My Take On Tebow

I am not a football fan. I just Googled to find out who is playing in the Superbowl this year. I'll be cheering for the Saints. How could you not cheer for a team with a name like that? I have however been following the controversy over the Tim Tebow ad that Focus on the Family is to air during the game. Certain women's groups are fearful that the message is too pro-life. Yet many in the pro-choice camp have admitted that those groups are taking things a bit far, and prohibiting the ad would be a violation the 1st Amendment. Much has already been written about that. I think another point must be made.

First off let me say that I think the ad is a good and positive thing. I hope that it makes people stop and think about life issues, but let's take a little hypothetical rewind. What if Mrs. Tebow had given birth to the little boy that the doctors warned her about? What if instead of a tall, good looking, Heisman Trophy winner, little Timmy had been a severely mentally and/or physically handicapped child? Would her "choice" then not be laudable? Would Tim's life not be as valuable? The triumph of the story is not that Tim grew up to be so successful. The glory lies in the fact that a baby was given the chance to continue on living.

All human life is valuable.....ALL HUMAN LIFE! From the time conception takes place, until the time we breathe our last, our lives are of infinite worth...no matter what. Football players, computer geeks, supermodels, janitors, homeless folks, CEOs, prison inmates, all are equal in their human dignity. Mrs. Tebow is to be praised because she understood that fact. She knew that regardless of the outcome, her child was created in the Image of God and therefore should be allowed to live until the Creator decided otherwise.

When doctors encourage women to abort their children because they might be "abnormal" we tread on some dangerously familiar ground. "Lebensunwertes Leben" or "life unworthy of life" was the ideology behind forced sterilizations and mass murders in Nazi Germany. When we believe that it is more humane to kill a child rather than have it live a "challenged" life what does that logically lead to? I think we have already had a taste. March 31st will be the fifth anniversary of Terri Schindler-Schiavo being inhumanly dehydrated and starved to death. Terri had no terminal illness. She was not on life support. All she had was a feeding tube to give her basic food and water. Yet she was subjected to a slow agonizing death while the entire country looked on. Stray dogs have a better fate. There are similar, less publicized murders that take place in nursing homes all the time. For more on this check out http://terrisfight.org/ .

So yes, I celebrate Tim Tebow and his chance at life and what he has done with it. I just think we also need to celebrate the lives of people like Leslie Lemke as well. I want to leave you with this video. Probably a lot of you have already seen it, but it is worth watching again.

Plans Vs. Reality

Do you remember that scene in Anne of Green Gables where Mirilla is meeting Anne for the very first time? "Tell me about yourself", Mirilla inquires. Anne replies, "If you let me tell you what I imagine about myself it would be much more interesting."

My imagined world is so orderly, so clean, so perfect, so.... not my real life. I've taken the time to make beautiful schedules, goals, outlines, and charts. However, somewhere along the way family members get sick, mice invade the house, or the dog gets a little too friendly with a porcupine (all actual events), and low and behold I'm behind in the laundry, and dinner ends up being toast and eggs.....again. Now I am not saying carefully made schedules are a bad thing.....sometimes they even work out! Yet, no matter how organized a person you are, there are just those days that we must be willing to adapt.

Chaos or calm I try to remember one simple daily prayer....." Dear Lord, please help me to accomplish all that is necessary today." God knows my family's needs. He can see the big picture and the final goal a lot more clearly than I can. Sometimes God takes me in a different direction than I originally planned and I need to learn to yield my will over to His will. Even Jesus prayed, "not my will but yours be done, and we are to "take up our cross and follow Him". Sometimes that means making a simple dinner because I have to spend extra time potty training my toddler. Sometimes it means setting aside a grammar lesson because my kids need some one-on-one cookie baking time with mom. Sometimes it means I have to take a nap while my capable 9 year old makes PB&J for lunch because I was up all night with a sick baby. Whatever it is, as long as I know that I am truly seeking God's will I can rest assured that He is taking care of what really needs to take place that day. Whether it matches my imagined day or not.

However, there are days when I am derailed due to my own selfishness. It is so easy to make little excuses for myself when I spend too much time on the computer, phone, or watching TV. At times I just don't feel like trying, or asking God what He wants from me. I can not have God's blessing if I am not attempting to do His will with my whole heart. There is always grace, but I need to cooperate with that grace to live out my vocation as wife and mother like He intends me to. If we allow slothful behavior to continue it can become a pattern of serious sins of omission. When we are idle with our time we are failing to do the things God has given us to do. We are also setting a bad example for our children to follow. Do as I say, not as I do does not work very well.

Oh, that reminds me.....time to exit the blogosphere and tackle those dishes!

Kathleen Rose

The newest member of our family, Kathleen Rose, joined us on April 2 at 8:30pm. She weighed in at 8lbs 6oz and was 20 inches long. She is one of my smaller babies. Katie Rose is a beautiful little girl and all of us are head over heals in love with her already. She is named for my Mom Kathleen who passed away from cancer last September. Mom told me that I was going to have a girl this time, but I didn't believe her. I really thought it would be another boy. I'm glad mom was right.

Nesting

Another late night....another blog. Everyone says that you lose sleep after the baby is born, but it is my experience that once the baby is out I sleep much better with he/she by my side rather than in my side...squashing my ribs.

I have been nesting for the past week now. At least I've been trying. Various pregnancy problems and home schooling the other kids has slowed me down a bit. We cleaned out the shop today so Russel can move all his music equipment and books out there. Then I can have the back room for a baby room! I haven't had a dedicated baby room since baby #1.

Nesting is such a primal feeling. It's like something just takes over and makes you clean and prepare. It is the only time that I actually get out the (old) toothbrush and clean all those forgotten corners out. I just got myself a new steam cleaner, but have not tried it out yet. I can' t wait to see what I can accomplish with that hummer! Maybe if I send everyone to bed with ear plugs I could burn the midnight oil cleaning!

Well, by the time I lay down, get comfortable, and fall asleep again, my two year old will come in and wake me up. I really feel that I must give it a go however. Only six more hours before I need to wake up and get everyone ready for Sunday school and Liturgy. Offer it up, Rach, offer it up.

Another Sleepless Night Blogger

My ribs are sore from baby pushing on them, so I am unable to sleep. I became a little sick of playing Hearts and Solitaire, so the natural consequence of this, of course, is to start a blog. Isn't that what the world needs, more bloggers? My mind is just too fuzzy at 1:30AM to write anything coherent, but I will attempt to compose something intelligent at a later time .

I believe I will go lay down with my Rosary and see if I can't meditate myself to sleep now.