Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Family Portraits

On Saturday, we spent the late afternoon in downtown Los Angeles with our friend Dina Douglass. As one of L.A.'s premier wedding photographers, Dina has an intensely busy schedule. Nevertheless, she kindly offered to take some professional portraits of our family. This is something Debbie has been wanting for a long time. (My hand-held, wide-angle self portraits from arm's length just weren't cutting it anymore.)



Below are some of the results of Dina's creativity.













You can see more of Dina's work as well as find booking information on her website:

http://www.andrenaphoto.com

Thank you Dina!!!

Friday, October 26, 2007

Ruling the World

It's always interesting to find new graffiti on our street.

"Media Rules the World."

I wonder if the babushka begging for change on the stairs of the metro agrees.



From an economic standpoint, new construction in Novosibirsk continues to rule the day. Out with the old, in with the new.

The 100-year old brick building near Central Park is dwarfed by a new apartment complex.

I found crews excavating just a block from our apartment for what appears to be the first sky scraper of its kind in Novosibirsk, a 30-story glass building with underground parking for 285 cars.





I doubt the old public banya just across the street from this new business center will last much longer in this continuously changing city.

Friday, October 19, 2007

The Magic of a Daughter's Eyes



I'm back in Novosibirsk for a short visit and I've been surprised by how at home I feel. But, man, this is an ugly city. Grey, industrial, dusty and dirty. So, I've been looking at this recent picture of Sydney to remind myself of beauty...and I've been thinking about homosexuality.

As homosexual groups lobby for the right to marry across the U.S. (and across the world), I am struck by the fact that even if (or more likely, when) homosexual couples are granted this right, they will never fully experience the deep mystery of sacred union. No matter how much they long for it, a piece of paper, a ceremony or employee benefits won't be able to duplicate the experience of married heterosexual couples. After all, homosexual relationships have absolutely zero potential for producing offspring.

Sure, couples could adopt or use some other creative avenue to get a child. A male couple could get a surrogate mother to carry the child. Female couples could seek the seed of a willing male. But, the experience wouldn't really be the same, would it? Even married couples who adopt and love their adopted children just as much as if they were their own biological offspring know that something went wrong along the way which provided the opportunity to adopt. Somewhere previous to adoption, the child was abandoned or the biological parents were unfit to care for the child or they were unable to because of death or illness. Adoption in this case is an example of God's redeeming love. Good triumphs over the previous evil. But, it's not the ideal, is it?

Any way you slice it, a homosexual couple will never be able to look into a child's eyes and experience the humility and glory of their own participation in this person's very existence. An existence that came about because the Creator of the universe chose to use you and your wife's bodies (and possibly souls for us transducians) and the event of a passionate, sacred union to create a new living person.

These are the things I think about when I look into my daughter's eyes.