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My precious baby sibling is 9 weeks old!!! :D And today mom got 3D sonogram pictures, so I thought I would share the joy. :)

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This picture is a photo of a six week or eight week gestational age intact embryo. This little embryo was  a ruptured ectopic pregnancy and unfortunately was not able to be saved. The photo was posted on Wikipedia by one of the doctors associated with the case.

This photo should be a witness to all that even human embryos are persons at the first stage of their lives. The abortion industry constantly claims that unborn children are not persons, and can therefore be aborted or used for research.  As this photo clearly demonstrates, life is a continuum from the moment of conception.

With the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, standing by her promise to bring forth legislation on embryonic stem cell research sometime this year, we urge you to join Youth Defence's campaign to protect life at all its stages. We're busy collecting signatures for the petition against embryonic stem cell research, so please assist in that any way you can. Youth Defence will also launch a new pro-life billboard campaign in the coming weeks.

As Dr. Suess once said, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.”  This tiny baby was clearly very small but very much a member of the human family.

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Today at 4pm, mom went in for a sonogram. She is 7 weeks along, and all of a sudden last week, she lost all her sickness symptoms. We were all very afraid she had lost the baby, and mom herself was 99.9% sure this wasn't going to have a happy ending. I stayed home with my siblings, while mom and dad went to the doctor, and right about the time mom was supposed to be getting the sonogram, it started POURING down rain. Hard.

I went outside and just sat on our dock, watching the rain, and decided to draw. The only thing I could think of was the song by Casting Crowns- Praise You In This Storm. "As the thunder rolls, I barely hear you whisper through the rain, I am with you...And I'll praise You in this storm, and I will lift my hands. You are who you are, no matter where I am; and every tear I cry, you hold in your hands. You've never lef tmy side, and though my heart is torn, I will praise You in this storm."

Little did I know I was doodling with washable crayons, and as I drew, the words and pictures kept washing away..

Then, as I sat there, in the pouring rain, I noticed the sun breaking through the clouds, and shining bright, as the rain continued in a heavy down pour.

And then, it just stopped. And all was calm, and perfectly quiet.

And as I sat with the sunshine drying the tears from my cheeks, my sister called me...

"I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD." Psalm 27:13-14

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The tragedy of abortion remains one of this nation’s greatest reasons for shame, and the fact that over a million abortions are performed each year is nothing less than horrifying. In light of this tragedy, it is at least encouraging to know that abortion, though an industry of death, is not a growth industry. At least for now.

All that may change if a new movement meets with success. As reported by Emily Bazelon, a new movement seeks to move abortions from abortion clinics to your local hospital, medical school, and physician’s office. In other words, those behind this new movement intend to mainstream abortion as medical practice, and to hide it behind a facade of medical respectability.

The story of how and why this is happening is important, and Bazelon’s cover article demands attention. If this movement is successful, abortion will become institutionalized within American medical practice.

The background for this new movement is itself interesting. When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the infamous Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion in 1973, 100 obstetricians and gynecology professors released an open letter, suggesting that abortion clinics would be unnecessary if half of the nation’s obstetricians would make abortion part of their medical practice. They also called upon hospitals to do “their proportionate share.”

But, as Bazelon reports, this was not to be. As a matter of fact, hospitals largely worked their way out of the abortion business. Hospitals accounted for 80 percent of abortion facilities in 1973, when abortion was legalized. By 1988, 90 percent of abortions took place in an abortion clinic. In Bazelon’s words, “The American Medical Association did not maintain standards of care for the procedure. Hospitals didn’t shelter them in their wings. Being a pro-choice doctor came to mean referring your patients to a clinic rather than doing abortions in your own office.”

This was not what the architects of the abortion rights movement had in mind. “This was never the feminist plan,” Bazelon explains. She goes on to argue that the founders of the abortion clinics also did not intend those facilities to become the mainstays of the abortion industry, but this is rather hard to square with the financial incomes those clinics defend.

Nevertheless, the fact is that abortions were largely isolated to abortion clinics, and most doctors kept themselves far from involvement in abortion. In the words of a much-cited 1992 medical journal article, “Under pressure and stigma, more doctors shun abortion.”

The turning point in Bazelon’s article comes when she explains that this new movement is doing everything it can to reverse these trends — and to put abortion in the mainstream of American medical practice. Bazelon calls this “a deliberate and concerted counteroffensive.”

Further:

This abortion-rights campaign, led by physicians themselves, is trying to recast doctors, changing them from a weak link of abortion to a strong one. Its leaders have built residency programs and fellowships at university hospitals, with the hope that, eventually, more and more doctors will use their training to bring abortion into their practices. The bold idea at the heart of this effort is to integrate abortion so that it’s a seamless part of health care for women — embraced rather than shunned.

The center of the movement is the University of California at San Francisco. There, Professor Jody Steinauer told the magazine, “The ’90s were about getting abortion back into residency training and medical schools . .  . Now it’s about getting abortion into our practices.”

Steinauer was a leader in founding Medical Students for Choice, a group that pushes for more visibility and for residency programs in abortion procedures and reproductive health. Largely due to the MSFC and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, fully half of the 200 OB-GYN programs in the country “integrate abortion into their residents’ regular rotations.”

The University of California at San Francisco medical school has also established a two-year “Family Planning Fellowship,” designed to attract promising young physicians. The program has now spread to 21 medical schools.

What this fellowship program and the larger movement aim to accomplish is nothing less than the normalization of abortion within the practice of medicine. As Bazelton observes, “The providers that make up the new vanguard don’t define themselves as ‘abortion doctors.’ They often try to make the procedure part of their broader medical practice — by spending much of their week seeing patients for general gynecology or primary-care visits, and by being on call on the labor and delivery floor. If the young doctors succeed at making abortion mainstream and respected within medicine, abortion could move from clinics to doctor’s offices and hospitals.”

Another part of this movement is driven by the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program, started by former National Abortion Federation director Uta Landy and her husband, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California at San Francisco. That program finances abortion training for medical students and doctors on 58 campuses. That program, Bazelon reports, is funded by one foundation and one anonymous donor. The foundation is the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for the late wife of investor Warren Buffett. According to Bazelon’s report, Warren Buffett contributed $3 billion to the foundation, and most of the foundation’s spending goes to “abortion and contraception advocacy and research.” Bazelon cites a report in the The Wall Street Journal that credited Buffett with funding the research to produce the abortion pill. Even with this massive funding in place, Warren Buffett has largely escaped public attention on the abortion issue.

And that is the aim — to normalize abortion without public notice, avoiding the protests outside abortion clinics. “We want to fight the battle, but not all of us are martyrs,” said one physician.

They have a long way to go. The report states that only 2 percent of abortions are now done in a physician’s office and only 5 percent are performed in a hospital. The medical profession is still reluctant, at the very least, to embrace abortion as normal practice.

As Bazelton explains:

This highlights the challenge of making abortion truly mainstream — of moving beyond residency training and outside the haven of medical-school faculties, so that more doctors offer abortions when they join a regular OB-GYN or primary-care practice. As yet, all the success in training new doctors hasn’t translated into an increase in access. Abortion remains the most common surgical procedure for American women; one-third of them will have one by the age of 45. The number performed annually in the U.S. has largely held steady: 1.3 million in 1977 and 1.2 million three decades later. In metropolitan areas, women who want to go to their own doctor for an abortion can ask whether a practice offers abortion when they choose an OB-GYN or family physician. But in 87 percent of the counties in the U.S., where a third of women live, there is no known abortion provider.

Emily Bazelon’s report offers a fascinating and important look at abortion in American today — past, present, and future. She points sympathetically to this new movement and its aims, but she seems to sense that the medical profession is still resistant to abortion, and may remain so.

She writes with great skill and insight, but she lets her own disposition slip when she refers to the aborted contents of a womb as “pregnancy tissue.”

This new movement, fueled by fervent abortion advocates and financed, in part, by Warren Buffett’s billions, may make real headway. We must pray that it does not. The normalization of abortion within the practice of medicine would be a tragedy beyond words — the embrace of death within a profession dedicated to life.

The front cover of the magazine asks the question: “Is this the new front in the abortion wars?” If the magazine’s editors did not believe that indeed this is the next front in this long war, they would never have asked the question. Now, thanks to Emily Bazelon and this report, we all know the answer to that question.

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When I came home, it was dead, so I filmed the rest straight from my Macbook's Webcam. The random questions I answered were for the Life In A Day documentary that youtube is making. Also, yes, I did speed up parts of the video, due to time, and not wanting to bore you to death. :p lol

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Photo by Kate Roberts. Edited by me. :)

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Also, please be in prayer for the prolife group I am starting. The first unofficial meeting is tomorrow. :)

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Year after year my favorite season rolls around, and my favorite thing to do invloves water. Sailing, swimming, wake boarding,...if it's in the water, I probably love it.

However, I have a huge problem-modest swimwear. So, if you feel like you are drowning for decency, with out looking like a thug in big baggy tshirts and boys shirts, while at the beach or pool, this post is for you! :)

While googling modest swimwear, I came across http://www.hydrochic.com

I ordered the Tanoka Swim Tank Top, because I love to tan, so sleeveless was a must. (Before I just cut the sleeves off of a tshirt, and wore it over my bathing suit, but it wasn't very feminine.)

http://www.hydrochic.com/swimtank.html

I also ordered the Athletic Water Skirt with attached pants.

http://www.hydrochic.com/short-skirt-attached-pants-for-coverage.html

Much better than the board shorts I used to wear. I feel girly, but they are perfect for my very active life of ultimate frisbee, beach volleyball, or just diving in the pool. (Also, they don't chap like board shorts do.)

Having this new swimsuit has made swimming and trips to the water park fun again! I went from feeling like a wet thug in baggy clothes to a girly swimmer.

They have lots of other options, so I totally suggest checking their site out! Modest swimwear is something a lot of homeschool girls struggle with finding, and I searched many many sites. This was the first one I found that I actually LOVED. Worth every cent and more. :)

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Ending abortion by 2020? It's a real possibility, but it takes action, not apathy.

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For my tenth vlog I decided to do something special. I didn’t want just another “what I did today” vlog. So, I took the first step in my newest projects and I called the abortion clinic- something I hope to never do again.

For a few minutes I put myself into the shoes of a pregnant 16yr old girl. I chose 16, because for my best friend’s 16th birthday a few years back I took her to get her ears pierced, and they wouldn’t let her with out a parent present. That got me thinking, why can girls get abortions with out their parents knowing, but for a minor to get her ears pierced or a tan there has to be parental consent? To be fair, our state does have some rules on needing parental consent, but it is easy to get around and our state is much stricter with their abortion rules, compared to more liberal states.

I knew about the rules and how to get around them, so the first thing I did was ask about the judicial by-pass. She gave me a phone number and after that I would have been cleared to abort with out my parents.

I then asked about the procedure. I picked 18 weeks for a few reasons. Mainly, this picture

Most abortions take place between 8-12 weeks into the pregnancy. (That is 2-4 months along)

A few facts about an 8-12week old baby in the womb:

8-12 weeks old- 

* The length of 8 cm (3.2 inches).
* The face is well formed
* The eyelids close and will not reopen until about the 28th week.
* Tooth buds, which will form the baby teeth, appear.
* The limbs are long and thin.
* The baby can make a fist with its fingers.
* Red blood cells are produced in the liver.

* The baby develops fingernails and eyelashes

(Keep in mind that the brain was formed at 6 weeks, and the heart began beating after only 18 days.)

The latest you can get an abortion at this clinic is 22weeks. (That’s just our state: other states let you abort up until delivery.) Premature babies have been born and survived at this age.

This is a 22week old baby that was aborted, burned by the saline.

Gianna Jessen was a survivor of a failed saline abortion, and her testimony is incredible. I recommend looking her up on youtube.

When describing the procedure, she made it sound like a very pleasant and easy thing, and even told me it was safer than natural birth. Wrong. 100% of abortions end in death-Death of the precious and innocent baby. However, abortion has also been linked to infertility, breast cancer, multiple other health problems, and cases of botched abortions that lead to the mother’s death. (Not to mention the emotional side of killing your baby.)

To give you an idea of how trained these abortion workers are in their lingo, when she said abortion was safer than childbirth, she called the baby a “fully grown fetus.” Who sends out birth announcements saying, “It’s a fully grown fetus girl!” Or baby showers take place while the baby is in the womb, so why don’t we call them “fetus showers?” If a baby, when it is born, is considered to be a fully-grown fetus, then at what point does it get to be a human and not a scientific term?

When I asked for alternative options she put me on hold ten minutes and then returned to give me the number to Planned Parenthood. (In other words, they don’t offer any other options.)

It’s going to be a long road ahead, trying to get the clinic closed down, but I do think it will start by informing and educating, [Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:”] as well as continued prayer.  

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To some summer is nothing but heat and misery,

But let me tell you what summer means to me.

Summer begins when the last bud blooms,

And carries on till the first frost’s doom.

Summer is sunshine’s warming delight,

Summer is a swimming pool with a splash fight.

Late nights talking beneath the dazzling summer sky,

Or crisp dewy mornings as the early bird flies by.

Volleyball as sweat and sand stick to your skin,

Speeding out of the ocean cuz someone saw a shark fin.

The smell of sunscreen in the salty sea breeze;

Picnics on the beach with bologna and cheese.

Summer is chasing fireflies barefoot in the grass,

Summer is sitting in the lawn and waving as people pass.

Fast water slides and lazy lagoons,

Eating ice cream and sno-cones with spoons.

Wakeboarding, surfing, and skimboards to ride,

Escaping the heat with the air conditioning inside.

Summer is running as the Frisbee floats by,

Summer is chlorine burning your eyes.

Rolling up my sleeves to tan every chance I get,

Not missing the cold weather even the slightest bit.

Sand in my shoes, in my purse, on my clothes,

Sprinklers, water balloons, slip-n-slide, garden hose.

Summer is friends meeting up for lunch,

Summer is spitting seeds from the watermelons we munch.

My tanning oil that smells like coconut and lime,

Cooling my sunburn with Aloe slime.

I would be happy with summer all year round,

With spring, fall, and winter nowhere to be found.

To some summer is nothing but heat and misery,

But summer means so, so much more to me.

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Right now, your United States Senators are getting ready to give current nominee Elena Kagan a free pass for a lifetime position on the Supreme Court.

We are not giving up the fight. For the sake of our freedom, we're proud to join with Young America's Foundation, Citizens United, Young Americans for Freedom, and Eagle Forum for KEEP OUT KAGAN DAY: 6-8-10, a day for you and your peers to call your Senators and demand that they "Keep out Kagan."

Why we're fighting:

• Kagan has continuously trampled on student and individual rights, arguing that the government has the right to ban or censor certain publications.
• Kagan enacted an Apartheid system which prevented students from meeting with military recruiters at the Harvard Office of Career Services (OCS) while she served as dean of the law school.
• Kagan wrote an amicus brief encouraging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the Solomon Amendment, legislation designed to defend military recruitment efforts on campuses across the country.
• Kagan's Princeton thesis laments the decline of socialism in America.

These points alone should automatically disqualify Kagan from being considered for the Supreme Court vacancy.

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Don't you love supporting a fellow like-minded, Christian, Conservative, Homeschooler? Me too!
Our graphics guy (the one who makes the amazing pro-life pictures you've seen on my site and blog posts) has submitted an awesome web design for a contest at weebly.com.

Please help him win, by clicking the link and hitting "vote." (That's it! No need to sign up, or fill anything out.)  http://bit.ly/c1gHJG

Thanks, y'all! ^_^

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So life has been EXTREMELY crazy lately. (You might have noticed, due to my lack of blog posts and vlogs.) What has been going on?
Well, I'm a little bit older. (19 to be exact....well, to be exact it's like 19 and almost a month...still not exact, but don't feel like counting the days. lol) I also have been through a week of TeenPact, varies extracurricular activities, and most recently, filming the video SweetHeart.

I made a couple of vlogs during that time-

But I haven't made one since TeenPact, so they are really not that up to date on life.

Anyway, during all that life has been one big blur of excitement, hard work, rushing, sleep deprivation, and skipping meals or eating junk food. You know...Ale8, pizza, M&Ms (blah, so sick of M&Ms. lol) Mt. Dew, Happy Meals, Ice Cream....it's been party after party, or grab and go meal after grab and...you get the idea. I have been treating my poor body more like a youth group than the Temple of God.
With that, I came up with an idea. I wanted to wait till I had a "partner in crime" to do it with me, and to hold me accountable, but I figured you the blog readers could do that for me. ;) hehe

I like to challenge myself with new things, and to "Do Hard Things." Therefore this is the "Do Hard Things Diet."
Here's how it's gonna go down-

It starts with a three day fast. Then from May 1st to August 1st things are going to be a bit strict.

Foods I can eat-

Fruit
Veggies
Brown Rice
Beans
Nuts
Soy

Foods I can not eat-

Anything not on the above list. :P
Which includes Wheat, Dairy, Sugar, and Meat.

Also, my daily work out will be alternated between running and strength training.

Sooooo, 4 months. Think I can do it? I'm pretty active in the summertime, but I have grandparents coming to visit (eating out a lot.) and we are going to Texas (eating out a WHOLE lot. lol) I said I like challenges, right? hehe :P
Rules- I can pick one day a month to "cheat"...mainly July, since State Speech Day is also Red Lobster Day. Just saying. lol

I'll post again about it May 1st. :)

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BitterSweet.mp3 Listen on Posterous

The song my best bud composed for my video, SweetHeart.
I had to shorten it for the video, so I wanted to share the full length version with you all. :)

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We were a pretty giggly bunch...wonder if it had anything to do with the amount of M&Ms we consumed. lolz

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