My Journey

How did I come to value the tiniest of human lives?

Well, it started early.

I remember my parents took us yearly to raise money and march in the Crisis Pregnancy Walkathons.

I remember at 6 or 7 walking around to our neighbors and asking for their support to "help save babies".

I remember my mom stopping me as I started angrily shouting at pro-abortion protesters and instead teaching me to pray for them.

I remember sitting in a cabin at a summer camp in junior high comforting a crying girl, 13 years old like myself. Her parents had forced her to have an abortion a couple months prior. They had told the clinic that she was mentally retarded so that they would ignore her cries to stop. I learned that day that not only is a small, innocent life tragically ended, but the mother's life is never the same again either.

I remember the elation I felt when I discovered one October day 5 years ago that we were pregnant with our first child. I instantly bonded with my baby.

I remember the unfathomable pain I felt when I lost that baby 5 years ago today.

This is where I have come from and why this issue is so important to me.

My sister posted on the current state of infanticide in our country. A friend of hers posted a link to Justin Taylors blog on this topic. If you are feeling apathetic on the issue of abortion (which sadly happens to all of us at times, I think), I highly recommend this jolt back to reality.

A Single-Issue

A pro-life friend recently mentioned that she was voting for Obama in spite of his pro-choice stance because she wasn’t just a single-issue voter.

My first thought upon hearing this was to defend my support for McCain by explaining that Obama’s pro-abortion stance would affect so many other areas. For example, our next president will, most likely, get to make a couple of Supreme Court appointments and many federal court appointments. Liberal judges that support abortion rights have taken it upon themselves to make laws instead of merely interpreting laws. This is how we ended up with Roe vs. Wade in the first place.

These are also the types of judges who are whittling away at religious freedom. The Alliance Defense Fund, an organization fighting to preserve religious freedom in our country has some startling examples of this infringement on freedom by zealous liberal judges.

But really, deep-down, I am a single-issue voter. While being a pro-life candidate alone won’t earn my vote, being pro-abortion automatically DISQUALIFIES them from my consideration.

John Piper had this to say on the topic:
“No endorsement of any single issue qualifies a person to hold public office. Being pro-life does not make a person a good governor, mayor, or president. But there are numerous single issues that disqualify a person from public office. For example, any candidate who endorsed bribery as a form of government efficiency would be disqualified, no matter what his party or platform was. Or a person who endorsed corporate fraud (say under $50 million) would be disqualified no matter what else he endorsed. Or a person who said that no black people could hold office—on that single issue alone he would be unfit for office. Or a person who said that rape is only a misdemeanor—that single issue would end his political career. These examples could go on and on. Everybody knows a single issue that for them would disqualify a candidate for office.”

For me, that single issue is abortion.

If the tables were turned and Obama was pro-life and McCain pro-abortion, Obama would get my vote even though I disagree with the vast majority of his other positions.

But that is not the case here. Not only is Obama pro-abortion; he is PASSIONATE about his stance. On multiple occasions while serving in the Illinois Senate, he fought the Infant Born Alive Protection Act, which would have prohibited abortionists from discarding live-born infant abortion survivors. This extreme position puts Obama in a league of his own, as not ONE US Senator or Congressman voted against identical federal legislation.

He also promised Planned Parenthood that the first thing he would do when elected president would be to pass the “Freedom of Choice Act” (FOCA).

According to the National Organization of Women, FOCA nullifies:

• Any and all bans on partial-birth abortion
• Informed Consent laws requiring that women receive information on the risks of getting an abortion.
• Parental Notification and Consent laws
• Would require state and federal funding for abortion.

The fact that Obama wants to not only continue the brutal killing of unborn children, but also eliminate all laws that deter this injustice disqualifies him from my support. If abortion isn’t a defining moral issue, what is?

Edmund Burke said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

My prayer is that those who value life would collectively take a stand next week and vote in favor of preserving life. And that we would keep standing for what is true and right, no matter what the outcome.

For one day, good will triumph. In that day, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." (Rev 21:4)

But until then, hopefully I will have the courage to stand strong and point to the One who will ultimately make all things right.

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Life Issues Institute photo of a baby 8 weeks after conception. Used by permission.

Credit for the other two photo's of Keegan belong to my friend, Aimee.

(Randy Alcorn also had a thought-provoking post on this topic.)

Of Pumpkins and Pigs

Tucked away in the middle of a grove of sweet smelling creosote, picking pumpkins… Yup, that’s a desert fall for you.

The Great Pumpkin Festival at the Desert Botanical Garden was amazing. The boys loved EVERY aspect of our day! We met a few friends and took a hayride out to our creosote grove and turned the boys loose to search for their perfect pumpkin!
In honor of the event, I dressed the boys in overalls so they could ‘pretend’ to be farmers! I’m just a bit obsessed with color coordinating the boys when we are out. It just makes it so much easier to keep track of them!

Mini petting zoo’s are perfect for mini people. I was amazed at how much “love” those poor animals put up with. Keegan’s favorite animals were the piglets!
Xander loved the donkey!
Exiting the pumpkin patch was a bit tricky. I ended up carrying both pumpkins and the diaper bag while carrying Trey on my back - all while managing to coral two kids onto and off of a hayride and finding our stroller again! As we left, I still had a smile on my face and no one was melting down yet. For three boys and a mommy, that is a success!
Thanks Christine and Zane for the invite!

Standing Tall

My baby is working hard to grow up and sadly, he's doing so at breakneck speed. For the last couple of weeks he's been pulling himself up in the crib and now on whatever he can get his hands on. He is covered with the typical bruises for this stage. Gone are the days of worrying about running after two. There are now three little people to run after now!

Patch-up, Touchdown!

I’ve had another “yup, I’m a mommy” moment. I patched my first pair of jeans. I’m actually surprised that I haven’t had to do this sooner.

I remember my mom occasionally doing pretty patches where she would embroider flowers onto my jeans. I loved it, especially since I was so skinny as a kid that I had to wear super-slim BOY jeans. This was the one aspect that made it slightly girly… (I missed out on all of the cool 80’s jeans styles with zippers and bows at the bottom of the jeans. Maybe I should indulge my girlhood fantasy, now that I am more, uh, full-figured and zippers are back..)

Since my little daddy clone is such a big football fan, I decided to make him a football from some old corduroy that I had lying around. I LOVE the mix of textures. (I see many more corduroy patches in our future.)I’m not sure how long they will hold up, since I cheated a bit and glued the ‘patch’ on before doing the zigzag stitch to secure the edges. (Yup, there I go with the glue – AGAIN!)

I scored bigtime with this one!!! He LOVES his ‘new’ jeans and can’t wait for the weather to cool down again, so he can wear them more often!

I’m sure this will inspire more football moments where he creatively uses whatever is lying around to transform himself into a football player!

...a deflated dodgeball!

...and the ever-manly purple bumbo football helmet! :)

Brotherly Love

So I've posted about brotherly love before, but I don't think it will ever seem old to me.

As Treyton gets older it has been fun to see them become closer and have fun playing together. Treyton, my big 7 month old, is trying his hardest to keep up with his brothers. He's been army crawling for a month now and has started pulling up on things. He doesn't seem to care that I want him to stay little. Nope, he's bound and determined to play with those brothers of his...

And they want to be with him! Their latest obsession has been bounding upstairs with me when Trey wakes up from naps and joining him in his crib!

They are all pretty thrilled to be 3 men in a tub!

Stick-ing to It?

One of my main goals for this year is to get organized. We are looking to develop a daily rhythm and figure out how we are going to learn, live and grow together as a family.

So chores are a natural extension of this. With 3 little boys, taming the mess is a must. Bethany and I are working on re-creating the chore charts that we had growing up. I'm so very excited about this since it is picture based, making it easy for those pre-readers to know what they are to do and keep on task.


In the meantime, I ran across this idea here and here. I love "to-do" lists and look forward to passing on the obsession!

Xander had fun painting the sticks to represent "to do's" for different times of our day. He loves selecting a colored stick and then doing whatever it says to do. After completing that task, he gets to turn it upside down in the jar! To make it light, some of them are just for fun. I think I might collect an arsenal of these to rotate thru!


So far, I think the favorite activity is clearing and wiping the table down!

Here's what we have:

Blue - Post Breakfast "to-do's"

• get dressed
• make bed
• clean room
• brush teeth
• clear/wipe table
• hug someone

Green - Post Lunch/Pre-nap "to-do's"

• clear/wipe table
• put toys away
• practice his Bible verse
• "thankful for ___"
• go potty

Red - Post dinner/pre-bedtime "to-do's"

• clear/wipe table
• put toys away
• brush teeth
• go potty
• "I love you because _______"

Am I missing anything? What chores did you or your kids do at this age? Some just for fun one's that I might rotate thru include: do 10 jumping jacks, Sing a song, do a cartwheel...


Ok, it's late and I'm fresh out of ideas. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Oma

I'm still here, just busy and/or distracted... It has been a sad past couple of weeks. My Oma unexpectedly passed away two weeks ago. I mentioned her over at Playful Childhood and my sister reminisced about her as well.

I will miss my spunky Oma who loved us fiercely. She was always up for an adventure, despite whatever health challenges she was encountering and made a determined effort to spend every last minute with each of us. Her example is inspiring.

I'm also now resolved to make sure that I have pictures of ME with those I love. As I went through old family pictures, I realized that the only picture I had of just her and I was taken when I was pregnant with Xander 4 and a half years ago.