Letter to the editor

There was an article in the local paper this week that upset me. If you have a thick stomach you can read it HERE. I was sick to think that a pregnant girl would do such a thing, but I was also upset because I thought the least the paper could do was insert just a little box about adoption or at least Utah's Safe Haven Law. So after much stewing I decided that I didn't care what others thought, I was not going to be silent over this issue. Here is the letter I sent to the two local, weekly papers.

Dear Editor,
Here is a letter I would like to submit for next weeks paper in the letters to the editor section of the paper. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to email me at sourbonk@yahoo.com or call my cell phone at 733-0476. I also hope the paper could do an editorial on adoption options or maybe even just do a highlight on the Utah Safe Haven Law. Maybe if people were better educated, the incident with the pregnant teen would have never happened.
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Do some people have no regard for life? I was shocked and appalled to hear about the teen who asked a stranger to help her find a way to abort her baby.

I sometimes feel like people can be so closed minded when it comes to an unwanted pregnancy. This girl was almost done with her pregnancy. Why, after 7 months, would she take such drastic measures to help clear away what she felt was a problem in her life.

As someone who suffers from infertility this is especially troubling to me. Didn't she realize that someone would love the chance to parent that child and to give it the life it deserves. If she had already gone through 7 months of pregnancy, what was two more months.

There are other options she could have considered if she didn't want to parent the child herself. Adoption is another choice and it is a beautiful choice. I know countless couples like ourselves who would love be parents, but due to medical issues are denied the children they dream about.

I can't understand why people go around acting like they think they are adults and then when the consequences of their actions come, they suddenly do childlike acts, such as thinking that letting a person beat them up will make things better.

Did this young girl know that she could choose a family to place her child with? There are several agencies whose only goal is to help an expectant mother decide what is best for her and her baby. They help the young girls come to terms with the change in their life and discuss all their options. Is a marriage possible? If not, do you want to single parent? And if not, they have hundreds of profiles of families who are looking to adopt.

And if a young girl didn't feel comfortable going to an agency, most churches will provide the same kind of advice and help. The churches aren't there to belittle the person and make them feel bad about what has happened. They want to help these girls overcome the problem and find a solution. They are there to give comfort and support.

There is also another option available to a young mother who decides she isn't ready to parent a child. Utah has a Safe Haven Law. Because of this law, a young girl can take her child to a hospital and leave it with the staff there. They won't ask her who she is and they won't call the police on her. The hospital will make sure the baby receives the care it needs and the state will place the child with a loving family.

I hope the police will do what is right for this baby and I hope the baby won't have any lasting effects of what was done.

A few pictures

I've been hard at work on our new adoption pages and I must say I am pretty excited about them. But I needed a few more pictures of me so I had Josh take these two. I wanted a picture of me working on one of my many crafting projects so I had Josh snap a picture while I was working on the blanket for my nephew that will be here in 3 months.

Then I decided since he had a picture with his puppy, I needed a picture with my kittens. Sage was much more cooperative for her picture than these three knuckle heads were... This was the best we could get before they started to fight with each other.

Pictures with my Grandma

My grandma is out for a week so we went down for dinner tonight. We had a great time. After dinner my mom, grandma and I soaked in the hot tub for a few hours. It was really nice and relaxing. Here are a few pictures.My brother's cat had kittens a few weeks ago. Aren't they so cute. I had so much holding them.

If I could convince Josh to let me have one, I would either take this cute orange one,

or I was totally in love with little black one. If they were older I might have tried really hard to bring him home.

Adoption Page Improvements

The people have spoken, and I have kind of listened. I can see why every one's favorite was #5 in the below post. It was simple and not as distracting. I like it too. The problem is I don't like any of the other pages in that digital scrapbook kit. With the other kits there are several more things in those kits that I love. I really want to stick with blues, browns, or greens. I think they seem to go with our pictures best.

I tried to improve my favorite three, plus I made the same changes to the favorite from the previous poll. I also found one more kit that I like and made a page with it.

#1 Blue/Brown/Orange (My personal favorite)

#2 Green & Brown

#3 Blue & Brown

#4 Green & Blue #5 Flowers

Thanks again for all the input. I really want to have these done before our yard sale that will be sometime in June. Once I decide which color scheme to go with I will work on the other pages.

Help me decide

I have been busy trying to redo our paper profile. I'm going to have it bound. It will have 4 pictures pages and then a few pages with our letter and other information about us.
I am having hard time choosing a color scheme. I think these are my top favorites. I have set up a poll on the sidebar where you can vote for your favorites.

#1 Blue/Green/Brown Stripes

#2 Blue & Brown Squares

#3 Brown & Blue Stripes

#4 Brown & Orange

#5 Blue & Green

#6 Blue & Green Stripes

#7 Green & Brown

#8 Green & Brown Stripes

After I decide with page to use as our cover I will add some embellishments and change the text up a little. I know it is hard to see on some pages. Right now I am just trying to decide with page I like best. I think I have 3 that I like best, but I mixed them up in there to throw everyone else guessing. I will probably carry the color scheme through the entire book, but I might make up a page of just me and of just Josh and if I do that, there's a good chance my page will be pink! Thanks for you help and be sure to vote or leave a comment if you have suggestions. If you can't decide between two or three, I think I set it up so you can vote for more than just one. Thanks for the help!

Won't you be my Prince of Peace?

I found this on a new blog that I found (thanks to Rants & Rambles for finding me first!)
All I can say is....WOW

Sunrise

I got up a few mornings ago and could tell it was going to be a beautiful sunrise. So I took a picture and started to get ready for the morning. Every few minutes I would check back, and it seemed to get more beautiful each time so I kept taking pictures. Here are a few of my favorites. I love living up here and I love God's beautiful creations!

Look what Josh built tonight

It's made of old barn wood. We are going to try and sell a few to raise some money for our adoption fund. He is going to build a few different styles. We would love any suggestions! Also, how much do you think we should sell them for? We really aren't sure. Please leave a comment and let us know what you think about the bench and also how much you think we should sell them for.

This bench was his inspiration. His dad built this one years ago for Josh's grandma. We can't decide if we like the birdhouse's or not, but he'll probably build one like it too.

Spring Cleaning...Kitchen (okay, only parts of the kitchen)

I've taken a break from my deep spring cleaning.

(Well, more like I've been lazy.)

Until today. I started to clean my kitchen. Just the standard stuff like dishes, washing off counter tops. Then I decided to clean off the tops of the cupboards and go through the items that have accumulated up there. Some things will go to the yard sale, other things are already in the garbage. It was dusty up there, so I lifted the vacuum on top of the washer and used the hose to vacuum up the dust.

Then I decided to clean my oven....that is the point of this post today. The world needs to know that it is worth the extra money to buy the better cleaner.

A few days ago I bought this cleaner knowing I needed to clean the oven. I followed the directions. I sprayed a heavy coating and then let it sit for 2 hours. Then I scrubbed. And scrubbed. And scrubbed. Then I sprayed again and let it set for another 2 hours. Then I scrubbed again, and again.

I bought this cleaner because we are trying to be more thrifty. This can was $3 cheaper than the name brand. I was so proud of myself. Until I was down to only a fourth of the can and my oven still looked at dirty as it did before I started.

So I went to the store and bought this stuff. It was well worth the extra $3! I sprayed and let it set for an hour. It still took some elbow grease, but my oven is now sparkly clean.

I also cleaned the top of the oven real good, but I cheated there. I bought new trays to go under the burners. I must admit, I spend way more time cooking with my stove than I do cleaning my stove. I should have done this cleaning project months ago. And I probably should do it more often than I have been.

Sadly, I waisted all my energy on the stove today and didn't get much else done. I still have a few cupboards I want to go through, but I am waiting until we buy the shelf I've had my eye on for a while now.

Where did it go?

I've decided that this blog needed some improvements (oh no, more online construction!) Don't worry, I've already completed it. I have an infertility blog that I have decided to move my infertility stuff to. I did keep a few things here, because they were part of another posting and I didn't want to break the posting up. But if I found everything, there should no longer be anything negative on this blog. (Or hopefully any of my blogs! Please let me know if you see something negative so I can remove it.) If you need to find an article on infertility that you know used to be here, click HERE to see a complete listing of them in there new blog.

I may need an intervention

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Prayers Needed

Our file is being presented to a potential birthmom. I can't share details right now, but please pray for us and PLEASE pray for her.

Meeting online friends

Saturday was a great day. We woke up early and I sent Josh out the door to help my mom pour cement and then I hit the road and headed to Provo. The r house blog had a meet and great idea exchange for promoting adoption. When I saw the RSVP list of who was going I just had to go too! It was so much fun. I have so many ideas that I can't wait to put into action. I will probably be spending some serious time on the computer this week designing a new profile. I will try to highlight some of the finding ideas on our FSA chapter blog over the next few weeks. I had so much fun meeting everyone there and getting to know them in person.
I decided that since I was in the city I would do some shopping. I went to my favorite store, The Dress Barn and was very pleased with some pants and tops I bought.

Then being the dear wife I am, I went to Sportsman's Warehouse and bought a few things for my hubby. While I was there I noticed two things: There was a Quilted Bear three stores down and in the parking lot I noticed this car.

I parked next to it and the kid asked me to run a full and empty toilet paper roll into a store and give them to someone. She didn't look too happy. I don't understand why, he used a really good expensive, soft tissue paper.

I've only been to the Quilted Bear once and Josh was with me. I had to hurry through because he wasn't that impressed. But this time I was able to browse at my own pace. I bought several blankets for my latest time relaxing project, crocheting, and I can't wait to get them done. They are so cute.

I also found a few pictures that I have been looking for.

So true, so very true.

And this one to me describes adoption perfectly.

A few weeks ago I was also able to find a picture that Josh loves. It is of Joseph and Emma and the twins they adopted. It really is priceless. The book store was having a great sale and so I decided to get this picture for him. I couldn't find it as a picture, but I did find it as a greeting card, so I had them frame that.

Happy Birthday to me!

Wait, it's not my birthday, that was in January.

For my birthday, Josh's family gave me a gift certificate to a local store. I went in a few times to use it, only to realize it was still hanging on the fridge with the card. Then when I finally got it in my purse, I wanted to feel a little richer before spending it because I was afraid I would go in the store and spend more than the card was worth (yes, I have that kind of spending problem).

But last week I finally went in. I looked through their jewelry book for half an hour before deciding on these little beauties.

IThey are gorgeous, the pictures don't do them justice. And of course I was right about the spending thing. When they ordered my items they also ordered several more pieces to sell. I ended up walking out a little poorer because I could resist this bracelet. I'm not usually a bracelet fan, but I loved this one.
Thank you Barbara, Matt, Melanie, Colter, & Preston for the great present. I love it!