Just another reason we don't want nationalized health care

Our friend Devin is one of the most calm, most positive people I have ever met. Nothing seems to phase him. He and Katie recently adopted twin boys through the state foster care system, so the boys were on medicaid. The medicaid paperwork had their address wrong, so Devin called to try to get it corrected.

Read his account of how difficult it was to get one number in their address changed.

We've all probably had similar experiences when dealing with state employees, but just imagine having to go through this for every single medical service, every question, every procedure. What a nightmare.

Real racism

Recently, Jesse Jackson played the race card (shocking!), but this time against a fellow black man. Speaking about Rep. Davis voting against the health care bill, Jackson said, "You can't vote against health care and call yourself a black man."

Putting aside how idiotic that statement is, let's look at the real problem facing the black community: abortion.

37% of all abortions are done on black women, even though blacks only make up 13% of the population.

Jill Stanek has an excellent post full of facts relating to black women, their health stats, and abortion rates.

Go read her post.

If Jackson wants to talk about infant mortality and life expectancy rates, he needs to start by admitting the underlying health (and moral) crisis in the black community: abortion.

If Congress passes a health care bill that includes on-demand abortion coverage, we can only expect an increase in the health problems facing black women, not a decrease. That's pretty racist if you ask me!

Haley Ann

Our friends Kristin and Frank just had their first child - a beautiful baby girl. Haley Ann was born on November 28, weighing in at 7 lbs 7 ounces. She looks adorable and has a full head of hair! Cormac can't wait to meet her, even if he will be outnumbered by Haley and Adelaide.

Congrats on your new little girl, we're so happy for you!

Dominic Anthony

Today is my nephew, Dominic Anthony's 14th birthday! Happy Birthday Dominic! I wish we were there to celebrate with you. Missy told me a great story about Dominic - she and Bob got up to go shopping on black Friday at 5AM, and they woke Dominic up to watch all the younger kids. Missy called around 6AM to check in on things, and Dominic was making breakfast for the other 8 kiddos. That's just the kind of big brother he is. He is so great with all of his siblings and so helpful, especially when Bob is away. Quite the young man.

Happy Birthday Dominic!! We love you!

Advent.

A good Advent reminder:

h/t: Intentional Disciples

Creative Transportation

We needed a pack-n-play for Cormac to sleep in once he outgrows his Moses basket. The cheapest one I found online was at Asda (Wal-Mart), which is 3 miles away. So we decided to order it online and have it delivered, along with some other baby items, instead of trying to get it home from the store ourselves. Well our Asda order arrived (only a few weeks AFTER Cormac was born, thanks Asda) but there was no pack-n-play. Apparently they were out of stock, but they did not tell us that when we placed the order.

So Kody rode his bike up to Asda last week to return some of the items that we did not need (thanks to gifts from so many generous people! thank you!). Turns out Asda was still out of pack-n-plays, they only carry them one week a year- during baby week. Not very helpful. But he found a Toys-R-Us Next door to Asda, and bought a pack-n-play for Cormac there! And then he rode 3 miles home on his bike, with the pack-n-play strapped to his basket using his book bag! He also stopped at the co-op on his way home and picked up some groceries. What a great dad.

This is my husband arriving home with the pack-n-play on his basket and a bag of groceries on each handlebar:

I am glad he made it home safely! Thanks Kody!

Birthday Celebrations!

My birthday was last weekend and Kody spoiled me. He brought me breakfast in bed and gave me a wonderful card which had tickets in it for the King's College Chapel Advent Procession that night and money for me to go shopping for some new clothes! He also drew me a picture of his hair being cut inside the card, since I had asked for him to get his hair cut but he hasn't been able to yet.

Sunday evening Kevin and Mike babysat Cormac for us so we could go to the Advent Procession. Each college only gets a limited amount of tickets to the Advent service, but Mike helped Kody secure two tickets for us through Wolfson. Thanks Mike! The service was packed, with a line of people waiting on stand-by outside in the rain, hoping to get in. We got great seats in the 5th row and the service was beautiful. At the beginning, the entire chapel is dark (only King Henry VIII could call a church that huge a 'chapel') and the boys choir processes out with candles. They start singing in the very back of the church and slowly make their way up to the screen in the middle. As they come forward, a few more lights are turned on from back to front. They proceed through the screen to the front part of the chapel, more lights are turned on and they sing up there until it is over and they process out. The sequence is: an O Antiphon, followed by a carol or hymn, followed by a Scripture reading. It was a beautiful evening and a great way to start off Advent!

After the Advent Procession, we rode our bikes to The Vaults, where Kody had made dinner reservations for us. He had reserved the 'lover's nook' and also secured a deal on a bottle of wine for us for dinner! We shared some tapas and had a nice long relaxing dinner, just chatting. That was our first time out to dinner alone since we got here in September, so it was quite a treat.

Cormac was great for Kevin and Mike. He took his bottle without any problems, and made sure to give Kevin lots of diapers to change! We are so thankful to Kevin and Mike for watching him for us, it was so nice of them!

Here are a few pictures of our evening (can't take pictures inside King's Chapel so no pictures of that):

Dinner at The Vaults

In our 'lovers nook'

The ceiling was so low that Kody couldn't even stand up all the way in 'the nook'

Back home after dinner. Having to ride your bike in the cold, pouring rain, in a skirt, makes dates more interesting.

Thank you Kody, Kevin, and Mike, and everyone else for making my birthday so wonderful.