I am Native American.

No, really, I am. Ignore the blonde hair, blue eyes and freckles--technically, as I am 1/16 Cherokee, I just barely meet the "blood quantum" required for enrollment with the Cherokee tribe.
 
And theoretically speaking, if my life were very different than it is and my brother and I had at one point ended up as candidates for adoption, we could have found ourselves being forced to live on a reservation with people we’d never met, regardless of the wishes of my immediate, non-Native-American family members. (see article)
 
Anyone who knows me also knows that the last thing I am is racist, so obviously I would have nothing against N.A. tribes wishing to preserve their customs, heritage, etc. But, as highly as I value each race's heritage and uniqueness, there is something that I value infinitely higher: humanity. Just simple, freakin' humanity. There is nothing humane about placing children in a home where they are exposed to physical harm just because of an outdated, nearly 30-year-old law that has been expanded well beyond its original context and intent.

I've known for several years that I will eventually want to adopt at least one child. For the past year or so, in spite of the trend to adopt children from 3rd world countries, I've really think I will adopt from the States. Sometimes I don't think people realize that just because a child is in the United States doesn't necessarily mean he or she is living any better than a child in Developing Country X. (again, just read the article)
 
Everyone's heard the stories about American parents who had to go to insane measures, time, expense, etc. to be able to bring their child home from China.
 
What doesn't make sense to me is how screwed-up the adoption system is just in America itself. Why do social services/adoption agencies have such bad reps when it comes to facilitating good adoptions? Why do we hear so many stories of healthy families put through hell just because of the occasional "know-it-all" SS rep who thinks he/she knows what's best for the children they barely even know? I know it probably boils down to selfish people who have their "rights," plus impersonal governmental standards and laws that are full of unrealistic, bureaucratic red tape.
 
It really gets under my skin, if you didn't notice.

“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us,

“…so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.” Romans 15:4
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I thought I buried you deep
I buried you in my skin
And when the night’s at its darkest
You come back to me again

I thought I’d leave you behind
I turned and I ran away
But in the silence between my steps
Your footsteps follow me

You come back to haunt me
You come back and make me feel alone
You come back to haunt me like the fear I can’t let go

I tried to gather the shards
That you’d left scattered all over me
They’d broken off underneath the surface

You come back to haunt me
You come back and make me feel alone
You come back to haunt me like the fear I can’t let go

But ghosts I see right through
And I can see through you
So all you’ll ever do
Is be a shade I see tomorrow through

You haunt me
You come back to make me feel alone
But you’re only what breaks me
So that someday I’ll be whole
You come back to haunt me

~Justin McRoberts



* * *



Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:2-3

"…Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and I will live to enjoy the light. Job 33:28

"Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security. I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before.” Jeremiah 33:6-7

[We pray that you will be] strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. Colossians 1:11-12

You came near when I called you, and you said, "Do not fear." O Lord, you took up my case; you redeemed my life. Lamentations 3:57-58

"I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, that you forget the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth?...” Isaiah 51:12-13


[if you actually got this far,] feel free to add more…

proof that blogging is good for melinda...and a thought that changed the world

Within the past year or so, I’ve gotten very used to the concept of having stark internal contradictions, but I can’t say I’ve gotten used to each one in particular…

On one point, it is so strange, it is just so strange, that you can at once reject something as ridiculous, and have it be an inseparable part of you. That you can lament how it’s manifest in someone else’s life, and yet be unable to stop it within your own. That you can wholeheartedly declare you will have no part of it, all the while forgetting, somehow, that it has been with you for a long time, and is not looking to leave.

You’d think I would be used to that, since that’s really the way sin works, too. Hm.

That really makes me think, now, and I can’t believe I haven’t thought of it this way before…but maybe it’s possible for God’s grace to extend even further than the realm of sin, and into our own personality, memory and even instinct. What a wonderful measure of grace, of mercy, that would be.

Maybe it’s possible that I have too narrow a perception of “sin,” and the “grace” that wipes it out. Maybe Christ saved us in one fell swoop from eternal damnation because of sin, but maybe God also continually saves us from ourselves in this life, from everything that is not of Him, which is nearly everything we are, ever since shortly after the Beginning…

Wait a second…

What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

oh

So I’m slow. That’s okay, Bono’s probably already long-figured everything I’ll ever come across, anyway…    

who wrote this? who taught them to end a press release like that????

"McCARTNEY OFFERS COBAIN/LOVE DAUGHTER INTERNSHIP2006-04-05 16:26:19 -

Print article

Refer to a friend

SIR PAUL McCARTNEY's designer daughter STELLA has offered the daughter of KURT COBAIN and COURTNEY LOVE an internship at her New York store.The kind-hearted 34-year-old knows what it's like to grow up with famous parents,

and so decided to give 13-year-old FRANCES BEAN the summer (06) job. An insider tells British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, 'Stella knows how difficult it can be to have famous parents, so she's keen to help out Kurt and Courtney Love's daughter in any way she can. Frances is 13 and dreams of a career in fashion, so this ought to be an interesting experience for her.' NIRVANA frontman Cobain killed himself in 1994."



oh that just cracks me up

oh, blogspot. old friend. i have so much i want to say to you, but i never visit you anymore because time for the moment is too precious to be spent on you. i'm sorry for being harsh, but it's true.