Is that the END of the Tunnel???

There has been sickness in da house. Icky, exhausting and annoying sickness. First Jack got it, then I got it, then Alex got it. Annie came down with something entirely different. Lucy has remained unscathed...and I'm nervous even writing this post because for sure she will get sick tonight.

And that is another thing, why do kids always get sick at night...right when you need to rest most. I mean how are parents ever supposed to get better when they can never sleep?

Drugs are good...at least the prescription kind. My OB put me on one and Annie is on one. Annie's transformation in the first 24 hours of hers was incredible. We must have caught her strep really quickly becasue she has bounced back like a super ball on speed. Mine has definitely helped - I can sleep lying down again - rather than upright in a chair so I don't cough ALL night long. And let's just say that a intense cough and being 31 weeks pregnant with a baby right on your bladder don't mix all that well...shudder.

So it hasn't been fun...not one bit. But yesterday I was reminded of something great while Annie and I sat in the doctor's office. Until yesterday, Annie hadn't been for a sick visit in more than 18 months. She has had colds here and there and the occasional stomach thing but nothing that warranted a doctor visit in that long. For Lucy it has been 14 months and counting, the last time she even darkened the door of the office was for her well check last March. Jack had a rough year in 2007 being hospitalized twice for stomach flus...but even with that he hasn't been to the office since April of last year. (we never made it to the office in Sept we went right to the ER)

All this to say that even though everyone being sick at the same time really sucks...we have been blessed with health recently. And last week was an okay week for us to have to slow down and focus on wellness. To drink lots of yummy warm beverages and eat healthy and hearty meals. To rest when our bodies said rest and have an opportunity to care for one another in ways we don't always do when we are well. It felt nice to be taken care of...to have the kids bring me ice water and fresh navel oranges. I was touched by how they all asked me several times a day how I was feeling. They all seemed to understand in a different way what it meant for mommy to be sick.

Alex was a beast when it came to laundry and cooking. He ran this ship very efficiently - put me to shame really. It's so funny how spouses do things so differently. His strengths really do compliment my weaknesses and vice versa. It's great to be reminded of how God designs it all.

I think we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Alex is gone this weekend at a retreat...please send all of the good vibes our way for a healthy and fun weekend sans daddy.

A Good Thing

Well it finally snowed more than an inch this past week. Last Monday we got a good 6-7 inches of snow here in Pittsburgh and while it wasn't the blizzard I've been hoping for it was an improvement.

The really sad thing is that I was flat on my back sick in bed while Alex and the kids romped around in the fluffy white stuff. They did throw a couple of snowballs at my window and took pictures of their adventures for me to see. I was just so sad to miss it.

Here is a picture of the kids and their friend Frosty! (he is still there now but tomorrow it is supposed to be 51 and rainy...bye bye Frosty)

This article (copied from here) really sums up how I feel as someone who is pro-life and an Obama supporter.



Why I'm Pro-life and Pro-Obama
Frank Schaeffer

I am an Obama supporter. I am also pro-life. In fact, without my family's involvement in the pro-life movement it would not exist as we know it. Evangelicals weren't politicized until after my late father and evangelical leader Francis Schaeffer, Dr. Koop (Reagan's soon-to-be Surgeon General) and I stirred them up over the issue of abortion in the mid-1970s. Our Whatever Happened to the Human Race? book, movie series and seminars brought the evangelicals into the pro-life movement.

(Dad's political influence persists. Last week one of my father's followers -- Mike Huckabee -- was interviewed by Katie Couric, along with all the other presidential candidates. Couric asked the candidates if they were to be sent to a desert island and could only take one book besides the Bible, what would that that book be? Huckabee answered that he'd take my father's book Whatever Happened To The Human Race?)

Fast forward...

In 2000, we elected a president who claimed he believed God created the earth and who, as president, put car manufacturers and oil company's interests ahead of caring for that creation. We elected a pro-life Republican Congress that did nothing to actually care for pregnant women and babies. And they took their sincere evangelical followers for granted, and played them for suckers.

The so-called evangelical leadership -- Dobson, Robertson et al. also played the pro-life community for suckers. While thousands of men and women in the crisis pregnancy movement gave of themselves to help women and babies, their evangelical "leaders" did little more than cash in on fundraising opportunities and represent themselves as power-brokers to the craven politicians willing to kowtow to them.

Fast forward...

Today when I listen to Obama speak (and to his remarkable wife, Michelle) what I hear is a world view that actually nurtures life. Obama is trying to lead this country to a place where the intrinsic worth of each individual is celebrated. A leader who believes in hope, the future, trying to save our planet and providing a just and good life for everyone is someone who is actually pro-life.

Conversely the "pro-life" ethic of George W. Bush manifested itself in a series of squandered opportunities to call us to our better natures. After 9/11, Bush told most Americans to go shopping while saddling the few who volunteered for military service with endless tours of duty (something I know a little about since my son was a Marine and deployed several times). The Bush doctrine of life was expressed by starting an unnecessary war in Iraq that has killed thousands of Americans and wounded tens of thousands more.

The society that Obama is calling us to sacrifice for is a place wherein life would be valued not just talked about. As he said in his speech delivered on February 6 in New Orleans, "Too often, we lose our sense of common destiny; that understanding that we are all tied together; that when a woman has less than nothing in this country, that makes us all poorer." Obama was talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but his words also apply to our overall view of ourselves.

Regardless of the official position of the Supreme Court on abortion, a country in which all Americans are offered some sort of dignity and hopeful future would be a place conducive to the kind of optimism each of us must hold in our hearts if we are to welcome children into this world. But if our highest aspiration is to be a consumer with no thought or care for our neighbor, we will remain a culture in which abortion is not only inevitable but logical.

What we need in America is a spiritual rebirth, a turning away from the false value of consumerism and utilitarianism that have trumped every aspect of human life. To implement this vision we need leaders that inspire but to do so they have to be what they say they are. It's not about policy it's about character.

Obama's rivals for the nomination -- the Clintons -- do not inspire. When the Clintons were in the White House they talked about humane values while Bill Clinton betrayed every single person who voted for him by carrying on an unseemly sexual dalliance in the Oval Office with a young woman barely out of her teens. Since that time the Clintons have enriched themselves through their connections to a point where they're able to make a $5 million personal loan to their campaign.

For someone who says she has spent "the last 35 years of my life as an advocate for children" and/or "fighting for healthcare" that's a lot of money to have collected through doing good works. Presidential Mother Teresa wannabes shouldn't be doing deals with uranium mining outfits in Kazakhstan while schmoozing with the likes of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and wealthy mining magnates -- not if they want the moral authority to lead.

Similarly the Republicans have also been hypocrites while talking big, for instance about their pro-life ethic. But what have they achieved? First, through their puritanical war on sex education they've hindered our country from actually preventing unwanted pregnancy. Second, through the Republican Party's marriage to the greediest and most polluting earth-destroying corporations they've created a climate (both moral and physical) that has scorched the earth for-profit, with no regard to future generations whatsoever. The Republicans are to the pro-life movement what the Clintons are to selfless public service.

The real solution to abortion is to change the heart of America, not the law. We need to stop seeing ourselves as consumers. We need to stop seeing ourselves as me and begin to think of we. Our country needs someone to show us a better way, a president who is what he seems, someone with actual moral authority that our diverse population can believe in who has the qualities that make us want to follow him. Obama is that person.

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of "CRAZY FOR GOD -- How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back"

Catching Up

I feel as if it has been a while since I provided anyone reading with an update on our family. Sometimes it is just easier to do a fly by and post an article or video. But I have a few quiet moments so I'll try and fill you all in on life with us.

*I'm almost 30 weeks pregnant! I feel really good for the most part. Sleeping is getting a bit arduous but generally speaking I feel amazingly good for being this far along. We had a follow up ultrasound and the baby (definitely ALL boy) looks great. The docs saw all they wanted to see but hadn't the first time and from the looks of things our baby is healthy and developing normally. Thanks be to God!

*Jack and Lucy are coming upon their 4th and 6th birthdays repectively. It is hard for me to believe they are that old already. Especially Jack - I think because I thought he was going to be my last I have kept him a baby in my heart for all of this time. But that is all about to change when we bring home a squeaking, squirming newborn. Jack wants another Cars party (since he got sick and ended up in the hospital last year) and Lucy's party will be at a local bowling alley!

*Annie has become rather entralled by the idea of her new brother. She took a while to get used to the idea but now she wants to watch shows about babies being born and the first days of life. She pretends each day to be pregnant (complete will doll under her shirt) and give birth. She dotes on her baby, who she's named Adrienne, and she really is a good little mama. I can't wait for her to meet the baby...I know it will be love at first sight.

*I am still feeling happy about the Super Bowl! I am so glad the Giants won and that the Patriots lost...and it was a really good game.

*Alex is in the midst of Lent at church...a busy time. He has a retreat later this month and several other events coming up on the calendar. He tried to plan for this semester to be loaded on the front end so he can have a more calm schedule after the baby arrives.

*I'm about to begin knitting a blanket for the baby...hopefully I can get it done before he goes to college! I'm keeping busy with schooling the girls and figuring out how I can possibly volunteer for Barack Obama since it looks like the Pennsylvania primary will actually matter for a change. I don't know what I can do but I'm very interested in looking into it.

Well that's about all for now...I'll try to be better about all of this in the future. Here are some pictures to update you on the kiddos!