Good Morning!
On this day in 1639 Connecticut’s first constitution, the “Fundamental Orders,” was adopted.
In 1784 the United States ratified a peace treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War.
In 1878 Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone for Britain’s Queen Victoria.
In 1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane while in office.
And in 1973 the Miami Dolphins defeated the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII and became the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season.
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Quote of the Day
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Martin Niemoller
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Today was the birthday of Francois-Joseph Dizi. From AnnaLoro1
And it was on today’s date in 1960 that this fella was promoted to the rank of Sgt. by the US Army. From JamesJones
And it’s Dave Grohl’s birthday. I never did care much for Nirvana, however I do like the Foo Fighters. But today something different. A duet with Norah Jones, covering Paul McCartney. From LarryRulz
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Wandering Views 
Good Morning!! Rise and Shine and give God the Glory!! 🙂
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Thanks for the congratulations, but I am only the great-grandfather.
A couple of days ago, Peter said that I was acting like a dad with a firstborn. (or somesuch)
And he was right. There’s a reason. It wasn’t like this for the other three.
A couple or three of months ago, Mary had a sonogram, and it appeared that Graham had fluid on the brain. We were all concerned about that. That is, everybody but Mary. She said that it wasn’t significant at this point; not to worry. In any case, they would love him anyhow. But most of us never got over the anxiety.
We were anxious, and as you can imagine, we prayed a lot.
This afternoon, Mary went to the hospital, so we knew it would be soon. At dinner tonight, Elvera said, “I hope Graham will be OK”
So, as you can tell, the anxiety was still there.
But he’s here. Got here about 9:00 est. Mother and baby appear to be fine. Mary had a rough time; the cord was tangled around his neck. I don’t know if that was the problem. 6.7#
The dedication will be on Mother’s day, so we will go to Greensboro then.
Yes, we remember to be thankful.
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Chuck sent some pictures of Graham, and his aunts holding him. I tried to print them, but couldn’t. I think Shutterfly wants me to buy them. But I don’t see a link.
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Oh, Chas, I am so happy Baby Graham was delivered safely. I pray all is well. Someitmes medicine gives us too much information and we worry too much.
You all know about my friend who dreamed I would be pregnant when I came to the hospital to see her baby. I had the proceture done at 10:30 am on December 18th. Her daughter was born at 2:30pm that day, but it snowed in Mobile and I went home after work rather than to the hospital to see the new baby. The next day when I went I was indeed pregnant. I just didn’t know it.
THE REST OF THE STORY: My friend had cancer after her first child, a son was born. She went through chemo and was told it was highly unlikely she would ever have another pregnancy. This was her third child. The doctors did all sorts of tests and told her the baby would be born severely handicapped, both mentally and physically. They told her the baby would only live a few hours or at most days after she was born. They strongly encouraged termination. My friend decided to go through with the pregnancy. She thought if the baby only lived a short time there were other babies out there on transplant lists and perhaps this was God’s intention for her baby. She decided on a name and started thinking of the baby in handicapped terms.
That day, December 18, a perfectly healthy and normal–not handicapped in any way- baby girl was born. She is an honor student, plays softball, and has a strong sense of humor. To think the doctors said she wouldn’t live—What do THEY know?
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I continue to pray for Mary and Graham….and remain so very thankful for his safe arrival. It is a very good thing to celebrate the life of a child…every child. The Lord is good indeed and Graham has been so richly blessed to have been prayed for by not only his loving family, but especially so by his Great Grandparents….a rich heritage has he.
I love hearing your story Kim…our Lord’s Hand at work…in the unseen…what a beautiful image of our Creator…oh that all of His creation would taste and see of His goodness
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Yes, a nice story Kim.
I told you before that Maryis a neonatal nurse. Her responst to us was that there was “too much information out there”
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Nancijill, thank’s for the Tuesday “call to worship.”
Kim, that’s a great story. And Chas, we always knew you were a “great” grandfather. 🙂
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Congratulations to you and yours, Chas. So glad all went well.
Kim, I have heard many similar stories about women being encouraged to abort because of problems. Some did have babies that died shortly after birth, but I have heard many more of babies born perfectly normal. Sad to think how many aborted, because of this. Doctors are not gods.
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Amen.
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I knew a family who was told their child (a first child) would die shortly after birth. Whether they were encouraged to abort, I do not know. I do know that to everyone’s shock the child lived. Now, she had all sorts of health issues, and she may well be no longer alive, but no child was ever loved more. When her parents brought her to work during an employee assembly when she was a little tiny baby, every person I looked at had tears in their eyes. (We didn’t know she would be present, but we had all prayed for her family for weeks, and all rejoiced when she was born alive.) I continued to see her periodically until she was about three, but then I left to go freelance, and I don’t know the story the last ten years.
What I do not understand is this: a miscarriage is supposed to be a harder delivery than a live birth anyway, so unless you’re aborting the baby well before birth, you have no particular advantage. Worse, instead of having the bittersweet moments of holding your child for a few breaths, you kill him yourself and for all practical purposes he never existed. I mean, if you have a baby who died after birth, he’s included as part of the family story. But do you really tell people, “We have two children, and we also had a baby the doctors said wouldn’t live, so we aborted him”? I really think that besides the wrong of the act, it’s short-circuiting the grieving process. If I can’t play with my child and watch him grow up, at least let me hold him in my arms and kiss him and take a photo! And yes, often the doctors are wrong, and to everyone’s surprise you have a healthy baby. I don’t know that it’s morally more wrong to kill a healthy baby than an unhealthy one, but it most certainly is “unnecessary” tragedy if the reason you’re choosing to kill him doesn’t exist. And what does that say to your healthy children, anyway–whew, I’m sure glad I was healthy! But what if I get sick now? Will Mommy and Daddy kill me?
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I too know a family whose third child was diagnosed with hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and spina bifida while in the womb. The diagnosis was made too late in the pregnancy to do intrauterine surgery and the doctors counseled abortion. The parents didn’t listen. I met the child for the first time when she was two and I never realized she had any disability until I was told of it. She did need physiotherapy but she was a delight to all who met her.
The prevalent counsel to abort an unhealthy baby shows how ingrained eugenics is in our society. I never forget the shock of hearing a Christian woman, whom I highly respected, say, when she heard of a woman who was unstable mentally and had conceived at least ten children with different fathers, “Why don’t they sterilize people like that?” I later heard that sentiment echoed by a nurse when she was discussing a patient with congenital mental retardation who had just given birth to a healthy baby. We live in a world that has no compassion for the weak. Everyone is so taken up with their own concerns that they have no wish to be bothered with those who can’t take care of themselves.
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The greatest heartache? A woman who aborted a healthy twin because its brother had some sort of disability.
No one in the family ever quite got over that.
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Ladies,
My brother’s wife was a similar, yet different story. She was advised to abort her child because she had breast cancer. The doctor said it would impede her treatment. She and my brother refused. Ellen died a couple months after a healthy baby boy was born. It turned out that she not only had breast cancer, but inoperable brain tumors as well. Sadly Ellen would have died either way. Had she listened to the expert and his opinion her last days would have been guilt filled misery. Since they didn’t, she was at least able to hold her son and give my brother their 6th child before she died. He’s like 12 now, and he’s a blessing to her surviving family members. Doctors aren’t always right.
Which brings me to this. I was going to post it in the news thread tomorrow, but given the conversation, it seems fitting here. A pregnant, brain-dead women is being kept alive against her husband (and her’s?) wishes. He has now sued to remove her from life support. This will of course kill the child. It should be interesting to see how this plays out. I understand and respect the mother’s wishes, yet pregnancy wasn’t part of the equation when she made her directives. And now it won’t just end her life, but the child’s as well. What of the child’s rights? Personally I don’t think the father is right, but I think he is probably overwhelmed and unprepared to raise a possibly handicapped child on his own. A sad story. But I hope the judge gives the child a chance.
http://news.msn.com/us/pregnant-brain-dead-womans-husband-sues-hospital
“The husband of a brain-dead, pregnant Texas woman on Tuesday sued the hospital keeping her on life support, saying doctors are doing so against her and her family’s wishes.
The lawsuit filed in state district court asks a judge to order John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth to remove life support for Marlise Munoz, a North Texas woman who was 14 weeks pregnant when her husband found her unconscious on Nov. 26. Her family says the exact cause of her condition isn’t known, though a pulmonary embolism is a possibility.
The hospital has said a state law prohibits life-saving treatment from being denied to pregnant patients. Experts familiar with the Texas law say the hospital is incorrectly applying the statute because Munoz would be considered legally and medically dead.
“Marlise Munoz is dead, and she gave clear instructions to her husband and family — Marlise was not to remain on any type of artificial ‘life sustaining treatment’, ventilators or the like,” the lawsuit said. “There is no reason JPS should be allowed to continue treatment on Marlise Munoz’s dead body, and this Court should order JPS to immediately discontinue such.”
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The Real, your sister-in-law was a courageous woman.
On the article: The fact that the child survived the mother’s coma and probable death is a sign that it has a good chance of survival. In a couple of weeks, the baby will have reached the age of viability (24 weeks) and could be removed from the mother, which raises another question. Knowing how court cases can drag out, if the child becomes viable before a decision is handed down and then the court rules in favour of the father, what happens to the child?
It also calls into question whether the diagnosis of no brain activity is good enough to determine if someone is dead or not; because in order for that fetus to be still alive, the mother must still have good circulation, even if her heart is driven by a machine. You see, it is a characteristic for those who are dying naturally to lose their peripheral circulation before the heart actually stops. I have had the experience of seeing a relative removed from life support and I knew that it was the right time because when I held this dear person’s hands, while they were still on life support, I could feel no signs of life – they were dead and cold in my grasp. The machines can keep the lungs going, but the circulation will stop if someone is really dead – even if there is some kind of pacemaker keeping the heart firing, the heart will eventually stop pumping as all the veins and arteries collapse and close up due to chemical changes caused by massive cell death.
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Thank you for the medical info Roscuro. I wondered about that too. In the article the hospital says they are monitoring the baby, but no signs yet of any problems. The concern is the possible lack of oxygen that MAY have occurred. They still don’t even know for sure what caused the mothers condition.
From the link.
“The family has said they do not know the condition of the fetus. Marlise Munoz is believed to have been without oxygen for some time before her husband found her. Doctors have told Erick Munoz that they are monitoring the fetus, but Munoz has said he’s uncertain about how healthy the fetus will be given his wife’s condition.”
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The Real, that quote show fuzzy thinking, either by the people being quoted or by the writer. What is “some time”? Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, a half an hour? Five minutes is the estimated time that the human brain can remain alive without oxygen, but even that can alter with conditions (e.g. at colder temperatures, the brain may remain alive longer). Also this happened when the child was at 14 weeks, a less significant time for brain development. It is impossible even with a normal pregnancy, to tell how healthy a child may or may not be until it is born as some conditions do not reveal themselves even with the most careful testing. The doctors certainly would not be monitoring a dead fetus and in order for them to think that the fetus could remain alive, its heart rate must be keeping steady above a certain rate and its heart rate is driven by its brain.
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I just came on to add this link to World magazine’s article about pastors not preaching from the pulpit on abortion. Not sure if you can see the whole thing, but here’s the link: http://www.worldmag.com/2014/01/still_silent_shepherds
My QOD is, I’ve attended church all over the country and have seldom, if ever heard a sermon on abortion or murder as a sin. Have any of you?
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Agreed, too, about your brother and sister-in-law’s heroism to have that sixth child. It’s so tricky when we play God.
As to the Texas situation, none of this would be possible without medical intervention–keeping the mother’s body functioning enough to have a child. There was a story last year about a family where something similar happened. The dad wanted the baby–here’s that concept again–and they kept the mom on life support six weeks? Baby was delivered healthy enough and mom died a few minutes later.
Tragic.
Triumphant.
I have no idea what I’d do.
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Michelle, every third Sunday in January,Southern Baptists have SS lessons on the Sanctity fo Life. Next Sunday we have a break in John’s Gospel to study Ps 139.
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Michelle, the former pastor at my husband’s church, when I was a member there (a Methodist church) gave a wonderful personal testimony one Sunday about how his mother was advised to abort him and chose not to It was probably the best sermon I heard him do. It is even more interesting because his dad was a doctor in a small Georgia town and was my current Baptist pastor’s boyhood doctor. And the song, “It’s a Small World” plays in the background.
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Michelle – At my former church, I heard a few sermons about abortion being murder. (Well, that may not have been the entire point of the sermons, but I know it was the whole sermon on at least a couple occasions.) My current pastor has mentioned it within a sermon or two.
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When son and I went to the Christmas Eve service at my husband’s church where he sings in the choir some people told me they wish I would come back there. I still like many of the members, but have had more spiritual growth in the Baptist church.
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Roscuro writes, “We live in a world that has no compassion for the weak. Everyone is so taken up with their own concerns that they have no wish to be bothered with those who can’t take care of themselves.”
I agree. But I know a young “Christian” woman (she claims to be devout, but I am having my doubts) who could use those same sentences on why it is more loving to let women abort their babies. She argues that the same people (Republicans & conservatives) who fight the hardest against abortion are also the ones who fight against the social programs that could help the women with unplanned pregnancies to provide for their babies.
She’s gone on Facebook tirades about how if pro-lifers really cared about the mothers & babies (rather than supposedly only caring about the fetus), they would make sure they had enough nutritious food, & shoes, & dental care, etc., etc.
I told her that there are indeed individuals & ministries doing these things, but they are not in front of cameras or behind loudspeakers.
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Bosley gave me a fright. I was busy doing backed up laundry all day so did not hang out with her since she seemed content. Later I realized she did not eat or drink much today and I thought maybe she was sick from treatments at the vet’s office yesterday. Then I could not find her anywhere and was thinking the worst. It did not help when my brother happened to call and say he hsd checked on the magazine he had ordered for my Dec birthdsy. He will not tell me what it is so I kept asking. Then he said curiosity killed the cat and he thought I would not want my cat to die. The timing was horrid for him to say that but I did not tell him I could not find Bosley. Finally I opened the door to our son’s bedroom and shined a flashlight under the bed and saw her. Joy and praising God to the max! In doing the laundry I had been in son’s room momentarily to take in some socks that had lost their partners in the wash. Bosley was quick to slip in unnoticed.. Next time I will know to be on the watch for Miss Stealth.
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Janice – I knew a woman who went to our church (Assemblies of God) & her husband went to a Catholic church. But they would read the Bible together every day.
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Now my knees are achy from crawling around on the carpeted floors to look under beds and other difficult places to access. Now she is all cuddled up on me and life is back to good.
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Many years ago I was pro choice and my brother was prolife. At that time I felt like you describe that young lady as feeling. I did not see anything other than a baby shower being given to help those who chose to go through pregnancy as single mothers. I totally discounted God’s role of provision for the child and mother. So that is where the young lady’s thinking is faulty. She is placing herself in the role of God as if she is omnipotent and able to the the future that only God knows. I know that because that is where I once was in my thinking.
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Michelle’s QoD: Yes, one of my pastors did a series of sermons on society’s pet sins, among them abortion. My next pastor didn’t preach on topics, but he mentioned abortion, as he mentioned any other sin, when it was appropriate to the text.
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Word correction. Omniscient (sp?)
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Karen, I think that pregnancy care and delivery care should at least be affordable. I also see the need not to create dependency by handing out everything. There should be a balance. We always tried to reach that balance in our clinic outreach. We charged a small fee for deliveries (about one day’s wages in amount), but we did waive it when the occasion seemed to warrant it.
However, your young friend is guilty of the logical fallacy of exaggeration when she swings from the economic challenges facing young parents to say that it would be better for babies to be killed in the womb than the parents face such challenges. My youngest sibling and her husband live on a tiny budget, far below the poverty line, yet their new baby lacks for nothing, between doting relatives and hand me downs. I’ve never yet seen a baby, here or in Africa, that was born into the utter desolation that could theoretically warrant the statement, “It would be better if he had never lived.” That might be to be said, in moments of bitter agony, of terrible conditions, like a baby born in a concentration camp, but it cheapens the heights and depths human experience to make such extreme statements about the common event of a child born into a poor family.
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There are enough ways to prevent pregnancy so that if you do become pregnant you know that it is a miracle. Beyond this I am not emotially able to comment on this.
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Roscuro – In one of our email exchanges, I emphasized that God is the Creator of life, & every baby conceived is of great value & worth to Him. I said that we don’t know if the birth of a baby, even in horrible circumstances, could be the very means of grace that God uses to touch a woman’s heart to bring her to Himself.
Yes, she does exaggerate much, highly at times, &, although I’m not learned in all the details of logic, I see how very illogical many of her arguments are.
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This young woman has pointed out how ignorant many young women are about birth control & such, like one friend of hers who believed some old wives tale about “you can’t get pregnant if…” She argues that many women can’t afford birth control, or don’t have access to it.
The point I have made to her a couple times is that it is amazing that the same women who can’t get or afford birth control can suddenly manage to get an abortion. Doesn’t make sense.
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People who make the statement you are talking about, Karen, are assuming that the only way to support these women and babies is through government aid. That is not true. The very people who are pro-life are the ones I see stepping in to help. They are the ones I see adopt, give funds to help and literally caring for the little ones for their moms often. It does no good to say so, though, since she will not believe it anyway. At least, that is my experience with those who say such things.
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My pastor mentioned abortion last Sunday. He is well known for speaking out on the issue.
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Kathaleena – That’s been my experience with her, too. In her eyes, until every single baby & mom is completely provided for, then the pro-life movement is not doing enough.
She once said that if we really cared, pro-lifers should band together to make sure all sorts of things & services are provided for these moms & babies. The unwritten part, but clear nonetheless, was that since we don’t, then we don’t really care.
I said that if free birth control is so important to pro-choicers & feminists, then they should band together to provide free birth control in all their towns & cities. And I pointed out that that would be cheaper than the gov’t doing so, because the gov’t always manages to pay much more than necessary.
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Hoping to hear that Jo arrived without many issues along the way and ready to rest from her trip for a bit before engaging her class with fun learning activities. They are blessed to have you, Jo.
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thanks Janice. I am sitting here in my flat, very tired. It was an incredibe, but tiring trip. I will wait to give the full story on rants and raves. It is simply amazing how God answered prayers. Who am I to be so blessed?
Not sure if I really know what day or time it is. A little loopy.
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You know, I really think that part of being pro-life is being pro-marriage. Sex outside of marriage (even with use of birth control) is foolish behavior, and part of the reason it is so is that sex (even with birth control) may well lead to a baby’s conception. Under normal circumstances, it is the family’s responsibility to care for a child, and not society’s responsibility.
To think that being pro-life logically includes being in favor of a welfare society is to confuse two totally different issues. Society can absorb a few single-parent families, a few homes where a parent has been widowed or abandoned. But a society in which a huge minority (30%, 40%, or in African-American households more than 70%) of children are born into homes with single parents, a society in which mothers can birth babies alone by choice and then expect others to pay for the child’s care, is a highly dysfunctional society.
Children can handle poverty if they have hard-working, loving parents. Almost every household in my family has had at least a portion of family life under what we’d consider poverty. (For example, one brother and his wife moved to Tennessee from California, and in spite of colder winters than they were accustomed to, they heated only the baby’s room that first winter.) But when a husband and father is working hard to support his wife and several children, he should not also have to have some of his income (taxes) diverted to pay the household expenses of a woman who chose to have a child without a husband.
Obviously the community must come alongside a child in a hard situation. But just as we would not say it’s morally neutral if that child has been harmed by incest or abuse, it is not morally neutral if that child has been harmed by being deliberately conceived into a home without married parents. (And “deliberate” here can mean something other than planning to bear a child; it can mean simply sleeping together willingly, because children are conceived in such situations, even with use of birth control.) Society should see that as a grievous wrong. The community should come alongside, whether in adopting the child, encouraging the father to marry the mother, or taking the mother into one’s home (and letting her work in the household to offset the costs of providing for her family). But society should not see conception of a child into a single-parent household as a morally neutral choice, nor should families that are struggling to pay their own bills be required to add another household to their expenses.
For example, in my family mothers do not work when their children are growing up. One of my sisters-in-law has worked, and one of my nieces, and I (with nearly grown stepchildren) work part-time from my house. But as a rule, in my family households may spend some time in some level of poverty, but that is not enough to push mothers into the workforce. But society must never say, “It is your family’s obligation to provide for other households as well, households headed by women who have gotten pregnant out of wedlock, since 40% of households are now in that category. Thus, we need the wife and mother in this household to work, because we need your tax dollars to support that other household.”
I actually can say “a husband must not murder his wife,” “a father must not murder his teenage son,” or “a mother must not murder her unborn daughter” without being financially responsible for the person who is not murdered. It is still pro-life to say, “A husband must not murder his wife, but must love and provide for her”; “a father must not murder his teenage son, but must love and train him”; and “a mother must not murder her unborn daughter, but must care for her.” If the mother cannot provide for that child, it is totally legitimate to surrender the child to a family who can. It is not legitimate to murder the child.
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