A political discussion and a dream...

It's amazing to me how our brains work...

First, let me start out with what happened last night...Andy's Dad (a democrat) and Andy ( a conservative) were having a political discussion about voter ID being enforced to vote. It led into several different topics. Andy's Dad happened to mention that all congress was trying to do was overturn things like Roe vs Wade and he won't tell anyone how he feels about that...he just doesn't discuss it. I never batted an eye at what he said. I was rocking Melina and playing with her before bed at the time.

I went to sleep last night, woke up enough to roll over and apparently my brain was processing that information as it was right there in my head...it was then, that I realized...my father-in-law is apparently pro-choice. I've never heard anyone who was pro-life say that they didn't discuss those things or tell anyone how they feel about Roe vs. Wade. Then, I told my husband that all I see congress in battles about now is the battles concerning religion and birth control, abortion, and that type of thing. I haven't heard of overturning roe vs. wade. I don't keep all that much in the loop though as I normally have my hands tied with being hall monitor of the house with behaviors and so forth ensuring safety of all in my house.

Andy said that must have been a brain mechanism that my brain has so that I didn't start yelling at him about pro-life. I told him that I can remember even sitting in high school and the topic of abortion coming up and listening to the kids talk about it in debate and just leaving the classroom in tears. I strongly believe that no matter how a girl finds herself pregnant...it's not that babies fault. If you don't want a baby for whatever reason...give it up for adoption. There are a lot of waiting parents out there who would gladly take a baby.

I just don't understand...I'm not here to debate it. This is obviously my blog and my feelings on the subject and I'm just being open about them. I believe that God tells us that we shall not kill...that baby is alive from the moment of conception. It's not ok to take that life. I don't judge those who have had them in the past...I've had friends that have opened up and told me that they've had one in the past and how sorry they were that they had one. And I think since they are sorry, God forgives them. He loves us and He understands that we're not perfect and that we make mistakes. I wanted to put that out there in case I've had any readers that have had one in the past.

Anyway, back to what I was trying to say. I don't understand how some people can be pro-choice and yet they're against murder. If a parent made up their mind to kill a child that they didn't like or just because they weren't in the right mind...happens all of the time...we all can agree that is wrong. Yet, we say that when a child is still in the womb (not in 3rd trimester) that's ok to do it then. it's the same difference in my eyes. Just because we never got a chance to see that baby being held in it's Momma's arms...or we got to see that baby grow up and see it blossom...that makes it ok to take their life. So, a woman makes the decision to abort their baby 1 day before they hit the 3rd trimester, or a week before...that's ok? Yet, it's not once they reach the 3rd trimester. I don't know...I'm being all over the place now. I guess I just don't understnad and knowing my father-in-law and the type of person that he is, I guess it just surprised me. Granted, he never came out and said it...but he knows that we are pro-life and that most of his family is too and so I can understand why he wouldn't come out and discuss it. I'll end it now.

Lord, I lift up all the Momma's out there who are scared to find out that they are pregnant and don't know what to do. I just pray that they will give their babies the best gift of all...life. And I pray for all those unborn babies out there. I pray that the Momma's who want to go to abortion clincis today, will have a change of heart and that they will realize that they have other options that can give their babies life. Amen.

Catholicism, Politics, and Pro-Life...

Today, at the end of Mass, our priest told us that we needed to take a stand as Catholics and write to our Congressman about this push for making us go against our religions and offer contraceptives and abortions as part of our health-care. Obviously that goes against our religious beliefs as a Catholic. Anyway, he said that if a Catholic priest makes a mistake it's on the front page of the newspaper, yet he is tired of seeing Obama push all this stuff out there and sending out the message that it's ok to do whatever you want. He made the comment that nowadays a teen isn't "in" unless they're having sex. He talked about how women have come to confession and they say they want to be forgiven because they've just had an abortion. He said a lot of times these are women who he's never had come to confession before and he can't help but think that they didn't come before because they knew it was wrong. My eyes brimmed with tears...abortion has always been a sensitive topic for me even when we would debate about it in high school. I've always loved babies...I just don't understand how someone can make that decision and take a life. A baby is defenseless...you murder someone and someone has a chance at self-defense at least, but that precious little life obviously can't defend themselves. It's always broken my heart to hear about life being talked about like that...oh, it's just a blob of cells. Well, it's not...it's a precious human life. That baby deserves a chance. Anyway, the priest made a comment that he's really praying that Obama doesn't get another term as he's tired of all the changes that are being made and that Obama just feels that you should be able to do whatever you want. Well, at what cost? Most of the church broke out in applause. Those in our parish who did vote for Obama...I'm hoping that they realize now what they have been a part of and will not make the same mistake twice. I will spend part of this week writing my e-mails and letters to Congress to let them know that I am pro-life and that I am upset at the changes that Obama is trying to make. I do not think it's right to make us Catholics (or even others that are pro-life) to support contraceptive use and abortions.

Andy and I for the most part have never been big users of contraceptives. Obviously, we had pretty much given up hope that we'd get pregnant again too as we had tried for years for another baby with no success, and then came along Melina, and what a blessing she is. :-) We had a discussion after she was born that we were going to stay open to life. I've been reading a lot on the Church's stance against contraception use, but it wasn't until I was listening to Mass on tv a couple weeks ago and the priest was explaining something that I began to understand a little more. He went on to explain that the church is the bridegroom of Christ. Christ gives everything of Himself and we should in turn do the same seeing intimacy with Christ and it should be a give/receive relationship fully without any barrier. He explained that it should be that way as well between a wife and a husband. You can't give FULLY of yourself, if there's a barrier in the way and you're blocking blessings. You can only be FULLY intimate and experience that passion that Christ intends for your marriage if there's no barrier. I'm not explaining it all that well, but when I heard how the priest was explaining it, it was like a lightbulb began to go off in my head a little more. I am beginning to understand it more and more. Obviously, you have to trust too in your relationship not only with your spouse but with Christ too. He does know what's best for us and He will give us all the graces that we need if we stay open to His blessings.

Isn't part of the reason that our country is so good is because of some of our freedoms here?

We all had a choice who to vote for didn't we? Our family has always voted conservatively. That's just who we are. Anyway, we voted conservative this time...we voted for Bush two times before. Do we agree with 100% of what these people stand for...no. My hubby put up on his Facebook page that he just wasn't impressed with Obama yesterday and he had some people post that they agreed with him, and a few people took what was said totally out of context and bashed him for his opinion. He made a joke that he wasn't drinking the kool-aid (how many times have us girls joked that we're not drinking the water as there's too many pregnancies happening?...he was joking similar to that with the kool-aid). Anyway, one of the girls we went to high school with jumped on him about how her opinions deserved respect and so on and so on. I read the whole argument and didn't see that he was disrespectful of anything and he made the comment that he wasn't trying to offend anyone, but that one of the beauties of this country was that we had the freedom to vote for whoever we wanted and that we had the freedom to express our opinions. Anyway, she got all nasty with him and said something to the fact that she should have known better and that her opinions didn't deserve respect and that she was out. I sat there for a minute and told Andy that he was on his own Facebook page stating HIS opinion...she was acting like he was supposed to CHANGE his opinion based on the fact that she didn't find her opinion notating respect. It's not like he went on HER page and bashed her opinion that she had posted or something. To me that's like going up to someone in the voting line and asking them who they are voting for, not liking their answer, and choosing to try to make them change their opinion by saying that they're not respecting your option to vote for whoever you want based on their feelings and so forth. Maybe, I'm not stating myself very well, but it's bothered me all night long.

Obama is our President now, there's nothing anybody can do to change that fact, I don't agree with a lot of what he says and stands for and I think he's full of promises and all I can do is hope that he stands by what he says he will and I wish the best for him and will pray for him, but I already don't agree with some of the things that he's done. Our country is apparently in such a dire need and he has promised all sorts of things to get certain states out of trouble. Yet, look at the amount of money that Obama not only spent on his campaign but turned around and spent on his inauguration (sp?) festivities...I understand that something like that is going to cost money, but I don't see the need to spend all that...how many people could he have helped with SOME of that money. I just don't think that he practices what he preaches.

Another comment on Andy's FB page was from another guy that we went to high school with...he had the nerve to say that he guessed when we moved to TX we had to sign some contract that we'd push our noses even further up Bush's a** so that we could get a bigger tax return. That really pissed me off. Even if we would have still been living in IL, we would have voted McCain. We left MI, because of the state's economy there. The person that made this comment is always complaining about everything and I guess I don't understand...if you're not happy somewhere...we have the power to move. It took a lot of changes for our family and we took a big leap of faith and moved down here...lots of prayers have been answered for us down here. Do we still miss MI? Yes, we do! But, it came down to the fact that we had to move to provide for our family and we are happy down here. Do we agree with all of Bush's decisions...not at all...

I don't know, I look at the state of our nation's economy and I get upset sometimes. Our society does not live within their means, we want something and we want it NOW, we don't have the cash to pay for it, but we have to have it because everyone else does, so lets all go out and get loans and credit cards that we can't pay for all because we just have to have it. Banks are in trouble now and are getting bailed out by the government...why not make these people responsible for WHO they are lending money to? Nobody wants to accept responsibility for their actions anymore. Obama says we're going to have to spend our way out of some of this before it gets better (I forget his actual wording)...since when do we go out and spend money that we don't have to spend and expect that to make things better? If anything, it only seems to me that is going to get us in more trouble and give us a bigger deficit to get out of. Then, again, I know nothing about politics and all that...and before anyone bashes me, these are my feelings that I am posting on my own blog.

Barack Obama

I will admit that I don't follow the presidential candidates all that closely. I was going to vote for Romney until he dropped out. I'm not really all that impressed with any of the other candidates. My Mom and I were talking last night about how I've heard some people lately saying that they think Obama is the anti-Christ. Mom said her impression wasn't that far off, although she didn't know if she would go that far to say that. Anyway, she said that one of her co-workers was telling her how Obama won't say the Pledge of Allegience or wear a flag pin or have anything to do with our flag. I didn't know that and questioned Andy about it last night (he follows all that closely) and when I found that it was true, I wondered...if you don't believe enough in our country to honor and respect our flag and what it stands for...why are you even running for president in our country?? We have soldiers over in other countries fighting, the soldiers die and they're caskets are covered with our flag...if you don't believe in our flag and what it stands for, what does that say to our soldiers who are over there fighting for OUR freedoms and represent our flag among other things. I don't know, but that really doesn't sit right with me and makes me wonder what this country is really coming to.