I recently finished the front page main template for my new project. My wedding website. Where the boss is the toughest. My wife to be, but she loves being involved and I love when she loves my work.

Any comment are welcome. Alternatively you could view the first page live here: www.adrianandelaina.com

Recently I hurt one of the people I love most in this world; my fiance. I would just like to dedicate this poem to her. (Mind you I am not a poet)

Although times were rough, we still stood tough.

Against the winds and the rumbles, even those times when I had stumbled.

You were there to say you forgive me, you were there to say you love me.

You gave me grace just like my God above, you still give me that thing called love.

I learned more and more about myself,

During those times you took those things off of my life’s shelf.

My fears, my worries all laid out, and yet I still knew without a doubt.

The love that was there will never fade away, no matter how far I had gone astray.

You hugged and kissed, this man that has missed,

So many opportunities to change my ways,

But we sit here now and count the days,

As we move closer and closer to the promise, that God will keep us in His house,

Of love, life, and all things good, the mercy, forgiveness I understood.

That on this day I knew you would, still say that you want to be my wife,

I love you always, My love….My life

Love always and forever,

-Adrian Rodriguez

For those of you who read about my last dentist visit that one was a piece of cake. This one will knock your shoes off. My fiance found out about this free dentistry thing in Little Rock, AR that they do once a year. Run by Arkansas Mission of Mercy, they perform fillings and extractions for free for two days without any eligability or income requirements. So we left this morning at 4:10am and got there around 6:30am. The line was around a two sides of the building, plus the seats that were filled in a convention center.

So we waited and waited until it was time for me to let the dental assistant know what it is I needed. Well I went there to get a filling and wound up needing to pull my upper and lower left wisdom teeth. Ouch.

Well it was finally my turn after 4 hours of waiting and the doctor begins to numb me. Mind you, I have never been numbed before. (not that I know of) The doctor probably stuck that huge needle of his into my mouth 20 times, before I finally went numb. My tongue was being very rebellious.

So he finally got me numbed enough to perform the procedure. Well he began to start rocking and attempting to yank my upper wisdom tooth and I just started laughing, because I realized he was having a really hard time pulling that sucker out. lol. Took him about 5 minutes. That thing was HUGE. Although that is not the frightening part. The frightening part was this humongous pulling tool he used to yank it out. lol Man….I needed one of those as a kid.

Then he began to work on my lower wisdom tooth. This time he used two different tools. One was like a grinder that just drilled into my tooth to make some sort of a whole, then like a huge ice pick to force it one way or the other, and then the pulling tool again.

Moral of the story is. Dentists are brutal, but kind. How? I don’t know, it’s there job. Second, when your finally done don’t tilt your head down. I did and blood dripped everywhere, lol. Third, if it’s free go for it, no matter how bad it hurts it’s worth saving fifteen hundred dollars.

God Bless.

I just started working on the site earlier this week. I finished the design part now time for the coding. I went with a fancy yet simple theme for this and the boss(my fiance) loves it. Anything to make her happy. Anyway so we purchased the domain www.adrianandelaina.com where you can see the splash page at work. You can get a sneak peak into the design by checking that out. Let me know what you guys think.

I recently posted a topic on my site TheGdfc(graphic designers for christ) speaking about National Day of Prayer and noticed that the first group of people to respond and comment on it, had no clue that it existed.

I feel that as Christians we are definitely not doing our job in letting others know. I felt and still feel really convicted in that area, because as Christians when we come together in prayer it becomes very powerful. God moves in a mighty way.

I encourage you to stay in prayer today as well as let those in your life know about such a day as this.

I have just recently gotten some new software from Microsoft called Expression Studio. I took a whack at it today and created my first rss icon from a tutorial and just though I’d show you some pics of the new software.

And this is what I wound up doing:

Photo by Adrian Rodriguez

The one thing I want you to get out of this site is that I am real and I speak about my life which is real. Yes this is also my site for web and graphic work, but first things first and that is my Jesus and My God.

I struggle everyday of my life. Almost every minute. With what? With, pride, lust, ambition, greed, jealousy, guilt, shame….you name it, but let me tell those who go through the same thing….One word…..VICTORY!

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 (New International Version)

55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”[a] 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That sums it up all together. VICTORY can only be accomplished through Jesus. When we try to do things our own way, we fail. We fail for ourselves, our family, our God. Yes your circumstances may seem impossible to conquer, but in the bible it says we are more than conquerers. Believe it! The first and most important victory we had, was coming to the Lord.

Most people who are prideful don’t know it. Even people who have lived very terrible lives are proud. I know this because I have been there.

I lived a pretty hard live. My mom and dad were never married and separated since I was about 6 or 7. So growing up was tough. We had times where we were poor and even poorer. Well I wasn’t too much to be proud over or even have anything to be proud over. At times when I was jealous I would lie and say that I had this or that when really I didn’t, just so I could pretend to be proud of something. Even though I felt this way, I was never humble. If I wasn’t better than those who were better than me, then why not be better than someone who was worse off.

I recently began to notice the pride in me. One part of the is my competitive spirit. I am a big sports fan and athlete, I was born with competition in my blood, but choosing who and what I compete with has been a problem. I find myself always trying to be better than a family member, a friend, people I meet online. I think I know everything sometimes, but guess what, I don’t.

Your probably asking yourself why I am posting this topic. For one reason, it is to apologize to those who I have hurt because of this pride of mine. I tend to hurt people I know and don’t know, because of my pride. Most of the time I am not doing it intentionally, but it is still happening.

The second reason I am posting this topic is to encourage the readers out there to take a good look at their hearts and what’s going on inside that you may not see yourself, but that someone else may notice. Ask a close friend or relative if they notice any part of your personality that seems to hurt others. Apologize and then repent to God for being that way.

Here is something to remember:

James 4:6 (New International Version)

6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”

Remember that when your going about your day. I know that I keep praying all the time for God to release me from the prideful bondage and to humble me always. Make that your prayer and God Bless,

Adrian

Well this Tuesday I went to the dentist after not being there for over seven years. I don’t think I have had my teeth cleaned in a decade. I was so afraid to hear some really bad news going into those offices, but thankfully for me I didn’t receive really bad news.

I just had a slight case of Gingivitis and the doctor told me that all I had to do was keep up with the normal routine and things should get better, but if I had not got this cleaning by the time I was thirty that it would be a whole lot worse. I would have had some worse stage of gum disease, but thank God that wasn’t the case.

If you have never gone through a cleaning process before, here it goes:

First- She/He starts to scrape your teeth to see how soft or hard the calculus(tartar) is on your teeth. Some of you may call it plaque.

Second- She/He begins to use this high powered spraying tool that works like a pressure washer for your teeth and if your gums have swelled, they hurt like mad. She got in between my teeth and every time I felt that dreadful pain, I closed my eyes as hard as I can.

Third- When she/he is done with the (pressure washing) she begins to use his/her super sharp tool and let me tell you, that’s like the “big dog” of tools. It makes sure that tartar comes off. She scraped for probably over thirty minutes and from time to time I would see all these read spots on her gloves. Yeah, my blood.

Fourth- She/He cleans your teeth with this polisher and it tastes completely gross. It has a nice flavor, but still gross.

Fifth- She/He gives you mouth wash and if you haven’t mouth washed ever, get ready for some intense burning action, especially if you have any cuts in your mouth.

Then you are done.

Words can’t explain the pain I endured for this, but it was worth gaining the knowledge about the health of my teeth as well as learning a lot about that area of my body.

If it wasn’t for my fiance randomly scheduling that appointment, I would not have shared this story. God Bless and remember this on your next/first dentist trip in YEARS.

If it wasn’t for my fiance radnom

TheGdfc stands for Graphic Designers for Christ. One of the most passionate things in my life is being a servant and helping others know God and experience Him. The main reason for the development of this site is just that. The site is growing into an online newsletter/magazine for Christian designers. Mostly for web and graphic design, but everyone is welcome to hang out and fellowship with an awesome family of believers.

I say family, because we have grown to know each other personally and are acceptable to each other’s personality, gifts, talents, and lives. The work we do is made to glorify the one true God and to represent Jesus through everything we do. Although we are all Christian we welcome anyone to come and fellowship with us, because we love each and every person God has created and desire to share that love with everyone else.

The reason I am mentioning this is for two reasons:

1. A praise to God for the successfulness of this site and forum.
2. A welcome for your to come read, fellowship, and enjoy the company of loving members.
3. To draw you in to the world of design from a different perspective.

God wants us to share the love he has to offer to everyone around the world. Why not you? So go ahead and click the link below to see what’s in store for you. As a designer and as a loving child of God.

God Bless,

Adrian

www.thegdfc.com