In a ‘Cathy’ cartoon, one character asks, ‘Aren’t you worried about running out of time to have a baby, Cathy?’ After a few comments, Cathy poignantly concludes, ‘I’m torn between wanting to have one and wanting to be one.’
Sadly, this may sum up the inner conflict of a number of young adults.
–Kimberly Hahn, Chosen and Cherished: Biblical Wisdom for Your Marriage
After discovering Nicole’s My Endometriosis Story, I found more blogs about women and families suffering through infertility. Then I found more blogs by checking out their blogroll, then I found more. You get it: Infertility Blog hopscotch. After several click-read-click-read jumps, I discovered something that shouldn’t surprise me: there is a huge community of IF sufferers on the blogosphere, and many of them are FertilityCare users.
In a conversation with a friend, I mentioned my discovery, and she asked me to send her a list. Now, keep in mind there are SO many out there, so I’ve not included all I found, but rather included a short list of some of my favorites. Continue reading »
Angie Baker, 33, suffered eighteen miscarriages in thirteen years. Then came her little miracle, Raiya, born this past December.
This BBC article is sparing with details, and I want to know more of the story. Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about it. I mean, my first reaction is, “Wow. That is amazing. What a miracle. She must be so happy.”
Then I think she must have suffered so much, physically, emotionally, and relationally. How did she cope, and what drove her to keep trying? I, with my husband, suffer the painful waiting game of infertility, but we have yet to conceive, and I’ve never miscarried, so I can’t put myself precisely in her place. Does she have a husband or partner to support her? Why isn’t he mentioned in the BBC’s story? Continue reading »
Listening to Janet Smith’s “Contraception: Why Not” is a pivotal moment for most people in their love and family journey from contraception to NFP. I’ve seen it in action, and I’ve heard the stories. One woman I know, on the Pill of 8 years for “medical reasons,” listened to it with her husband, and threw away her Pills that night! And now she, who was told she couldn’t have children, is a mom to an 11 month old miracle.
I sat next to Janet Smith at a conference dinner once, and I asked her how many Contraception: Why Not stories she’s heard. You wouldn’t believe it, she said. She hears them all the time, and they’re amazing.
One More Soul, a big NFP and family life promoter, is collecting stories of conversions/ post CWN conceptions. All stories and photos can be sent to Megan Morris at megan@onemoresoul.com. Please submit by February 1st.
But more about Janet Smith…
Janet Smith is amazing, and people of all walks, though perhaps skeptical at first, become at the very least challenged and intrigued about this issue, and at the best, completely floored and changed from listening to this talk. If you’ve listened to CWN, of which their are two versions–the 1st edition (get your free copy here) and the revised, you probably know what I’m talking about. Janet Smith has mad gifts: super smart, well read, spiritually well formed, quick-talking, witty and compassionate.
What is it about CWN that gets people do you think? It’s been a while since I’ve listened to the first version, but I know I love to recommend the second version because it includes a lot of biological, sociological, anthropological and demographic research, particularly addressing environmental issues. There’s research in the first one for sure, but new stuff is added in the second talk. While she’s got a flair for presenting the research in a way that’s fast moving yet accessible, I think what balances that out and clinches it for the average listener is her humor and common sense. She has a way of turning the family planning status quo on it’s head, and making you laugh at it.
If you’ve not listened to it, it’s a must-have for your NFP-kit (forthcoming post on what one’s “NFP kit” includes). When I worked as Family Planning Coordinator in Madison, we ordered them by the several hundreds, and gave them out all the time (they’re cheaper in quantity, so if you know you’ll give them away, go in on some with friends for the cheaper price).
Have you seen the movie UP? It looked cute, and my Dad recommended it, so we thought we’d give it a go.
“Cute” is no longer an adequate word to describe this film for me because what could have been a schmaltzy animated film ended up being a dramatic commentary on life, love and fatherhood. Of course, it’s very funny in parts, and quite action-packed, but it for me was a sort of animated “Last Lecture,” complete with adventure, dreams, joy, loss, suffering and triumph. Thinking I’m reading too much into a computer cartoon movie?
Check out the above pictures, two separate but back-to-back scenes in the first fifteen minutes of the film. The story of Ellie & Carl Frederickson begins with their meeting as children, both in love with fantastic adventures. They grow up, fall in love, marry, renovate their first home together, and do what married couples do: they decide to fill it with children. [Spoiler alert: don't read the rest if you don't want to know about the plot!] Continue reading »
Check out the trailer to this new film from Focus Features. It’s simply titled “Babies,” and the plot (evidently) is simply that it’s a documentary about four babies. The plot according to the web site is:
Everybody loves… BABIES. This visually stunning new movie simultaneously follows four babies around the world – from first breath to first steps. From Mongolia to Namibia to San Francisco to Tokyo, BABIES joyfully captures on film the earliest stages of the journey of humanity that are at once unique and universal to us all.
Watch it. It’s adorable. Focus Features has done some films I liked like Away We Go, Atonement, and Enternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but they’re not exactly the most family friendly pictures, or produced by a company run by NFP and birth advocates. So, cynical me is wondering…what’s the catch? What population control ridiculousness or birth control status quo are they going to try to work into the film? Time will tell. Release is early 2010.
Part two of Michelle’s testimony of why they ditched contraception. This part includes more of their actual discovery of the Church teaching, the wonders of fertility, the horror of abortifacients, and the joy of desiring children.
What I think will resonate deeply with readers is the anger of never receiving this information, of being lied to by the medical community, and of never being invited to the beauty of the Church’s teaching–all too common of an experience.
I was angry because I found out that contraceptives had abortifacient properties. I was angry that those in the medical community had morphed the definition of the beginning of pregnancy to be when the embryo implanted, thereby negating the life that exists from conception. And I was angry that no one (save our priest during our pre-marriage counseling) had ever offered to us that NFP was a viable alternative. Our families, our friends, fellow Catholics…no one stepped forward and made us think about looking into Natural Family Planning. As a matter of fact…that anger still rises on occasion, because we do not have the support of some people close to us and we are looked down on…like we must simply not know any better…and we see disappointment in loved ones’ faces as we announce the pending arrival of another blessing.
After seeing this clip of The View (which you may or may not like, depending on your politics–watch it anyway) featuring a very strong and family oriented Rachel Campos-Duffy, I decided to find out who this firebrand mother was. After finding out that we have some very strong worldview connections.
I started following her on Twitter, and found a link to this piece, “Whatever Happened to Large Catholic Families?” (Geocache that!)
Good stuff. Certainly not an analysis piece aiming to answer that question per se, but definitely a look at the current shallow fascination with large families, and testimony to the enduring value of large families. She should be the Population Research Institute’s spokesperson for their Overpopulation is a Myth Campaign (newly added to the blogroll)!
By the way, I think the answer to her article’s question is: the same place where Catholic spines and authentic Church teaching went, probably stored in the closet where the plasma TV boxes are in the garage where people’s three cars are parked.
Have you read John Senior?
A friend not too long ago recommended his book, “The Restoration of Christian Culture,” and told me a little about his life and times at Kansas University. Really, a heroic life.
The precursor to the recommended book was a much more somber “The Death of Christian Culture.” Both books were actually a series of lectures given, and later published. Anyway, I ordered them both, and am reading Death right now. It’s intellectually satisfying, poetically written and frighteningly prophetic. I’ve been told the second one is much better. Since this one is brilliant, I can’t wait to read the next.
A little sample relevant to our themes of natural family planning, love, life and children:
It is no accident that decadence leads to the hatred of children…
Conversely, he affirms:
This is the economy of the private enterprise of love: it generates. Love is fecund. Love is not only a means to an end, like a road, but is a kind of propulsion. It is like walking up an escalator, or swimming with the current–to beget children, to love children, to encourage their growth, to ease their sufferings, and to suffer oneself with them, even to our death.
He’s elucidating the relationship between the decline of Christian culture and the denigration of children, using the case of a mother who was acquitted of murdering her week old child because she was special needs and did not want her. Yet the courtroom erupted in cheers when the verdict was announced.
He goes on to debunk Thomas Malthus, the disproved 19th century economist who predicted that England’s population would outrun its food sources by 1850. (How are we doing, England?)
As I’ve said elsewhere, children are not the problem; they are the answer. People are not walking carbon footprints, but potential solutions to contemporary problems.
Every time a child is born, not just a mouth to feed is born, but hands and brains. [ A quote in Senior's book from Josue de Castro, a founder and director of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, and one of the five or six world-renowned men in the field of human population problems.]
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