Oh happy news. Update here.

‘Night!

Looks like Elizabeth and her wee one have had enough of making letters with E’s toes. They’re off to the hospital. Please add your prayers to those of many for a safe delivery for mother and child.

This gal sure is in a hurry to get here!

I’m enthroned on the sofa while I wait for what appears to be a kidney stone to make its way out. I’ve passed them before - very small ones - but painful. While I’m seated here, smelling the freshly baked brownies that Jack put together, and the quiet of my house (all six of the children are outside in the fresh air and sunshine), I am also reading some rather delicious stuff. Well, delicious if you are a Catholic nerd, as I am.

Laborem Exercens - written by JPII about the dignity of human work.

and

Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us - a plan for ongoing adult formation in the Church

I also have our Church History text and a wonderful book about Corrie ten Boom and her experience of WWII in Holland.

I just got through viewing this wonderul video of our bishop - Robert McManus - discussing how to properly form a conscience for active citizenship (particularly as it relates to voting). Marvelous.

So I’ll be sitting here by the wayside, joining Elizabeth in some podiatric alphabet practice, and growing some brain cells. I may finish anothe rpilot cap for The Pea, and I’ve been meaning to work on his little T-shirts. I can embroider while I sit.

The kids have just come back in. Rosy cheeks, fly away hair. Cocoa is already being made (hopefully with a side of brownie…). Later tonight Pa will have procured the necessary sweet treats for our All Hallow’s Eve saint’s trivia party. It looks like pizza for dinner. I’m off my feet for tea-time…

Ah, well. Part of the richness of family life is to be found in unexpected situations. Learning to make it work makes life fun!

My new bassinet is due in today. I’m looking forward to decking it out in some pretty fabrics. I can hardly wait until he arrives - only 11 weeks to go, though his Pa is convinced we’re having a Christmas baby. If all goes as we hope, we’ll be in our lovely old (new-to-us) farmhouse before the day arrives.



I’ve laid plans for the decoration of the nursery. I haven’t had one since Cate and Jack were wee babes. And I wasn’t allowed to properly decorate because we lived in base housing. I’ve chosen homespun greens, creams and beiges with little shots of blue and yellow here and there. (perhaps because he was dubbed The Pea from day one?) I am hoping to have the stamina to paint a simple mural on one wall.



There is a bookcase built in next to the closet where I will put baby photographs and hand-made toys, along with some lovely read alouds. The windows will likely need quilts for cold winter nights, after all, the house is over 230 years old. But he’ll be snuggled in with us for the first few months, so that I can just reach over and lift him from his bassinet for a midnight nursing.

For now, I’ll place new diapers and soakers, embroidered t-shirts and warm bamboo jammies, sweaters, hats, and booties in the bassinet - where I can admire them and anticipate the sweet little babe that will wear them. His downy baby head, and sweet, soft hands; the warm weight of his sweet self nestled in my arms.

It never grows old for me.

We will go to vote for the next president of the United States. I’m nervous, but prayerful about its outcome. I am amazed at how many Christians, in particular Catholics, say that they will be voting for a candidate who supports abortion.

I don’t talk politics on this weblog as a rule, but I think it’s time I said my piece, if only as a kind of catharsis. As a Catholic, I have a responsibility to vote for the candidate most likely to uphold Catholic values.

Doug Kmiec, a Catholic who has worked as Assistant Legal Counsel for the Reagan and and GHW Bush administrations (two VERY conservative admins), Catholic school dean and professor (St. Thomas More, CUA and Notre Dame), author, and legal scholar has written a treatise on the virtues of voting for Barack Obama. In it, he posits that Obama’s political platform is based solidly on Catholic social teaching. Perhaps he (Kmiec) doesn’t understand Catholic social teaching. It is shocking to me that a man whose entire career has been based upon the careful examination of facts could have been so careless.

The USCCB makes it quite plain in their Seven Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching:

Life and Dignity of the Human Person The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. This belief is the foundation of all the principles of our social teaching. In our society, human life is under direct attack from abortion and euthanasia. The value of human life is being threatened by cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and the use of the death penalty. Catholic teaching also calls on us to work to avoid war. Nations must protect the right to life by finding increasingly effective ways to prevent conflicts and resolve them by peaceful means. We believe that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.

If the dignity of human life from conception to natural death is the foundation of Catholic social teachings, the rock on which all other elements of Catholic social teaching stand, then it seems to me, Mr. Kmiec, that if Obama ain’t got that, he ain’t got nothin’.

It doesn’t matter where he stands on any other issue if he doesn’t recognize the authority of the one whose pay grade it is to decide when life begins, when a person is a person, when he deserves basic human rights. This is a man who says that it’s AOK with him to allow a newly born infant, who survives an abortion attempt, to be left to die, cold and alone.

If it’s OK to allow a tiny human being die because he or she isn’t wanted, doesn’t it logically follow then, that a homeless person, a mentally ill individual, a disabled person can be left unaided - to slowly die alone? Is it then OK to allow a person to suffer and die waiting for care in an emergency room because they are filthy and wreak of alcohol? Is it OK to allow prisoners to starve to death - after all, who wants them?

Obama claims to stand up for the underpriviledged, the vulnerable, the underdog. How can he, when he doesn’t stand up for a helpless unborn child or infant?

I’ll wager that his daughters were “babies” from the moment he and his wife discovered they were expecting. That they considered themselves parents from that instant. Yet, he claims that children aren’t children - even after birth - unless they are wanted.

If you want more proof, or can’t remember what Obama has said, just watch this video:

Did you hear McCain’s response to the question “At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?” Seems to me that if McCain knows the correct answer to this - as handed down by someone a paygrade or two higher than himself - then he’s much closer to upholding Catholic social teaching.

I think that Archbishop Chaput (ArchDio. Denver) agrees. My friend Mary Ellen had some similar thoughts. And Annie - all the way from Australia - has weighed in on how influential US political policies are around the world.

This is the year to battle the weather, inconvenience, and time on lines. This is the year to pack up the kids, grab some snacks for the diaper bag, and take them to the polls. This is the year to stand with a smile on your face while the kids fidget, make noise, and spill juice. This is the year to proclaim that “Ya, life is messy and noisy with kids. But they are, every one of them, precious and valuable.” This is the year to wear that T-shirt that says “Choose life. Your Mother Did.” and pull the lever for the guy who doesn’t think you’re being punished.

One week from today. Don’t forget. I’ll see you there!

I lay in bed longer than I should have done, listening to the happy sounds of my children, feeling the Pea stretch and roll inside, and watching the sky brighten.

Blissful.

story

But have a box of tissues handy. I have been blessed by Stephanie and her family over the last few weeks. If you want to help, please see the pretty pink graphic in the left-and sidebar.

Tissue wave to Elizabeth for linking me to the article.

Equals lots of birthday fun. And we decided to have a little fiesta for Carrie and Louis.

Complete with tacos. We forgot to make the rice, but that just leaves more room for cake!

I can’t wait for presents later!

Check this out:

Just a little bit silly. I got a good chuckle out of this article. I’m considering laying in a supply of the noted libations for our annual Epiphany party. What think you?

Methinks the menfolk would appreciate it.