Displaying Christianity..

I think there is an ongoing question among christians as to how much do I "talk" about christianity. I remember while I was living in Austin, Tx there was a guy at church who would always talk about debates he would get into during his college classes about christianity, and how so many people would often ask him not to get into it everyday...but he would respond that he's doing his job as a christian because "that's what christianity is...letting everyone else know about it".

A girl in my class today was telling me of a couple horrible professors she had in the past, and one who would always compare christianity to the Nazi's and Jesus to Hitler. The first day of class he asked for all the christians to raise their hand and she made it clear that in order to survive in his class as a christian, you had to know what you believe. (Note to self, not taking that professor in the future...he would be in control of my grades!!!!!)

But, how do you come across being a christian without overdoing the topic or sometimes offending people? You obviously don't want to let things go because you don't like confrontation, but is a classroom really the best time? With thirty students in a class there usually are thirty different interpretations. How much preaching of christianity in a classroom is necessary?

I came across this quote today and thought this would be the best answer....

"Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words"--Francis of Assisi

I'm not too sure who Francis is, but I think he's got the right idea...not necessarily the people in class that are defeding christianity are really displaying that outside of the classroom...so what kind of message does that send?

Girls Gone Wild

Some girls flash their bbs....others their belly buttons....

Bush has a potty mouth

O'k..this is why people love to talk about Bush...sometimes, he's a great source of entertainment. At a recent G8 luncheon, President Bush (not realizing that his microphone was on while talking to Prime Minister Tony Blair) calmly announced that "Syria needs to get Hezbollah to stop this S*%@!!!"

Ofcourse in my political science class, we had to have a discussion and not suprisingly many students didn't care that Bush dropped the "S" bomb and felt that they better relate to him.
My professor told us a story of a former president, President Truman. Apparently his daughter loved to sing and he loved his daughter. One time she sang in Carnegie Hall. In the audience was her family, including her proud papa. One reporter wrote an in depth critical critique of the singing and furiated the president. Pres. Ford responded with writing a document to the journalist using many four lettered words and ended the letter with "If I ever see you in public, you better wear a cup!".

That is probably not what you wanna hear your president say, but maybe Bush should take the advice....kinda funny

OK?..OK!

Ava's so funny lately. She's has really been expanding her vocab. She's likes to tell me what she's gonna do and then say "O'k?...O'k." Without me responding. It's funny to have this little bossy woman in training.
She really loves to sing right now. It's cute. She has a couple chinese CDs that she's been practicing with. She has an echo microphone, so she'll be ready for kereoke soon.

It's kinda special in the mornings because I go into her room and wake her with little kisses. Sometimes she gets mad and tries to hit me with her eyes still closed. She doesn't want to get up and go to school, but most days she happy to announce that she has woken up. Then she gets goes tt, gets dressed, and heads off to meet William in our bed. She always wakes him up with little kisses. Then, I put on her music and she lays in bed with William and they sing her chinese songs as I get ready.
She usually announces to me that I'm supposed to go away. I think she likes having her alone time with Baba.

Then, after we all get home from work and school, she takes William into her room to read to her for a little while. It's their routine. Again, I'm not allowed in her room. She'll shut the door on me. After about 15 min., she's happy to see me again and has her iteniary ready for me.
I know sometimes that children can show the way they will act as adults when they're young. William and I laugh because she is definately going to be a force to be reckoned with.

Other than singing and reading, she loves to go swimming and to play soccer, something our neighbors downstairs must love. The other day she saw pictures of me when I was pregnant so she made herself "pregnant" with a washcloth under her shirt...then after a while, she showed me her new baby...ELMO. That's scary!
It's interesting to think of what she was like a year ago and the things she liked to do and then now, so much has changed.
I can't imagine next year.....her little world is getting more interesting everyday, I guess so is mine.

Dateline

O'k...I really like to watch Dateline on Friday nights...There are always interesting stories and stuff (gee, where did my life go?) well, last night there was this incredible story of this boy. I'll summarize it for you:

His name is Jonathan Swain. He was born needing a blood transfusion. This was in 1983. So, he got his tranfusion and went home from the hospital....however, he was always sick. In and out of the hospital....really sick. Nobody knew what it was until further research was done on the blood and found that the blood transfusion was one from a person with aids. So, this little 2 year old's family finds out he has aids and that's why he's so sick. Terrible. At that time, Aids was a new virus that people knew little about, so ofcourse people were scared to be around Jonathan. Churches refused to let him in the door...really! Doctors were even petrified when he came to hospitals, and some hospitals sent him away. His mother was told that he would die before he was three years old, so she started planning his funeral..while he was still living.

So, his 3 year old birthday came and went, then 4, 5. He wasn't allowed to go to school, but his mother fought the school board, held meetings with other parents to educate them....until he was eventually allowed. Although he was the only kid there with IVs in his nose, he acted as all the other kids. He even started doing conferences to educate others about Aids, going as far as Japan. His older brother was also a big supporter of him and kind of a protector.

So, anyways..time goes by, he's still living but his mom is getting weaker. She starts a cocaine addiction that leads to a $200./day habit. She tries to commit suicide, leaves her boys for days at a time and eventually started selling drugs out of her house. Her oldest son went to live with his father, but Jonathan had nobody....he called a man who works with aids children and accompanied Jonathan on many conferences. He asked if he could live with him and the response was Yes.

So, Jonathan moved to Milwaukee to live with this man from Colorado. 2 years later his mother, clean and sober moved there to be with her son. Everything was going good until FBI came to arrest his mother for selling drugs in Colorado. She's found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Jonathan is devastated and goes back to Colorado to find his brother after graduating. So, Jonathan is working with his brtoher at a popular restaraunt in Alhren Colorado. That is where he meets his girlfriend.

Girlfriend???? what? how? why? Remember Jonathan can die at any time, he's just been fighting it and on his aids medication. So, he meets this girl, I think her name is Amber. She's a waitress at the restaraunt where he works. She really likes him and finds no problem being with him. She says she's not promised tomorrow anyway, and life can end at any moment, why should she be scared and stay away from him. Her family think differently, but when they get married, they come around. So....with the fear of giving Amber aids, they always use protection...but ONE night it broke. Panic and fear took over both of them. Amber went to get tested and as she waited for the results, she was already feeling sick and tired.....she was pregnant!!! So, her and the baby were regularly tested and never found any Aids in their bodies. So, now, Jonathan has a wife, child, and a life. His mother was released after five years in prison and lives with Jonathan and his family and has been sober for over 7 years.

O'k...so the reason for the blog...what an amazing story. Luckily, I have grown up with parents that have pointed out to me when God does something amazing, so it's very obvious to me that God was totally in control of his boy's life. Even the 1 time his condom broke, his wife was even ovulating....that's amazing. I look at this story and just wonder "How can people not believe in God?" It's truly an incredible story.

If you want to read more about it: http://www.msnbc.com/id/13756759/

Little Sponge

Well, I'm new to this blogging thing and I don't know where to start, so I figured I would start with my favorite topic....my daughter, Ava.
She's almost two and a half and seems to be shocking me and William every day with what she knows. She has this amazing capablity to remember everything she hears or sees. This kind of skill could be very useful in my political science class.
The other day she had her shoes on the wrong foot and she was borderline breakdown on no nap and a full day, but we needed to go to the store so when I told her the shoes were on the wrong foot she said: "Whatever, Momma". Where did that come from? I couldn't help but laugh at her developing diva personality.
She's learning so much and is really leaving that baby stage and becoming a big girl with her "big girl panties" and opinions on her clothes. I'm excited to watch her learn and laugh and really experience life, but sometimes I feel like it's flying by (ofcourse not at 5:00 p.m. when I'm waiting for the day to end ). I wish I could go back and relive a day when she was a little baby and I wrapped her up so tightly in those little blankets or when she was six months and just smiled everywhere she went and had no objections. At one, she waddled around the house and this small green ball was her favorite toy. But now she's halfway through two...and things are moving so fast. Soon she'll be my best friend...that's exciting too. It's such an amazing experience to have a baby and watch them grow.