A Blog Worth Reading

Below I copied and pasted a clip from a blog that ministered to me this week. I linked it for you to check out as well. What blog has ministered to you lately?

From the Girl Talk Blog:
"Of the more than 8000 days I spent in this home, there were a few dramatic ones: the day I announced to CJ that “surprise, you’re going to be a father again!” or the day Kristin fainted and we had to call the ambulance, or when Mike serenaded Janelle outside her window at 6am, or when Nicole returned from the hospital after life-saving surgery.

But most of my days looked pretty much the same.

I got out of bed each morning so that I could do everything I did the day before.
I washed the dishes so they could be dirtied again.
I ironed the clothes so they could be worn and wrinkled again
I wiped noses so they could run again.
I picked up toys so they could be played with again.
I mopped the floor so mud could be tracked on it again.
I cooked meals so that I could go to the grocery store again.
I made beds so they could be slept in again.

Some days I wondered: if I do all I do, only to have it undone, am I really doing anything?

Today, as I pack up my home in June of 2008, I can see the answer more clearly than I did in February 1986. Each of my daughters is married to a wonderful, godly man, Chad will be a sophomore in high school this fall, and we’ll welcome our seventh grandchild at the end of August.

I realize that all of the mundane, repetitive days were actually full of significant, enduring work. A home was being built. A family was being knit together. Four souls were being shaped for eternity.

This home has spawned three more homes where the same tedious yet momentous work goes on day in and day out. And God willing, many more homes will one day be built, day by day, so “that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” (Titus 2:9)."

Titus is Four

Today Titus turns four. I love him more today than ever before. Since the baby has come, I have seen Titus mature by leaps and bounds. He has had to have patience like never before, share his time with us like never before and love, protect and serve a baby that can not comunitcate with him and can not play with him. He is so big. Everytime I hold the baby and see Titus I get teary eyed.

Titus is so fun. Infact, he is ALL fun. The number one rule in our house is: You must have fun. Followed by Vernon saying,"And how do we have fun?" to which Titus responds, "You Obey!"

Titus is a people person. He always wants us to have people over or to go to some ones house. Lately he wants to go to our friends houses and he says, "you can just drop me off." Our friends are his friends...I love it.

Titus is a one on one kinda guy. When people come over it goes something like this: Titus scans the group, picks someone and says, "you want to come see my new toy?" He then proceeds to get that person to play with him in his room for a while. After some time he will nicely ask the person he originally chose to depart from his room and 'send in the guy in the blue shirt.' The 'guy in the blue shirt' comes in and plays for a bit and then he is sent away to retrieve the next person...it is soo funny!

Titus is Loud. He loves to talk. He will talk about anything. He is a questioner, which we are trying to keep him that way. He talks loud, he sings loud, he runs loud, he plays loud. I love it. When he is gone...its sooo quiet.

Titus is an artist. He loves to create 'invenjens." He is all the time getting a new toy and turning it into something different. He loves to draw, paint, color and play play dough. He loves to create.

Titus is an encourager. Atleast once a day he will comment on something I am wearing or how he likes my hair. He is all the time saying, "I love you mom." or "you are a good mom." He is so sweet.

Titus is Clever. He can reason with the best of them. It is really hard not to laugh sometimes when he is trying to reason his way out of a punishment. He knows what to say and when to say it. The other day he burped and we heard no follow up "excuse me" so Vernon said, "Titus." in his fatherly voice, to which Titus replied, "that sound is spanish for excuse me." Of course it is.

Titus is so much more. Titus is so much more than I could ever write here. We love him so much and are so proud of who he is and who he is becoming.

Super Cool Wordle
This is a Wordle of my blog from Jan. 1 until today. This was way fun!
You copy and paste any writings into the browser and it picks the most used words and sizes them based on the amount they are used! So cool!

Justus Is Four Weeks Today


Here's some pics I snapped of Justus this afternoon. Enjoy.

The Vern's Return and other Randomness

Vernon made it back safe from Sudan. Praise God!
The day he was leaving Sudan I opened up my laptop to check the news. My Aunt Martha, whose husband was also in Sudan, was sitting next to me. We opened Fox news and in big headline letters we read, "Plane crash out of Sudan." Stunned, we looked at each other, took a deep breath and I clicked open the article. We soon found out that the plane was flying from Syria to Northern Sudan. We were relieved that this was not the plane our husbands were to board that day, but I couldn't get it out of my mind the next two days. Knowing the places this plane had been and where this plane was to land, it is very likely that the majority of the people on this flight were practicing Muslims. I began to pray for the Muslims in Northern Sudan to hear the Gospel and be bold enough to believe in the midst of persecution. May the Lord show Himself in dreams, visions and through missionaries to the people of Northern Sudan!

Life since The Vern's return has been busy (hence the lack of posting). Vernon had a bit of sickness, but is doing great now. He came back with the plan of action for His Voice for Sudan and how we would fit in to the vision of EPC (the church we work with in Sudan) for the next year. So as soon as he was well enough, we hit the ground running. Planning and implementing, emailing and calling, and praying ALOT.

Titus is loving summer. He is writing most of his letters and on the verge of reading small words. He is beginning to sound out things...its so fun! He still loves art. He would paint and draw all day if we let him. Yesterday he came to us with a painting that was blue with yellow spots and said, "this is starry night." He thinks he is VanGogh apparently.

Justus is almost 4 weeks old. What? how did that happen! He is eating and sleeping really well. We are so grateful. He is beginning to Coo and Ahh and we love it.

Father's day was good, although I totally bombed this year. Vernon's father's day gift is still sitting at Walgreen's! (and needs to be framed) We went to Andrea and Eric's new house on Saturday night and then went to the Village. It was spectacular as always. Andrea's new house is so great...she even has a red kitchen! LOVE IT! Sunday we went to our church and then to Fuddruckers. That was then extent of our Father's day extravaganza.

That is plenty for now...pics to come soon!

Just Me and The Boys

Only 24 hours until Vernon lands in America. Just one more day of just me and the boys. Its been a great experience, challenging but great. Thanks to all who prayed, called, came to help, took Titus out and gave me adult interaction. Vernon's time in Sudan he said was "invaluable." Lots of vision casting for the future took place. The meetings with all the partners were smooth and clear. We are so excited about what God is doing in Southern Sudan. May the Gospel be spread there, loud and clear.

Two Weeks and One More Week

Justus is Two Weeks Old today. I can hardly believe it. He is a great baby and I am overwhelmed with gratefulness. Titus is totally in love with his baby brother so far. He wants to take him and show him to everyone. He wants to hold him all the time and is constantly kissing on him. It is so great. We are praying this doesn't wear off! He keeps saying things like, "Look at my baby brother, he's cute isn't he" and "when baby Justus gets bigger we will be Best Friends!" or if when we are driving down the road, about every ten minutes Titus says, "the baby's doin' fine mom." Isn't that so funny!

Most of you know Vernon is in Sudan. We prayed hard that God would allow us to have Justus before he was scheduled to leave. God heard our pleas and let Vernon be here for Justus' first 10 days! AMEN. I had to take Vernon and my mom to the airport on the same day. It was pretty brutal but a good dose of reality... we now have 2 children...we travel back and forth to SUDAN...sometimes all of us, sometimes just Vernon...my family lives in Missouri...we live in Texas...reality check. I had a choice to make on the drive home, will I bask in my self pity and poor me's or Sing praise to the Lord for all that He is doing and all that he has done....in Sudan, in my life, in my husbands lives and in our children. By God's grace I chose the latter. This time apart from Vernon has been different than any before... I mean, we have another child...but God's grace has poured out us and overflowed. To Him we are grateful!

One more week until Vernon returns, Lord willing. May the Name of our Lord be made known in Sudan. Thank you so much for all the prayers during the last week. Our family has been blessed by each of you who have interceded for us. Yall are wonderful. I will load up some pictures if/when i get a second!

One Week Old

I can not believe its been a week and boy what a week it has been!  Here are some pics I took today on the couch...Enjoy!

A Couple Pics From Day 4

Introducing...

Justus Drew Burger
May 22, 2008 4:41 am 7lb 3oz

I started having contractions around 10:30 Wednesday night, I thought they would probably go a way so we just stayed at home. As they got stronger and closer together I decided around 1:30am we should head to the hospital. I was admitted at 1:55 and was only dilated to a two. I went from a two to and eight in only a little over an one hour! They tried to slow me down so the Doctor on call could get there. He arrived around 4:30 and at 4:41 Justus arrived!

He kept putting his hands like this so we couldn't resist the pic!
We are home already, so more pics to come I am sure!

Secondary Schools
Hey everyone! We have an opportunity that you might be interested in. I copied and pasted the blog I posted over at our His Voice for Sudan Blog . So that you can be up to date on what's going on in Sudan.
Here it is...

Each Orphanage has a primary school and now we have received the blue prints for the Secondary Schools! We are so excited! With these blue prints come a good amount of money that needs to be raised to finish them before the children are of Secondary age. If you, your church/organization, or anyone you know would be interested in giving to this project, please contact us at vernon@hisvoiceforsudan.com or visit the PARTNER page of our website for details on how to give. We need to send $20,000 asap to secure the materials.
Thanks to all!

HELP NEEDED

okay. I have a balance of 16.35 in Itunes money and each time some new season of life is coming around I love buying new worship music. I have the new Starfield, which you all should buy... but I CANNOT decide what else....the new hilsong united, the new delirious?, the Jon Forman spring EP's...ahhhh...too many great new albums out. Sooo please let me know what you are listening too.

Deep Thoughts by Vernon Burger

So if you are wondering where Titus gets his little thoughts....visit my husband's blog.  He has started blogging again and I highly recommend you add it to your bloglines, google reader or whatever you use to keep up with your blog reading...you will be challenged and encouraged!

oh, and leave comments please...he loves being challenged as well!

LoveTruthAlways.blogspot.com

Deep Thoughts By Titus Burger


If you have gotten to know our sweet son Titus, you know that he is SO FUN! He loves to play, inside or outside; if there is playing to had, he is there. One of my favorite parts about Titus' personality is, although he loves to play, he is ALWAYS thinking. His little mind NEVER turns off. We have shared many stories about his thoughts and questions with a lot of you here and there, but I thought I would post a few so I would have them somewhere so I will never forget them. If we have told you some that are not on this list....please comment them!

• The other night we were leaving Target. Titus points up to the sky and says, "Mommy, that is outer space and do you know what is past that?" Curious, I said, " What is past it?" "Heaven." he said. "oh, cool." I replied. (a thoughtful pause by Titus) "Mommy, does God really reach His hand down from Heaven and pull us into His lap?" Caught off guard, I said, "That's a great question." Because, think of how scary of an idea that is for a three year old that some hand would come out of the sky, yet I want him to know that God will draw him near. So we chatted about it all the way home.

• Titus was in his room playing when he came running to me. "Mommy, were the Ninevites, Roman or Assyrian?" "Son, I am unsure," I said, "Lets go try to figure it out" So we looked up some things and figured out they are in fact Assyrian. Who knew?

• Vernon had a big cut on the lower part of his hand almost his wrist. Titus was very concerned about his "bleed" and wanted to help "bandage" it. Later in the evening Vernon was hanging out talking with a friend and Titus ran in the room, "Daddy, let me see your bleed." So Vernon showed him the cut. "Daddy, its like when the Romans crucified Jesus on the Cross." So Vernon kindly explained the similarity and the BIG difference. (long thoughtful pause by Titus) "Daddy, why did they crucify Jesus naked?" So Vernon took some time to explain embarrassment. To which Titus replied, "hmm, I did not know that." And he ran away to play.

• Robin was reading to Titus one day when out of no where he said, "Robin, I am not sure God hears me when I pray." So she kindly inquired why he thought this and he replied, "Well, I can't see Him and He doesn't talk back."

• Titus was about to throw a ball right at Vernon and so he said, "Daddy, do not get frustrated. I am going to throw this at you."
• Titus is full of random facts, if you read him a book about something, he will remember the most obscure things. One example is, "Mommy, did you know that Kelp is a type of Seaweed?"
• One day Titus was taking a bath and Vernon noticed he was playing with his Jonah action figure, saying something and then holding him under the water...so Vernon peeked in and said, "Hey man what are you doing?" Titus replied, "oh just baptizing Jonah."
  

I know there are many more but that is all for now! Hope you got to know the mind of our little guy. Pray for us as we continue to try to challenge his little mind and encourage his questions!

BC Series: Continued
What If Question #1 :
What if my spouse and I don't hold the same convictions on this issue?

I hope that you have been following along at Phyllis's Blog as she has unpacked most (or all) forms of Family Planning, giving you information on each one, both what they do physically to your body and how each are approached morally. Please take time to read through the blogs or print them out to read later...they are so informative.
Now I am going to attempt to continue the series addressing a couple of questions that have come up over our discussions.
One of the most common fears when addressing the issue of Family Planning is that your spouse will not come to the same conclusions as you and that it will cause a major rift in your marriage. This fear is completely understandable because of the nature of this subject.
As I attempt to outline some suggestions on how to handle these particular situations, I humbly say that these suggestions are by no means an outline to getting your spouse to think your way. In fact, it is far from that. I pray you will seek the Lord with an earnest heart asking that He would make your heart and motives pure.

1) If you are the one who is convicted about the morality of the family planning method you are using and your spouse sees nothing wrong with it....

*Pray for Unity- My first suggestion is that you pray earnestly for unity (even before the subject is brought up if possible). Seek the Lord and his direction on how to approach discussions about this issue. The enemy would love to steal and kill the intimacy of your marriage so wage war in prayer.
* DO NOT NAG- This can go either way I guess, but I am specifically talking to wives here. Proverbs 27:15 likens nagging (or quarrelling) your husband with a dripping faucet! Give them time to adjust to new thoughts and ideas. Do all you can to be humble when presenting your convictions.
* AVOID MANIPULATION AT ALL COST!- I believe this is the most harmful approach, but sadly most people will manipulate with out even knowing they are doing it! On this point I must say that my husband and I have had SO many friends who marital problems stemmed from one of the two of them manipulating the other. (examples- a wife making a husband feel guilty for not wanting to have sex during the most fertile time. A husband making a wife feel intellectually inferior in order to get the end result they desire) There are practical ways to avoid manipulation. First I would say, remember you are not necessarily right. Hear out, with a good attitude all of what your spouse has to present. Avoid writing it off just because it is not the same opinion as yours. Secondly, and along the same lines, admit that your spouse is mature and can think logically and can come to right conclusions. Third and probably most important, do not communicate to them with the sole purpose of getting your way, be willing to communicate and come to an understanding.
* Present Solid Facts- Do not assume your spouse is going to come to the same conviction as you by reading some random persons blog. Search the Scriptures, do your research and present to your spouse hard facts and evidence of what you believe. You do not want to degrade the intelligence of your spouse by expecting them to be convinced by some random outside source. I am not saying, these blogs, and other random sources won't be helpful to begin the conversations, but do have more for them if they would like more.

2) If you see nothing wrong with the morality of your Family Planning and your spouse has different convictions...
* Be willing to listen- if you were the one with a strong conviction you would want your spouse to hear you out as well.
* Be kind- Choose your spouse over yourself until you can come to a conclusion you both agree on.
* Value your spouses view- Be willing to read what is presented. Do your own research not in effort to prove them wrong but with an open heart, valuing the seriousness of the issue to them.

I realize that this subject is so hard to address. Every one's situations are different and every ones spouses respond differently to situations. I understand that many people facing the convictions of the morality of certain Birth Controls do not have spouses that value their opinion and many do not have spouses who honor the Lord and His Word. If this is your situation or you know someone who is going through this journey, please feel free to comment additional advice and encouragement! We would love to join you in prayer through this time.

There are so many more scenarios and thing to address regarding this question.
I have asked my husband to guest blog to hopefully address somethings I have missed. Please add to this blog by commenting even more advice and approaches! If you have dealt with this issue personally we would love to hear your testimony!

Justus is Served

This has been a crazy week around the Burger house. We had a great weekend visit in Midland and arrived home in Fort Worth Monday morning at 2:30! After a short sleep we hit the ground running Monday morning. We dropped Titus off at pre-school and headed to a routine OB visit. At the visit, I told them about some possible 'leaking' over the weekend. I made a joke out of it because honestly I just assumed, being my second pregnancy, that it was, well, you know, a little tinkle here and there, if you know what I mean. Well, they asked me to describe what I meant and seemed very serious about it. They decided after my description, which I will spare you, that there was a good chance I was leaking amniotic fluid. So they tested me. First test came back a very strong POSITIVE. So the proceeded with a second test to confirm the first and it came back NEGATIVE. My doctor was perplexed because he said the second test usually always confirms the first and lets them know the severity. After much thought and analysis he sent me home and asked that we retake the test on Wednesday.
Wednesday morning arrives and I take Titus to Pre-school and head to the doctor. The nurse called me back to do the usual dreaded, weight check. I asked her, "So what happens if both test turn out positive this time?' to which she replied, "well, we head to the hospital and have a baby." My world stopped for a second, how could I have not thought through all this? Who would pick up Titus? How would I get a hold of Vernon who was in class? We don't even have a car seat yet, and defiantly no preemie clothes. Who would watch Titus while we stayed with the baby in NICU? Wow, the list went on and on, when suddenly the sweet whisper of the Holy Spirit said, "Just Trust." So I did. I realized that we are so blessed with sweet friends and family that everything would get taken care of just fine.
In came the doctor to take the test. First test...Still POSITIVE. deep breath, second one....NEGATIVE. WHAT? what does that mean? So he took a third test to be sent to the lab. "The lab would get back to us on Friday," he said. "If it is positive, you will be having the baby in the next week or two so we will do all we can to keep Justus in womb until 36 weeks. If it is negative, we will just monitor you, but you can resume life as normal. "
Wednesday night I woke to really strong contractions, every four minutes. I am talking, jolt you out of bed contractions. So I got up, walked around, drank some water and ate some food and finally around 3 they went away. Needless to say, this event kinda brought to reality, that we might, in fact be in preterm labor. So Thursday seemed SOO LONG...waiting for Friday's results.
It's Friday around 2 pm and I just got off the phone with my nurse who brought the wonderful news that the test was negative, which means there is a 96% chance that I will carry this baby at minimum two more weeks! This will take us well into the safety zone regarding low birth weight and under developed lungs! Praise the Lord!
I never dreamed I would enlist my friend to pray I was just tinkling my self and most certainly,
I never dreamed I would be Praising GOD that I, in fact, was probably just me tinkling myself! HAHA! who knew?

Four Reasons Why I've Not Blogged Since Easter

Let me first say, the Birth Control Series is NOT over in fact it is going strong, I just haven't had a chance to link my sister-in-laws latest blogs. I think they are the most informative yet and well worth your time to read over. She is going through each method of Birth Control and exploring pros and cons of each. So far she has covered, Natural Family Planning, Barrier Methods, Withdrawal, and IUD's. Please stop in and read....HERE is the link.

Okay now back to my excuses...

1.) With this second pregnancy, I often find myself forgetting that I am even pregnant. I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous but I have just been so active and so busy, that I find myself going, "oh, wait, I cant do that, I am pregnant." Well last Monday, I went about my normal Monday, exercising, working on church and His Voice work while Titus is in school and normal every week house stuff like cleaning and mowing the lawn. That evening I found my self exhausted from the day. I was chatting with Vernon in his office and said something like, "man I am so tired," as I BELLY FLOPPED out of exhaustion onto a low twin bed. In mid fall, i realized what I had done and couldn't stop my fall. I immediately curled up into fetal position in pain and kept saying, "i cant believe i just did that!" Through the night I noticed little to no fetal movement, so naturally I was concerned. After waiting until the next afternoon with still no felt movement, I called my doc. He sent me straight to the Hospital. At the hospital, they monitored me for two hours and all was well. Then I started having contractions! (i am only 32 weeks along) They were 4 mins apart and not stopping, so they made me stay. After drinking, eating and moving positions, the contractions didn't stop so they gave me a shot to stop them. It worked great and so an hour later we were on our way home. At 1:30am the contractions came back. They lasted until 4am and I got them to stop. The next morning I called my friend Janelle for some advice and moral support. She advised me to call and tell my doctor that I had more contractions and so I did. He had me come back in and be checked. He released me to full activity...just no belly flopping! amen!

2.) This coming weekend we have a Board Meeting for our Non-Profit Ministry, His Voice for Sudan. I am the Treasurer and Secretary. So needless to say, I have a lot to prepare. Since we just started this Non-profit, I have had to read a lot of IRS info and learn a lot about things I knew NOTHING about. On the accounting side of things, I was determined to buy and learn Quick Books Pro before our meeting. I worked on it and watched tutorials for hours and each one made me feel more and more like a a moron. The lingo of QBpro is what threw me off. It is set up for businesses so everything is Invoice driven and our tiny little Non-profit has no, and never intends to have, customers and vendors! So I broke down and bought Quicken. To which I downloaded and fully finished EVERYTHING I needed done for the meeting in ONE of Titus' naps. It is so awesome...and I now feel a lot less incompetent.

3.) Titus has been extra needy and quite honestly, I have wanted to spend more time with him. I want to spend as much time as I can with him before the baby comes. Titus is a one-on-one kid. I mean, through and through. If you come and visit, he will ask you to come to his room and play...just you...no one else. He loves quality time. (and if you are laughing right now that God gave me, of all people, a one-on-one kid and a quality time kid then I know you know me well..these are not my strong suites!) Anyway, so I have been trying to be intentional to play with him and go out with him to places we love.

4.) I have been trying to read up on basic baby info, like breastfeeding and growth. I feel soooo far removed from these things. Also, we don't do the normal vaccination regimen so I am reading a book about Vaccines to brush up on what to ask for from my pediatrician.

well there you have it. my excuses. now, may my mind return to me so i can post more often!
Next up:
BC Series: The What If's and the long awaited... Deep Thoughts by Titus Burger

Happy Easter!
The BC series is not over but Easter is my favorite, so i couldn't resist stopping to say HAPPY EASTER! I pray this Resurrection week was a time of reflection, gratefulness and celebration.
Here are some pics of Titus at our church's Easter Egg Hunt.

BC Part Three: Clearing the Air

As a result of the last two post some really great questions have been raised! We are loving all the responses and questions, although most of them have not been commented on the blog, but in phone calls, conversations and emails. Phyllis has responded to the question that has come up the most... "How do you determine that the fertilized egg is a baby at the time of fertilization as opposed to after it implants in the uterus (or sometime later)?"
This question is key to understanding the moral issues with certain birth control methods. We fully understand that there are ALOT of people who do not believe the way we do about this issue so we thought it would best if we "Cleared the Air" on how we come to these conclusions. We would LOVE to hear yours so please feel free to comment!

Again this is just a clip of what Phyllis wrote...please please please stop in and read the rest!
"Regarding the issue of fertilization vs. implantation as the point of imparted personhood, I don't think we need a ton of medical statistics to think wisely and correctly about this issue. Thank goodness! However, in order to come to a right conclusion, I think we do need to have a basic understanding of the process of human reproduction. So here goes... You start with "the act" (quoting the grandmother of one of our good friends). The sperm travel from the man, through the vagina, through the cervix, through the uterus, and into the fallopian tubes. There is generally one egg sitting in one fallopian tube. Some of the sperm make it through the treacherous obstacle course, get all the way to the egg, and attempt to break through the wall of the egg. One gets in, and the two cells (egg and sperm) mesh all their information and become one cell. Their DNA links pair up to form the complete chromosomal make-up of the baby.

The new cell immediately starts multiplying as one unit. It's a life with all the information necessary to develop throughout pregnancy, childhood, adulthood, and right up through death. The group of cells continues to multiply as it moves out of the fallopian tube and into the uterus, where it finds a nice place to implant and acquire necessary nutrients for continued growth (FYI--the placenta grows as an organ of the baby--with the baby's genetic makeup and not the mother's--and begins to function on its own over the course of the next two weeks).

The implantation into the uterus prompts the mother's body to produce a hormone called hCG, which basically tells the mother's brain to continue producing progesterone and estrogen in proportions that will not prompt the sluffing off of the uterine lining (and the baby). So you have a blessed 9 months without periods (or if you're like me, more like 21 months if you include the post-birth period-free time)!

These are all amazing functions of implantation in the uterus, but neither the nourishment nor the signal to the mother's hormones do anything to change the make-up of the "group of cells" that already existed. That, to me, is the profound truth that we need to understand. Basically, the cells implant in order to be nourished to keep growing and developing. They are not changed in any way. They were already living, completely-human cells and a sole entity before they implanted. The uterus imparts no humanity on the group of cells since they are completely-human cells on their own before they get to the uterus.

One way to look at it is this... I can make it a while without food and water, but if I go more than a few days with no nourishment or hydration at all, I will die. Once the egg is fertilized by the sperm, the two mesh together to form the complete genetic make-up of a human being, the "cell group" begins to multiply, and then travels through the fallopian tube into the uterus, it's just fresh out of juice! It needs nourishment, or else it will die. This is a common problem for humans at all stages, and it begins at fertilization.

The egg and sperm combo is a developing life right from the very beginning. It is a complete unit that simply needs nourishment to keep going. If we do things to alter the lining of the uterus so as to prevent implantation, all we are doing is preventing the nourishment of the already-existing life... so it dies. This is why we see any process, procedure, device, or chemical that contributes to the death of this life as abortifacient. It's either directly causing the already-living, completely and fully human life to die or removing its provision for survival. When we consider born humans, we see that there are ways to directly extinguish them (pushing them out of moving cars, shooting, etc.), and there are ways to prevent the provision of sustaining nutrition for them, so they end up dying on their own (i.e. locking them in a room without food and water). Either way, the end result is that the person is not alive anymore."

Next up....Part four: The What If's. I am working up a post about all the what if's that come up in regard to Birth Control and Family Planning like: What if my husband is not on board with my convictions regarding Birth Control? What if I am on the Pill for medical reasons (endometriosis or mood swings)? etc....DON'T MISS IT!
This is SOOO FUN thanks for joining us!

BC Part Two: Phyll's Story

I mentioned in a previous blog that I would be having a "guest blogger" as a part of this series. But after Phyllis and I talked about it, I decided that we are really doing this series together. My sister-in-law, Phyllis is very educated on the topic of Birth Control and Family Planning. She and her husband, Chet have taken courses, read books, listen to many teachers, read articles and met with people like Dr. and Mrs. Molher (the president of Southern Seminary) regarding these issues. She is posting my blogs and I will be posting hers as this series unfolds. I encourage you to stop by her blog and comment as well.
She started by sharing her story and it is well worth reading. Like mine, it is pretty long, but PLEASE take time to read it...it is so good. For this post, I am just going to copy and paste a couple of exerts so as to entice you to make it over to her blog for the rest....it is so worth it!

"I had graduated from college and was gainfully employed. Chet, however, was raising support to pay his salary as a part-time associate pastor at a church plant in town. He had two other jobs in addition. Oh, and he was part of a band that traveled quite often, especially on the weekends. We were busy, didn't really have "all that much money", and were working to pay off Chet's undergrad student loans. So we still weren't ready to start "trying" to have kids. Our mindset was that, if we're not ready to start trying, then we're preventing and there's no reason to go off the pill. We didn't discuss it much. It was just part of the normal routine, and if I forgot to take it one day, we just made sure we were careful. Pretty simple.

At this time, I was hanging out a lot with a good friend of mine named Angie. We would walk at a nearby park after work quite frequently. She too was on the pill and hadn't thought twice about it, especially since her cycles were strange (this is why it was initially prescribed to her). Her husband heard some stuff about how it was possible that the pill could be an abortifacient (it could cause abortions of fertilized eggs... aka babies). So he started researching. He came to the conclusion that Angie should stop taking the pill immediately. She nearly freaked out! They still weren't ready to have kids because of some circumstances in their lives, so they enrolled in a Natural Family Planning class at the local Catholic church. I basically watched Angie walk through all of this, but I was still a little bit skeptical of what her husband was saying.

That's when I started researching for myself. Any of you who know me well are aware of the fact that I love to learn, and if there's something I don't know much about, it kind of (or REALLY) bothers me. Realizing that this could possibly be a moral issue, I researched with gusto. Angie shared some things with me that they had come across. I forgot to mention that, in the process of all the aforementioned stuff in their lives, they were converting from Protestantism to Catholicism. As a result of this and the fact that they took the class at the Catholic church, most of the resources were produced by the Catholic church. In my mind, there was no inherent problem with the Catholic church producing useful resources that I could learn from even though I wasn't Catholic. The problem I was running into is that, in the things I was reading, most of the reasons why a person shouldn't use the pill were based on what the Pope said and not on what the Bible said.

I continued my research. I basically got online and typed "Oral Contraceptives as Abortifacient" in my search engine window. Immediately, all kinds of articles popped up, and many of them were written by Protestant authors. Wow! Can I just say that this whole time I never knew this was even a question I should be asking! It was just something everyone did. I had NEVER heard this discussion brought up in any of the Protestant churches I had been part of (and for that matter, I had never even heard it as a discussion among my Catholic friends, who were admittedly nominal Catholics, but still... shouldn't I have heard this SOMEWHERE?).

Actually, it was this shocking moment 5 years ago that has prompted countless hours of research, interviewing, praying, thinking, etc. and that has produced in me a great desire to make it known that there is indeed a moral aspect of decisions regarding family planning and birth control methods, and people need to be able to make INFORMED decisions. Further, there have been many people who have come to us asking us to discuss our journey and our findings in the past, and we assume that there are many others that would ask about if they knew it was something to be discussed. Hence the blog series.

Okay, back to my story. I researched a lot. I read the articles from both sides. I read the Physician's Desk Reference listings for all the types of hormonal birth control that were on the market as well as devices like the IUD. After HOURS of reading from both sides of the issue and tossing these things around in my mind throughout a lot of sleepless nights, and after a lot of talking and praying with Chet, we came to a conclusion... finally. We determined that because it seemed very clear that there is at least a possibility that the birth control pill (of any kind) renders the uterine lining so hostile that it could make it impossible for the already-fertilized egg to implant (thereby aborting the baby), we could not in good conscience continue taking the pill. We recognized the IUD as abortifacient right away because one of its main functions is to irritate and thicken the lining of the uterus to "sluff off" the fertilized egg (which is a baby because it's already fertilized even if it's not implanted). That meant that the IUD and other such devices were also out of the question. So what would we do? Barrier methods don't always have the best track record."

Phyll's story goes on and she recounts life and family planning decisions after baby number one, Ladan came by C-section and then baby number two, Gabe did as well. What do they do facing continued C-sections and the effects on her body....seriously dont miss it.
Please visit her blog for the rest...it is SO good!
She ends by linking an excellent article by Dr. Al Mohler that we both think is a MUST READ!

Can Christians Use Birth Control by Dr. Albert Mohler
In his conclusion he writes, ""For evangelicals, much work remains to be done. We must build and nurture a new tradition of moral theology, drawn from Holy Scripture and enriched by the theological heritage of the church. Until we do, many evangelical couples will not even know where to begin the process of thinking about birth control in a fully Christian frame. It is high time evangelicals answered this call."