I don’t anticipate this happening though since it would be political suicide to take an election away from the people and give the nomination to the person who got fewer votes, fewer delegates, and fewer states than the other candidate.

So this brings me to the original question. “Should Hilary throw in the towel?” No, not yet. Don’t get me wrong, I think her campaign is over. But she needs to stay in this race until June 3rd. And I believe that is exactly what she is going to do. This isn’t about dividing the party or unifying the party. It is about choice. I do believe this is still America, where we get to choose our leaders. So, the States that have not voted deserve a choice, and if she drops out they will have no choice.

If you have ever read my blog before, you know that I was and still am a Mike Huckabee supporter. I am truly disappointed that Republicans in the remaining states have no choice. John McCain is their nominee. The primary system simply isn’t as democratic as I think it should be. So I am glad that Florida and Michigan moved up their primary dates. In fact, I think more states should do it to pressure both parties to reform how they get their nominee. No group of States should be able to determine the nominee before everyone else gets a chance to vote. My preference would be a national popular vote system for each party. None of this delegate non-sense.

So for any Hilary Clinton advisor that might be browsing the blogosphere. Ask Hilary to stay in this race. Give your party a choice through June 3rd, and then it will be time to step down and begin supporting Barack Obama for the November election.

We will be talking with their case worker this week to determine how frequent our visits will be, and how the process will unfold from this point forward.

Life will be changing soon! And we are very excited to be following what God wants us to be doing right now.

PS: I am going to be getting back into the Couch to 5k plan soon and heading back to the gym. I am in a 2 month slump that needs to end soon. I also need to start making better food choices when I eat. I only have 25 more lbs to lose, and I really want those pounds gone by the time I am 30, and that is coming up really fast.

It is really strange how writers block works. You have ideas, and things you would like to write about. But, no matter what you do the words just won’t flow out. It is very frustrating. So frustrating, that I think the only thing you can actually do is write about the actual blockage that is occurring. This may even be very therapeutic. Maybe I should write a book about curing writers block by writing about writers block?

I am already beginning to feel more creative and able to communicate what I am thinking clearly. This may actually be working. The only problem now is that what is flowing out of me are these ramblings that you are currently reading. And as you can tell, there is nothing interesting appearing in these words. But I am glad that you are still reading. It means I have done something right, but I honestly am not sure why you are still here reading this. Maybe you are interested in me? Maybe you are simply bored? Maybe you are hoping that I will say something of substance before this blog entry ends?

Well…… I thank you for your time as you read through this nonsensical blog posting, and I encourage you to read many of the far more interesting posts on this blog while you are here.

Jaime and I have struggled as we have gone through the process to adopt in Florida. Each step always seemed to take longer than it should. But, now I see that God’s timing is perfect. That right now is the perfect time for the kids and for us, even though we wanted to be at this stage of the process months ago. One of the big blessings is that we are moving forward after discovering that we have a baby on the way. I believe this really helps the kids feel that we care about them and really do want them for who they are, and not simply because we want kids in our home.

So, this is a very exciting time for us, as we get to know the children that we soon hope to be able to call son and daughter.

I don’t want to share too much about our day for the entire world to see on this blog (since this is still an ongoing process), but it was a very fun day, and the only disappointment for me was that the day had to end so soon.

This should be an exciting evening, and the rumor is that there are $1 hot dogs at the stadium tonight.

8:14 am - As I had predicted time has slowed to a crawl. I think this is how time seemed to pass for me when I was 5 years old. Everything took forever when I was younger. I keep think that time speeds up as you get older. And since you are so young maybe that means the past few hours have felt like years to you?

10:15am - Well, I am getting ready to jump out of work and meet Jaime at the Doctors office. I can feel stress building up as I process the excitement of seeing you and learning about how you are doing. I tend to always begin thinking about ‘worst case scenarios’, maybe this is from my Boy Scout training to ‘Always Be Prepared’. I am praying for you constantly, that you are healthy and doing well. I will soon know more, and will see you soon!

12:42pm - Jaime and I just left the Doctors office. It was so amazing. We were able to see and hear your tiny heart beating and even see where your head and even your arms are right now. Your heart rate is 167 beats per minute, which is good and you are 1.53 cm long right now. You are healthy and growing just as you should. And Jaime and I were right, you are 8 weeks old right now. We are so excited to have seen you today, and we will see you again on May 13th!

Your First Pictures

Although I do not like that this movement is designed to support Republican candidates exclusively. I would truly prefer that Huck PAC be focused on simply the principles outlined above, because I don’t believe the majority of Republican candidates adhere to those principles in practice, but only in speech. When I look at politicians from either the Republican or Democratic Party I often see very few differences in how they govern, but hear plenty of differences when they give speeches.

I also recognize that for Mike Huckabee to have a real shot at the White House in 2012, he needs to develop a stronger and better relationship with the Republican Party. He was treated as an outcast, and a nobody during his entire campaign. If he can help the Republican Party come back to its roots, and get solid people into office, he will have a much stronger chance at gaining party support for a future bid at the Presidency.

So, I am a supporter of the Huck PAC. I will not support a Republican that does not follow the Huck PAC core values simply because they are Republican, but I will certainly do what I can to promote candidates that follow the core principles of the Huck PAC. I believe that the idea behind Huck PAC is to begin reforming the Republican Party from within, rather than attempting to build a new movement or a third party.

If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

James 1:22-26 NLT

This verse has been very meaningful in my life the past couple of days. Jaime and I have been faced with a huge decision. The choice to adopt two children and have a baby or just have the baby. There are a number of things that we have thought about, from ‘coincidences’, to the process that we have gone through the past 6 months. And this verse from James has been on my mind these past few days. Last night I believe the full weight of what we are doing landed on me, and I don’t mean this in a negative way. We had an initial visit with the kids last night, and although it was short with little interaction I feel very energized that we are following God and doing the right thing. I believe I also grasp how huge the responsibility is, and also how huge this will be in the lives of the Children.

James says that “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” And this is not because the person helping an orphan or helping a widow is somehow a great person. The greatness has nothing to do with the person helping, but with the obedience of that person to see a need and step in to help. Verse 22 says “Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says.” And helping orphans and widows is part of making God’s words real and active. Allowing His words to not simply be theoretical or good ideas, but real and active and meaningful in our lives and the lives of others.

I honestly believe that if Jaime and I were to step away from trying to adopt these children right now, that we would be guilty, that we would be sinning. It is our desire and our responsibility to be agents of the Father in the lives of these children. We know the road will be long, and difficult. Probably far more difficult than we actually think. But we know that God is great and that when we follow Him, we are always in the best situation possible.

So, we are excited to be taking steps of faith that others may never understand because our Father is with us and preparing the way before us.

I will keep everyone updated on how this is progressing! We are very excited right now, as we expand our family!

We talked with their case worker today and told her that we are pregnant and are not really sure what to do. We have also been invited to a ‘blind’ visit this Thursday evening. We are still not 100% sure what to do, so we have a BIG decision to make very very soon. So, please be praying for us. We want to do what is best for the children, our family, and follow God in all things.

I noticed that Gizmo Project hasn’t created a 64 bit .deb of their VOIP application, so I thought I would provide a Installer script that can be used to quickly Install Gizmo Project onto a 64-bit Ubuntu system. I have tested this on Ubuntu 7.10 64-bit.

Downloaded a total of 193 times

1. Download the Gizmo Installer script from here.
2. Save this file to your desktop. (this location is important for the Installer script to run properly)

3.Right click on the file you just downloaded and extract the file to the desktop.

4.You will now see a folder on your desktop called Gizmo-Installer. Open this folder up.
5.Double Click on the Gizmo Installer Launcher. (the highlighted file in the picture below)

You will now see two files being downloaded for you. Simply allow these files to download and wait until you are prompted for your password.

6. When the script requests your password type it in.

7. The script will then install Gizmo Project and gather the necessary libraries using getlibs. Once the script closes itself Gizmo Project is installed.
8. You can now go to Applications –> Internet –> Gizmo Project to run Gizmo in Ubuntu 7.10 64 bit !

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MANUAL INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
If you would like install this manually without using the script above you can follow these directions.

If you follow these step by step instructions you should have a working copy of Gizmo Project installed in just a couple of minutes.

1. Download the getlibs application. ( This will save the getlibs installer to your desktop.)
2. Double click on the getlibs-all.deb file on your desktop and then click install. Type in your password if requested. Getlibs is now installed.
3. Next we need to get the Gizmo5 application. Download the 32-bit deb file from Gizmo Project. ( This should save the file to your desktop. Go ahead and leave it there.)
4. Open the Terminal by going to Applications –> Accessories –> Terminal
5. Now type in the following commands

sudo dpkg -i --force-all Desktop/gizmo-project_3.1.0.79_libstdc++6_i386.deb

Type in your password when requested.

6. Next type in the following command.

getlibs /usr/bin/gizmo

Gizmo Project is now installed and can be found in Applications –> Internet
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Please let me know if the installer script works for you by leaving a comment. I have not been able to test this on another system yet, so I am not 100% sure that the installer script works perfectly.