Halloween and All Saints Day

http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Oct2001/Family.asp

Thank you, Matthew Warner of Fallible Blogma, for posting a great link for Halloween today. It is neat to read about the history of Halloween and to get ideas for "taking back" this holiday by understanding its roots.

Baby PR diva learns a lesson

Yesterday, I made a BIG mistake at work. One of those mistakes that could cost thousands of dollars, get somebody prosecuted, and generally create a messy PR debacle.

The good news is that prayer works--that or Lady Luck is on my side (I'm going with prayer, because I've won at games like Bingo just a fifth-of-a-handful of times in my entire life).

So, everything is fine. No one was arrested or fined thousands of dollars. No ugly stories or blogs appeared in the media. I am appropriately humbled.

Working right under someone like my boss gives this first-year-out-of-college baby PR diva some incredible opportunities to work with high-level executives and companies, but all of that comes with a learning curve and lots of responsibility!

Pro-life pumpkin looks oddly familiar...

This pumpkin I found on Fallible Blogma looks like they carved it from my latest ultrasound picture!

Watch some commercials and get a big discount on your new Mac or iPod? Creative new advertising idea-->http://tinyurl.com/yjyh4vf

Missing the Berryhills

I was looking through some old pictures today, and I'm suffering from a wave of happy nostalgia. This family Christmas picture from 2007 made me realize how much has happened in two years.

I miss my parents, siblings, and even our sweet family dogs. So here's a note all the way from Houston for my wonderful family:

Dad: Thanks for making such an effort this past year to "keep in touch." It means so much to me when you call! Thanks for always giving me the guidance, confidence and space to make good decisions. I will never forget when you used to take me fishing with you and I always got my line stuck in the trees. Or when I got sunburned so bad I had purple tiger streaks on my face and you still  made me go to school! I miss you more than you know.

Mom: As discussed, you are I have a phone date sometime this week! You are already the best mom and soon-to-be Gran I can imagine. I wish I could spend more time with you because I miss you so much. I want to point out how much I love and appreciate how you have handled grandmother-hood already. Your quiet, gentle and supportive spirit is just what this sometimes-silly pregnant daughter needs.  I am so excited to spend the weekend with you and the girls for my baby shower in a couple of weeks!

Ryan: I hate that we're so far apart! I can't wait to see what you do in life. You have a good, and sometimes fiery, heart. You're going to be the best uncle I can possibly imagine for Baby Franco. If we have boy, I hope you can teach him some of your tricks for wrestling with his father and grandfather. That and make sure he has some of your tips for charming the ladies! :) If we have a girl, I know you'll be a great role model of a Godly gentleman for her.

Rivers: You are not growing up too fast; it's just that I haven't lived at home since you started high school! I hope that your senior year is going better these days. God has great plans for you, and I can't wait to see where you go and what you do in life. I love and respect your creativity, the way you set your mind to things, and your sensitive heart. I also think so highly of your writing. I love you just as you are! Baby Franco is going to have a special place in his or her heart for Aunt Rivers!

Shannon: I love you! I hate that we are so far apart. I also hate that I haven't lived up to my goal of calling you to check in more often. You are an incredible woman, and part of what makes you incredible is how down-to-earth you are in person. You are I are actually almost as similar as we are different, believe it or not! I am so looking forward to hanging out for the weekend when I come in for the baby shower. I am praying for you and all of the big decisions you are dealing with right now. I am so proud of you whatever you do.

Lily: You will always have a special place in my heart. :) You are the best foot-snuggler in the world, and when I'm sick, there's no one I'd rather be snuggled up on the couch recovering with. Don't worry about looking like an alien in almost every picture you've ever taken; not all of us can be photogenic. I actually own one picture of you in your youth that is very decent. :)

Puck: You are smarter than you let on, little man. I think Dad has just about given up on trying to keep you in the yard. I think that if you do die on Perkins Road one day, at least it will be doing one of the things you love best: escaping from the yard. :)

Emma: I adore you, pretty girl! I miss your big brown eyes and your big warm body. And the way you try to jump out of your skin with excitement whenever I make it home for a visit. Thanks for being such a great furry friend for everyone at home, especially Mom. :)

"A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?"
http://ping.fm/P8liu

"A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?"

The Big Apple Coalition of Reason has launched a new campaign in New York's subways with posters asking passengers, "A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?"

Great question.

Of course I know that people can be essentially good people without God. I know many wonderful, thoughtful, happy, productive, loving people who don't believe in God.

Relating back to my post from yesterday, however, I also think that a person just trying to live a good life is selling himself short at some point. Because there's more for us.

This is one of my very favorite quotes from Pope John Paul II:

"It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choice that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society."

- Pope John Paul II, World Youth Day 2000 Prayer Vigil

Nichole Nordeman's "Legacy" is a special anthem I go back to a lot when I think about how I want to live my own life. The refrain:

I want to leave a legacy,
how will they remember me?
Did I choose to love?
Did I point to You enough to make a mark on things/
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who blessed Your name
I want to leave a legacy

Rain, rain, go away and come again another day! (Or at least drag in a decent cold front!)

Ultrasound

Today we had our final ultrasound. I am a little over 31 weeks into the pregnancy now!

We have been looking forward to this final ultrasound for months now, but much to our intense disappointment, Baby Franco slept like a rock all day today and we did not get very good pictures this time. As some of you may know, Michael and I had been looking forward to this ultrasound because we were going to get the uber-cool 3D ultrasound this time. We were going to be able to see our baby's face!

Unfortunately, Baby Franco likes to sleep like his/her mommy, head pressed into a soft pillow and hands curled up near the face. Except Baby F. was pressed up into the placenta with his/her little hands covering the face. Not to mention the baby was upside down (back to the ultrasound wand) and refused to roll over so we could get a good look at him.

I ate three snacks before the ultrasound, and then stuffed myself with food, sugar and caffeine before going back after lunch for Try #2 (the technician felt sorry for us and came back early from lunch to try getting some pictures for us again before her afternoon appointments arrived). No luck.

Oh well. We got one semi-good picture and couple of Just OK's. And--good news!--Baby Franco is perfectly healthy, happy AND already sleeps for hours at a time through just about anything!

See below and enjoy :)

Just "going through the motions"?

I've heard this song a hundred times on the radio, but the down-to-earth, oh-so-human grittiness of this song finally hit me today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLJF9vaIJ_0

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

Wow.

The obvious question is, Am I giving God everything?

Especially as a Catholic, it's easy to fall into just "going through the motions." And Catholics have a lot of motions: sacraments, the sign of the cross, the sign of peace, lining up and receiving communion, genuflecting, standing up, sitting down and kneeling.

Once a young (or new) Catholic has learned how to mumble convincingly through the amazingly long and complicated (and spectacularly beautiful and powerful!) Nicene Creed, he or she has officially arrived at being able to "go through the motions" of the mass with complete anonymity and complacency.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I think having "motions" at all is a bad thing, because the reasons and ideas behind all of those motions point to Christ and to submitting ourselves to His mercy, love and grace. Actions and rituals are powerful.When our eyes are opened to the beautiful reasons and purpose behind them, they can do nothing but enrich and deepen our faith like nothing else.

During times in my life that I was unsure about my faith or I was struggling with "not feeling anything" in my faith, the many motions of my religion were a part what kept me going. They gave me a structure to fall back on, and their universality gave me a sense of community that helped me realize I can never go through something on Earth that nobody else has gone through before.


You know, I once heard from a priest that we are all called to be saints--every human being on Earth.

Saints are just human beings who said "yes" to God and gave him everything.God calls different people to different vocations, but He calls us all to be saints by living our lives in Him and according to His amazing plan for each of us. St. Gianna was a wife, mother and doctor. St. Teresa of Avila was a nun. St. Augustine was a gambler, womanizer, and had illegitimate children before the faithful prayers of his mother, St. Monica, helped bring him to God.

The wonderful thing about saints, a friend once told me, is that among all the hundreds (or thousands?) of them that we know of, there is somebody we can relate to--and somebody who knows just what prayers to take to Christ for us. There are saints who struggled with losing a spouse, with alcoholism, sexual immorality, materialism, apathy and vanity--just like us.

Mother Theresa once said that the world doesn't need more good people--the world needs more holy people. I think that there are a lot of generally "good" people walking around, but how many people are striving for holiness?

This is not some theological mumbo-jumbo! If we settle for striving to be "good," we're selling ourselves short.

Holiness is simply having a deeper relationship with God, so that He can work in you, through you and with you more seamlessly. Holiness is the difference between a "good" person of God and a "good" Buddhist or atheist. Holiness makes a Christian shine and enrich the world as he was created to do, because he becomes Jesus' hands, feet and love in the world.


If we're not striving for holiness, are we really giving God our all? 

* * * * * 


Matthew West's "The Motions"

This might hurt, it's not safe
But I know that I've gotta make a change
I don't care if I break,
At least I'll be feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

No regrets, not this time
I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love make me whole
I think I'm finally feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

'Cause I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

take me all the way (take me all the way)
take me all the way ('cause I don't wanna go through the motions)
take me all the way (I know I'm finally feeling something real)
take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

take me all the way (take me all the way)
take me all the way (I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go)
take me all the way (through the motions)
take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions

Pumpkin carving

Saturday night we attended an old-fashioned pumpkin carving party at the Reicherts. Here are a few pictures from the evening, courtesy of host Paul Reichert. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of the smiley-face pumpkin (skill level: Unrated) that Michael and did. I'll try to take a picture of ours all lit up tonight before the pumpkin rots to death on our balcony this week. :)

These smiles say, "We're just doing a smiley-face pumpkin this year. We are really here because Paul Reichert grills some fantastic burgers and baked his famous made-from-scratch carrot cake..."

My girls Betsy Perryman and Lucy Coles

Working hard on the Franco Family Jack-o-Lantern

* * * * *

Fun Fact #1:

The life expectancy of a carved pumpkin in our climate is about a week from birth to Pile of Goo.

Fun Fact #2:

Yes, Michael and I had a totally gross experience last year with two beautifully-carved pumpkins turning into Piles of Goo on our balcony.

* * * * *

My boys: Fenton Perryman and John-Matthew Coles

For Brooke, David and Grant

I'm sorry to be a MIA blogger lately! My excuse(s): Beautiful weather, long hours of work, and having to handwash nearly all of my maternity clothes...

* * * * *

Now, for the subject of this post, I'd like to ask anyone reading this to please send up a powerful prayer for the Shook family. Brooke and David Shook live in California; Brooke is the sister of our dear friends, Trey and Betsy Perryman.

In August, after enduring two weeks of labor, uncontrollable bleeding, mystified doctors, and nearly dying herself, Brooke Shook gave birth to fragile baby Grant, born over three months early. Praise God for the miracles of modern medicine, for Baby Grant was actually born alive and has been in the NICU from the moment he was born.

Brooke had to quit her job and commutes 45 minutes to the hospital every day to pump breastmilk and to spend time with her delicate baby son, who is constantly fighting to breathe, eat and have regular bowel movements.

David is back at work, but he has the added stresses of taking care of and spending time with his sick baby son and wife, closing on and moving into their new home, and taking care of their home.

In the middle of all of this, Brooke and David have also had to deal with Brooke's health complications, the understandable financial difficulties of their situation, and a This-Had-to-Happen-to-THEM freak car accident that totaled Brooke's car. Additionally, last week Grant's recent weight gain has been found to be water on his lungs--a very serious problem indeed.

This family desperately needs prayers and support.

Grant Shook's due date was about a month before Baby Franco's, and Michael and I have felt a special call to prayer for him and his parents since the Perrymans first let us know that Brooke was having complications with her pregnancy.

I just want to pass along the Shook's story to my little blog community so that we can be instruments of more prayer, support and peace for this family. Thank you!

Baking pumpkin bread on this fantastic fall day--who knew the smell of nutmeg and cloves could be so exciting?! Pumpkin carving party @5!

New Dell, New Day!

Michael and I had to buckle down and buy me a new laptop recently.

My trust Macbook, the (usually) faithful, hardworking and non-virusy companion of my college years, is officially in retirement. Michael has plans for the little machine, though, which include a career change to being Michael's personal video and photo editing man toy. My old Mac could do worse.

The interesting thing about our purchase is that we bought a Dell instead of another Mac. I needed a larger screen and more memory, and the 15" Macbook Pros were out of our price range. So, we had to swim against the trend and switch back to a PC after having a Mac. These days, many people are choosing to do the opposite.

We would have purchased another Mac if we could have afforded it, but for the meantime (and let's hope that means at least ten years) I am happy with my shiny red, sleek Dell Vostro.

Loving the sunny, breezy, low-70s weather in Houston today - I almost forgive Mother Nature for those 90+ degree days earlier this week...

6-year-old CO boy floats away in a homemade balloon-->poor little guy! :( http://ping.fm/hAYkU

Morning prayer

I love to pray in the morning--especially in the car when I'm on my way to work.

When I pray in the morning, I feel like I am wrapping my day in prayer (and my husband's day, whether he knows it or not). I also feel a deep peace that I am starting the day off pointing to God as the center and rock of my life.

I find that by the time I leave work at the end of the day, I often have the "psychological effects" of the morning prayer wearing off. I'm generally tired, grumpy and hungry when I get in the car to go home. So I usually make myself pray during my short little car ride home to bless the evening, too.

I know that having kids will generally make me (and my husband) even more tired and grumpy by the end of the day, so I am trying to start exercising my spiritual muscles now! When I am tired, I get very quiet and much less responsive in conversations, and my Good Listener skills go (make that fly) out the nearest window. Taking that home with me isn't fair to Michael, and it won't be fair to my family.

I still wish that I had made a much bigger effort to be a good listener and a cheerful personality at home in college. During my last two years of college, I was often so tired and stressed out by the time I made it home at night that I barely spoke to any of my roommates on many days! (Lacey, Kim and Emily: If you are reading this, I am so sorry! :)

Usually I like to pray "free form," but sometimes going back to the beautiful, well-written prayers we Catholics have such an abundance of is really wonderful. Those prayers remind me to be more specific, to move out of myself, and to realize that praying for my day is actually blessing and enriching the day for others.

Here is my very favorite "non free form" prayer for the morning, courtesy of The Catholic Devotional, one of those free little pamphlets you can find in the back of many Catholic churches:
* * * * *

Dear Lord, help me to remove from my mind every thought or opinion which You would not sanction, every feeling from my heart which You would not approve. 

Grant that I may spend the hours of the day gladly working with You according to Your will. 

Help me just for today and be with me in it. In the long hours of work, that I may not grow weary or slack in serving You. 

In conversations that they may not be to me occasions of uncharitableness. 

In the day's worries and disappointments, that I may be patient with myself and with those around me. 

In moments of fatigue and illness, that I may be mindful of theirs rather than of myself. 

In temptations, that I may be generous and loyal, so that when the day is over I may lay it at Your feet, with its successes which are all Yours, and its failures which are all my own, and feel that life is real and peaceful, and blessed when spent with you as the Guest of my soul. Amen. 
* * * * *

I feel like a penguin today: B/c I am waddling and b/c I am wearing stretchy black pants and a b&w shirt JUST because they're comfortable...

This morning: I feel a blog post brewing as I pay bills and do laundry before work..and I'm wondering why my "unkillable" plant is dying?!

Lately, my heart is amazed and inspired by God more than ever. Lauren and Jason Romero dueting "Amazed" is my soul's soundtrack today :)

Ready for cooler weather and less rain! (and a nap)

The Nobel Peace Prize
www.humblehandmaid.blogspot.com

The Nobel Peace Prize

I heard on NPR this morning that Barack Obama is being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 

According to NPR commentators, the Nobel committee is impressed with his *extensive* international relations progress, including his position on preventing the spread of nuclear arms and his "dedication to multilateral peace talks." 

A significant quote I'd like to paraphrase for you: the NPR commentator explained that Obama is receiving this prize because he is doing, politically, things that "most of the world agrees with."

These days, it seems that the Nobel Prize doesn't always go to the most deserving or popular person. Read below about somebody who didn't get chosen for the award last year.

* * * * *

Irena Sendler

(From an email I received today)
There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had knan 'ulterior motive' 
 
She knew what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.
 
During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. 
 
She was caught, and the Nazis broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. 
 
After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.
 
Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected. 
 

* * * * * 
I should add that one of my final classes in college was "Minorities in the Media." My final presentation for that class was on Holocaust deniers. There are many heads of entire countries--especially in the Middle East--who believe, and actively promote, that the Holocaust was a hoax. If we award the Nobel Peace Prize to people everyone in the world loves, how will the prize remain the icon of social justice and change that it used to be when it was awarded to the likes of Nelson Mandela and Mother Theresa? For a guy whose very first (and some say, only) "accomplishment" as President of the United States was to quickly sign a death sentence for thousands or millions of unborn children both in our country and abroad, the Nobel Peace Prize is, in my conscience, a grossly inappropriate prize indeed.

The beginnings of a baby PR diva...

I got one of my clients on the news last night! http://tiny.cc/YL19Z 

My boss gave me a small media advisory assignment for one of our clients on Monday. We were highlighting Dell Marcum, Health & Fitness Sports Magazine's fit-as-a-fiddle and sharp-as-a-tack general manager and executive vice president, who was turning 87 years old on Wednesday, Oct. 7. After conducting all of the interviews, writing the advisory, then pitching to the media, Houston's 39 News called me to go out and interview Dell and shoot B-roll of her on her birthday! (They even put in some commentary from a local geriatric specialist to round out the story on "aging in the workplace"!)

I also got Dell some upcoming interviews with KTBU-TV and BizRadio, which is exciting for her as well.

In the grand scheme of things, a little nightly news story isn't that big of a deal in PR. It is, however, a small milestone in the life of the lowly Right-Out-of-College Public Relations Assistant (well, "Public Relations Coordinator" on my business cards).

I am continuing to learn a lot from my wonderful boss, Ms. Laura Pennino. I get to do a lot more writing projects these days, and I am starting to learn the ropes of booking interviews with reporters and getting articles published in both local and national print media. Again, not bad for a Right-Out-of-College Public Relations Coordinator, but my little list of accomplishments at work are nothing fancy--yet.

We'll see where this PR diva-in-training goes over the next few years. Maybe one day I'll be the PR brains behind actually getting the March for Life into the news...

I got a story for one of my clients on the news last night! Check her out, she's adorable :) http://tiny.cc/YL19Z

Baby Update

I thought it was time for a general baby update.

Baby Franco is doing great! We had a doctor's appointment today and we are currently at 29 weeks and 1 day. Baby Franco has a strong heartbeat and moves (make that rolls, somersaults and ninja kicks) all the time. As of this week, we now "graduate" to checkups every two weeks (instead of monthly). We also scheduled our 3D/4D ultrasound today for a couple of weeks from now. Bets are out to how long it takes Michael to put together an amazing music video to that footage...

Mom is feeling fine these days as well. Well...except for the daily fatigue, back pain, fitful sleep, and cravings for Smoothie King strawberry Yogurt D-Lite smoothies. On that note, I should record that my pregnancy craving for pizza was satisfied last weekend by me eating the equivalent of almost entire pizza by myself over three days. Kudos to my husband for  graciously acquiescing to me not cooking all weekend...

Michael and I really think we're having a boy. I keep having random people tell me that I "look" like I am having a boy because I am carrying the baby very low. The amount of ninja kick activity this baby engages in is also supposed to be a strong indicator of male gender.  In the end, it's so exciting to think that we won't actually know if this baby is a boy or a girl until we meet him or her in person!

In other news, Michael and I set up our beautiful baby crib this evening. (Thanks Mom and Gran!) In true Franco style, we took some cheesy video of us putting the crib together. :)

My experience at the David Crowder concert

A friend of ours who works at NASA asked Michael a few weeks ago if he would consider doing some "volunteer work" in exchange for two free tickets to see the David Crowder Band.

After Michael agreed instantly to the proposition, our friend told him that all he had to do was take the band members on a tour of NASA on the day of the concert! (And I thought I had job perks!)

Yesterday, Michael did spend his Saturday giving a tour to band members Mike D., Hogan and Mark. Apparently, they spent the three hours or so of the tour mainly goofing off together.

So, last night Michael and I headed to Grace Community Church, a huge "mega church" just a few minutes up the interstate from us that doubles as a large venue for concerts like this. Overall, the concert was a glad-I-went experience for me and a fantastic experience for Michael.

You see, I'm not really a concert kind of girl, whether it's a Christian concert or not. I have never been a girl who loves the concert experience, which as most of you know generally includes:

• Staying up past my bedtime
• Being in a room with thousands of other people not using their inside voices
• Standing up a lot
• Jumping around a lot
• Long ladies' room lines
• Some level of a pulsating, jumping, wild mosh pit around the stage

I did really enjoy the two bands who opened for David Crowder: Seabird and Danyew. They both played their hearts out and had fantastic songs. I loved Seabird especially--they sounded very similar to the Fray, which is another band I like.

I think by the time that we found our seats at Grace, I was ready to go home. Michael and I spent a fun but exhausting two hours on our feet at Babies 'R Us before the concert, and I had worked out in the apartment and then gone on a 45min walk on Saturday morning. I don't mean to be a weenie about anything, but I was too tired to cook after Babies 'R Us (we ordered pizza)--I should have known I was too tired to enjoy a Christian rock/techno concert!

I ended up sitting down for most of the concert. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy most of the songs, it's just that the smoky room, super-bright flashing and churning lights, and very, very, very loud music were just too much for me to handle (I barely make it through mass a lot of Sundays right now).

I made it through the concert, finally, only to realize that we had special "Meet and Greet" passes to redeem. What this translates to--to make a long story short--is that we stood in line for over an hour with hundreds of chatty teenagers and their moms to meet the band in person. By the time I met the band, I was pleasantly surprised by how genuinely happy they were to meet me after having spent the day with Michael. David Crowder himself hadn't been on the tour, and so Michael couldn't introduce me to him, but as Michael and I were walking away after taking the picture, David Crowder actually made it a point to get my attention and said, "Your name is Erin, right? So glad to meet you!" 

After a long, loud, conert, then waiting in line for an hour in a too-bright room, then meeting the band, and then finally, FINALLY walking out the room and heading to the car, Michael threw me a doozy: "Oh, man! I can't see the picture because it says "the battery is now exhausted"...I don't know if the picture took or not!!!"

I burst into big, fat tears worthy of any tired four year old.

I was overcome and overwhelmed at the idea that our camera hadn't recorded the one memento of the exhausting evening. I couldn't stop crying. I cried all the way outside as we started the quarter-mile trek through the massive parking lot to our car. Poor Michael. I kept apologizing for being the mother of his children, because I couldn't help acting like one myself at that moment. As we were leaving the sidewalk, Michael asked if I wanted to sit and wait for him there while he ran and got the car. My answer was a silent  crumple onto the sidewalk

I just want to end on a more cheerful note. :^) The David Crowder Band were excellent performers and fabulous musicians. Their music is creative and has beautiful lyrics. They are extremely smart (I forgot to mention that they have literally a "robot drummer" named Steve 3PO designed by their real drummer. Ask Michael how Steve works). From all that I now know of them, they are also genuine, down-to-earth, hardworking guys. Their concert was very well produced and had great lighting, sound and video. Everyone  absolutely loved this concert and had a great time. 

However, this blog is a chronicle of my life experience, so I'm obliged to be honest.

Abortion Survivor Gianna Jessen

Jonathan Finney, a dear friend who is in his senior year at LSU this year, sent us this video yesterday.

Gianna Jessen was born in 1977 after a saline abortion was performed on her. Saline abortions kill babies in the womb by burning them inside and out. The mother delivers the babies roughly 24 hours after the saline enters the womb. Gianna came out alive, however, and was transported to the hospital after a nurse at the abortion clinic called 911. Miraculously, Gianna survived the abortion without severe burns, but she does have cerebral palsy as a direct result of the loss of oxygen to her brain during the abortion.

The cerebral palsy has not affected her speech. She is a powerful speaker who doesn't dance around the "issue" (as she says we like to call it). She says, cheerfully and unapologetically, that "I was not born alive that day to make people feel more comfortable while I am here."

One of my favorite parts of her talk is when she address men and then women separately, calling our society out on some fundamental cracks in our foundation. Without specifically naming John Paul II's Theology of the Body, she seems to speak the central truth of that  material.

She first issues a challenge to men to stand up and be men of character and principle, men whose very created purpose is to uphold the dignity of women and of life.She challenges men not to "use" women and then "throw us away" in action or thought. She then turns and pleads that women would not "sit and...not know, not realize, their worth, beauty and dignity." How exquisitely true and how perfectly in line with everything the Theology of the Body says.

One of the neat things about Gianna Jessen is her name. Gianna shares her first name with a newly canonized saint: St. Gianna Beretta Molla was canonized in 2004. She was a 20th century wife, mother, physician and working mom who worked tirelessly to defend life and ultimately gave her own life for her last child. Her Website says this about her:

"The canonization of Saint Gianna is the first of its kind. Many mothers have been beatified for their heroic virtues but they entered religious life after becoming widowed. In St Gianna’s case, the very condition of her being a spouse and mother is being exalted and highlighted. St Gianna is the first canonized woman physician and professional who was also a “working mom”.

As Michael and I watched Gianna Jessen on YouTube this morning, I was struck by how little I do to challenge the evil of abortion. We are all called to challenge abortion in different ways, but some ways that came to me this morning were to spend time in prayer and to give financially to groups and organizations that fight abortion.

I also thought about the way I vote. Gianna Jessen makes a powerful point in her talk about voting. She says that we have let abortion become "an issue" instead of the deeply evil poison that it is in our culture. As Christians and as Catholics, do we have the "guts" to leave our politics aside?

At some point, I think we have to ask ourselves what the basis of a truly healthy culture and society is. I think that, in one way or another, a strong and wise society is one that upholds the dignity of human life. It seems to me that any law pertaining to money, healthcare, the environment, crime, foreign policy, etc. could only benefit from a worldview of respect for human life.

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Make sure that you listen to both part 1 and part 2 of Gianna Jessen's talk, which is posted on YouTube. Here are the links:
Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPF1FhCMPuQ
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8B1nKGIAeg