Dentist gets married... then arrested?

I was watching the 10:00 nightly news, and I saw a strange and unusual story that became disturbing on a more personal level. Two local newlyweds were arrested on their wedding night for causing some sort of big fight in the hotel where they were staying. It turns out that the man that got married and then arrested, Dr. David Wielechowski, was the dentist that Isaiah went to a few months ago for his first cleaning. Dan, who took Isaiah to his first dentist appointment, said the doctor seemed nice. I guess you just never know...

Dan is Ernie and I'm Bert

The title has nothing to do with this post. It's just something Dan and I figured out while giving the boys a bath tonight.

I decided to work on Samuel's baby book this afternoon. I was trying to fill in the blanks, you know, first tooth, first time he rolled over, first time he discovered his hands, and I realized that I had no clue about any of those dates. So where did I turn? My blog and my digital pictures. Weird, huh? Thank goodness for that date stamp on the pics!

It's amazing how much he's changed already.

Did you ever have this weird feeling that you're looking into the past when you're looking at pictures that aren't that old? Sometimes I can almost imagine what I'll feel like looking at Samuel's baby pictures when he's two years old. It's the same way I feel about Isaiah's baby pictures now. I just can't believe he's gotten so big so quickly.

It's a good way to remind myself to try to enjoy every day.

Push me higher

Isaiah is getting a lot more brave and is willing to swing higher every time we go to the park. I was swinging next to him, and all of a sudden he yelled out, "Mommy, hold on!" See, I wasn't going very high and wasn't holding on. Of course, I have told him to hold on so he doesn't fall off. It's funny how he thought the same thing should apply to me, as if I would fall off as easily as he would.

Then I thought, maybe that's how it is when we impose our human limitations on God. We can only do so much, and sometimes we forget that God has no limitations. It's a very liberating thought, isn't it?

That don't impress me much...

There's a verse that Dan used in his sermon last week that has been sticking with me. It's Phillipians 2:4, "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." It seems so simple and basic, but how often do we make our own interests a priority, forgetting about the needs of others? There have been a few times in the last two weeks that I have been in that moment of decision (you know that moment where you really don't feel like doing the right thing, or the best thing, and you just want to take the easy way out?), and that verse has come to mind. It has been the kick in the pants that I sometimes need to convince me to do the right thing.

Also, the verse before that one struck me. Among other things, it says (in the New Living Translation), "Don't try to impress others." Wow. How often do we make decisions based on what will impress someone. How often do we share what our kids are doing or something that we accomplished with the goal of impressing someone? How freeing would it be if we could stop trying to impress people? Thinking about this verse has really helped me examine my motives. Before I say something, this verse will come to mind, and sometimes I'll just keep my mouth shut.

This might reduce the number of abortions...

This is a follow-up to my post from the other day about abortion services. So here is my idea on how to reduce the number of abortions in this country: A non-profit organization could offer free ultrasounds before appointments at abortion clinics. I think that after seeing what (or who!) is inside her, a woman could make a more informed decision about the abortion. Of course, I would be rooting for her to decide to have the baby and either keep the baby or put it up for adoption.

With my own boys, I saw Isaiah's beating heart when I was only six weeks pregnant. if a woman could see that there is a beating heart inside her, she might think a little harder before stopping that beating heart. As I noted in my previous post, there are clinics in the Pittsburgh area that will perform abortions up to 24 weeks gestation. By 24 weeks, you can identify all the major, and many of the minor, parts of a baby! Even the untrained eye can see the skull, nose, spine, hands, feet, etc. Hopefully seeing that would help a woman think more about the baby inside her than herself and her own rights as a woman, and that it's not just her body any more.

Dan's thought was that with all the 4D ultrasound technology becoming more popular, the old black and white ultrasound machines will probably be obsolete in a few years. We could possibly aquire those used machines for next to nothing.

God truly does knit us together in our mother's wombs!

So that's my idea. Anyone know how to start making it a reality?