Carlisle Daily - Carlisle, Ohio's Community Website: June 2011

COLUMBUS—State Representatives Peter Beck (R-Mason) and Jarrod Martin (R-Beavercreek) today announced the passage of House Bill 92 from the Ohio Senate. This legislation will allow individuals to adopt an adult child as long as the adult child gives consent to the adoption. Currently, individuals are unable to adopt their spouse’s children from a previous marriage simply because the children were age 18 or older at the time of marriage.

“I am pleased to see the passage of House Bill 92 from the Ohio Senate unanimously because, as an adoptive father myself, I feel this is an important piece of legislation that will help strengthen Ohio’s families and will aid the needs of stepparents and stepchildren,” said Rep. Beck. “House Bill 92 will bridge the gap of Ohio’s adoption laws and allow the adoption adults as well as adults who are transferring out of foster care.”

Under current law, an adult can only be adopted if he or she is totally and permanently disabled; is determined to be a mentally handicapped person as defined in current law; has established a child-foster caregiver or child-stepparent relationship with the petitioners for adoption as a minor and now consents to the adoption; and was, at the time of his or her 18th birthday, in the permanent custody of a public children services agency or a private child placement agency and now consents to the adoption.

“I was inspired to draft House Bill 92 by Randy and Barb Franklin, a couple who live in my district and who wished to see a change in the law,” said Representative Martin. “I am proud to have been able to work with them, as well as Representative Beck on this legislation. Seeing their joy after the bill first passed the House, and now the Senate, makes my job as a legislator entirely worthwhile.”

An amendment was added in committee by the Public Children Services, which would allow adoption of youth who are transferring out of foster care. This would establish “kinship caregiver” relationships and allow youth who are in the “planned permanent living arrangement” to be adopted if they turn eighteen while in this arrangement.

Reps. Martin and Beck jointly introduced this legislation on February 8th with the hopes that House Bill 92 will align Ohio with most states regarding this issue. The bill passed by a vote of 33-0 and will now go to the Governor for his signature.

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Contributed by Bleached Blonde Mind:

In a perfect world, my daily dinner would be bread, wine and cheese. What a wellbalanced meal, right? Ok, throw in a few pieces of oh, lettuce, to make it food pyramid-worthy.

So, for some reason, my friends’ think that I may obsessed with these perfect foods. A lot. I mean just because I have a bumper sticker that says “life is gouda”, or an apron that says “life is bleu-tiful” doesn’t mean I would go through withdrawals if I couldn’t eat it – as far as I know. Even though my beach towel shows a picture of three bottles of wine and says “group therapy” doesn’t mean I actually need the therapy does it?

When asked if man could live on bread alone, I would venture to say “heck yes!” But only if it’s served with olive oil, fresh Parmesan cheese, and – oh yes, vino.

Bread is the food of the gods. Especially San Francisco sour dough. And rosemary Focaccia with sea salt. Let’s not forget warm salted rye and French bread with roasted garlic.

See what I mean? How could one not love a life of bread? Along with a little Gorgonzola. And Zinfandel. And maybe a few apples and red grapes. This way of eating gets a little difficult when one is trying to cut down on carbs, fat, dairy and sugar. At times it’s a decision: eat healthy or eat what I want. I do know that balance it the key – it’s just that sometimes I ignore that logical tidbit of information.

I have a flag that I bought on a recent trip that my husband refuses to hang outside our home. It says “Wine a bit – you’ll feel better.” Well, yeah! It works! He doesn’t think it’s funny. Or maybe it’s the wine tote I have that says “Will trade husband for wine.” No sense of humor.

A loaf of bread, a chunk of cheese, a bottle of wine and thou. Isn’t that how the famous saying goes? Life is too short to not enjoy your favorite things. Julie Andrews has her “raindrops on roses and whispers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens.” My song goes more like this: “Swiss cheese on rye bread and brie that is gooey, bright chardonnay wine and French bread that’s chewy…” Well you get the picture. So I fully to intend to embrace my love for all things Mediterranean. After all, “Life IS a Cabernet, old chums”.

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Contributed by Joe Marinich:

“He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

-Matthew 18:2-3

I have heard this verse spoken and talked about many times, and almost every time it has to do with faith. I think this passage has an extremely deeper meaning. It says that we adults need to change and be like a children in order to be able to embrace the Kingdom of God, it doesn't call out faith specifically.

About two years ago my daughter who was 5 at the time observed a group of people huddled around a man after church one day. She asked my wife what was going on and my wife explained to her that the man; Kevin, needed new lungs and the other people were praying for him to get better.

We thought nothing about this because it was a normal interaction, yet from that day forward she prayed almost every night for “her friend Kevin.” She didnt know Kevin exceptionaly well, yet she called him “my friend Kevin.” Each night before bed she remembered him, in Sunday School class she remembered him, and even in non prayer times she remembered him.

Well, Kevin had a rare lung disease called IPF and after almost 2 years of waiting while he was in route to Pittsburgh to wait is turn for his new lungs he died. It was simply tragic, a guy fights for his life for several years and now that progress was being made he died. It didnt seem fair at the time, and it doesnt seem fair now, but it was reality.

Our church family was heartbroken but mostly my wife and I dreaded the conversation we were about to have with our now 7 year old. How are we going to explain this? I mean she prayed every night for the guy and he died anyway, why? How were we going to answer her hard questions about prayer and why God doesn't answer prayer? What were we going to tell her when she asks us why and how God would let this happen? These are questions we wrestle with as adults, and I had to explain it to a 7 year old?

Now was our moment it was time to tell our child her friend Kevin had died. We called her over and said “(Daughter) we have some bad news.”

Worried she replies, “What is it?”

I go on to say, “Its about your friend Kevin...” Interupting she asks, “Did he die?”

Confused we simply say yes, and now here it was she asks, “Why did he die?”

After tears on her part and painful sympathy on our part we explain to her that he ran out of time and didn't make it to the new hospital. Then we told her that now we need to pray for his wife and kids. Do you know what she said next? She said ok and that she would pray for his family to not be sad.

Wow! As adults we confuse and complicate things. We are the ones who ask the insecure questions about God while we self medicate and comfort by saying things like “He’s in a better place now,” or “He is good now, we are the ones still sick.” What a cold hearted pile of crap. Although those things are true, they are not helpful.

See, my daughter was upset, but she didn’t question God, or doubt prayer she simply accepted the circumstance and asked God to bring comfort to hurting people. She shifted focus of prayer instead of making it hard, complicated, and asinine.

Image by MAWSpitau via Flickr

Contributed by Joe Marinich:

Last week we sat down as a family to watch the “The Karate Kid.” Not the original one, but the new one with Will Smith’s kid and Jackie Chan in it. I was really skeptical because I hate Jackie Chan movies, and was surprised that I actually enjoyed the movie. Well, the movie is about Dre who is a 12 year old boy who was forced to move to China and is constantly beat up. Chan’s character is an older guy named Mr. Han and he watches out for Dre, and finally decides to teach him Kung Fu.

Now, I’m not sure why they called the movie the Karate Kid because no one does Karate in the movie, everyone practices Kung Fu... Let me digress and tell you why I am writing a movie review. Although not remotely as good as the original movie, this movie makes an effort to deepen the back stories of the main characters.

Through out most of the movie we see Mr. Han working on a VolksWagonthat is parked in his living room. Sometimes the movie points this out, and other times we simply see him sanding, or welding, etc. About half way through the movie I was surprised by a profound moment that takes place that involves thecar.

Late one night Dre walks in on an obviously drunk Mr. Han while he is beating his car with a sledge Hammer. After destroying the car he opens the driver side door and sits in silence. After a little pressing from Dre we find out that Mr. Han was married with a son, and that while fighting with his wife while driving one day he wrecked the car. His wife and son had died but he remained to deal with life after them. After an awkward silence Mr. Han finally says, “Every year I fix the car, but still fix nothing.”

Think about that statement for a second. Instead of dealing with his pain, he relives the moment every year hoping that somehow by undoing the wreck he can somehow fix his guilt and pain. Then when it doesn't work he destroys it to try it the next year.

Let me ask, how many of us are fixing cars only to destroy them so that we can repeat the cycle all over again. You see do this same things in our lives and unfortunately like Mr. Han no matter how many times we fix our cars, we still fix nothing.

Dre then pulls Mr. Han out of the car and gets him to go outside to continue training. Mr. Han seems as if he gets a second chance at life and discovers his purpose through training Dre. Later in another touching scene Mr. Han tells Dre that he had taught him a valuable lesson. Mr. Han then says, “Life will knock us down, but we can choose mad or not to get back up.”

You see, we all have that car we fix hoping to somehow fix something wrong with us at the same time. When it doesn't work we destroy it so that we can be distracted by the working only to be let down again. We get stuck in a cycle of continual hurt, pain, and destruction. We, like Mr. Han, must find away to have purpose and move on with our lives. We have to deal with our circumstances, be mad, get back up, and start to contribute again.

We cant control most situations in our lives, but we can control how we react to those situations. That is the lesson we see in this movie. Mr. Han found a way to move on, and changed not only Dre’s life but also his own.

Its ok to be upset and to grieve, but we must choose to do something about it. We need to stop fixing our cars, and start dealing with our issues. We also need to allow God to rebuild us into something He can use. Lets get out of the destructive cycle that fixes nothing and let God control our circumstances.

Thank you “Kung Fu Kid”, for teaching us all a valuable lesson.

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