine" quietly while I was working. I kinda fumbled with my poetry skills (that'll be another post) and pulled up this:

While the first verse is obviously the classic, I wrote the following three myself. I tried to upload a video, but It didn't work :(

                                      You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
                                      You make me happy, when skies are gray
                                      You'll never know, dear, how much I love you,
                                      So please don't take my little sunshine away
                                                          
                                      You are my Moon beam, my shining Moon beam,
                                      You keep me waking, when I should sleep. 
                                      You'll never know, dear, how much I love you,
                                      So Please Don't take my little Moon beam away
                                                             
                                      You are my light ray, my shining light ray.
                                      You light the darkness when I've lost my way
                                      You'll never know, dear, how much I love you,
                                      So please don't take my little light ray away

                                     You are our Jenny, our precious Jenny,
                                     Your little smile, wipes our cares away
                                     You'll never know, dear, how long we've waited
                                    So please come now, to our home, to stay

I hope Jenny will like this. I'm going to think of it as my personal gift to Jenny. I feel like something like this which would sooth her if she was uneasy or put her to sleep would mean more and could be a good ice breaker between the two of us to start off a beautiful friendship.

I've got some big stuff coming up: A weekend at the seminary (again, another post, as are most things on SATT aka Swimming AGAINST the tide), a concert with the Chapman family (as in Steven Curtis Chapman. Look in the music page for him), a Celtic Thunder concert (just google or youtube search them), all on the soon-to-be-happening list, as well as A transcontinental trip God-willing around wintertime to Eastern Europe.

Ah, experiences. They just never stop coming.

Vacationing Last Hurrah

Well, tomorrow starts School. While I'm glad to have a slightly more definitive schedule, the laziness of summer is always nice. Because of having to be ready to spend a thick wad of cash on plane tickets to Eastern Europe for Jenny, we've kept to our backyard paradise this summer. We did a day trip a while back out to The Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge Massachusetts, but other than that we'd just relaxed or went on crazy adoption adventures to state buildings around us. This weekend with my Dad getting a long weekend for Labor Day, we ventured out about an hour and a half to Norwalk, Connecticut for an Aquarium visit. Addisu is enthralled with animals and literally spent about 15 minute or more just staring at some of the exhibits. I had been out there back in my Fifth Grade year of school as our big "Last Field trip," and they had greatly improved their exhibits since.

My little traveling buddy. Sassy and funny any time, anywhere. Havin' some fun in the car on the way down.

We arrived in good timing and were ready to start our exciting day at the aquarium, we also had this guy sitting there to welcome us:

A BIG, inflatable meerkat awaiting us. They had an entire exhibit dedicated to them. Amazing little creatures indeed (more on them later).

My Dad bought our tickets and all that spiel and then we started our day with lunch in this beautiful cafe they have.

I'm a sucker for architecture and shots like this. It was really amazing to see all the boughs and chords making up this huge room.

From there we headed onto the exhibits. Probably the biggest hit of the day was these guys:

The seals. Such amazing creatures. I really couldn't comprehend how such big, blubbery creatures could be such amazing swimmers (and quite graceful at that), but that's just God the Creator for ya. :D

Next were some fellow Africans for Addisu to see (well, kinda)! They had this new African Penguin exhibit from when I had been there, and they were pretty funny.

These things would give any photographer a good chuckle. They clearly get the fact they're not short on attention from us crazy humans and they'll pose and look directly at you and the whole nine yards. On top of that, they'll swim straight up to the glass and stare you straight in the eyes. Personality much? :D

From there we went into probably one of the most daring exhibits you'll ever see in an aquarium.

A sting Ray pool. While there's nothing daring about looking, you're encouraged to touch them, and they've been known to come up and splash you.

Addisu had quite a few  laughs/shrieks when he got splashed by them, but nobody but me was man enough to actually touch them. :)

From there, we did the travelling exhibit they had: the meerkats. They're pretty well known at this point, between silly things like Timone from Lion King to actual documentaries like Meerkat Manor, but I still didn't know  a whole lot about them. They truly are amazing little critters. while they're in a community and all sleep in one big hollow together (figured I'd spare you that image), each is so dedicated to their job that they are almost a community of individuals.

The exhibit was pretty elaborate, and once they all woke up from their nap, they were everywhere.

The rest of the day was interesting as well. We saw an exhibit with some Fish from the Long Island Sound (at which my camera's battery croaked) and after that we went to the aquarium's IMAX Theater. They had a couple different options for what to see, but we saw a documentary on ocean life. Watching the extreme wonder's of God's creation on a six story tall screen was absolutely breathtaking. Even Addisu was amazed by it (so much that he conked out on Dad :D ). I don't think we realize how much we don't know or understand about God's true power and awesomeness. It was as if you saw another world entirely, a whole other eco-system, yet it's part of our world. How amazing it was.

After that, we headed to a nearby beach so Addisu and Gab could see the ocean, feel the sand on their feet. I love beaches and large bodies of water. I could stand and squish the wet sand between my toes while the water flows in and out all day. I absolutely loved it, and needless to say next your our little blond addition will get to visit it as well.

So all in all, it was a great last Hurrah to a great summer. Now starts the school adventure...

Absolute Satisfaction

Well, guys my weekend, while not over yet, has been pretty crazy. Lots of mini house improvement projects (i.e. cleaning garages, dumping garbage at garbage dumps, wrestling with Amazon MP3 to let me buy Born Again, the newest Newsboys album, stuff like that. Alright, maybe wrestling with amazon.com doesn't count as home improvement, but it is music improvement :D) and lots of excercise has tired me out. But this makes it all worth it:

This little guy's happy face when he gets to play baseball in the front yard with his "Cayeb" before bath time.

                                                             So from catching baseballs...

                                                                  To shooting hoops...

                                To being a cheeser and just having fun, a night well spent indeed.

                                             And hey, when your other little brother finds an antique desk on the side of the road for FREE, it makes it all worth it!

(yeah, people, this thing was FREE)

Catching Fire is ON FIRE!

So for those of you who have read since the blog's genesis, you know one of my first posts reviewed a book called The Hunger Games (click that there text for that post). I greatly enjoyed the book, with or without its pitfalls. But by the time my fingers turned the last crisp page, i was indeed hungry for more (no pun intended). My sister was rereading it before Mockingjay (cannot wait to get my hands on that), but I had it in my hands very quickly and dove whole-heartily back into the post-apocalyptic country of Panem and the mind of Katniss Everdeen. (Spoiler warning for the next couple paragraphs. explaining some of the philosophy involves a couple minor spoilers.)

Well, she did it. Katniss successfully got both her and her comrade (and maybe more than that) Peeta Mellark out of the Hunger Games, making it the first year there were two Victors. But the Capitol has no intention of letting Katniss get away with this Scott-free. Haymitch Abernathy, Katniss and Peeta's mentor (and former victor to the Games himself), warned Katniss to be ready for anything. So far however, Katniss seems to be off the hook.

Until now.

One day Katniss comes home to her new and beautiful house in the Victor's Village after spending some time in the forest she has found solace in for so many years to find an unexpected guest: the Head of Panem, President Snow. And boy has he got it in for her. Katniss's slight act of rebellion in the arena has sent ripples throughout the Districts sparking sizable groups of discontented people to rebel in growing aggression. So the President's deal for Katniss is a simple one: act as if she's still the ditsy star-crossed lover of Peeta Mellark she pretended to be in the Capitol when the two of them go on the Victor's tour (which is, in short, the Capitol's way of rubbing fresh salt into the wounds of the families who lost their children as the Victor tours the country) and the President won't have Katniss's friends and family disposed of on the spot. But Katniss has her own set of issues to comply with. Ever since the awkward exchange Katniss and Peeta had on the way back to District 12 from the Games where Peeta found out Katniss wasn't as smitten with him as he'd thought (which Katniss wasn't entirely sure of), Peeta's held Katniss at a distance, and while they still talk and associate, the wounds the encounter left Peeta with are quite apparent. And her old friend Gale, in whom she had a confidant and a friend, is now working in the coal mines and was (needless to say) slightly turned off by the acts of affection Katniss displayed for this boy she had just met as compared to him, who she had known for much longer. Top that all off with the fact he now loves her as well, and you have quite the romantic turmoil. But it's clear once Katniss goes on the Victor's tour with Peeta that what Katniss did was merely unhinge the door that had been holding back years of discontent, abuse, and planning of some secret plan Katniss doesn't even realize exists. Things worsen when a new regime of Peace Keepers (police) takes over  for the lax (and kind-hearted for the most part) ones and make the previously tough life for the residents of District 12 grueling. And when the Quarter Quell, the little "twist" on the Hunger Games that occurs every 25 years (each time some new sickening change-up to the normal horror the Games bring) happens, Katniss and Peeta are thrust back into a universe they'd hoped never to enter again. The hunt for survival and, more importantly, saving each other, goes to an extreme that will change the course of the entire story.

This as an amazing sequel to an amazing novel. Much of the moral ambiguity that bugged the first book for me is solved, and as an added bonus, Katniss definitely keeps the importance of human life, both her's, her family's and (spoiler warning!!!!) her fellow Hunger Games Players  once she has to enter the Games again  at the front of her mind when she is making critical choices throughout the story. Peeta demonstrates ample self-sacrifice in the Games when he promises Katniss he'll protect her, even if it means dying in the arena just so she can return to her mother and sister and have a quiet life with Gale. As a slight downer, though, Katniss and Peeta do share a bed multiple times in the book, and while they don't deliberately engage each other, and it can be argued they are engaged, it still gives off a slightly immoral vibe, and could give off a message to some girls looking for the security of someone who will love them like Peeta (who is, by the way, an excellent role model for guys in their teens) that it's OK to bring that security into all areas of your life.

On the whole, though Catching Fire is amazing. It delivers some solid messages about survival and sacrifice, and certainly gives you a ride right up to the last word. I think this is THE book to read if you want a cliff hanger like nothing you've expected. If  Katniss is the Girl on Fire, then this is the Book on Fire!   

Letters to God- is AMAZING!

So this summer, I've seen a LOT of movies. I saw Iron Man 2 a total 3 times, The Last Airbender, the Karate Kid (the Jayden Smith one), Despicable Me, Sorcerer's Apprenitce, Toy Story 3, Inception twice (maybe a third time!), and Charlie St. Cloud (surprisingly good. I'll definitely post my thoughts of that at some point, probably around its DVD release). None even compete with one I saw tonight: Letters to God.

I first heard of Letters to God about 6 months ago when it made a limited theatrical release .While it didn't touch anywhere near me, my favorite Web publication of all time, http://www.pluggedin.com/, reviewed it being as their a Christian publication connected directly to Focus on the Family. I read the review, thought it sounded nice, and didn't think much more of it. I definitely thought it would be nice to see it being as the producer of Fireproof (a christian flick about the sacredness of marriage  I greatly enjoyed) was producer and Director of this.

Then today, as I'm sitting on the couch in extreme oral pain (more on that later) when myMom gets my attention because of an E-mail she received. "Hey Caleb," she says "That Letters to God movie you were telling me about is being advertised by American Family Association (an organization devoted to defending traditional christian family values)." I had mentioned the movie to Mom when we were brainstorming Fundraisers for our adoption as a potential movie night, and had kind of forgotten that. "Oh, I said, that's cool." My mom then viewed the trailer and wanted to see if we could get it from our Netflix account. They had it on instant play and we decided to stream it through our Wii system that night. Before reviewing it though, I'll give you some background.

Tyler's been kind of sick. Well, more than kinda. After 30 chemo treatments and brain surgery, this kid's seen more Hospital days than most Part-time nurses do in years of working there. Through it all, though, he's writing his thoughts and Prayers to God on paper and sending them in the mail to Him. Enter in Brady McDaniels, a messed-up substitute Mail man who's got Tyler on his route. One day, Tyler sweetly hands him one of his Letters and Brady accepts it, a little confused though. "This kid on my route is writing letters. Letters to God. What do you want me to do with them?" he asks his boss. "I don't know, Brady, this is your journey." His boss replies, taking him completely off-guard. When Brady tries to drop the letters and run at the local Christian Church, the pastor catches him and asks if he can pray over him and the "mission" God has given him. Brady slowly starts spending more time talking and playing with Tyler, and makes his way into the hearts of Tyler's Mom, Grandma, and older brother Ben. The movie then plays out across the next couple months as Tyler's family is touched by the Letters he's written to God, and encounters God at every corner, even if they don't always feel it.

This movie was Phenomenal. It shows this truly beautiful soul affecting those around him in beautiful ways, bringing them all closer together. The sheer level of spiritual content makes up for everything the movie could lose points on. At times the acting is a tad campy, the sets a little bit lacking, but for me at least, I became so caught up in all of the Characters, but namely Tyler's spiritual journeys and experiences the film didn't lose any of its impact on me. There was one great dialogue that really stuck though. as Brady sits with his boss on one of the benches outside the church, Brady confesses "I can't keep a grip on life. Everything that I touch turns to dust and slips through my fingers." His boss replies "Well, Brady, put your hands together." Brady does that. "Alright, now intertwine your fingers. Now nothing can be lost." It really seemed like a great metaphor. and how true it is.

Go see Letters to God. Despite the fact you'll be bummed you needed about nine boxes of tissues (you have been warned. This is a tear jerker!) to make it through, you'll be amazed by David Nixon's latest and greatest.