waiting in joyful hope

Advent peace to you as we wait in joyful hope...

God help us to live slowly:
To move simply:
To look softly:
To allow emptiness:
To let the heart create for us.
Amen.
--Michael Leunig

"Praying Advent" "Beginning Advent" "Desiring Patient Fidelity"

"now that i have seen..."

I just watched a video I wanted to share with all of you~ this is Brooke Fraser and her song "Albertine" about a young child (named Albertine) who she met in Rwanda in 2005.

This song speaks to my heart...




(The second video is one I made after time in Rwanda in 2003.)

Room at the Table...

I read the following story this morning, and wanted to share it, with an added thought or two of my own at the end...

At turkey time last year, Monique White was unemployed, living in a cramped motel room and pining for the Thanksgivings of her childhood, when dozens of people would gather for a holiday feast.

Today a receptionist at a dentist's office, she has a townhouse in Littleton, Colo. And, thanks to an Internet posting, a list of Thanksgiving dinner guests — strangers all — who will help her eat nine turkeys, four hams, 16 boxes of stuffing and a dozen or so pies.

How did this happen?

White, 36, was feeling a bit lonesome a week ago; her two sons were planning to spend the holiday with their father. And though her longtime partner, Doug White, would be there for her on Thanksgiving, she longed to be surrounded by many more people.

So she posted invitations on Craigslist, the Internet classifieds site. In part, one read:

"Maybe you are someone who is new in town and doesn't have anywhere to go. Maybe you are a small family that wouldn't be able to afford Thanksgiving dinner otherwise. Maybe you are just looking to change up your normal Thanksgiving tradition. ... We have room at our table this year."

She figured four folks, maybe five would answer. But then the replies poured in: People laid off from work. People with no family. People ashamed to bring their children to a Thanksgiving dinner at a soup kitchen.

"I thought: There's was no way I can judge who is worthy of sitting at my table. I have to invite them all," White says.

In all, 32 people are expected for dinner.

When White's boss heard what she was doing, he offered to pay for the food. Then a local hotel offered to provide tables and chairs. Then a professional magician said he would like to perform for the kids.

Certainly a far cry from Thanksgiving 2007, White says. "Last year it was just us two. It was horrible."

Doug White has been busy baking turkeys, putting one in the oven as soon as another comes out.

"People need to stop being so worried about me, me, me, my bills, my life," he says. "You stop worrying, and look what happens?"

(This story can be read in full here.)

A few weeks ago I had the gift of meeting a wonderful woman and new friend-- Kelly Monroe Kullberg-- founder of The Veritas Forum at Harvard and author of "Finding God Beyond Harvard." She is an amazing woman, a true friend, and a blessing to many (including me!)

The other day I visited a web site she contributes to called "The Well" and came across her answer to a question that was posed, "I understand we are called to be hospitable, and as the holidays approach, this seems to be a big deal -- cook good food, have your place looking great. I know this image of entertaining is not what we as Christians are called to, but what does hospitality look like for a grad student?

Kelly's answer really struck me:

I believe hospitality has to do with being a host — offering some kind of bread of life to hungry people. We can take the gift of hospitality with us into our classrooms and workspaces.

Hospitality is the gift of presence — greeting and welcoming colleagues each day with a smile that says, “I’m glad you’re here and that we are working together.” When some U.S. professors were leaving Mother Teresa’s home in Calcutta they asked if she had any words for them. She did. She suggested that they might smile at one another more. This begets a warmth in return, and there we have the beginnings of friendship.

You could also bring food with you or think ahead to have it delivered once in awhile to your department for conversation over lunch. You might suggest a film or book discussion during that time, or something less structured. Post a few signs on the wall. Let’s discuss, “What matters to you and why?”, with lunch provided. Or use a nearby coffee shop. At Ohio State IVCF staff often use the faculty club for conversations.

Abiding in Christ we become a branch that bears fruit for others to find shelter and food. They’ll know us by our love.

After reading this I immediately sent an e-mail to Kelly to tell her that the words she used "Hospitality has to do with being a host-- offering some kind of bread of life to a hungry people" gave me a new insight into the Eucharist. I've always heard it called the host, but never before made the profound connection with hospitality. Christ, the Perfect Host, calls us to the table where all are welcome and where He longs to offer the Bread of Life to hungry people.

"Eucharist" means Thanksgiving. Today I am thankful for the Host who invites us all to His table. He is both the Host and the Guest and whoever is around our table today is Christ in disguise. Let us cherish and ponder His presence among us...

A blessed Thanksgiving, a joyful Eucharist, to all of you~

with love,

nicole

(Images "The Lord's Supper" and "The Christ of the Breadlines" are by Fritz Eichenberg, who frequently contributed illustrations for Dorothy Day's newspaper, The Catholic Worker.")

perspective

A++++++++++++++++

This is courtesy of my awesome sister...

Spend your Christmas at Ralphie's house!!

Schedule & Activities

DECEMBER 24:

• 10am: Personal behind-the-scenes tour of A Christmas Story House & Museum
• Ride in family car (weather permitting) and receive bars of Lifebuoy Soap
• Try on original costumes from the movie
• Read through the costume “bible” that includes photos and notes from the production
• 2pm: Check into A Christmas Story House
• Large FRA-GI-LE Major Award crate delivered to the front door of the house (yours to keep – provided by A Christmas Story House). Crow bar provided to open.
• Go out to check the mail for Decoder pins delivered to mailbox (one for each guest and yours to keep - provided by A Christmas Story House)
• Climb under the sink just like Randy
• 5pm: Chinese Turkey Dinner at Pearl of the Orient
• 7pm: Back to A Christmas Story House to watch “A Christmas Story” in the house it was filmed (25th Anniversary DVD is yours to keep; popcorn and sodas provided)
• 9pm: Spend the night in A Christmas Story House sleeping in Ralphie and Randy's bedroom!

DECEMBER 25:

• 8am: Open presents in A Christmas Story House living room
• Continental breakfast basket provided by A Christmas Story House
• Presents included: 2 BB guns (behind the desk), blue bowling ball, can of Simonize, and a bunny suit, 4 Christmas Story House shirts. (provided by A Christmas Story House)
• Bring your own presents to unwrap as well
• Shoot BB guns in the back yard (provided by A Christmas Story House)
• 1pm: Check out of A Christmas Story House and return to Renaissance Hotel (Room is reserved for you)
• 5pm: Enjoy Christmas dinner at Sans Souci, an award-winning, fine-dining restaurant in the Renaissance Hotel

More here. Enjoy!

dancing

Thanks to my wonderful roommate Cheryl for sharing this with me! See what happened when a guy known as 'dancing Matt' started dancing all around the world...




(Check out his website for outtakes, comments and more!)

Haiti

Fr. Rick and emergency response teams attempting to dig children out of the collapsed school.

Some of you might remember the experience a few of us from the med school had last March spending time with Fr. Rick Frechette in Haiti.

I wrote an e-mail to Fr. Rick after the school collapsed last Friday, and he shared this reply:

hello friends

yesterday, a 5 story school shabily built in a ravine near our old hospital collapsed on a thousand children
there was a call for help on the radio for doctors and trained staff
and we went right away
in fact i just got home now

we worked like soldiers all this time
sledge hammers, torches, shovels and bare hands

we were able to rescue about 8 pretty battered kids after a lot of breaking concrete and digging
and we also pulled many dead children out of the rubble
other teams rescued a good number of children too
especially the doctors without borders and the UN soldiers
but i think there are a lot who are dead under the rubble

thousands of people lined the ravines..families of the children, neighbors
watching and crying and wailing
the sound of the wailing filled the whole valley
like a wailing nation
and there was the terrible sound of muffled screams of children
under the cement


very very sad

join us in prayer for the families
after yet another pathetic tragedy in this country



i was glad to see so many NPFS and St Luc people there to help
carrying stretchers
bringing water for the workers and the people trapped by concrete
carrying the dead
carrying the wounded
helping to dig
thanks so much for your concern

we have to move forward in hope

best regards
fr rick

He also shared his plan for moving forward. If the find the means, he would like to provide
1. A proper burial for all the children.
2. A team of psychologists for the families and neighborhood
3 Give each of the families a sum of money...about US$200 to helP them with the expenses for medical care, etc.
4. Get the living kids in a school right away. It's important to get them fast into normal routines and let them absorb the shock a little at a time in a setting that has predictable routine.
If there are no schools nearby we can try to pay transport to other schools not too far
If this doesn't work we can try to make a tent school for the rest of the year
5. Build a proper school

I also found out in case anyone would like to support his efforts that donations (addressed to him) can be sent to:

Fr. Rick Frechette
8980 SW 56th St.
Miami, FL 33165

More information about the situation and the response of St. Damian's hospital and Fr. Rcik can be found here as well.

sincerely,
nicole

more birthdays!!!

Happy 25th Birthday to my favorite sister!!! We love you Christy!!!!




(the bottom left corner is my favorite... it's Christy and her friend Angie as "a birthday girl breaking a pinata" for Halloween. Love it!)

birthdays!!

Happy Birthday to my brother Ryan!! God bless you today and always! We love you!! Happy birthday also to ND's greatest fan, Mrs. Rizzi. You both are the best and I hope you have a wonderful day today!!

the question of the day

Regardless of who we voted for, this election brought out much passion and conviction for a better and more just society. It is now my deep hope that this election year fervor for justice will be translated into our willingness to sacrifice to help bring about the world that we envision.

The election is over, but the work is just beginning. Just as each of our votes matter to building a strong democracy, so too do each of our voices, choices and actions in the days and years ahead.

What will I be willing to sacrifice to bring about the world I want to see?

This is the question I've been asking myself lately. I know the world that I hope for... what will I personally be willing to give or give up to make it possible?? (Time? Higher paying job? Comfort? Money? Popularity? The list goes on...)

I like the perspective posted today on a blog that I often read. "Our family will respect our next President and pray for him and continue to work for the evangelization of our culture. As Catholics, we’ve been around longer than any government still functioning in modern times, and we have the long view..." I too will join in this perspective, and plan to use this election and the issues that it has raised as an opportunity to examine my beliefs & principles, and most importantly my current level of commitment to them. Will you join me?

One last note before I head out to study. I was at mass last night at 9pm, and right before Communion the priest said the very scripture verse that has been on my heart for the past few weeks as I think about the election, the future, and all that lies ahead...

"And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." - Matthew 28:20

goodbye october!

October has always been one of my favorite months of the year, and this year was no different. It was a truly wonderful month filled with a lot of joy and many blessings. Here are a few photos I took along the way that I wanted to share as we get ready to welcome November which starts with a bang tomorrow with All Saints Day. I hope you all are doing well!

Abby and Ani find the perfect pumpkins during their first trip to Youngstown.

Abby turned 3! Here we are practicing with our new stethoscopes :-)

Congratulations to Matt and Lauren! Matt is one of my dearest friends from Notre Dame who has even been referred to as ND baseball's version of Rudy. Lauren and Matt are both such wonderful people, and it was a huge blessing to be at their wedding and witness their joy!!

george weigel's article in newsweek

Thank you to my sister for sending me the link to this article in Newsweek written by George Weigel (author of what many consider to be the definitive biography of JPII, Witness to Hope).

There are two passages that I want to highlight:

According to his own Web site, Obama supports the federal Freedom of Choice Act [FOCA], which would eliminate all state and federal regulation of abortion (such as informed consent and parental notification in the case of minors seeking an abortion); these regulations have demonstrably reduced the absolute number of abortions in the jurisdictions in which they are in effect. FOCA would also eliminate, by federal statute, state laws providing "conscience clause" protection for pro-life doctors who decline to provide abortions. Obama (along with the Democratic Party platform) supports federal funding for abortion, opposes the Hyde amendment (which restricts the use of taxpayer monies for abortion) and has pledged to repeal the "Mexico City policy" (initiated by Ronald Reagan and reinstated by George W. Bush, which bans federal foreign-aid funding for organizations that perform and promote abortion as a means of family planning)....

... Biden is not the only Catholic who will be seriously challenged by an Obama administration bent on reversing what its pro-choice allies regard as eight years of defeat; pro-life Catholics will face different, if equally grave, dilemmas. The bishops already find themselves defending the Catholic integrity of Catholic hospitals under pressures from state governments; those pressures, as well as pressures on doctors and other Catholic health-care professionals, will increase in an Obama administration, especially if FOCA succeeds in knocking down state conscience-clause protections for Catholic health-care providers and institutions. And should an Obama administration reintroduce large-scale federal funding of abortion, the bishops will have to confront a grave moral question they have managed to avoid for decades, thanks to the Hyde amendment: does the payment of federal taxes that go to support abortion constitute a form of moral complicity in an "intrinsic evil"? And if so, what should the conscientious Catholic citizen do?

the beatification of louis and zelie martin, the parents of saint therese

VATICAN CITY (St. Therese of Liseux Gateway) - The Venerable Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face, will be beatified on Mission Sunday, October 19, in the basilica dedicated to their daughter at Lisieux in France. The first parents of a saint to be beatified, they are the first spouses in the history of the Church to be proposed for sainthood as a couple and the second to be beatified together...

In recognizing Louis and Zélie as a blessed couple, the Church points to the mystery of the vocation of marriage, the way of life in which most people are called to reach the common goal of all Christians: sainthood. Engaged unreservedly in the responsibilities of daily life, Zélie and Louis became saints in the fabric of their marriage.

They epitomize the words of Pope John Paul II: “Heroism must become daily, and the daily must become heroic.” (Full article here.)


I've found some beautiful readings online about Louis and Zelie Martin that I wanted to share in honor of this great day. "A Mother's Heart", an excerpt from The Story of a Family: the Home of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, is very touching story about the death of Louis and Zelie's daughter Helene, who died before Therese was born, and the way that her death affected Zelie.

There are two readings about her father as well: the first is an excerpt from Story of a Soul by Saint Therese on her childhood memories of "her King" her "incomparable father." The reading that follows is an excerpt from the address to Celine Martin (Therese's older sister) on the day she entered into the Carmelite Cloister (where she joined Therese and two of their older sisters). Celine had delayed her entrance into the Carmel to take care of her father in his illness until his death, which the priest addresses in his words to her upon her entrance.

Lastyl, Zelie Martin died of breast cancer when Therese was 4 years old, leaving behind 5 daughters: Marie, Pauline, Leonie, Celine and Therese. The last reading I want to share is a letter to Saint Therese from her Aunt Celine, who helped to raise the Martin girls after the death of their mother. Aunt Celine writes:

What have I done, then, that God has surrounded me with such loving hearts! I did nothing but answer the last look of a mother whom I loved very much, very much. I believed I understood that look which nothing will be able to make me forget. It is engraved within my heart. Since that day, I have tried to replace her whom God had taken away from you, but, alas! Nothing can replace a Mother!…

He willed that the mother who guided your early childhood be raised to a more sublime glory and enjoy heavenly delights. Ah! it is because, little Thérèse, your parents are among those we may call saints and who merit bringing forth saints.

Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, pray for us, especially that all families may merit the bringing forth of sainthood!

'everything to me'

Sorry it has been so long! My computer crashed, but the good news is that everything turned out just fine in the end. And now I am back online. Thanks especially to my friends at the Apple Store!!

Tonight I came across a song from Christian singer Mark Schultz that I wanted to share. The song is called "Everything to Me", and I'll just stop typing now, so you can hear his story and the song that come from it...





His story reminds me of a woman I think of and keep in my prayers often... the birth-mother of my God daughter. Though I will most likely never know this woman personally, I thank God for her choice and I pray that her heart will be consoled with deep peace in her lifetime.

Along these lines, I also came across tonight some Christmas cards that are extra beautiful because a portion of their sale goes to help support crisis pregnancy centers and other pro-life organizations.

God bless you all.
more soon...
love,
nicole

ps. I came across both the story and the cards at prolife.com.

favorite day of the year...

October 1st

~Feast Day of Saint Therese of Lisieux~

Therese recounted the following incident in a conversation with her sister Pauline. The commuion of saints was a great consolation to Saint Therese.

Sister Marie of the Eucharist wanted to light candles for a procession. She had no matches; however seeing the little lamp that was burning in front of the relics, she approached it.

Alas, it was half out; there remained only a feeble glimmer on its blackened wick. She succeeded in lighting her candle from it, and with this candle, she lighted those of the whole community.

It was, therefore, the half-extinguished little lamp which had produced all these beautiful flames... nevertheless, it would always be the little lamp which would be the first cause of all this light. How could the beauitful flames boast of having produced this fire, when they themselves were lighted with such a small spark?

It is the same with the communion of saints. Very often, without our knowing it, the graces and lights that we receive are due to a hidden soul, for God wills that the saints communicate with each other through prayer with great love, with a love much greater than that of a family, and even the most perfect family on earth.

How often have I thought that I may owe all the graces I've received to the prayers of a person who begged them from God for me, and whom I shall know only in heaven...

In heaven we shall not meet with indifferent glances, because all the elect will discover that they owe to each other the graces that merited the crown for them.

i love the library...

... and it's a good thing because I'm going to be there all weekend!!! The good news is that I love what we are studying right now (cardiology). The heart is amazing. Hope your takin' care of yours :-)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

"Nobody has ever measured, not even poets,
how much the heart can hold."
- Zelda Fitzgerald

ps. Here is a pic from a b-day dinner for Dipesh and Brodie... and a stop at 'Dave and Andy's' for ice cream after. yum! Med school is even better when you have people like this to share it with.

Conscience protection in health care...

Your input is important!

I've been receiving a lot of information this week about the US Department of Health and Human Services proposed regulations that will protect the conscience rights of health care providers, including:

Entities to whom (this regulation) applies shall not subject any institutional or individual health care entity to discrimination for refusing:
(A) to undergo training in the performance of abortions, or to require, provide, refer for, or make arrangements for training in the performance of abortions;
(B) to perform, refer for, or make other arrangements for, abortions; or
(C) to refer for abortions

The regulations are currently posted on the Federal Register for public comment, and you can read the proposed regulation here. Many people opposing these regulations have left comments, and I've received e-mails this week urging comments from those who would support the conscience protecting regulations.

I am posting this to ask you to consider sending a note of support for these regulations to help preserve conscience protections for health care providers. As a friend of mine who is a physician said in her e-mail, "This proposal is about protecting providers' rights to act in a way that does not violate their moral beliefs. This issue is not going away and, for those pursuing obstetrics, I fear, is only going to get worse. "

To make your comment with the Federal Register e-mail: consciencecomment@hhs.gov and put "Provider Conscience" in the Subject Line. The Catholic Medical Association offers a sample comment that I've included at the end of this post for anyone who'd like to see it.

The deadline for public comments is September 25, 2008.

Also, I found DHH's Secretary Mike Leavitt's blog on this issue very interesting too and felt compelled to leave the following comment:

Dear Secretary Leavitt,

I am a medical student, and I thank you for working to protect my right to not violate my conscience.

To the poster who quoted the Hippocratic Oath saying, "Moreover does not the Hippocractic Oath dictate that all possible care should be given to the patient? Any health care worker opting out of treatment based on their personal beliefs is violating that oath."

Actually, the original Hippocratic Oath says, "I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art."

Here is sample wording for a note:

Dear Secretary Leavitt:

I wish to comment in support of Provider Conscience Regulation. The proposed federal regulations are a necessary step toward ensuring that doctors, nurses and other medical personnel are not forced to violate their most deeply held moral and ethical convictions. The protection of innocent human life is fundamental to a just society, and individuals who uphold the dignity of human life should be protected from unjust coercion and undue consequences.

Thank you,
[Your Full Name and Address]

let the man speak for himself

Before you read this blog: Please know that I am not telling anyone how to vote. I believe and uphold that we all have the right to vote our conscience. The USCCB (US Conference of Catholic Bishops) has put forth a document called Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship available online for anyone interested in reading it.

The Church is involved in the political process but is not partisan. The Church cannot champion any candidate or party. Our cause is the defense of human life and dignity and the protection of the weak and vulnerable. - From the USCCB "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship"

Now to the video. Obama makes himself clear in this speech that the first thing he'll do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. He actually says, "The first thing I'll do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act." I did some reading, and this is what I found out:

What Does FOCA Say?

FOCA provides that “[i]t is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman.” Further, FOCA would specifically invalidate any "statute, ordinance, regulation, administrative order, decision, policy, practice, or other action" of any federal, state, or local government or governmental official (or any person acting under government authority) that would "deny or interfere with a woman's right to choose" abortion, or that would "discriminate against the exercise of the right . . . in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information." This single piece of legislation would apply to any federal or state law “enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of [its] enactment.”

What is the Legal Impact of FOCA?

FOCA establishes the right to abortion as a “fundamental right,” elevating it to the same status as the right to vote and the right to free speech. Critically, the U.S. Supreme Court has never (in Roe v. Wade or in any subsequent decision) defined abortion as a fundamental constitutional right. Thus, FOCA goes beyond any U.S. Supreme Court decision in enshrining unlimited abortion-on-demand into American law.

What is the Practical Impact of FOCA?

Among the federal and state laws that FOCA would nullify are:

• Waiting periods

• Parental consent and notification laws

• Requirements that licensed physicians perform abortions

• Bans on partial-birth abortion

• Bans on abortion after viability. Under FOCA, post-viability abortions are expressly permitted to protect the woman’s health. Within the context of abortion, “health” has been interpreted so broadly that FOCA would not actually proscribe any abortion before or after viability.

• Limits on public funding for elective abortions (thus, making American taxpayers fund a procedure that many find morally objectionable)

• Limits on the use of public facilities (such has public hospitals and medical schools at state universities) for abortions

• Legal protections for individual healthcare providers who decline to participate in abortions.
  

• Legal protections for religiously-affiliated hospitals who, while providing care to millions of poor and uninsured Americans, refuse to allow abortions within their facilities

I also found some disturbing information regarding physician freedom of conscience:

Notably, the most recent and pressing threat to freedom of conscience has come from within the healthcare profession itself. In November 2007, the Committee on Ethics of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) issued a policy statement entitled "The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine." The controversial document provided that:

a. Pro-life physicians must refer for abortion: "Physicians…have the duty to refer patients in a timely manner to other providers if they do not feel they can in conscience provide the standard reproductive service that patients request."
b. Pro-life physicians should relocate to refer patients to nearby abortionists: "Providers with moral or religious objections should … practice in proximity to individuals who do not share their views…"
c. Patient autonomy trumps physician’s conscience: A physician may not exercise his or her right of conscience if that might "constitute an imposition of religious or moral beliefs on patients."
d. Conscience amounts only to a subjective feeling and not to a well-grounded moral or religious belief system or a well-established constitutional principle: "An appeal to conscience would express a sentiment such as 'If I were to do 'x,' I could not live with myself, I would hate myself, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night."

By the end of the year, the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG), which certifies obstetricians and gynecologists, joined the assault against physicians’ freedom of conscience. In issuing its 2008 Maintenance of Certification Bulletin, ABOG decreed that physicians may now lose their certification for "violat[ing] ABOG or ACOG rules and/or ethics principles…." Thus, refusing to comply with ACOG’s policy regarding referrals for abortion would endanger a physician’s ability to maintain his or her certification which, in turn, would put the physician’s hospital or staff privileges and ability to practice and earn a living at risk.

Thankfully, this imminent and invidious threat to freedom of conscience was immediately denounced and challenged by physicians, members of the Bush Administration (including Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt), the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, pro-family policy groups, and legal organizations like Americans United for Life (AUL). These groups and individuals are seeking to have ACOG’s policy statement rescinded and to have ABOG expressly affirm that physicians’ certifications will not be dependant on their willingness to violate their consciences by referring patients for abortions or other controversial, elective procedures.

I also googled Margaret Sanger (who Obama mentions at the end of his speech) and found that she was a proponent of eugenics who considered the unchecked multiplication of the "unfit" to be "the greatest present menace to civilization." (Margaret Sanger. "The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda", Birth Control Review, October 1921, page 5).

Yikes.

I think I am going to call it a night, and end with a quote from Obama from about 2o minutes into his speech that I agree with.

"I'm here because of a mother..."

Amen.

Gianna Jessen and Jill Stanek

"Just as abuse victims share their stories to educate the public, fight for the common good and hope that as a result politicians do what’s right, I felt it was important to come forward and give these new born babies a voice. I am living proof these babies have a right to live..." -- -Gianna Jessen bornalivetruth.org

Thanks to Amy for sharing the story of Gianna Jessen, a Christian recording artist who thirty one years ago survived an attempted saline abortion. Gianna has a website where you can hear her sing as well as order a copy of her book. She recently appeared on Hannity and Colmes where she shared her story and questioned Sen. Obama's voting record for the IL Born Alive Infant Protection Acton Act. (I'm including the clip below in case you would like to see it.)

In a related story, Amy also let me know about the website of Jill Stanek, who was a registered nurse in the Labor & Delivery Department at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, in 1999 when she discovered babies were being aborted alive and shelved to die in the soiled utility room.

She was asked to testify before a U.S. House committee in 2000 and 2001 for the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which states that any baby that has been born alive is to be legally considered a person. As such, she or he would automatically be granted full protection under the U.S. Constitution. It is by no means light reading, but you can read both her personal and Congressional testimony online.

I testified about a staff worker who accidentally threw a live aborted baby in the garbage. The baby had been left on the counter of the Soiled Utility Room wrapped in a disposable towel. When my coworker realized what she had done, she started going through the trash to find the baby... -Jill Stanek, on her testimony in support of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act

Stanek was fired in August 2001 by Christ Hospital for reasons related to her public outspokenness to its abortion practices. The bill thankfully passed in 2002.

viva la vida

If you have some time today, go over to my friends Ryan and Sarah O'Connor's blog BeYellow.org and check out their summer video. Ryan and Sarah are two of the most genuine and amazing people that I know. One of the biggest blessings of my entire life was being able to spend about 5 days with them this summer soaking in God's grace in Rome. It was a true pilgrimage, and God couldn't have designed it any better. Their video is a great glimpse into their joy, their faith, their sense of adventure and their love for life. (And it also offers proof that we'll hopefully be going back to Rome someday, as you can see Sarah and I throwing our coins into the Trevi fountain!)

Ryan and Sarah, I love you guys. Thank you so much for being the kind of friends who inspire me to be the best person that I can be. Keep on "being yellow" and know that I am praying for you.

If thou continue faithful and fervent in working, God will doubtless be faithful and liberal in rewarding. -St. Therese