Letter to my Children Regarding their Future

Dear Peter and Ethan,

Source: morgueFile

A couple of days ago your father and I began to teach you both about the awesome privilege we have in this great country of ours to vote for our leaders. We bundled you up, strapped you into your stroller, and walked across the park to cast our vote for several of our leaders. You won't remember this experience, but one day you'll appreciate that we wanted to take you along for this very important event.

It's my belief that this election was one of the most important elections I have ever voted in. In many ways I was voting for your future and the future of all those to come after you. You see, this country has started to lose its way. It's a sad realization and, as your mother, it scares me for what is in store for your future.

One day we'll teach you about the sacredness of human life. As a child you'll grasp this concept and understand it better than many adults. Most children know instinctively that a baby in the womb is a human baby and deserves protection and love, not death. Children are often wiser than adults. Today, in 2012, we have many leaders who don't value the life of unborn children. It is incomprehensible. You'll probably ask me about it one day in your innocent, childlike way and I'll be lost for words to explain it. For there's no way to explain how so many people, who should know better, can think it's okay to commit murder in the womb.

In this week's election our great country re-elected a man who has no qualms about promoting the  killing of unborn children in the womb. Not only that, he believes that federal money should be used to accomplish the goal of making this so-called "service" available to all women. And to top it off, he also thinks this "service" should be available at all hospitals and 100% covered by all insurance companies, including those hospitals and insurance companies founded on Catholic moral principles.

What I want you, my children, to understand is that I love our country. America is a great place to be and we are blessed to have been born here. Billions of people around the world will never know the blessings we have. I want you to grow up to love your country and fight hard to keep her a land of blessings for many. But I also want you to learn that no matter what, you are a Catholic first.

You are a Catholic because we baptized you into the faith. We took a vow to raise you in the Catholic faith and we take that vow seriously. As Catholics our destination is not here on earth, it's the Kingdom of Heaven. We are made to be with Jesus Christ. This means that we may experience suffering and persecution here on earth, even in this country of so many blessings. I fear that the sufferings and persecutions will only increase and that you'll bear the brunt of this more so than I ever will.

As a Catholic it's important for you to understand that you have a right to Freedom of Religion in this country. This means that the government is not supposed to tell you how you can practice your religion. This means that the government is not supposed to tell you that you can't practice your religion. And this means that the government is not supposed to tell you what aspects of your well-formed conscience you need to compromise on. Unfortunately, with the outcome of this election, I fear that the government may be interfering in these matters more and more.

This week's election was a very important one for our nation. Unfortunately this election revealed that this great country is losing its moral fiber. Your father and I and many of our friends will continue to fight for the unborn children that would have been your peers and we'll fight to be able to practice our faith in our daily lives. I don't want you to one day be standing in a country that is falling apart and wonder why we, your parents, didn't do more.

I pray that we'll win our fight and not pass it on to you and future generations. 

May God bless the United States of America.

Source: morgueFile

This post has been linked up at the Catholic Bloggers Network, November round-up.

Saturday Smiles

Last Saturday I posted about how I intend to be more aware of God's presence in my life and asked readers to join me in this. I hope this will be the first of many posts in which we can share those things that made us smile because we knew God had a hand in it. As I said in last week's post:

What makes you smile? What touches your heart? What takes you by surprise this week? A beautiful sunset splashing lots of colors across the sky can remind us of God's love for the world just as much as changing that horribly stinky diaper can remind us of how much God loves His children (i.e. us) and would do anything for us.

 I hope you'll join me and share your moment when you recognized God around you in some way. Tell us in the comments or share on your own blog and share the link in the comments below. Let's give everyone visiting here many reasons to smile on this Saturday.

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On Wednesday, July 4th, I attended Mass at our parish, also the Cathedral parish in our diocese. If I had to guess, there were about 600 people there, a dozen priests on the altar with the Bishop, several seminarians serving at the mass, and two deacons on the altar and I recognized many, many more throughout the congregation. I saw lots of familiar faces. This was a Mass to end the Fortnight for Freedom in our diocese. I attend Mass at the cathedral every week and the energy that was present throughout the congregation on this day was much more vibrant than I am used to.

It was a very reverent Mass. I saw so many people there I knew from several different parishes. I felt surrounded by people of strong, unyielding faith as we joined together to celebrate our religious freedom as Catholics and as Americans. Despite the fact that I had a squirmy baby in my arms and had to move around the side aisles and back of the church during the Mass, I still felt the vibe of this community coming together. During Mass I remember praying that our religious freedom would not be compromised in the years to come and that my children would have the same freedoms to not just practice their faith within the walls of our churches but also live their lives as people of faith.

At the end of Mass as we started singing America and the crowd of servers, deacons, priests, and the Bishop began the recessional I was overcome with emotion. I truly felt the hand of God among His people at that moment. I felt proud to be a Catholic. I felt proud of my ancestors who remained true to the faith and passed it on to their children all the way down to me. I felt proud of my great-grandparents and the sacrifices they made to come to this country in search of a better life. And I felt proud to be an American.

It did my heart good to know that there is still a strong Catholic faith in this country. I felt honored to be at that Mass. And it made me smile to know that there are so many of us that are willing to stand up and fight for our religious freedom in this country. We are all Americans, but we are Catholics first.

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What made you smile this week? Where did you most feel God's presence in your every day?

Leave a comment below to share your moment so we can all smile with you. Or if you have a blog, write up your own "Saturday Smiles" post and share the link in the comments below.

Thanks for participating!

Another Week+ in the Books

It has been busy in our household lately.  LOTS going on these days.

First off, last week the boys had a birthday and got to have a cupcake for the first time:

Not quite sure what to do with it

They also got a red wagon from Nanny and Papa:

Enjoying the new wagon with Papa

And little ride-on trains from Grandma and Grandpa:

Checking out the new trains, they make lots of fun noises!

Birthday parties are fun.  But try having one with 40 extra people in your house and two babies who are in a "stranger anxiety" phase.  Phew!!  Those poor boys didn't know what was going on.  (It was fun though, for us!)

Then over last weekend my brother and his girlfriend got engaged!!  Add another wedding to our family calendar!  Right now my sister is getting married next May and now we'll have a second wedding sometime after that.  We are all excited and happy for them!

Monday I spent all morning with the phone by my side waiting to hear the news that I had a new niece or nephew.  My other sister was having her third c-section that morning.  It was the first of her three kids where I wasn't sitting in the waiting room with everyone else.  I'm used to missing things like this because of the distance I live away from them, but this one I had really wanted to be there.  So it made me kind of sad that I couldn't be.  I finally got the call around noon or so and learned I had a new niece.  And she's so cute!!  Looks just like her older sister.

On top of an engagement and a new baby, my dad officially retired (for the second time) on Tuesday.

It was a big few days for my family!

On Wednesday the boys went for their 12 month appointment.  Overall they are healthy, got one shot, got some medication for eczema, and mom got a boost of reassurance that she's still doing this mothering thing okay.

(And really, that reassurance is the most important part of why we take our kids to the doctor, right?  Or is that just me?  Don't answer that.)

Quick stats: Peter is 19 pounds (b/t 10th-25th percentile) and 29 inches (25th percentile).  Ethan is 19 pounds 6 ounces (25th percentile) and 28 1/8 inches (10th percentile).  My small kids have big heads though (not surprising given my family genes).  At 47 cm (Ethan) and 46 1/2 cm (Peter), they are both in the 75th percentile.  LOL!!!

Thursday I finished my annual column for my professional journal and submitted it to my editor.  DONE!!!  I always hesitate pushing that "send" button in my email.  Is it really done?  Did I proof it enough?  Should I go back and check all my numbers and math again for the eleventybillionth time?  (And yes, that is a word, don't go looking it up.)

Also on Thursday we had new cabinets put in our kitchen on a few blank wall spaces.  I have a few before and after pictures, but they are still on my camera.  So I'll save those for another post.

Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday morning I banged my head furiously against the keyboard published another submission on Catholic Sistas.  Check it out, our debut post into the 7 Quick Takes fun.  Our creator wanted to join the 7 Quick Takes series but didn't have a clear vision for it, so I threw out some ideas and ended up with the assignment.  It was fun.  I took a poll of all the contributors and posted the results.  A fun way to get to know the blog's writers.  And watch for more (not every Friday though).

Friday was an important day!  It was the day of the Stand up for Religious Freedom Rallies held all across this great nation.  The boys and I attended the one in our town and we had a great turnout.  I heard later that day that there were approximately 275 people there.  I saw lots of people I knew and heard some great speakers.  The boys did great for the hour and a half we stood downtown in the sun.  They were comfy in their stroller with the shade up, but it was still hot.  I fed them cheerios and then rolled the stroller back and forth and they eventually fell asleep.  Very proud of my sons for attending their first political protest rally at just a year old!

The boys chilling out at the rally.
*Photo courtesy of Cindy Olson (c) 2012*

Following the rally and the walk back to the car (I was parked several blocks away in a University employee lot I located on a map that morning, the closest one I could find to downtown) I was HOT!  The boys were sleeping and I wanted to listen to a radio interview that was going to start in about 15 minutes.  Solution: pack everyone into the car, drive to Dairy Queen, hope the boys fall asleep, and listen to the interview in the car.

And that's what I did.  I went through the drive-thru and then sat in the car in their parking lot, AC on full blast, and listened to a friend do an interview on a nationally broadcast program on Relevant Radio.  It was a good interview too.  The creator of the blog Catholic Sistas was being interviewed.  It was fun to listen and I laughed at the callers who called in with questions.  Their names and places they were from clued me in that they were all contributors as well.  You can still listen to the interview by clicking here and choosing one of the links for June 8.  Martina did great!  Go listen if you have time.  No, not "if", I take that back: find time and listen!  That's an order!

Some friends I hadn't seen in a while were back in town for a short visit.  So they stopped by on Friday afternoon and visited for a bit.  It was fun to see them and to see how much their three boys have grown!

That pretty much concluded our busy week.  The boys are home with me one more week and then they start daycare the following week.  I go back to working full-time in the office two weeks later.  Which means two weeks of working full-time at home with no interruptions.  Hopefully I can concentrate on work and not get distracted by running an errand or cleaning something I know needs cleaning or folding a load of laundry that I had done the night before, etc.

If you've made it all the way to the end of this novel of a post, thanks for reading!  Have a great weekend!

Stand with us or it will be YOU next

Over the last several days to a week, I have seen many of my friends post to Facebook about the recent HHS decision and "like" other friend's posts on the same.  Sometimes I read the comments from my friend's friends and follow the conversations for and against contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion.  The more I read the more I realize that people are missing the real issue.

What is the issue?  Is it the right for individuals to have access to free birth control?  Is it the about whether you can use your insurance coverage to get an abortion?  Or is it the right to be able to sterilize yourself from the "danger" of a future pregnancy?

No, no, and no.

If you work for a private company and your insurance coverage wants to pay for these things for you and you want to use them, then fine.  I may not agree personally, but that is the right of your company's insurance provider.

The issue is about the government (i.e. the state) mandating that a faith-based organization (i.e. the church) cover procedures and medications that said religious organization is opposed to.  Thus, the state stepping in to mandate the church do something contrary to the church's beliefs.

Hmmm!  Doesn't that sound like a "separation of church and state" issue.  I sure hope so, because that is EXACTLY what it is!

For us Catholics this is a matter of religious freedom and a policy that goes against our moral convictions.  For everyone else, this is a matter of the separation of church and state.  Maybe this mandate does not affect you and you don't care that Catholic employers (schools, hospitals, charitable organizations, colleges and universities) will be forced to comply with this mandate or close their doors.  Whether the specific mandate affects you specifically or not, the issue affects all of us.

If this administration feels that it can pass a mandate that does not allow for a comprehensive conscientious objection (there is an exemption, but it is extremely narrow) and thus go against the "separation of church and state" that has been a part of this nation's foundation since the beginning, then they can pass future mandates that will affect other religious groups as well.

Your religious liberties may not be threatened at this time, but if a precedent is set you may find yourself in the same position as Catholics are in now.  Stand with us: sign the petition the St. Michael's Society has put together, write to your congressmen and representatives, and let your Catholic friends know that you support them in fighting this mandate.  Next time it could be you and your religious liberties.

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
They they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
                                           ~Martin Niemöller

Religious Freedom Being Threatened

The Obama administration recently announced that all employers must pay into insurance policies that cover abortion, contraception, and sterilization procedures.  This includes all Catholic employers.  There is an extremely narrow exception, so narrow that the vast majority of Catholic employers are not exempt.

This smacks in the face of our religious liberties and freedoms.  As Catholics we morally object to contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion.  It entirely goes against our beliefs to support any of these things.  Under this new HHS policy Catholic Churches, Catholic hospitals, Catholic charitable organizations, and other Catholic organizations will be required to pay for these procedures and treatments despite the fact that the Church morally objects to them.

All people of faith should be disturbed by this ruling, Catholic or not.  Even if this particular ruling does not affect you in particular, it is only the beginning.  It only takes one step to get the ball rolling.

So I urge you to sign the petition found on this St. Michael's Society website: Support Cardinal-designate Dolan Sign the Religious Freedom Petition.  After you sign it, share it with your family and friends.

This administration has been working hard to chip away at religious liberty and freedom in our society.  This needs to stop.  The government should not be forcing religious groups into morally objectionable policies.