justice and grace

sunday night, mike & i were watching the news, when across the tube came a story about a man who had found an infant in an suv inside a garage he shared with his duplex cohorts.

when he opened the car door, the stench of urine and feces made him buckle to his knees. he immediately called 9-1-1, and paramedics determined that the baby had not eaten or been out of the clothes basket it was found in for at least two or three days.

my husband and i looked at each other, not giving voice to words of anger, doubts, the sense of injustice welling on our tongues.

today, when i got the news e-mail alert (yes, certfied news junkie here) that the 23-year-old mother in the 'abandoned baby' case had been arrested - mommy and daddy went away for the weekend and decided to leave the infant in his car. i clicked on the link to read more and the link under that story has had me furious and haunted ever since.

a dad tried to sell his five-year old on craigslist - and worse, a million times worse: a. mom. was. arrested. for. murdering. her. one. month. old. daughter. by. putting. her. in. the. MICROWAVE!

seriously. from Dayton (the mom took the child to the hospital where sarah used to work). here is the link: http://www.newsnet5.com/home-backup/10411941/detail.html.

what in the hell is wrong with people? seriously... i cannot imagine anything more purely evil, more heinous, than murdering your own child.

give your child to me. i'll take it. purple, green, black, white, healthy, sick, one month old, 15-years-old - i don't care. drop him or her on my doorstep. and i know i'm not the only person who feels like that.

i think most days anyway (remember how gray I am... or see previous post - "sometimes") that i am pretty positive i am a dyed-in-the-wool-'feminist-for-life'-anti-capital-punishment-pacifist. killing is wrong - even if it's someone who deserves death because according to the Word, we are all sinners deserving of death and Jesus loved us enough to die in our place. and Jesus died even for the mom who killed her own baby with the microwave. i know that in my head, and i believe it in my heart, i guess even when push comes to shove. we are not supposed to kill the very people Jesus calls us to love simply because Jesus loves them. there is more to life than to what is here now... and we cannot take into our hands what is not ours to take. i believe that it is God's role only to take life.

and yet... and yet we must live by the laws that govern our society, and face the consequences for doing otherwise.

we are supposed to love them... . we must bring them to justice... . Jesus loves them... . our God is Justice.... Jesus is Grace.

and i... well, me and my gray old brain will just have to keep questioning that which has no answer.

Happy 5th Birthday, Sam!

welcome, little ones

Two new children entered my world this week.

"Ann" and "Olivia" joined the King family last Thursday, and they came to our house for dinner last night.

Technically, I met Olivia a few weeks ago, but only for a few minutes.

Seven and nine, they are funny and sweet. They like to show off their knowledge of spelling words and for dinner they requested bacon and cheese calzones and they didn't want vegetables for dinner, but Carrie made them pick one vegetable from the salad, so Ann had tomatoes and Olivia chose carrots. And for dessert, Ann had a cupcake with sprinkles while Olivia wanted a purple popsicle.

After dinner, while Carrie & Mike caught up on recent events, I found cartoon network on tv for the kids, and Olivia asked me to look up something about her name on my laptop. They piled up on Uncle Mike to hug him and tickle him - all three girls at once.

My friends have gone through a lot to welcome these children into their home, and they still have a long road ahead of them.

And E - the child they brought home from the hospital days after her birth - a gorgeous, well-adjusted, bright, funny, three-year-old is kind of in a whirlwind, too. She's torn between wanting to be a big girl and wanting everyone's undivided attention and how she fits in to this much bigger world now.

In their last home, they were among 12 foster children. They were safe and loved and protected, but it was made clear that this was not their permanent home. Here, they have their own bedroom and only one other sibling and their last name will change - Olivia is so excited that her initials will be "O K".

Yup.

It will be A-O K.

Welcome to our community, girls. We love you already!

genoa city

when i was sick in junior high/high school and stayed at home, i spent all day on the couch, usually reading, and often watching the lives of the "young and the restless" as they played out in genoa city from 12:30-1:30 p.m. my mom was a closet fan...(sorry for outing you, Mom!)

the funny thing about genoa city is that most of the players are the same. sure, they've had about 50 marital affairs between them, 15+ children added, and progressing in age tv-fast. there's always a murder here or there, or some dramatic work situation. the funny thing is, you can not watch it for years (or at least months) and you can catch up on most of the drama by the time 1:26 p.m. rolls around.

i could have gone to work today, but this morning was feeling awful when i first got up. plus, Mike caught this bug from his co-workers & gave it to me, and if i would have gone in today, i was afraid my co-workers would have gotten ill. no thanks... don't want to be the office dragon. so i slept (off & on) till 11-ish, watched y&r, did my civic duty & voted, and spent the rest of my day on the couch, solving "pogo" crossword puzzles (thanks, Dawn!), and loading up on advil allergy & sinus (the kind you now have to purchase behind the counter) and bottles of dasani.

and now... i'm stir crazy, feeling good, and looking forward to work tomorrow.

how sick is that? :)

blogger's block

happens to us all sometimes, right?

weather's turning colder and colder

and

life seems kinda unsteady & uncertain right now... but it will all be okay and even if it's not, well, that's what makes life more beautiful sometimes, right? Knowing that there is bad as well as good and appreciating the good times? And even in the uncertainty stuff, there have been a LOT of beautiful things, too.

for example - my aunt - who is amazing, by the way, lost her job yesterday. which is very Scary. however, she will get to spend more time at home with Gram... who is a wonder to us all. last November, doctors gave her maybe four months. well, we took her to breakfast this morning, and she insisted on ihop. she ate every bite of her two scrambled eggs with american cheese, two pieces of bacon, two pieces of sausage, hashbrowns, and two pancakes with butter & apples & cinnamon & whipped cream. go, Grandma!

there will be a lot of changes in my job during this next year, and in Mike's, too - whose company is now up for sale... . traveling mercies, eh? let's hope this is a good ride!