There's been an issue heavy on my heart lately, and for some reason I feel the need to voice my thoughts today. I hope I can organize this enough to make sense. :)
First off, I am pro-life and that's what this post is about. I'm pretty sure most of you reading this share my beliefs, but for anyone who does not I hope I can speak the truth in love - it is not my intent to offend anyone, but as this is a matter of life and death I am compelled to speak my opinion.
Today I happened upon a blog that covers various parenting issues. One post was a letter from a mother to her son saying how much she regretted having him circumcised. I am not going to get into that whole issue, but there was a line in the letter that really struck me. It said, "I made a choice that wasn't mine to make, one that I wasn't equipped to make, one that I should never have been allowed to make." I did just a little research on the woman who wrote this, and I didn't find anything that specifically said she's pro-abortion, but from everything else I saw I would be very surprised if she's not. Even so, having come across many different people in my 30 years, I'd dare bet there are plenty of people out there who would make a statement like that about circumcision yet also be pro-abortion. Are you kidding me?! People are going to feel bad about a choice like circumcision, yet feel they can kill an unwanted baby? Babies should have a choice in whether or not they're circumcised, but not whether or not they get to live...hmmm....seems terribly mixed up to me.
Last week I heard a radio broadcast that absolutely broke my heart and made me sick to my stomach. I'll spare the gruesome details, but it was about an abortionist in Pennsylvania who was charged with murder for killing babies. According to the grand jury report, "he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy - and then murdered these newborns..." What he did was flat out against the law whether you are pro-life or pro-abortion.
What this doctor did was awful, and what gets me as I continue to think about this is, how can it be wrong to kill a baby outside of the womb, but it's okay while it's still in the womb? Why does location matter? It's wrong either way! And, how can they say that it's okay to have an abortion before 24 weeks of pregnancy, but not after? How can they decide when the cut-off is? That's a precious life no matter how old it is. We saw each of the boys' heartbeat at 8 weeks. I was just looking through my pregnancy journal, and here are a couple other milestones: at 14 weeks "we could see arms, legs, head, spine, heart...one was swallowing when we saw him, the other was kicking like crazy"; at 18 weeks we found out one of them was a boy; at 20 weeks we found out the other was a boy as well; and somewhere between 18 and 22 weeks I started really feeling all their wrestling with each other. It used to be that there was somewhat of a scientific debate on whether a fetus was a life or not - you don't hear that debate anymore. That's because it's clear that it IS a life! It's called a fetus rather than a baby so supposedly you don't feel as bad about killing it, and the argument for abortion now is all about a woman's right to choose. Pure selfishness. Just because you don't want a baby makes it okay to kill it?
We can't just go around killing people that we don't want. It's just as wrong to go shoot an abortionist as it is to be an abortionist. It saddens me when things like that happen. Someone goes and does something stupid like that and suddenly the rest of the world thinks that all pro-lifers and all Christians are nut jobs like that. I heard another broadcast a few weeks ago that featured a woman who was a former abortionist and now is pro-life - it wasn't the protesters and angry mobs yelling at her that got her to change her mind... Anyways, I suppose that's all a whole separate discussion.
There have been over 53 million abortions since 1973. 53 million. Can you even wrap your brain around that number? The population of the state of California is only about 37 million.
Okay, I feel like I'm starting to ramble, so I'd better wrap this up. When you are pregnant, that is a life inside you, a life that has the right to live, not be killed out of selfishness. I think of the women I know that have been faced with an unplanned pregnancy and chose life, and I thank God for their courage and for the lives saved. I know it's not easy for them, but I don't think any could look into the face of their child and say they wish that child had not been born. Consider what you can do to help a woman who has chosen life under difficult circumstances.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
fast
Wow, another week has gone by! I'm always thinking of things I need to write on here, then when I actually sit down to do it I have trouble remembering everything. Last night at our parenting class one of the couples was joking that when you're pregnant your brain takes a vacation for a couple months because it has to work extra hard once the baby arrives - I was just like "You're supposed to get it back???" My brain must be on something more like a sabbatical rather than a vacation, and it didn't leave any contact info so I could let it know it was supposed to come back to work a long time ago.
Friday night Mike and I went to a very nice Valentine's dinner at church. Caleb and Logan went to my brother and sister-in-law's for the whole night! They offered to just have them sleep over so we wouldn't have to wake them up to bring them home when we finished with dinner. We've done that before and it goes fine, but you just feel so bad getting sleepy babies up and strapping them into their carseats and all that. When we got there the boys just jumped right in to playing with their cousins. Anyways, the dinner was put on by the leaders of our Young Married's Class. During the punch bowl they had a teen from the church playing violin, and each couple had their photo taken. Dinner was delicious, and afterwards Rich Kornoelje (and Sid) was our guest speaker. He did a great job and it was alot of fun.
Saturday evening we had our Care & Fellowship Group from church over. We are leading a group this year (there's not much to it...) and this was our first get together. We knew one of the families, but not the other two (and only one of those was able to make it on Saturday). We had a very nice time and felt like things went well. All the kids were great - they played nice with Caleb and Logan, and left the playroom picked up better than what I do! Both families that were there have 13 year old girls, and I found it very nice that I could do my hostessing without having to keep too much of an eye on the boys. :)
Sunday afternoon I had to be at a Social Committee meeting at church. I agreed to be on the committee this year and this was our first meeting. I think it will be fun! As long as I don't have too much work... :)
Logan is definitely saying "uh-oh" now. I don't think there's really anything else I can claim for sure. He does alot of babbling, but that's about it. A couple time's I thought maybe he said "bye", but I'm not sure. The boy is cutting teeth like crazy. I can see 4 just barely on their way out. Poor thing. I think I may have written this before, but he loves, loves, loves pasta. He will eat a crazy amount of it. I can't really get either of the boys to eat fruit or vegetable table foods, but they both do well with carbs, meats, and cheese. Both of the boys, but especially Logan lately, have gotten more and more into reading books. Logan will grab a book and walk over to me with the cutest look on his face, and usually jabbering a little bit, and want to sit on my lap to look at the book. And then many times Caleb wants to climb up and join the fun.
Caleb definitely has some attachment issues. He is much more shy when around strangers (which to a certain extent is good of course), he gets quite upset when we leave him, and many times if I'm sitting on the floor looking at a book with Logan, Caleb climbs right on in to make sure we haven't forgotten him (it definitely seems like more of a jealously thing than just wanting to play along with us). Sunday I was in nursery at church and Caleb was very attached to me almost the whole time - I have to admit it was a little tiring. :)
All along it's been fun to watch the differences in the boys. The last couple days we've spent some time playing on a mattress in their room - I took a mattress out of one of the cribs to change the sheets and they started climbing all over it like it's the greatest thing. And here's a difference between the two: Logan will just walk off the end and fall down like it's no big deal and love it, when Caleb reaches the edge he very carefully works his way off and onto the floor, even if I'm right there waiting to catch him.
Well, naptime is probably half over, and I've got more to do!
Friday night Mike and I went to a very nice Valentine's dinner at church. Caleb and Logan went to my brother and sister-in-law's for the whole night! They offered to just have them sleep over so we wouldn't have to wake them up to bring them home when we finished with dinner. We've done that before and it goes fine, but you just feel so bad getting sleepy babies up and strapping them into their carseats and all that. When we got there the boys just jumped right in to playing with their cousins. Anyways, the dinner was put on by the leaders of our Young Married's Class. During the punch bowl they had a teen from the church playing violin, and each couple had their photo taken. Dinner was delicious, and afterwards Rich Kornoelje (and Sid) was our guest speaker. He did a great job and it was alot of fun.
Saturday evening we had our Care & Fellowship Group from church over. We are leading a group this year (there's not much to it...) and this was our first get together. We knew one of the families, but not the other two (and only one of those was able to make it on Saturday). We had a very nice time and felt like things went well. All the kids were great - they played nice with Caleb and Logan, and left the playroom picked up better than what I do! Both families that were there have 13 year old girls, and I found it very nice that I could do my hostessing without having to keep too much of an eye on the boys. :)
Sunday afternoon I had to be at a Social Committee meeting at church. I agreed to be on the committee this year and this was our first meeting. I think it will be fun! As long as I don't have too much work... :)
Logan is definitely saying "uh-oh" now. I don't think there's really anything else I can claim for sure. He does alot of babbling, but that's about it. A couple time's I thought maybe he said "bye", but I'm not sure. The boy is cutting teeth like crazy. I can see 4 just barely on their way out. Poor thing. I think I may have written this before, but he loves, loves, loves pasta. He will eat a crazy amount of it. I can't really get either of the boys to eat fruit or vegetable table foods, but they both do well with carbs, meats, and cheese. Both of the boys, but especially Logan lately, have gotten more and more into reading books. Logan will grab a book and walk over to me with the cutest look on his face, and usually jabbering a little bit, and want to sit on my lap to look at the book. And then many times Caleb wants to climb up and join the fun.
Caleb definitely has some attachment issues. He is much more shy when around strangers (which to a certain extent is good of course), he gets quite upset when we leave him, and many times if I'm sitting on the floor looking at a book with Logan, Caleb climbs right on in to make sure we haven't forgotten him (it definitely seems like more of a jealously thing than just wanting to play along with us). Sunday I was in nursery at church and Caleb was very attached to me almost the whole time - I have to admit it was a little tiring. :)
All along it's been fun to watch the differences in the boys. The last couple days we've spent some time playing on a mattress in their room - I took a mattress out of one of the cribs to change the sheets and they started climbing all over it like it's the greatest thing. And here's a difference between the two: Logan will just walk off the end and fall down like it's no big deal and love it, when Caleb reaches the edge he very carefully works his way off and onto the floor, even if I'm right there waiting to catch him.
Well, naptime is probably half over, and I've got more to do!
Monday, February 7, 2011
fun
Saturday evening we had some friends from church over for sledding and supper. Mike pulled them behind the tractor, they played with the dogs, and the kids had plenty of playtime in the house, too. The next day the parents told us that the kids said their favorite part was playing with Logan and Caleb. :) It was alot of fun for us to see all the kids having so much fun together. This is the family that has the two-year-old girl that just loves Logan (I think I've mentioned her before) - I missed the perfect photo op, she was holding him by the hand and leading him to the playroom, he could hardly keep up, it was so cute! Now I just know they're going to end up getting married someday and I won't have that pic to show at their wedding. :)
Today I met some old friends for lunch. One of the girls has a new baby that I hadn't seen yet, and they hadn't seen the boys in awhile because I didn't have them with me last time we got together. It was going fairly well until Caleb threw-up. Big time. He had been eating some cheese and crackers and I think maybe he just tried to eat too much at once and wasn't chewing good or something?? I caught some of it in my hands (nice) but there was still plenty on his shirt and pants. I was a little embarrassed, but hey, you just gotta get cleaned up and move on.
Today I met some old friends for lunch. One of the girls has a new baby that I hadn't seen yet, and they hadn't seen the boys in awhile because I didn't have them with me last time we got together. It was going fairly well until Caleb threw-up. Big time. He had been eating some cheese and crackers and I think maybe he just tried to eat too much at once and wasn't chewing good or something?? I caught some of it in my hands (nice) but there was still plenty on his shirt and pants. I was a little embarrassed, but hey, you just gotta get cleaned up and move on.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
life
So, on Friday Mike got sick. And I mean, sick. Like I've never seen (or heard) before. We had been planning on going to Freedom's Homecoming, and I decided to go ahead and go anyways - gave Mike some quiet time at home. My parents had also planned on going, but my mom was sick as well, so my dad helped me with the boys while we were there. By the time I was able to get there with the boys it was 6pm and they turn into pumpkins around 7pm, so we didn't last real long. Oh well, it was good to be out for a bit!
Saturday morning Mike was a little off, but much, much better than the night before. We had an appointment for the dogs at the vet and he didn't feel up to taking them, but he was okay staying with the boys while I took care of the dogs. We have great dogs, but they're not very well leash trained (not exactly a necessity around here) so taking them to the vet can be a real treat - especially when they're running behind and you have to sit in the waiting room with them for awhile... Of course the vet kept saying both dogs are overweight, even after I said a few times that they're outside dogs and we fatten them up for winter and then cut back on the food for summer. Otherwise, Sadie is in good shape. Macy, not surprisingly, has a few issues. I guess she has a mammory tumor - they could remove it and test it, but given her age I think we'll just wait and see what happens.
By Saturday noon Mike was feeling much better and I was able to run errands on my own. When I have those opportunities I have so much to accomplish and I very carefully plan it all out. If I remember right I think I made 8 stops and the car was full by the time I came home!
Sunday we were all able to go to church for both services! That seems like a rare event. I was in nursery in the a.m. so I wasn't able to sit in church, but still, we were all there.
(Oh, and of course, all this time I'm just waiting and waiting to see if I get sick. I figured it was my turn. Every bite of food I ate, I wondered....and I kept waiting to feel a twinge in my stomach....but, so far so good!)
Monday was a BUSY, BUSY day! Dropped the boys off at Grandpa & Grandma VB's for the day (I do not know how some people get their kids to daycare every day, what a feat to get out the door first thing in the morning and everything they need for the day.). I had a hair appt and a dentist appt, and I got the playroom painted! No more purple walls! I was almost able to finish it, just had a little bit of work to do the next day. That night we had our first "Growing Kids God's Way" class - a class we're taking through church. So, the babysitter came and we rushed off. We've had this babysitter once before, she's great. But again, as we were leaving I said to Mike, "I can't believe I'm the grown-up..."
Tuesday evening the blizzard started. Most people had a snow day on Wednesday, but Mike still had to work and so it was a pretty normal day for us. He did get home a little early, which was nice.
Logan has seemed extra crabby this week, and it's no wonder, he's got a molar coming through! Poor guy, that's gotta hurt. He actually sat nice on my lap for a bit a couple different times today.
Caleb is now saying "bye-bye", "no-no", and "uh-oh". I'm still not totally convinced on "ma-ma" and "da-da". He knows how to sign "more" and "please".
Caleb has really gotten into some tantrum throwing - happens with pretty much every diaper change and if he doesn't get his way with something else. He arches his back and throws his head back while crying. It's real pleasant.
Shucks, I feel like I had a couple other developmental type things to write and now I can't remember...
Saturday morning Mike was a little off, but much, much better than the night before. We had an appointment for the dogs at the vet and he didn't feel up to taking them, but he was okay staying with the boys while I took care of the dogs. We have great dogs, but they're not very well leash trained (not exactly a necessity around here) so taking them to the vet can be a real treat - especially when they're running behind and you have to sit in the waiting room with them for awhile... Of course the vet kept saying both dogs are overweight, even after I said a few times that they're outside dogs and we fatten them up for winter and then cut back on the food for summer. Otherwise, Sadie is in good shape. Macy, not surprisingly, has a few issues. I guess she has a mammory tumor - they could remove it and test it, but given her age I think we'll just wait and see what happens.
By Saturday noon Mike was feeling much better and I was able to run errands on my own. When I have those opportunities I have so much to accomplish and I very carefully plan it all out. If I remember right I think I made 8 stops and the car was full by the time I came home!
Sunday we were all able to go to church for both services! That seems like a rare event. I was in nursery in the a.m. so I wasn't able to sit in church, but still, we were all there.
(Oh, and of course, all this time I'm just waiting and waiting to see if I get sick. I figured it was my turn. Every bite of food I ate, I wondered....and I kept waiting to feel a twinge in my stomach....but, so far so good!)
Monday was a BUSY, BUSY day! Dropped the boys off at Grandpa & Grandma VB's for the day (I do not know how some people get their kids to daycare every day, what a feat to get out the door first thing in the morning and everything they need for the day.). I had a hair appt and a dentist appt, and I got the playroom painted! No more purple walls! I was almost able to finish it, just had a little bit of work to do the next day. That night we had our first "Growing Kids God's Way" class - a class we're taking through church. So, the babysitter came and we rushed off. We've had this babysitter once before, she's great. But again, as we were leaving I said to Mike, "I can't believe I'm the grown-up..."
Tuesday evening the blizzard started. Most people had a snow day on Wednesday, but Mike still had to work and so it was a pretty normal day for us. He did get home a little early, which was nice.
Logan has seemed extra crabby this week, and it's no wonder, he's got a molar coming through! Poor guy, that's gotta hurt. He actually sat nice on my lap for a bit a couple different times today.
Caleb is now saying "bye-bye", "no-no", and "uh-oh". I'm still not totally convinced on "ma-ma" and "da-da". He knows how to sign "more" and "please".
Caleb has really gotten into some tantrum throwing - happens with pretty much every diaper change and if he doesn't get his way with something else. He arches his back and throws his head back while crying. It's real pleasant.
Shucks, I feel like I had a couple other developmental type things to write and now I can't remember...
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