On the Move

As promised last week, this blog post is back to your "regularly scheduled program" :)

The last few weeks, Curtis has not only started crawling, but pulls up on everything and has become quite a master at getting around and getting in to things that he is not allowed to get in to. I can already see his very head strong (determined) personality coming out in his focus on getting in the kitchen and playing in Peaches' water bowl, and climbing up the stairs (gates are now in place), pulling off all the DVDs from the shelves, using his walker to pull up (very dangerous) and playing with various cords that we try to hide, but apparently not well enough. It most certainly has been a fun adventure but I am looking forward to him mastering this pulling up and standing on his own so I don't have to worry quite as much about him falling, busting his head open on some edge of something and/or getting a brain bleed (these are the things a nurse/mom thinks about). It's fun to watch his excitement over every discovery, over every new things. He loves going new places and being in crowds to see all the new things he can see. He loves being outside, but does NOT like his kiddy pool. Hopefully in August that will provide some entertainment, but for now, not so much.

Some new happenings in our family:

We have officially joined the Redeemer Norfolk church plant. We're both very excited to see this church take off, and hopefully spread the gospel to that area of our city. If anyone reading this is looking for a church, let me know, cause this is a great one!

Also, I have been given the opportunity to train in limited ultrasound at the Keim Center where I've volunteered at the last few years. We are still working out logistics with Curtis. He is not the easiest baby as he doesn't like a bottle or sippy cup, but yesterday was encouraging because he did drink about 1/2 an oz so I am hopeful God will work this out and allow me to complete the training. This training is going to allow me to be apart of showing mother's-to-be the wonderful LIFE growing inside of them, and hopefully help encourage them to carry that LIFE to term. I am super excited about this and am looking forward to how God will use it in the future. 

Isaac finished his school last week, passed all his finals, and so is now back to the ship. So we are back to duty days every 4th day and most weekends, he will either work or be sleeping. The 5 weeks away from the ship were a wonderful break from this reality, but I keep telling myself, we do have it easier than a lot of families and at least he's not deployed at the moment. God has blessed us with him staying here for at least 2 more years, so for that, I am thankful.

Learning to stand

Love those sweet eyes peeking over the couch

He loves his Daddy so much

Trying to climb the stairs

Playing with his diaper bag

His first unrestrained bath. 

The Real Reason American's are so Angry over the Hobby Lobby Case

I've been thinking about this blog for several days now. It's definitely not a normal post for me. Normally, people coming to this blog to see fun pictures of our family and friends, sweet stories about our little one, and that's about it. But that's not what this is. I'll be back to that later this week with some fun pictures of Curtis, but for now, I want to talk about Hobby Lobby.

The Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case is a landmark case. When I saw the verdict, I literally did a happy dance with Curtis in my arms because, though it small, it was a victory for LIFE, a victory for religious freedom, a victory for the first amendment, and, in my opinion, a victory for women. I have come to see, sadly, that this victory may be very short lived and that grieves my heart. As I watched Lila Rose on the news speaking about the bill being introduced in the Senate to overturn the ruling, and saw the hope that this would not gain popularity, I was right there with her, hoping and praying that people would see that the justice system got something right. But sadly, because I tend to be a realist, while I can hope and believe that God can change things, it will be a fight to not overturn this ruling.

I have a somewhat unique view point on this subject because I am of the demographic who would typically be outraged by this landmark decision. I'm a women in her 20s, of child bearing age who, until 9 months ago, had a very successful career as a nurse that I worked incredibly hard for. Most women my age are not married, still partying after work and on the weekends, still having sex with any man who buys them a drink, focused on their career and having a good time. So, I am different, but I'm not ashamed of that. I'm not ashamed to be married, to be a stay at home mom of one, but hopefully many more. I'm not ashamed that I never fell into the demographic of women my age who were just looking to have a good time. Because of these things, people may say I am wrong, or my opinion doesn't matter, but there's one other thing that makes me qualified to talk about this. I am a nurse who works with pregnant women in crisis, who sees the worst place a woman can be in, the scariest situation she's ever faced. I love these women, thank God that they come to our clinic, praise Him when their hearts are broken for the LIFE they see inside of them and rejoice when they make the decision to carry that LIFE to term.

Some facts about the Supreme Court decision that I have seen misinterpreted, skewed and downright just plain lied about:

1. Hobby Lobby insurance coverage offers several different types of contraceptives including the pill, patch, ring, shot and implant. Most of these, from a nurse perspective, I would not recommend, but I have no problem with women using birth control and neither does Hobby Lobby.

2. This decision DOES NOT make any form of birth control illegal. All forms of birth control that were legal before the ruling are still legal now. Any woman who chooses to use emergency contraception or an IUD can still use them. I've said it 3 different ways now, but I'm not sure it can be re-iterated enough, any woman can still use all types of birth control.

3. Hobby Lobby does not tell it's employees that they cannot work for them if they choose to have an IUD or use emergency contraception. In fact, I assume Hobby Lobby would never ask an employee such a personal question.

4. Plan B and Ella are over the counter medications. Sadly, the law is now, that any person can go into their local Walgreens and buy these medications without a prescription, ID or parental consent. So while it won't be covered by insurance, it is still readily available.

5. Any person can walk into their GYN office and ask for an IUD, and get one placed. Yes, it may be more expensive than other birth controls in the short run, but since it's good for 5 years, the cost really evens out. So while it may not be covered under insurance, it can still be purchased and used pretty easily.

With those facts stated and widely known for the public knowledge for anyone who has a TV, or access to google, the Supreme Court's decision should not be as controversial as what it is. It is not a war on women. It is not a bunch of white, republican men dictating what kind of birth control woman can or cannot use. It is definitely not men infringing on a woman's "reproductive rights". This is a simple decision if anyone has any knowledge of the first amendment's protection of a person's freedom of religion. The Bible clearly talks about protecting the least of these, it talks about how important LIFE is, it talks about God forming us in our mother's womb and how sacred that time is. No, not all people believe the Bible and I completely understand that, BUT Christians have to respect other religions, so other religions, or the lack there of, should respect what a Christian believes. The right to LIFE is one of the most basic beliefs we hold, and therefore, if the owners of Hobby Lobby don't want to violate their conscience by providing drugs that disrupt and KILL that LIFE, then other religions should respect that and acknowledge their freedom protected by the first amendment.

I see the use of emergency contraception and IUDs often where I volunteer. This post modern, feminist world is so excited about both of these things because it allows them to have freer sex, not worry about if they took their pill, if they have any shots left, if they brought a condom, or if the condom broke/slipped or whatever the situation may be. They think these methods of contraception are wonderful because, if nothing else, they're a back-up, but pretty much, they allow them to do whatever they want, when they want to. What I have seen and experienced, leads me to the conclusion that these are not good forms of birth control and for the most part, should not be used (there are a few exceptions such as a clotting factor problem).

Plan B can be used up to 3 days after having unprotected sex. It's kind of like birth control on steroids. It provides a very concentrated amount of hormones to stop ovulation, thicken cervical mucus so sperm can't get through, and the abortifacent part...thin the uterine lining to stop a fertilized egg from implanting. This is not meant to be used as normal birth control, but because it is so readily available, women use it all the time as their normal means of birth control even though it says on the website and instructions to not do so. 

And the IUD...the main function is to thin out the uterine wall to prevent an already fertilized egg from implanting. 

Both forms, you can still get pregnant. I've seen it happen several times. Pregnancy with an IUD in can be extremely dangerous. There is potential risk for miscarriage, birth defects and harm to the mother. These are not full proof methods. 

That's just my 2 cents about the those types of birth control in general.

I know my opinion isn't popular. I know it's "old fashioned" to think people should not be having sex if they don't want a child, and really shouldn't be having sex until they are married, but you can call me old fashioned. I'm okay with that. There would be a lot less uproar and anger over this decision if people chose to control themselves and only have sex the way God intended, the perfect way he planned. There would be less children murdered, less children without fathers, less broken hearts, less children abandoned. 

That is my prayer, that one day this will be a reality. That people will see sex as the gift from God that it is, and likewise, the result of sex, children, as the wonderful gift from God they are and then maybe there wouldn't be the need for all the arguing over whether or not someone provides insurance that pays for your birth control.

8 Months Old Today

Our baby boy is 8 months old today. It has been a crazy month of changes. My fairly "easy life" got much more busy this month as Curtis has become completely mobile. He now crawls all over the place and is a very determined little stinker! For now, we don't allow him on the kitchen tile because he's already konked his head pretty hard on it and we don't allow him near the fireplace. Those are pretty much the first 2 places he tries to go once put on the floor. So my mornings and afternoons are spent chasing after him and trying to keep him entertained away from the things that could hurt him. His other new trick is that he's learned how to pull up to standing. He first did it on the bottom stair, but now does it on all the furniture as well, so we said good bye to our coffee table for a while so that temptation is taken away, but every thing else is fair game. While it is more busy, this is such a fun little stage. His personality is definitely coming out. I am seeing more and more how determined, yet stubborn he is going to be. But also, he is very adventurous, not a whole lot scares him, and he's tough. Aside from a few hard knocks where's he's (understandable)broken down, he doesn't let a whole lot stop him. While I definitely have my hands full, we do have a lot of fun.

Those are pretty much the big things this month. Some little things: he's learning to eat lots of stuff, although still pretty much all purees. We'll start working on little finger foods this month, but for the most part, he loves all the purees, other than green veggies. I'm gonna try some zucchini from Jonathan's garden tonight, and am really hoping he'll eat it, but my guess is, he probably won't. He's also been teething a ton! I think there's atleast 2 or 3 new teeth this month. This last tooth he's cut has been kind of difficult, he's been more fussy than normal so I'm looking forward to it coming through. He went to the nursery at church this past month and loves it. They tell me he's such a happy baby, which makes my heart happy so I can be in the message, worshiping with Isaac and not have to worry about my little one. He has also successfully had a babysitter other than family stay with him and he seems to really love her as well. I'm so thankful for this because it lets me go to the CPC and be a nurse for a while.

We've had several visitors this month, which we always love. I love living in a city where people want to come visit. Our house is always open to people wanting to come spend a few days at the beach :) Ben and Jess came up for a weekend, a long overdue time together. Curtis just loved spending time with them, playing with Jess and Ben definitely intrigued Curtis :) Brenna came up for a night, another long overdue girl's night. It was absolutely wonderful to get to catch up with her, although we stayed up till after midnight and Curtis doesn't really get the memo to let Mama sleep in so we were up about 5:30, I think. But it was worth it to get to hang out with one of my very best friends. Also, from my blog the other day, mom and dad came up for a visit. It's so fun watching Curtis with my parents. They come down the stairs and he crawls to them, they leave the room and he cries, he just loves them so much!

On the family side of things, Isaac has been in a training school this past month, which has come with advantages and disadvantages. He has off every weekend, which has not happened in forever so we are cherishing our Saturday and Sunday's together. It's been so nice to enjoy pancakes and French Press together, to get to go to church together and even spend some days at the beach. The big disadvantage is his long work days. Every now and then he's lucky and gets off by 3:30 or 4, but most days it's later, which makes this difficult with Curtis, but, all in all, it's been pretty good. He has one week left, then back to the ship.

Here's a few pictures of our sweet little man:

He was not being easy this morning to get a good picture and now that he's pretty mobile, I had to be quick so he wouldn't go head first off the chair :) That, I believe, would be a Mama fail 

He loves playing at the door, although he's taken at least one pretty good hit to the head here.

He's discovered the joy of boxes

This picture is for GMama Jess' trip to Peru tomorrow. Last year, while on her trip, she found out Curtis was going to be a Curtis and not Mandolin, so she brought him back this sweet bib :)

Him and Peaches are becoming fast friends, although I'm still hesitant with them being together. Peaches still thinks he's a dog so she gets pretty rambunctious with him, but for the most part, they both enjoy each other