An Early Spring 2009

Hebron Gardens - Canberra

Lucas Day 2009 Collage!

Lucas Day 2009

Mum....Lovey!

Balloon face...

Maddy got her ear pierced, Lucas Day!! 2009
Bronte baked....WOW!

Silly Dad:)

Jacob ate...yumbly!

Family is so important.....

We are Family every year we celebrate the new branch of our heritage...the promised generation! Thank you Jesus.....Praise The Lord God :)

Rinaldo

Christine

It was an ordinary Sunday evening in the midst of daylight savings, still light outside the sun slowly setting and the heat still in the air. With a late meal across our laps and watching television, an image I thought that I had forgotten flashed across in front of me on the television. An old photograph of a dear friend at my birthday party wearing a paper hat. It was the 1980's, in Innisfail, North Queensland, a wet rainforest town in between Townsville and Cairns. I lived in the lush small town with good mates Bob and his defacto Christine for several months. A butcher by trade Bob would come home from work each day with lunch for us all, either a pound of sausages, bacon or chops and cook them up for us. We were all young and our lives very Bohemian, unconventional in the true sense of the word. We took each day as it came lived off the land, ate and drank ourselves to a stupor and smoked every illegal weed available to us. Christine a small fiery Kiwi, with a mouth that could outlash any male at any given time and feisty, boy was she feisty. She was adorable though, to look upon she had huge baby blue eyes that caught everyone's attention with soft brown flowing hair that was often tied back with cloth and a delicate smile. She wore loose clothing of every colour of the rainbow and often barefoot she ruled the roost. Chris and I had the very same sense of humour and we laughed at everything and nothing! One day I was giving her a ride into Townsville on my motorbike and we started laughing on the way at absolutely nothing which was often the case, but because we laughed so hard I almost crashed and then Chris peed her pants. it was hilarious, at the time of course. The worst part about it though was I had a king and queen seat on my semi chopped bike, so as she peed it ran down from her seat onto mine. I sat in her pee all the way to Townsville. We were in hysterics and were great mates, all the three of us. We had first met in Townsville where we all had lived at one time or another and so we traveled up and down the coast with several other good friends regularly and camped out in places such as Mission Beach and Cairns. We partied hard but stopped to take photographs of the beautiful country and take in the scenic views. Bob had the best camera and was a bit of an amateur photographer. Many photos were of his dear Christine and the rest of our times and travels together.
The party I refer too was my 20th I think and we had a small celebration at the house in Innisfail. Plenty of booze and drugs we basked in each others company and regaled endless stories. They often told me I looked like Cat Stevens at the time. We listened to good music and laughed at each others jokes, fun all round was had and no expense was spared to accommodate my birthday. Did I mention we were all the best of mates! The sad tale was to end though in such abhorrent circumstances, circumstances which none of us would or could have ever imagined.
After many years and one with child, Bob and Christine did finally go their separate ways. Christine moved to The Sunshine Coast in Queensland, whilst Bob rode off on his own to Coffs Harbour northern N.S.W.
As I heard it announced the room fell silent my blood chilled and my heart stopped for a moment in time.....Christine Nash had been murdered and her killer released after serving one month in a psychiatric prison. Christine's killer was the son of a high ranking police official and so he pleaded temporary insanity to the count of first degree murder. What an atrocity for her and her family, this injustice didn't go unnoticed by the likes of the media and the victims of crime organization. The story produced by 60 minutes told of how a few years earlier Chris and her son Wade, of around 10 years of age went bush walking in their town of Coolum when Wade fell down a cliff face. Immediately out of nowhere this young man scaled down the cliff face to rescue young Wade. He was hailed a local hero and was written about in the daily newspaper. Wade and his rescuer formed an immediate friendship which led to a relationship between Chris and the hero, Wade's rescuer. After a couple of years the relationship headed downhill and this is when the troubled started. This man stalked Chris and was quite violent toward her. He perused her relentlessly and to no avail did Chris ever escape his twisted and morose love. Whenever the pair got back together violence and jealousy entered into the subjection. Wade now frightened involved his grandparents who also had moved from New Zealand to be closer to their daughter and grandson had grave concerns for both of their safety, but with the high ranking police official as the stalkers father their hands were tied and their fate sealed.
Little did anyone know at the time that this affair would be the demise of Chris and the lives of every one involved indelibly would be changed forever. On the last evening that Chris's son and family saw her alive she was happy and contented with her life. She had lived and laughed and of recent days discovered Jesus; She had written in her journal of Him and of the readings in her bible that she had came upon. These were the last notes Chris had ever written....
It was a warm evening when Chris went out for some unknown reason, maybe to meet with him one last time to tell of her disdain for him and to inform him of her intolerance of his verbal and physical abuse. She was hounded with incessant phone calls and ramblings of a mad man on the opposite end of it, she had no alternative but to then change her phone number. Whilst out walking he came upon her whilst driving about stalking her. She was in a secluded bush area which I believe he waited for her to near before his criminal approach. He pulled to the kerb and sprang upon her like an animal about to devour its prey. Startled she let out screams of tormented fear and hurled abuses at him but in his passionate rage he beat her with white knuckled punches and kicked her to the ground. Defenselessly she tried to fight back but her tiny frame could not match his large masculine build and tirade of testosterone fueled blows mingled with incomprehensible fury. Her face was ripped open and bloodied and her perfect blue eyes that had seen so much beauty and so often had smiled, immediately were spilt open then swollen shut and blackened with deathly blows from his now bloodied fists. Her teeth were now gone, some knocked to the ground the others swallowed as he kicked her in the head and face over and over. Broken ribs and crushed lungs she gurgled as breath was hard to take in, her body quivered in shock at this incredible assault on her now limp body. Hair pulled out by the handful lay in the blood stain grass beside her and Chris struggled to cling onto life. This hero to the local community just a few years earlier stated on the police interview, "I could see she was in a bit of trouble, so I helped her out" He then strangled her to death.
Chris's body lay empty of it's life now a shell of what was once a beautiful woman, a caring mother and a close friend. Two women on their morning walk discovered her body in the open paddock the next day near the local school, unrecognizable blood soaked and black from perfuse bruising neither did her family see any resemblance to their beautiful daughter of 32 years. No one deserves to die this way! The memories I have of Chris are in my heart and I still laugh at the times we shared together, the joy she brought many and the lives she had touched.
I still see her face splashed across the television screen, its surreal, I cannot get passed the fact that she is dead and suffered these atrocities. To me we are still laughing riding motorbikes and smiling, farewell Christine....God's speed!

For the man who took her life away, he walks free amongst us.....

Rinaldo

New Bambino's - La Famiglia

Congratulations to Augusto and Jennifer Di Battista on their twin baby boys born on the 2nd of July 2009!
Cute...awww! My 2nd cousins in the U.S. Baby Alex and AJ, Check out the smile! WOW....
Salve!


mio cugino! magnifico, A presto......

It's an early spring!

Tulips in the garden already......love this weather!

I admit it!

Yes! I have a clock fetish, there is something about clocks I love and I have a few. Here is my latest majestic time piece.....time is only relevant here on earth nowhere else does time exist and it's not that I like to watch the clock or waste time but I keep time, its rhythm, its force, its progression and its perpetuation the very shadows of it. The continuum of experience in which events pass from the future through the present to the past, the period, an occassion and a suitable moment these are times.

It's an early "Lucas Day" present from the family to me....What's Lucas Day you ask? Well we have celebrated every year the beginning of our family.

We are a new branch and a new generation of people who are Christians and have the name Lucas! Which means Light. It's a tradition we've started and give thanks to God for us and our new family. On September 1st every year we pray and give thanks and celebrate usually with a party and gifts. We have a lot of fun and share stories and reflect on the day, but it's just an excuse to have another holiday ha ha ha...We look forward to it every year as we are all about traditions and family and we hope that our children carry on this tradition throughout the rest of their years as well. Well Time to go...

So here's to the LUCAS' Happy Lucas Day alll....

Rinaldo

Father's Day 2009

With Father's Day just around the corner, I was blessed to get an early gift this year of a new water feature from my wife and kids. I just love this, an expression of their love. You know I was in Hawaii in 2001 for Father's Day (U.S.time) which was in June I think, and I heard a guy preach about whose raising your kids. Is it the TV or is it their peers, drugs, themselves whatever the environment or medium their exposed to is what is raising them.

I am so grateful to have been able to be a dad that has had hands on with them and share in every minor and major event in their lives to date. This is whose raising my kids, me and my wife. We are so blessed to have such a close family and to be able to sit at every meal around the table and have communion and fellowship every time. Simply to be involved in each others lives and to be interested in one another. We share most things with each other and in the joys and the lows but whatever we are going through we share in it together, as a family.

Being around the table is so vital in today's society of instant this and instant that, everything is fast e.g. photos, food or disposable e.g. cameras, marriages. With fast food and microwave dinners the art of sitting together for a meal is dying in our western culture. The hectic work place, stresses, traffic jams and holding down two incomes doesn't leave a whole lot of time and room for the table to eat together and share intimacy with one another. Fast food has robbed us of the table and TV dinners or microwave meals has taken common place. So we value this tradition of eating breakfast together, dinner and on weekends having lunches or BBQ's.

Take some time to share in a meal with one another soon if you haven't already done so in a while and talk.....

Thanks for my father's day gift, I love it's tranquility and escape.

Love Dad

Facebook | Rinaldo Di Battista

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The Judge

Recently my wife had made this card and posted it on her blog as she is a gifted artist and has a talent for these cards. I was impressed and challenged once again over the scripture that went with the card. The Lord will judge all on the final day of judgement according to the words of Jesus spoken and according to what we have done. But also know this the the Lord is a righteous judge and He is just.
This scripture comes to mind and is written in the Message this way!
John 12:48 I came to save the world. But you need to know that whoever puts me off, refusing to take in what I'm saying, is willfully choosing rejection. The Word, the Word-made-flesh that I have spoken and that I am, that Word and no other is the last word.
We will be judged accordingly - for He is the final judge of all the earth....
Please take a look at my wife's blog here http://lovelylindascraftcentral.blogspot.com/

Rinaldo

Flesh of my flesh!

October 18, 1991
At the alter with fan fare and garb, we giggled our way through the ceremony and chuckled to one another, eyes locked we drowned in each others fellowship. The bond and union we shared was already present, long before this day of solemnization but God needed to make it official, you know the nuptials and so on. That evening in front of two hundred witnesses, expectant faces and women graced in finest their apparel's with clean shaven men tucked into their suit and ties, dysfunctional family and estranged parents, our union was made official, two had become one, the flesh of my flesh in the sight of God and what God has put together, Let no man put asunder!
We were destined to be together long before the day we first met. Our search for love was weak but the desire impregnating God's throne room from our then single hearts was overwhelming. This consecration which is of God in His most flawless timing was ever so powerful, leading us across continents towards one another and through cataclysmic phenomena. Our Father produced such perfect scenarios and drew us in proximity perfection of one another. What the oceans couldn't separate nor could man himself divide, God accomplished.
The affair was very social, neither quaint nor was it opulent but meek and tender with garments of white we entered the improvised chapel, a factory unit come church, already as one, both now standing in pole position, the position of honor awaiting the traditionalism of vows and other formalities. The brides maids and grooms men were nervous with strangled smiles, their speech a little clumsy, non the less looking perfect, slenderly tall in dashing white tuxes and rich white leather shoes, whilst the women were draped in long gowns of sapphire, accompanied with corsages of red velvet roses and regal purpled irises.
Candles romanced the tables and delicate flowers trained the length of them, guests sat in fine company and the chatter dimmed as the bride entered. Lace and veil, lavished the bride to be while her smile lit the room with elegant ambiance delighting the invitee's. Soft music piped through the church, with the sweet fragrances of violins and cellos sweeping the bride softly down the paths of matrimony as she embraced her fathers arm. Little did we know that this would be the very last tender moment father and daughter would ever share. Nine years later the very same corsage was placed on her fathers lapel as he lay still in his fine timber coffin. Presenting of the bride to the groom was swept with emotion as the groom stood with tear filled eyes. Gentle reassurance came from the bride with a simple smile speaking of peace in beauty's wisdom. A hush calmed the inner man as the ceremony continued. Choruses of joy were sung and beautiful vows of passion exchanged, golden rings symbolized the endless love of this consummate circle, perfection and simplicity a wedding of promise under an open heaven. A kiss sweet complete, the auditorium erupted in applause as the bride and groom entered their future together, now as one.
A plump menu awaited us full of appetizers, main courses and dazzling desserts, the brass band banged out familiar hits and dancing possessed many as the of laughter children rang out when running through the chapel. The time for cake the traditional cutting ceremony with a rich torte of almond flaked custard. No white tiers of traditional dark fruit and marzipan, clustered with floral pieces, but rather our choice of fun eatable dessert the knife slicing through the exquisite yellow layers of torte and sponge. Filled with custard and silky cream we engorged ourselves with handsome amounts of this delicacy lavished with rum. We sang and rattled on throughout the course of the evening, glasses chinking, snapshots of merriment, staged portraits and the night slipped away. We'd all had our fill of giddiness then the car was readied to whisk us both away into the small hours. The driveway was filled with guests and applause, tears of joy gently fell from our parents faces as we drove by and waved, headed off in the direction of our future. A future not yet chartered but purposed in hearts through devotion.
We honeymooned in the sun and sand and slept in crisp white cotton sheets. As we lay in on the easy mornings sheer linen drapes swayed back and forth as the gentle sea breeze cooled our apartment. Room service lavished us with dark aromatic coffee and sumptuous breakfasts in luxury. We were the king and queen of our lives, our own small kingdom and now royalty graced this sun drenched palace on the golden coasts of Queensland. Laughter encompassed us as we flaunted our love walking the busy strip. Lunches and shopping traditional tourism amidst dozens of other newly weds. One afternoon for no other reason than to humour ourselves we plastered licorice on our teeth blacking them out taking photographs gasping for breath as we both streamed tears from hysterical laughter. We had our fill of lazy afternoon strolls on the beach and just being in each others company, this truly was paradise as the sun went down and the night lights turned up their volume.
Subtlety and romance and half crested moons filled the air, our love just seemed to swoon in the glow of dusk at the beach. It was memorable it was heaven and this was ordained of God.

Eventually the two of us would become five in total, also with another, a child awaiting our arrival in Heaven. He dwells in the arms of our Lord!
Intoxicated by each other still and never a lack of communion, we seek out each other if only for a moment one has vanished into another room. Separation is not a part of who we've become, it cannot exist as the darkness cannot exist where there is light. Our lives are filled with precious moments and memories of laughter and together we entertain life itself, its pleased with our charm. There is no reasoning to compare what has taken place, the miraculous wonderment of marriage holds us as one. We are bound by something sacred and rare, something so reminiscent of undying loves in past centuries, something ancient is shared.
Yet with still many years to embrace and scores to write, we will live on through better or worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, till death do us part. Then one day without sorrow our love will echo into the shadows of yesterday and tomorrow we will be remembered only by those who new us, by those who tasted what we have shared in, this hastened vapour called life. How tragic is the man who never encounters true love nor the wealth of another soul devoted entirely to him, a complete heart let alone the fortitude of offspring and the receipt of their love. The day will come and we'll forget the rewards of commitment, the treasures of faithfulness along with the pleasures of giving and delivering compromise, along with the sentiment of preferring one another. Then as we pass by, we'll gaze once more to the blessings of our love manifested, our children.....For then eternity awaits our arrival to complete the ensemble of love, where marriage will be no longer but where perfection exists, where friendships will always remain in truth forever, in Eternity.

Rinaldo