Archive for July, 2009
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Sadness
Saturday, July 25th, 2009We are heading back to California tomorrow—we were planning on staying longer but some important things came up and we are going back quite a bit early. It has been very emotional for Alexander and I to be leaving and has reminded me again as to how we handle change and disappointment with our children. Our job as parents is frequently to help them deal with their own emotions of sadness, anger and disappointment, either large or small.
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A Loss That is More Than A Loss?
Monday, July 20th, 2009Last week two year old twin boys lost their mother. Maria del Carmen Bousada died of a tumor in her native country of Spain. The boys will never know or remember their mother. This isn’t a typical kind of tragic loss – the particular situation with this family is that Maria was 69 years old. She did not adopt the boys. She was the one of the oldest known women to give birth.
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Fox 17 Morning News Interview: Diet During Pregnancy
Monday, July 20th, 2009Last week I was interviewed on the Fox 17 Morning News in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I’d like to take my next couple of blog posts to address the things we talked about. The newscaster and I initially discussed how diet and exercise should be approached during pregnancy. Check out these blogs for more discussions on healthy eating during pregnancy.
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Internet Connectivity
Monday, July 13th, 2009Argh – I have been offline intermittently for the past 2 weeks. My family and I are in South Haven Michigan on Lake Michigan for several weeks. Until this summer we had only dial-up Internet, which was simply torture. Although we are on the lakefront and near a good size community, our immediate area is very rural. It takes 10 minutes off the main road onto a windy dirt road to get all the way out to us.
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Egg Donation For Stem Cell Research
Monday, July 6th, 2009Last week every major newspaper reported that New York has become the first state to allow taxpayer-funded researchers to pay women for giving their eggs for embryonic stem cell research. In the recent governmental shift of supporting embryonic stem cell research this is a development welcomed by scientistists world-wide. However, it has received harsh criticism by opponents who fear that it will lead to the exploitation of poor women.
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The Delicate Balance of Life and Death
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009I don’t like talking about the sad and difficult aspects of birth. But these two stories struck me and made me want to again bring up the simple truth that the birth process is not inherently simple and safe and the balance of life and death is delicate. We have to be careful not to put more emphasis on the “experience” rather than the “outcome”. Although these situations are vastly different they both show the precarious nature of bringing life into the world.
