The other day when I was dealing with a lot of contractions (which have since died down to practically nothing) I was beginning to get a little concerned about something.  I was afraid I was going to end up in the hospital having this little one and miss my opportunity to vote in this election.

The other night I awoke several times because of a recurrent dream that I went in to labor and missed the polls.  I remember trying to talk the hospital staff into getting me a ballot or letting me out of the hospital for an hour so I could go and vote.

Yes, voting is that big of  a deal.  The young man at the polling center this morning (at the high school) who walked by and said he thought people were dumb and that voting was stupid probably would have thought I had gone off the deep end!

I do not see voting as much as a right as I do a privilege.  I was honored to be able to cast my ballot today!  Every vote counts even a little Alaskan one!

So, the restless nights of concern about missing my opportunity are gone and this little baby is now free to arrive!!!  Priorities after all, priorities!! LOL

Get out and VOTE!!

As I mentioned a couple of days ago my two eldest daughters are attending TeenPact this year.  If you missed that post then scroll down or go here.  The two girls have been coming home each evening very excited but last night tipped the scale.  They were bursting at the seams with excitement.

They have been listening to different representatives speak this week and putting questions to them.  But yesterday……

One daughter was able to meet the Representative Stoltz.  This was a neat experience.  This was the representative that she wrote to before TeenPact began.  She introduced herself and he paused and said, ” You live in “town name” on “our street name” and you have a sister named “sister’s name.”  She was stunned.  She told him yes sir.  He thanked her for her letter and told her that he had just sent her a letter in return.  She came home to find it on the table waiting for her.  There are approximately 90 students at TeenPact this year and she felt honored that he recognized her name and knew who she was.

The other daughter was taken with her class into a conference room.  They were trying to determine which chair was the Governor’s chair.  One girl (not my daughter) sat in it with permission.  They told her it was fine because he would not be in attendance.  A few minutes later the Governor walked in the room.  Went over to the chair and told the girl she had the best seat in the room, the Governor’s chair.  He was gracious and let her remain there.  I think that probably made her day.  So, my daughter was able to meet Governor Parnell.  That made her day!

So there was great excitement!  There is talk of wanting to be a page, volunteer to help staff TeenPact in the future, and to go for political science majors!  There are having a great time, learning so much, and learning how they can make difference!  I am sure they are planning on attending again next year.

My two oldest girls are walking around looking much older than I like this morning.  They are dressed nicely in business attire (skirts and blazers).  They look rather professional.  They are attending a special class in downtown Anchorage this week.  They have been working on homework for weeks now.  They have been busy reading, writing, and analyzing bills, writing to their state representatives, as well as several other things.  Here is their homework list to be completed before the start of classes. Attending this class is for their government credit.  If you have never heard of TeenPact it truly is something to check into.  It is a great opportunity for your children.

Let me share a bit about the class with excerpts directly from their website.

TeenPact trains young people to be leaders who will impact the nation and world for Jesus Christ. This is a comprehensive leadership experience that challenges students to grow both personally and spiritually. During the week, students will enjoy meeting and interacting with other Christian young people and leaders from across their state. Students will come away from TeenPact with a realization of their spiritual capacity as young people and a desire to change America for Christ.

Here is a bit more…

TeenPact is a comprehensive leadership experience that brings kids closer to Jesus Christ, makes them better leaders, and positions them to impact public policy in their state. During the week, students meet important officials, interact with other like-minded students, and have more fun at the capitol than they could have ever imagined. Students leave inspired and challenged with an intensive desire to change America for Christ.

TeenPact offers a program for both teens and children at your state capitol. Students enjoy times of praise, worship and devotions, meet important officials, interview lobbyists, view campaign disclosures, improve their public speaking skills, write their own bills, and conduct their own TeenPact legislature. Students analyze public policy from a Biblical Worldview and learn to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Other activities include:

* Reading actual bills that are being worked through the Legislature
* Researching how political candidates spend their campaign money
* Analyzing media content with an emphasis on worldview
* Participate in student elections
* Learning about the structure and content of our nation’s Constitution

I know that here in Alaska there are even a few additional scheduled events. One being an ultimate frisbee game. That may sound strange but if you have a teen and are in the Alaska homeschooling community you would understand that life does not happen without ultimate frisbee. )  TeenPact even has their own ultimate frisbee discs for purchase! I hope my daughters don’t see this.  I think I will be buying MORE frisbees!

They are also having a dinner and a square dance. They have parent meetings for those interested in attending.

TeenPact is designed for highschoolers but they also offer a one day class for children ages 8-12 years.

The TeenPact One Day Class is an abbreviated version of the Four Day, designed specifically for ages 8-12. This class focuses on

• The biblical responsibility to pray for our leaders
• The principle of “higher authority”
• The “bill-to-law” legislative process
• Public speaking for young students

I would encourage you to check out TeenPact for your children.  They offer classes in 38 states and are still expanding. Children may also attend year after year if they would like.  There is a lot going on.  Get in on the fun!  There is a lot of information on the website.  They have listings of classes as well as sample class schedules.  This is a great way to aid you in teaching and training your children about the role and functioning of government from a godly perspective.

Be sure to check into it and come back here and let me know your thoughts.

Do you have a child who has already attended?  What are your thoughts on the experience?

Saturday night my hubby and I attended the annual banquet for the Society of American Military Engineers.  It was a good evening out.  Hubby and I were all dressed up and had an evening out together.  The key note speaker at the banquet was the best speaker we have ever heard at one of these events.  I want to share a bit with you.

The speaker was Marc Hoffmeister. Marc is an US Army officer and 1992 West Point graduate currently stationed at Elmendorf AFB, AK.  Marc was wounded by a roadside bomb while serving on a Military Transition Team as an embedded trainer with the Iraqi Army.   He shared with us a bit about trying to deal with the devastation of his injuries and how his wife Gayle challenged him to overcome.  He told us that she announced one day that she was going to climb Denali!  Realizing that she was determined and he could not let her go alone, he determined to take up the challenge and Operation Denali was born.

Operation Denali Mission Statement:

Enable four Warriors wounded in the Global War on Terrorism to overcome devastating combat injuries and successfully summit 20,320 ft Denali, the highest mountain in North America, symbolizing the strength of our Nation and those who defend it.

He shared with us a very inspiring story. He spoke of not only the challenges of the climb in which only 40-60% of those who attempt actually summit. Denali is a dangerous mountain in which people loose their lives each year attempting to summit.  Imagining the challenges of attempting such a big climb is intimidating but image doing so without all of your limbs.  Yes, these wounded warriors climbed and summitted the mountain with prosthetic limbs.  He told stories of how they even passed other teams on the mountain.  That was rather encouraging for them, not so much so for the other fully bodied teams.  Why even try to attempt such a feat?  Reaching the summit was the goal but more importantly than actually reaching the summit were the following objectives.  Even for the few who did not actually summit, their objectives were reached.

1.  To raise awareness for the needs of severely injured service men and women
2.  To  work together to overcome our physical limitations and achieve a common goal made to seem insurmountable by the impact of our injuries on our lives.
3.  To demonstrate by performance and example that no obstacle is so great that the human spirit cannot overcome it

Let me give you a little bit of perspective on this challenge.  A little lesson on Denali.  Denali meaning the High One or the Great One is the Native word for the mountain that outsiders refer to as Mount McKinley. Denali, being North America’s highest peak, rises to an elevation of 20,320 feet amidst a sea of glaciers and other peaks that compose the Alaska Range.  Here is a photo I took from Anchorage, several hundred miles away.

For a closer look and updated photos check out the webcam from Denali National Park & Preserve. Their view is from Wonder Lake.

Please make sure to do your part in supporting our veterans.  They give up so much for the freedoms we all enjoy!  I ask that you share this story and encourage others!

To read more on this inspiring story visit Operation Denali! You can also see a slide show of the expedition. You can read their expedition journal too!

Take some time to learn more about Operation Denali and be sure to leave me a comment too!

Image via Wikipedia

My hubby had the opportunity to be working when President Obama came through the base last week.  He didn’t actually meet him and speak to him like he did when President Bush came through and he wasn’t seated on the stage behind him like he was when Vice President Dick Cheney came through but he was in the same hanger and heard the speech.  Other than the fact that they made them switch out the planes in the hanger so the one he cut from the budget wouldn’t be there and that he couldn’t read the rank of someone correctly off the teleprompter, here are Hubby’s comments about the whole thing…..

“Stood around for 6 hours at the base just to hear Pres O speak for about 20 min. Lots of promises that made me think my taxes are going up.”

When you decide to only deal in the grey, why are we surprized that things like this happen, it was only a matter of time!  Now it isn’t just the desire of the mother but what those around think was her desire! The question of life is now totally irrelevant apparently!  I wish that the world cared as much for life as they do for death.

So, What’s the difference?

 That’s certainly what was on the mind of the nurse that decided when a mother birthed her child in the waiting room of an abortion clinic.  She figured—the mother didn’t want the child before, so now it’s easier to kill the baby now that it’s out.  So, she cut the umbilical cord, put the baby in a red biohazard bag, and threw the breathing baby in the trash.

Excerpt from MInTheGap: Read More

The lawsuit article is HERE.

I saw this on Lisa’s blog this week and wanted to share it with my readers here as well. This about sums up my conservative views concerning the direction our government is taking concerning the economic state of the nation.

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

~~~~~ The late Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931 – 2005

Serbian Abortionist Who Aborted 48,000 Babies Becomes Pro-Life Activist

MADRID, November 13, 2008 (CNA) – The Spanish daily “La Razon” has published an article on the pro-life conversion of a former “champion of abortion.” Stojan Adasevic, who performed 48,000 abortions, sometimes up to 35 per day, is now the most important pro-life leader in Serbia, after spending 26 years as the most renowned abortion doctor in the country.

“The medical textbooks of the Communist regime said abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue,” the newspaper reported. “Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive until the 80s, but they did not change his opinion. Nevertheless, he began to have nightmares.”

In describing his conversion, Adasevic said he “dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. ‘My name is Thomas Aquinas,’ the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn’t recognize the name.”

“Why don’t you ask me who these children are?” St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream.

“They are the ones you killed with your abortions,” the Dominican saint told him.

“Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions,” the article stated.”

That same day a cousin came to the hospital with his four months-pregnant girlfriend, who wanted to get her ninth abortion – something quite frequent in the countries of the Soviet bloc. The doctor agreed. Instead of removing the fetus piece by piece, he decided to chop it up and remove it as a mass. However, the baby’s heart came out still beating. Adasevic realized then that he had killed a human being,”

After this experience, Adasevic “told the hospital he would no longer perform abortions. Never before had a doctor in Communist Yugoslavia refused to do so. They cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her job, and did not allow his son to enter the university.”

After years of pressure and on the verge of giving up, he had another dream about St. Thomas.

“You are my good friend, keep going,” the man in black and white told him. “Adasevic became involved in the pro-life movement and was able to get Yugoslav television to air the film ‘The Silent Scream,’ by Doctor Bernard Nathanson, two times.”

Adasevic has told his story in magazines and newspapers throughout Eastern Europe. He has returned to the Orthodox faith of his childhood and has studied the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.

“Influenced by Aristotle, Thomas wrote that human life begins forty days after fertilization,” Adasevic wrote in one article. Scientific advancements since Thomas’ time, however, have revealed that human life begins at the moment of conception. La Razon commented that Adasevic “suggests that perhaps the saint wanted to make amends for that error.” Today the Serbian doctor continues to fight for the lives of the unborn.

(Reprinted with permission from the Catholic News Agency)