Lasagna Blanca

This recipe is from Better Homes & Gardens' 9 x 13 The Pan that Can.

12 dried lasagna noodles
1 pound spicy bulk pork sausage
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used 2 cups)
1 cup cream style cottage cheese
4 oz of cream cheese, softened & cut up
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon all purposed flour
1/8 teaspoon dried tarragon, crushed
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup milk

1. Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions; drain well.  Rinse with cold water; drain well. Place lasagna noodles in a single layer on a sheet of foil; set aside.  Meanwhile, in a large skillet cook sausage, green onions and mushrooms until sausage is cooked through, using a wooden spoon to break up sausage as it cooks; drain off fat. Set aside.

2.  For filling, in a medium bowl combine 1/2 cup of the cheddar cheese, the cottage cheese, cream cheese, garlic powder, and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper; set aside.

3.  Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan or baking dish; set aside.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Spread cheese filling evenly over cooked noodles.  Sprinkle sausage mixture on top.  Roll up each noodle into a spiral.  Place lasagna rollups, seam sides down, in the prepared pan or dish; set aside.

4.  For tarragon sauce, in a small saucepan melt butter over medium heat.  Stir in flour, tarragon, and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper.  Add milk all at once.  Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly.  Remove from heat.  Stir in 1/2 cup of the cheddar cheese. Pour the tarragon mixture over the lasagna rollups in the pan or dish.

5.  Bake, covered, for 25 minutes.  Uncover; sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheddar cheese.  Bake, uncovered, about 10 minutes more or until heated through.  Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 12 servings.

Per serving: 317 cal; 17 g total fat (9g sat. fat), 54 mg chol, 378 mg sodium, 21 g carbo, 1 g fiber, 17 g pro.

Where there's a Will

As I am working through the foster care process and the international adoption process, one of the questions that keeps popping up is whether I have a will.  I do not have one.

As a lawyer, I know that I should have one.  But I have never taken the time to get it done.

I finally asked another lawyer if she could prepare a will for me.  Naturally, she said yes, and I now have homework to do in preparation for our meeting.

In some ways, thinking about death and the distribution of my property is a bit strange.  I am hopeful that I have decades of time before this is really needed.  In reality, I know that death may appear on my doorstep at any time.

As my law professor, who has a very young widow, said, "I know death happens to everyone, but I fully expect an exception to be made in my case."

On the Verge of Something Big

Do you remember when you were so close to achieving a dream you'd had for a long time?  Maybe it was your wedding day or the day you became a mother.  Maybe it was when you landed the perfect job or graduated.

I've been having that feeling a lot lately.  Like I'm on the verge of something big.  I'm not fully sure why this is.  To be sure, I have a few irons in the fire that I am waiting to draw out:  I am working toward my foster care license and adopting internationally.  And I am now halfway through my seminary education.  Yet, all of these events are months and years in the future; they will not happen tomorrow.

But for some reason, I am expecting big things.  In the near future.

Over the past six months, I have been participating in a prayer retreat.  I have been intentionally spending more time in prayer.  As I looked over my journal for the retreat, I remembered that God had blessed me during this time - with specific events, people and ideas.  Blessings were not all that I got out of this prayer challenge:  I dealt with struggles and at times felt like God had abandoned me in the desert!

Once I adjusted my focus from me to Him, God himself started showing up.  Well, actually, I started seeing Him, right where He was the whole time.

Perhaps my anticipation is that God is here!  He has a plan for me!

And I can't wait to see what happens.

Universalism: A Few Thoughts

Rob Bell's new book, which I have not read, has created a firestorm of criticism about universalism.  In a nutshell, universalism is the belief that everyone, sooner or later, ends up in heaven: in eternity, there is no hell.

Bell's proposition is that a loving God could not send people he created to eternal death.  This is a nice, warm and fuzzy idea that Bell apparently thinks will help people who are turned off on Christianity based on the idea of hell.  If Bell is correct and there is no eternal hell, then we are all in good shape.  But if he is wrong... Well, then this is a very dangerous idea.

Why dangerous?
Universalism is dangerous because people are not forced to consider the afterlife.  If everyone ends up in heaven, why bother with religion?  Any Religion?  The fear element is eliminated.  I suspect this is Bell's point.  People shouldn't be scared straight, seems to be his beef.  The problem is that ignoring a danger does not make it less dangerous.  Instead, it is more dangerous.

Universalism is a dangerous idea because it removes the incentive to follow the rules.  In a Christian context, there ceases to be much need to stick to God's rules.  In a societal context, why bother to follow the rules if eternal life is promised regardless?  Why bother to clean up my obvious sins (drug use, promiscuity, fighting, pornography etc) if God is going to ignore them anyway?

The Problems with Universalism
The problems I see with universalism vary between Biblical concepts, (what I hope is) logic with a dash of common sense and observation of how our world works.

Genesis 3
First, in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sin by disobeying God.  In Genesis 3:22, God drives the couple from the garden, commenting that Adam and Eve must not eat from the Tree of Life and live forever.  A cherubim guards the Tree of Life with a flashing sword.

So, God goes to all this trouble, pronouncing a curse on humanity and enlisting a cherubim to guard the Tree of Life, just so that eventually he can say, "Just kidding, Welcome to Eternal Life!"?

The Commandments
Fast forward a few hundred years.  God has brought Abraham's now large family out of Egypt by showing his power to Pharaoh and his hard heart.  The Israelites, led by Moses, encamp at the foot of the mountain. Moses goes onto the mountain to talk with God and eventually returns with the Ten Commandments.  We still joke that these are the "Commandments" not "Suggestions."  But what is their purpose if God has no intention of making us accountable for them?

I posit that we are accountable to God (and each other) for these Commandments.

Human experience should clue us in then that commandments mean something.  If someone more powerful than you tells you to do something, you better do it or there will be consequences.  The same thing happens if they tell you NOT to do something, as there are then consequences for doing it anyway.  This has held true throughout human history.  The Roman Emperors were likely to have you killed for ignoring their decrees.  Parents demand obedience from their kids throughout time.  Bosses rule over employees.

But apparently, God, the Creator, has no bite to his commands.  They are merely optional under universalism.

Moral Codes
If you look at people groups and their social rules, remarkable similarities appear.  We, as a creature, seem to have some universal ideas of good and bad imbedded in our souls.  We may apply them to different people like our families and friends versus "others." But they exist.  We also have ideas of the afterlife which span across cultures.  How does this come about unless there is someone or something setting that agenda?

These cultures seem to have ideas that some people are out of heaven and others are in.  How do we get that idea, if there isn't some overriding narrative and narrator?

Prophets
I've recently been reading the prophets.  By and large, those prophets seem to be rather judgmental fellows.  They are constantly promising doom and destruction on Israel, Judah and the surrounding countries for failing to follow God's laws.

History tells us that God was not kidding around about his judgment.  He sent his Promised People into death, slavery and destruction on multiple occasions to prove that he was serious about those rules.

But, apparently God really didn't mean it if universalism is true, because everyone, even the truly evil, will end up in heaven.  The miracles of fulfilled prophecy are just coincidences that we should gloss over.


Christ
When a man shows up on the scene who fulfills God's law down to the last letter, he's killed by the rest of us.  Under universalism, this death has little meaning, because everyone ends up in heaven anyway.

Now, some universalists will say that Jesus is the way God saves everyone.  If God is the one who designed this process, then why bother with Christ?  Can't he just erase the sin?  Can't he just nullify the verdict that we are guilty?  Why does a blood sacrifice need to be made?

One of the problems with universalism that I see is that God is powerless. He sets up a system, then cannot enforce consequences for disobedience.

Universalism guts John 3:16: because belief in Christ is not essential to eternal life.

Free Will
I don't understand how free will can operate under universalism.  How is there a meaningful choice?  If I can order whatever I want at a restaurant, but always get served fried chicken, I really had no choice in what I was ordering. Under Universalism,  whatever you pick, you go to heaven.

Revelation
The book of Revelation can be interpreted in different ways.  Those ways can be contradictory or confusing.  However, it mentions some severe punishments for those who are not in God's camp.  Under universalism, these punishments must be an illusion or untrue.

Suffering
One problem universalists have that leads them to believe God saves everyone is how a loving God can send people into eternal suffering.  But that seems to ignore God's perspective.  Must God be the one who suffers the indignity of having his rules broken over and over again with no redress?  At what point does God's love require that his holiness be defended?  If his obedient servants are assaulted, beaten and killed, does he have to grant mercy to their tormentors?  Does he have to save his enemy?


While I see the allure of universalism, it simply does not make sense in the context of the Bible, reality as we know it and it violates the character of God more than it affirms it.

As I am not an authority, here are some links to what others are saying about hell, Rob Bell and universalism:

The Resurgence by Mark Driscoll
Book Review of the book stirring the controversy by Kevin De Young
Blog post by Albert Mohler

Round One: Home Study

I completed the first homestudy meeting today.  I think it went well, despite the circling critters who had to have the worker's attention every two minutes.

I'm now working on all the associated paperwork before the next couple meetings.

I also have to complete a homestudy for the international adoption.  So, in the next couple months I will complete two completely separate homestudies.

Homestudy Prep

I'm starting the homestudy process this week.  First, I have my homestudy for foster care, then I'll need to have one done for my international adoption. 

I have read several blogs and books that talk about what to do for the homestudy.  It seems everyone stresses out about cleaning and having everything perfect.  I naturally thought that knowing this would ease some of the stress.  It hasn't!  I am have started dusting (nothing short of a miracle in my house) and have plans to do some other cleaning before the visit. 

I've also worried about whether or not to leave some things out or if everything should be in its place. 

Oh, well. I have a few more days to obsess about it!

Bread Making

I'm trying a couple recipes out of a new cookbook I bought.  It is titled Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  The premise is that the dough can be kept in the fridge, much like sourdough, and used to make fresh bread. 

I have prepared two kinds to bake tomorrow: chocolate and wheat.  I am interested to see how it turns out.  I have tried sourdough before, but get tired of it after a while.  With this, you do not have to keep "feeding" the starter, instead you use it up and then mix a new batch.  I'm hoping with the variety possible that I will like it.

The benefit is that it can be kept for two weeks and you just cut off a chunk and bake it.  No additional mixing or preparing to be done other than the rising of the part you are baking.

Roger Goodell is Writing Me?

Shortly after the Super Bowl, I got an emailed letter from Roger Goodell about the upcoming contract negotiations between the league owners and the players.  I thought it was interesting that the NFL commissioner was writing the fans to get his side of the dispute out.

Today, I got a second e-mail. (And how I am on the mailing list, I don't know).  I find it fascinating that so much time is spent on spin for the fans.  In fact, the fans have every right to be disgusted by the whole process.

First, the reason the sides are bickering about money is because the fans give them so much.  The fans buy tickets, watch games, and buy merchandise.

While the players sacrifice their bodies for the sport, the owners sacrifice, well, I'm sure they sacrifice something.  The owners are the ones who plan for the future, usually how to pluck more money out of each municipality they live in, again at the expense of the taxplayers/fans.  

Meanwhile, the players demand more and more money to support their lifestyles.

So the big question is who will win this dispute?  Well, the guaranteed losers are the fans.  Any way you slice it, the fans will pay for it.

Foster Care Classes

I'm one third of the way into my foster care classes.  It is interesting how I keep hearing the same information from a variety of sources: children grieve the loss of their birth family, whether they were given up or the government stepped in; the grief cycle is a process everyone goes through; attachment issues are common; and adoptive/foster families need to look at their infertility issues.

Even though it is repetitive of some of the things I have read, I am enjoying the class, and it is always great to hear how other people think through the process. 

It does make me wonder how churches should be equipping people to be parents and families.  By that I mean that grief is something we all go through.  Parents sometimes have problems with attachment issues (ie children don't attach and/or parents are too attached).  And we all have dreams we give up along the pathway of life - that job we really wanted, the child we didn't have, the house that was too expensive, the relationships we've damaged or not created.

Another Small Step

I have finally decided that I am going to adopt from Haiti.  Haiti was my original favorite option, in part due to the Christmas projects I had been involved with that benefited Haitian children.  When the earthquake happened, I was certain that Haiti would not be a possibility in the near future, so I looked elsewhere.  Ironically, the humanitarian parole given to children and families who were in the process of adoption from Haiti at the time of the earthquake cleared the decks, so to speak.

I know there are risks, such as whether the "new" adoption law will pass and in what form, how long this will take (probably around 2 years), and the general international adoption process quirks. 

I have also decided that I am going to pursue an independent adoption, meaning I am preparing and completing the paperwork myself.  This saves me around $10,000 and is much of the same things I would have to do with an agency anyway. 

In the short term, I am going to be a foster parent (I have 2 years, remember), and it may be that I end up adopting domestically in the future too.  I will also be reading parenting and transracial books.  While I have already read several attachment, adoption and parenting books, I need to read up on transracial adoption and attachment issues.

But for now, it is good to have a direction and plan to put into action.  Hopefully, I can get the dossier completed by the end of the summer and be matched with a child by the end of the year.

Cleopatra

I'm reading Stacy Schiff's book on Cleopatra.  It is fascinating.  I love history, so learning about the people Cleopatra had contact with is helping me connect the dots on some church history.

For example, I learned that Cleopatra spoke Hebrew (among 9 total languages she spoke), and that she had a habit of hiring Judean soldiers as mercenaries.  But the most interesting information is about her relationship, or hostile one, with Herod.  I forget that Herod and Cleopatra were contemporaries, but she was the driving force behind his building fortresses across his country.

Cleopatra was given by Rome (via Mark Anthony) the vast majority of shoreline from Libya through Palestine.  She was also given the palm date concession at Jericho, which shorted Herod a prime source of money.  Cleopatra visited Herod and he reportedly thought of assassinating her, but was talked out of it by his advisers.