Always Room For More (Column 3) April 28, 2010

At the end of her high school years, my best friend, Christyn Garvin, gained two new siblings. She was the baby of the family, and the adoption of Tyler and Austin made sense because we all thought that she wanted to avoid that, “empty nest” syndrome that was looming over the horizon.

The arrival of Christyn’s new brothers was my first experience around adopted children and parents. It was not that I expected them to be any different from any other little boys, but I was more intrigued by the process of new individuals coming into an already existing family. They began looking for just one child, but the social worker called during the process and asked if they would also consider taking his older brother. Naturally they agreed because they recognized the amazing opportunity to keep the brothers together, regardless of their rough start in life.

 The Garvin’s eventually began adding to their brood of kids,  even with their own biological kids being grown and out of the house.Each of the six kids: Austin,Tyler,Zoey,Joshua,Karys, and Taitanna were in the Child Protective Services before being placed with, and adopted into my friends’ family.

Karys and Zoey are biological sisters, and before they could be officially adopted into the family, the birth mother fought to keep them in her unhealthy and unstable home. The state filed unimaginable child abuse charges against her, but they still had to fight to terminate her parental rights. True to the tradition of small towns and the impossibility of doing anything without someone you know, my father was chosen for the jury on that trial. Eventually justice prevailed, and Zoey and Karys became an official member of the Garvin family.

Having the privilege of observing the Garvin’s journey of adoption through the CPS process, I’ve learned the necessity of people reaching out and making room for these children who desperately need homes. Adoption is a beautiful opportunity to expand your heart for a little more room to love and have the child love you.

According to the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange,

More than 6,000 abused and neglected children in Texas are awaiting adoption and about 60 percent of them are age 6 or older. The older the child, the longer they tend to wait for adoption.Being an adoptive parent or foster family isn’t easy, but just as in birth families, adults get through with a good sense of humor and tolerance for a growing youth. Anyone who adopts or fosters an older child must be comfortable with the fact that they will make mistakes. It takes love, courage, endurance, commitment, and faith. Most of all, it takes someone who cares and can advocate for that child.

While my enthusiasm for adoption, especially those who are in abusive situations is high, I do recognize that not every family has the ability to do it.  Reality often does not help our dreams or intentions, but its the awareness of the issues of child abuse and adoption that does not cost anyone anything.  That is a lesson that will always make me grateful to the Garvin family for teaching me, and for their simplest display of love and affection for each other.

Don’t Mess With Perry’s Dog! April 28, 2010

I actually enjoyed this story about Governor Perry and protecting his dog.

Big Observations of a Small Town (Column 2) April 28, 2010

I was raised in Liberty, Texas. It is a small town, located east of Houston, and is the “First City on the Trinity (River)”. You can drive through town in ten minutes or less, all depending on how many of the five red lights you catch on Main street. The schools are virtually on the same street, and its extremely common to have the same people in your class from kindergarten to high school. 

The crown jewel of the city is our Wal-Mart, which is the second largest in the state, or so I’m told. It is the largest  source of  retail entertainment for the town, and you should never count on just “running to the store” because you will always run into someone you know.

If you would rather not spend your time and money at Wal-Mart, the other popular past time is going out to whatever high school game is in season. These athletes are the fastest,strongest, and most talented group of young people who any college scout could ever lay eyes on, or at least that is what their parents, grandparents, and random assortment of other relatives will be quick to tell you in the stands. In all reality however, I cannot remember the last winning season we had in any sport.

That does not stop the entire town from viewing the quarterback, star pitcher, or random member of the volleyball team as local celebrities. One of my closest friends, who is actually quite athletically talented, can hardly eat out without someone stopping by to say, “hello”, even though she’s been out of high school for over four years.

Country artist, and  fellow small-town girl, Miranda Lambert describes the way of life  in small towns as,

They say life is so much sweeter
Through the telephoto lens of fame
Around here you get just as much attention
Cheerin’ at the high school football game

Whether you’re late for church
Or you’re stuck in jail
Hey, word’s gonna get around.

She is right in so many ways. Being a citizen of a small town is more like being a member of an extremely large family. Everyone is eager to cheer you on when you’re doing something right, but they also love to talk about you when everything’s going wrong in your life.

For everything that it is, and everything that it is not, Liberty is home. I believe that John Ed Pearce once captured the feeling of home best when he said, ” Home is the place that you grow up wanting to leave, but grow old wanting to get back to.”  Not much goes on in the small town of mine, but in some ways that’s comforting, and because everyone knows you so well, there’s plenty of life lessons to be taught along the way.

The pace in small towns allows you take an occasional step back from life and truly get to know people. One of the greatest tragedies of life stems from never knowing your neighbors, or understanding the struggles of a fellow classmate.

The people in Liberty understand this, and work to reach out to others in any way that they can. Specifically for the kids, the local churches in the area created a program called, “Friends in Deed” that helps provide clothes,school supplies, Christmas gifts to children that would not have it otherwise. It is amazing to think of how the simplest of acts allows these children to focus and better themselves in school. I owe a great deal of my success in school to Liberty as well. I graduated high school at the top of my class, but then was awarded one of the largest scholarships in the county. It was a great honor and blessing to receive such an award.

Several of my classmates in high school spent a great deal of time devoted to looking for a way out of Liberty. It was always interesting to see that as time passed, a majority of them came back in some way or another. Small towns like mine allow you to enjoy knowing your neighbors, but having the occasional visit to the “big city” of Houston. In many ways, It’s the best of both worlds.

Thirty-two Million Dollar Eye Sore? April 17, 2010

 

The possibility of the Houston Astrodome being demolished is a topic of heavy discussion among Houstonians and the surrounding suburbs. Events like baseball games and rodeos in the Astrodome made the privilege of growing up in and around Houston a memorable experience.

The Astrodome,  nearly named the Harris County Domed Stadium in nineteen sixty-five, was set to be the home of the three-time American Football League champions,  the Houston Oilers. Due to the team’s rejection of the lease, the team moved to the Rice Stadium and the Astrodome looked for a new tenant.

The Houston Astros quickly moved to become the new team on the highly talked about sports turf. Once the baseball team moved in, the owner nicknamed the park, the Astrodome, and it stuck. The weather controlled establishment and theatre seating did allow fans a nicer place to watch their home team play, but it did come at some scrutiny to some baseball fanatics.

Memorable moments in the Astrodome did not just occur on the field, but for many “Houstonians” the Astrodome holds a unique place in their hearts for other reasons. Creighton Holub, a senior at the University of Houston describes his most memorable moment at the dome as,

I spent some of my better days of high school at the Astrodome with high school football going on those late nights.Many little tidbits of Texas high school football history happened there. For instance, during my senior year at Sealy HS, the last class day of the 1997 winter semester also coincided with the winning of an unprecedented fourth straight football championship. Sealy had won the 1994, 1996, and 1997 titles all at the Dome.That fateful Dec. 19, 1997, evening saw me with a VIP pass since I was the high school yearbook’s sports editor and lead photographer.For a high school kid, having that VIP pass was a BIG thing. I remember getting to ride in the Astrodome’s elevator. Even for a high school game with only 8,000 fans in attendance, the Dome had a man whose job was sit on a stool, ask what floor/where you were going, and he pressed the button for you.Talk about service!

Rodeo fans were also treated to the extravagance that the world’s first domed stadium offered. The Houston Livestock and Rodeo was established in nineteen thirty-two, and quickly became a highly successful fundraiser for the youth of the Houston area. Each year the rodeo awards millions of dollars in scholarship money to graduating high school seniors, and it provides  an agricultural education for the general public. The halls of the Astrodome are filled with memories of this vital part of Houston’s success, and fitting to the greatness and legacy of the building, Country music legend George Strait played the last rodeo concert there in nineteen ninety-seven.

The Astrodome was used for more than entertainment and sports purposes in Houston. In two-thousand and four hurricane Katrina ripped through the southern portion of the United States coastline and devastated cities like New Orleans in its path.  Evacuees from the storm quickly made their way to Houston, where over two thousand people lived in the dome. The openness and generosity of the city brought the attention of celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey.

The Houston Astrodome has been apart of more memorable moments than anyone has the time to count. The “eighth wonder of the world” deserves to be preserved, protected, and recognized as one of the most recognizable buildings in the city. It was a first by so many things, including the ever unpopular Astroturf, that we owe it to future generations to protect the long-standing Houston tradition.

Keeping the Astrodome will cost money, and that’s an established fact.  In the dome’s current state, it is costing around thirty-two million dollars, and most possibilities that have been proposed for the building in the past is reaching close to a half of a billion dollars.  Texas Stadium, the complex before the Dome was demolished fifteen months after its closure, and the Astros have left the Astrodome over a decade ago.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said there is a reason why the Texas Stadium plan formed and moved quickly. That was a single-purpose stadium for a single team sandwiched between two freeways. It had no other purpose. The Astrodome is much more iconic,” he said.  Without that distinction it would be long gone, he said. Instead, it costs taxpayers millions in upkeep and debt payments.The latest pitch is using part of the building as a math, science and technology institute, keeping the open space public as a place for festivals and other activities and leaving open the rest of the building for development.

Whatever the city officials decide, the removal of this iconic building would rob Houston of a part of its rich history. Instead of choosing the easy way out of the financial problem, the city should be searching for others to take the Dome, re-model it, and bring it to its old glory days. This piece of Houston history deserves to be celebrated and protected  from being just a bunch of memories

A Friend in Deed (Column 1) April 13, 2010

While working at a summer camp for teenagers last June, I met Daniel, a guy fresh off of sailing around the world and back. This season of adventure was held with Friend Ships, and fresh out of college Daniel had the opportunity to see the world, while helping to bring the most basic necessities to some of the world’s most impoverished areas. 

Friend Ships, a humanitarian group founded in nineteen eighty-three, provides food, medicine, clothing, and other critical life support relief items to people in need, throughout the world.  Organizations like these are focused on meeting needs for any nation in need ranging from LA to Haiti, and works to keep their name low-key, placing more emphasis on the aid that they provide then gaining any recognition for their work.

Aside from the adventure on the ships, Daniel’s time with Friend Ships was not always easy,

In that time I have contracted one tropical disease, Dengue fever, sailed on two different ships , been on three voyages, saw four countries, lapsed in and out of sleep for five days, while recovering from said disease and spent six months abroad. I have sailed across the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. (all in WWII era vessels) I went from being lost in Jerusalem to stuck in the Canary isles.

Recently, in response to the most recent disaster in Haiti, Friend Ships spent  February in the devastated country providing all and any aid possible. Haiti‘s seven point zero earthquake in January injured or killed over five hundred thousand Haitian nationals. Three out of the nine million people in Haiti were affected by the earthquake, and three hundred thousand children under the age of two are still in need of nutritional support.

Support from the Friend Ships provided the Haitian people with medical attention on one of four twenty-foot mobile super clinics, shelter materials, and basic supplies like food and water. The ships were also loaded with twenty-four hundred pairs of sandals for the people. By providing shoes, they were able to help the Haitian people avoid issues like, a leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted diseases, which can penetrate the skin through bare feet. Wearing shoes can help prevent these diseases, and the long-term physical and cognitive harm they cause. Also, wearing shoes also prevents feet from getting cuts and sores. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected.

Infection and malnutrition should be obsolete in today’s world, but unfortunately its not the case. Friend Ships’s desire combat these devistating forces with as much intensity as they can where,

Friend Ships has delivered over 100 million dollars worth of supplies, equipment, food, clothes and medicine, both in the USA and abroad. People in war torn and natural disaster areas, children in orphanages, the elderly, the out-of-work, and homeless, all have benefited from goods supplied to them by Friend Ships.

Although many of those receiving life-saving help from Friend Ships never even see the ship that carried the help across the sea to their country or the hands of the crew who lovingly worked to make the delivery possible

The ships have a big mission with an refresing motto of, ” unloading the interity” to ensure that they keep what matters most, closest to their hearts.By  volunteering with the ships, the crew is faced with discomfort and possible disease from foreign soil, but the desire to do something bigger than themselves brings them to serve on these” missions of mercy.”  We all cannot take a trip like Daniel’s with an outstanding organization like Friend Ships, but we can look for new ways to reach out to those in our own communities. By providing some of the most basic needs in someone’s life we have the opputunity to make the world a better place.

* Photo Credit: Daniel Hudson

The Last Song April 4, 2010

Ronnie (Miley Cyrus) is not looking forward to spending her summer with her father, who divorced her mother when she was eleven. 

 Ronnie awkwardly avoids any connection with her father by spending a majority of her time on the beach, located right outside her father’s house. She has had some past trouble with the law, which makes her near immediate connection with the local disreputable crowd understandable, but her isolated brush with the law affected her in a positive light.

She spends a majority of her time reading books and saving a newly found nest of sea turtles, which opens the door for her love interest  Will, ( Liam Hemsworth) to make his entrance. They spend the next weeks together in the typical young romance ways: swimming, strolling the beach, and protecting the turtles that brought them together.

Everything appears to be perfect in Ronnie’s young world, and her relationship with her father is mending as well. The shift occurs as Will’s family is introduced to Ronnie.

Will’s family is incredibly rich, which is an incredible surprise to Ronnie, but not necessarily that suprising to the faithful Nicolas Sparks fans. Sparks (he wrote the book that inspired the film) enjoys mixing a middle-class or poor individual in a relationship with a wealthy individual.  Will’s family wealth nearly rips the carefree couple apart,and to mend the rift, Ronnie reveals a deeply rooted secret from her past.

She’s a musical savant, and has reached Carnegie Hall by the ripe age of seven with her incredible piano playing skills. This impresses her new boyfriend, and finishes melting the ice between Ronnie and her father.

The father/daughter duo used music as their personal language that bridges all wounds that time has created, and now that she was playing again, Ronnie’s relationship with her father is completely restored, only to be radically shattered by the news of an illness threatening his life.

The death of her father pushes Ronnie to complete a, “last song” in order to best honor the memory of her dad. The conclusion brings the emotional moment of Ronnie learning that in spite of the past, her father loved her and this pushes her to evolve into the young woman he and her mother would like her to be.

The hype surrounding this movie was largely created by Miley Cyrus’ bold statements of the movie’s one- eighty from the Hannah Montana role that made her famous. While Ronnie is darker than Hannah, there is no difference in the two characters  from the perspective of the acting.  Her efforts in the film are by no doubt some of her best, but it comes across as average. This is not the role that will become her breakout moment that shatters her Disney darling image.

The Last Song is a typical adaptation of a Nicolas Sparks novel. He enjoys using illness, loss, and family to stir the emotional heartstrings of the reader, and the film achieves the same pillars of familiarity. It is a nice film that most of the audience can relate to the love and loss that Ronnie discovers.