Going there again...not sorry

If you have a heart to defend the orphan, how can you not have a heart to protect the unwanted unborn from abortion. There is only one difference between the two. One is denied even life itself. The very women who are demanding women's rights are killing little girl babies every day...where are their rights? So, this time we look at Senator Obama when it comes to his record on abortion rights. To see the entire article (highly recommend!) go to www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=2630

In a recent essay, Professor Robert P. George of Princeton University makes the case that Sen. Obama is "the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States." Further: "He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress"

This is quite a claim, but Professor George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton, argues his case convincingly.

First:

For starters, he supports legislation that would repeal the Hyde Amendment, which protects pro-life citizens from having to pay for abortions that are not necessary to save the life of the mother and are not the result of rape or incest. The abortion industry laments that this longstanding federal law, according to the pro-abortion group NARAL, ''forces about half the women who would otherwise have abortions to carry unintended pregnancies to term and bear children against their wishes instead.'' In other words, a whole lot of people who are alive today would have been exterminated in utero were it not for the Hyde Amendment. Obama has promised to reverse the situation so that abortions that the industry complains are not happening (because the federal government is not subsidizing them) would happen.

Second:

He has promised that ''the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act'' (known as FOCA). This proposed legislation would create a federally guaranteed ''fundamental right'' to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, including, as Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia has noted in a statement condemning the proposed Act, ''a right to abort a fully developed child in the final weeks for undefined 'health' reasons.'' In essence, FOCA would abolish virtually every existing state and federal limitation on abortion, including parental consent and notification laws for minors, state and federal funding restrictions on abortion, and conscience protections for pro-life citizens working in the health-care industry-protections against being forced to participate in the practice of abortion or else lose their jobs. The pro-abortion National Organization for Women has proclaimed with approval that FOCA would ''sweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws [and] policies.''

Third:

Obama, unlike even many ''pro-choice'' legislators, opposed the ban on partial-birth abortions when he served in the Illinois legislature and condemned the Supreme Court decision that upheld legislation banning this heinous practice. He has referred to a baby conceived inadvertently by a young woman as a ''punishment'' that she should not endure. He has stated that women's equality requires access to abortion on demand. Appallingly, he wishes to strip federal funding from pro-life crisis pregnancy centers that provide alternatives to abortion for pregnant women in need. There is certainly nothing ''pro-choice'' about that.

In addition:

In an act of breathtaking injustice which the Obama campaign lied about until critics produced documentary proof of what he had done, as an Illinois state senator Obama opposed legislation to protect children who are born alive, either as a result of an abortionist's unsuccessful effort to kill them in the womb, or by the deliberate delivery of the baby prior to viability. This legislation would not have banned any abortions. Indeed, it included a specific provision ensuring that it did not affect abortion laws. (This is one of the points Obama and his campaign lied about until they were caught.) The federal version of the bill passed unanimously in the United States Senate, winning the support of such ardent advocates of legal abortion as John Kerry and Barbara Boxer. But Barack Obama opposed it and worked to defeat it. For him, a child marked for abortion gets no protection-even ordinary medical or comfort care-even if she is born alive and entirely separated from her mother. So Obama has favored protecting what is literally a form of infanticide.

To be or not to be...

Colorblind, that is. I admittedly have much to learn in this area. When starting to dig into the dynamics of an inter-cultural/inter-racial adoption I have found quite a bit of "expert" information, some of which seems good and some of which seems that it misses the mark by miles and miles. The stakes are high, to be sure. This is my child we are talking about and my momma heart wants to do what is best for him or her.

To be quite honest as parents I am fully confident that the issue of the color of our new child's skin will be of no consequence to us. In our home our new child will be a Merrihew. Period. However, I recently read a comment from a social worker that says she cringes when she hears those words from parents. Teach them about "white priveledge" she said, we are negligent parents and doing incredible harm to them if we don't. Let us be quick to listen and slow to speak as we hear from those who do this kind of thing for a living, however, let us always "test everything; hold fast what is good." 1 Thess. 5:21 and we are to test everything against ultimate truth which is found in the Bible. So, what is "white priveledge" and what does the Bible have to say regarding the raising of our new son or daughter in light of our new family dynamics? I'll get to reading and let you know when I find out!

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reprach, and it will be given him." James 1:5

Waiting, but not waiting

...today I got to learn about moderating comments! I have changed the setting so that I have the power to remove or keep comments as I had someone comment on something I 1.)don't have the time for and 2.) has nothing to do with this blog. That is why this post is a little different than last time you saw it.

The waiting continues on the adoption homefront. Truly the kiddos keep me so busy that the days are flying by. The pictures above are from the last month or so. The handsome little redhead is my nephew in Omaha, Kai. I suppose now would be a good time to start putting together a little photo album that will be sent to our new little one as soon as we are matched with him or her. It is almost guaranteed that by now he or she will have been born. Lord, please care for our little one tonight. Some things I have learned recently is that at the Holt Care Center in Ethiopia they feed the babies from little silver cups, not from bottles. I think it is b/c they are easier to clean and sanitize? Just something to prepare for when we go to pick him or her up as far as feeding once we have them with us...Ahhh that will be so amazing! Also, I think that the care center workers give the adoptive parents a special book with more detailed family history (if available) and pictures from the time the child spent in the care center. This would especially be a blessing as our child grows older and will begin to try to understand their history more. I was really excited to find that there are two Sovereign Grace churches in Addis Ababa. Sovereign Grace is a ministry in the U.S. headed by C.J. Mahaney and others whose teaching (books, online) has taught me much about the gospel and its continuing importance in my life. Anyway, I soooo hope we are able to make it to one of the churches and worship with the Ethiopian people. What an amazing bond it is to be able to share fellowship in Christ and worship alongside a completely different culture. Aside from, you know, meeting our new baby, this will come in a distant, but very high second :) In case you are interested, Sovereign Grace is highlighting the Addis Ababa churches in a special missions video this week. I am eagerly anticipating it and will try to post a link to it when it is available.

Sundays

I love Sundays. Today was an especially sweet one. The morning was filled with time at church, followed by lunch with friends. In the afternoon we had some encouraging fellowship with some new friends we have recently met. They love the Lord and His word also...which has proven hard to find in McCook. I'm not just talking about people who go to church on Sundays, there are plenty of those, but people who actually LOVE the Lord and seek to know Him more. I heard a sermon online the other day by Paul Tripp and it had a great section in it that talked about how we really make maybe 3 or 4 big decisions in our lives and that essentially our life is not defined by those 3 or 4 big decisions. Instead, the essence of our lives is found in the little moments, the mundane moments as that is where we spend our lives. The kicker was when he then said the following: If the Lord doesn't rule your mundane moments, then He doesn't rule you. Ooohh. That is so true. It is easy to profess that Christ is our Lord, but is He really? "The heart is decietful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it." Jeremiah 17:9 How quickly we can convince ourselves that we are following the Lord all the while we sit and waste away our evenings in front of the TV, shop for things we desire, and on and on. What about working to advance His kingdom? What about loving our neighbor? What about praising our Savior for what He has done? Oh, let us not waste this life the Lord has given us and I pray that the Lord, in His grace, would use us as the means to bring salvation to many. Is there really anything else that matters? "We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal." 2 Cor 4:17,18

Some family pics

So a quick catch up to where our family is at. The first few pics were from the Heritage Days parade last weekend. The kids had a good time watching the parade and we had a good time watching the kids :) The last three pics are from Brenda's new house. We threw her a housewarming surprise party this evening. We had a good laugh about the cake incident this morning as we enjoyed eating it. I have since decided that I should find a reason to make a carrot cake with homemade whipped cream frosting at least once a week. It has become my new favorite and since I am the cook, guess what kind we will be having!

So I wasn't going to go there...

I held off for as long as I could. I wasn't going to even approach the subject of politics, however, the issues arising are so crazy that I can't help but talk a bit on sancitity of life issues. As it always should have been, sanctity of life issues have been in the forefront of my mind as of late. Unwanted babies of abortion minded women are just as fatherless as the orphans of the world and we are called to strive in protecting them. Albert Mohler has had some incredible and worthwhile editiorials on his blog this last month on the state of the family in society today. He has covered the candidates in regards to sanctity of life issues and all his concerns about them are well-documented as far as quotes and being able to read context, etc. We must know our candidates and where they stand on very fundamental issues. Obama's support of abortion rights is well-known. Biden, on the other hand, is a little bit confusing. He claims to believe that abortion is murder, however, is unwilling to prevent it by making abortion illegal. Read the following quote from the Mohler blog:

Speaking Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Senator Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for Vice President, made headlines by stating that he accepts "as a matter of faith" that human life begins at conception, but he would not impose that view on others as a matter of law. Speaking on "Meet the Press," Biden responded to a question from Tom Brokaw. The anchor had asked Biden what he would say if Sen. Barack Obama asked him when human life begins [see video clip here]:

I'd say, "Look, I know when it begins for me." It's a personal and private issue. For me, as a Roman Catholic, I'm prepared to accept the teachings of my church. But let me tell you. There are an awful lot of people of great confessional faiths-Protestants, Jews, Muslims and others-who have a different view. They believe in God as strongly as I do. They're intensely as religious as I am religious. They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views as to when life-I'm prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception. But that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who is equally and maybe even more devout than I am seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic society. And I know you get the push back, "Well, what about fascism?" Everybody, you know, you going to say fascism's all right? Fascism isn't a matter of faith. No decent religious person thinks fascism is a good idea.

Biden first calls the issue "personal and private," an interesting way to introduce a statement about a matter that inevitably has relevance to public policy. He claims to accept the teachings of his church, but then states that other religions hold to other views, and these believers "believe in God as strongly as I do" and are equally religious.

We live in a pluralistic society, he argues, and it would be improper for him to "impose" his judgment on others, who may be "equally and maybe even more devout than I."

He then realizes something of the intellectual problem he has just created and argues that, for example, all good religious folk would oppose fascism, and thus we can presumably establish that as public policy. "No decent religious person thinks fascism is a good idea," he concludes. So is the new criterion for public policy to be what a "good religious person" might think?

Kate Phillips of The New York Times explained Biden's predicament this way:

In the interview Sunday, Mr. Biden tried to walk the line between the staunch abortion-rights advocates in his party and his own religious beliefs. While he said he did not often talk about his faith, he said of those who disagree with him: “They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views as to when life — I’m prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception.”

Sen. Biden may have been attempting to "walk the line" politically, but a closer look at his actual argument is truly horrifying.

Sen. Biden says, and we must take him at his word, that he accepts as a matter of faith that human life begins at conception. But, he argues, he is perfectly willing to support a woman's right to choose to end that human life.The killing of human life is called homicide. Murder is the willful taking of a human life. The senator has here stated that he believes abortion to be homicide, but he defends a woman's right to kill the unborn human life within her because he would not impose his beliefs about human life (and thus about homicide) on others.

In other words, if we take Sen. Biden seriously, he would defer to others who believe otherwise when it comes to the law.

How can he live with this? There are significant questions about the extent to which some matters can properly be legislated. But there is no question that the government -- any government -- must take a stand on the question of human life. This is why the abortion issue simply will not and cannot go away. The government takes a side on this question, like it or not.

I believe Sen. Biden to be a serious man, and that is what is most frightening about this. Can a morally serious man really say that he believes that unborn babies are human beings, but that it should be a protected right to kill them?

Randomness

Oh my! I apologize AGAIN for not blogging. We are so glad to be able to help Brenda out. It seems that moving Brenda has taken up our free/blogging/evening time lately. Again, I don't want to seem as though I am grumbling, just wanted you all to know what is going on :) Juliana and I just finished icing a delicious carrot cake and will head over to Brenda's new house after naps to decorate with balloons and streamers, put some flowers on the table, and put the cake in the fridge for a "Praise the Lord for your new home" party this evening! We thought Brenda was gone for the morning but she happened to stop back in while the cake was in the oven. I used 2 round cake pans and Brenda looked in the oven and asked what was in there cooking. She thought they were pies. Juliana, knowing full well that she was to keep a secret, just stood in front of the oven door and was smiling and chanting "blockin' the oven door, blockin' the oven door". I just kind of laughed it off and I'm sure Brenda thinks we are crazy...if she didn't already :)

I keep thinking/hoping that any day now we will hear back from Shaohannah's Hope regarding our grant request. Maybe today! I have had so many ideas for blog posts in the last few weeks which I haven't had the time to sit a write. The kids are going to the ranch for a few days this week so that Craig and I can get some house projects done and I anticipate that I will have some time to write then. Thanks for sticking with us in this time of waiting!