Changed By Love

Changed By Love

Following the Lamb wherever he goes… Revelation 14:4

40 Days for Life – 65 Babies Saved So Far!

Mondays are the best days during the 40 Days for Life
campaigns, because that’s the day we share stories
about mothers who’ve changed their minds on the
sidewalks outside the abortion centers.

In just these first few days, there have already been …

… 65 babies saved — that we know of.

Praise God!!!

Here are the stories of three of those babies.

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MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
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One of the prayer volunteers noticed a man she
recognized … sitting in a car in the Planned
Parenthood parking lot. With him was his 18-month-old
child. Naturally, the volunteer went over to talk.

It seems the man’s wife was inside — setting up an
appointment for an abortion. She just didn’t want
another baby.

“When he said he didn’t want the abortion,” said Libby
in Memphis, “we said he needed to protect his baby right
now. He called his wife, and few minutes later she came
out and told us she was not going to seek an abortion.”

The volunteers hugged her, and gave her a list of
Memphis-area pregnancy resources.

One of these prayer volunteers in Memphis was taking
part in 40 Days for Life for the first time ever.

“She just felt so strongly that she needed to
participate,” Libby said. And what a wonderful thing
she saw on that first day!

——————————————————-
SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND
——————————————————-

A young woman arrived at Planned Parenthood … and it
was obvious her pregnancy was well advanced. She was
frightened and didn’t know what else to do.

The director of a pro-life pregnancy center was able to
speak to her and learn more about her situation, though
there was a bit of a language barrier. It seems the
woman is from Central America, and the baby’s father
abandoned her when he found out she was pregnant.

“She was very happy after the director counseled her and
explained that she would have support and better choices,”
said Molly in Silver Spring.

“Planned Parenthood would have referred her to a
late-term abortionist in the area,” she said. “In
Maryland, abortions can happen throughout the entire
pregnancy. We need to keep her in our prayers.”

——————————————————-
BEAUMONT, TEXAS
——————————————————-

A young woman who arrived for an appointment in Beaumont
admitted to the people praying outside the abortion
facility that she had tossed and turned all night over
what she was about to do.

One of the volunteers was quick to hand her information
from a pro-life pregnancy care center. About this time,
the young woman’s friend, who had come to the appointment
with her, spoke up. The friend said she’d had an abortion
herself — and “didn’t feel it was a good idea.”

At that, the woman who had planned to abort her child
broke down in tears.

After a lengthy discussion with the counselors on the
sidewalk, the two young women were smiling — and
heading towards the pro-life resource center.

“We have her phone number and will be in touch,” said
Eileen in Beaumont. “She left with tears of joy,
rather than sorrow. Your prayers and sacrifices are
definitely at work!”

Today’s devotional is from Fr. Frank Pavone, national
director of Priests for Life.

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DAY 6 INTENTION
——————————————————

Pray that those tempted to abort may understand that
their child is already present, and already a real
person.

——————————————————
SCRIPTURE
——————————————————

And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of
Mary that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth
was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said,
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit
of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the
mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as
soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears,
the babe leaped in my womb for joy.”

— Luke 1:41-44

——————————————————
REFLECTION by Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life
——————————————————

Jesus not only loves unborn children — He was one
himself!

Think about this for a moment.

We often hear people speak of a pregnant mother by
saying, “She’s expecting a child.”

Now if one is expecting a package, the package is not
yet there.

As reflected in our verse for today, however, this is
not the case with the mother.

Her gift is already there.

The pregnant woman, a mother already, does not have a
child “on the way,” but has a child, already present
and in full possession of his or her human rights,
starting with the right to life.

——————————————————
PRAYER
——————————————————

Jesus, open my eyes to your presence in the life of
every child. Open my heart to joy in the birth of
every child, a birth that reflects the joy of your own
birth in Bethlehem.

As you shared life in the womb of Mary, so now send
your protection upon every child still in the womb,
and grant to their mothers the strength and joy that
comes from welcoming the gift of life. We pray through
Christ our Lord, Amen.

Dolphin Tale Unit Study

The twins and I have been doing the unit study that came free from Homeschool Movie Club on Facebook to go along with Dolphin Tale (you can find this free curriculum at www.homeschoolmovieclub.com). We saw the movie during its opening in theaters back in September, but I didn’t want to do the study right then because the twins didn’t seem very excited about it. They liked the movie, but they didn’t want to do any school work based on it. I had it all printed out and put in a folder and just waited until the “right” time. Well, that time seems to be now.

I’m getting ideas for extension activities, such as a book from our bookcase called Friendly Dolphins that just happened to be laying on our coffee table the other day. I picked it up and started reading it to the twins a little later that day. Then I found an episode of Flipper on Netflix, so I had the twins watch it. Then I realized that Blockbuster Express has Dolphin Tale now, so I rented it two nights ago, and we watched it last night.

Here are some of the worksheets that are included in the unit study curriculum from Homeschool Movie Club.

We made a water column. We added maple syrup and cooking oil to the water and observed where they collected. That part itself was fascinating. Then we started dropping other objects such as a rock, a packing peanut, a piece of tomato and some solid shortening. We drew a picture of where those things floated in the water on the Buoyancy Worksheet above. I forgot to take pictures of our jar. It was lovely. Take my word for it.

The twins were pretty good at figuring out the correct vocabulary words that went with the definitions.

Nematocyst – New vocabulary word for all of us. We had a real-life example of what these nematocysts are used for, thanks to Patrick. When he was at the beach, he was stung by a jellyfish, and he had some red marks and swelling on his leg that lasted a couple of days. I showed the twins how the tentacles are full of nematocyst cells which hold venom inside of them, and when they feel something, they send out a little harpoon and pierce the skin and pour venom into it. And that’s why Patrick’s leg was hurting and turned red and swelled. They were fascinated by that. Later that evening, Fiona drew pictures based on what she learned during the day. She drew a shark (we started a study on sharks that day, too) and a jellyfish. Out of one of the tentacles of the jellyfish she drew a nematocyst sending a harpoon. I showed it to Patrick later, and he said she should have drawn his foot right next to it. 🙂

These are the worksheets from the shark study that we’ve done so far.

Fiona drew the shark teeth from pictures we had. Garrett is having to write the names of the sharks they came from.

I’m learning more about sea creatures than I knew before.

I looked for books at the library to go with our study and found tons of books about sharks, but very few about dolphins. Huh, I personally like dolphins a lot better than sharks. But I’m finding lots of good information, thanks to Dolphin Tale and Homeschool Movie Club. You can also find out more about Winter, the dolphin that Dolphin Tale was about at www.seewinter.com. There’s a webcam set up so you can watch Winter. You can even watch her at night through night vision. How cool is that?

While watching this movie the second time, I was struck even more by the way this dolphin is touching the lives of disabled children and adults. God uses His creatures in amazing ways to save, heal, encourage and restore each other.

Fiona’s Art Gallery

Fiona has been drawing foxes for quite some time now. I think she drew this one in December of 2011, while she was still 7.

Jan. 2012 – Just turned 8 years of age

Fiona drew this without any fanfare. This is Tommy and Kimi from The Rugrats. I found it later and asked who did it. I was surprised that Fiona could draw this so well without something to look off of.

February 24, 2012 – Age 8

Age 8 - Fiona drew this on her own after we did a lesson about sharks. The day before we'd had a lesson on jellyfish and how they sting.

The thing extended from the one jellyfish tentacle is the little harpoon from one of the many cells on the tentacles called nematocysts that contain the venom and send out a little harpoon that penetrates the victim’s skin and then sends the venom into the victim. Fiona drew the harpoon extended to show how it works.

Releasing Your Children to God

I’ve been reading the book How to Have a H.E.A.R.T. for Your Kids by Rachael Carman, owner of Apologia.

I also joined in on the tail end of a book club discussing this book after being invited by Kelli Becton of Adventurez in Child Rearing. Her guest post on Chapter 4 of this book is here.

In Chapter 4 of her book, Rachael does a wonderful job of helping parents to realize that our children are really God’s children. She says that this is one of the ways we do right by our children. When I was younger, a friend of mine told me that she saw her children as belonging to God and that He had loaned them to her for a short time. I didn’t really get it. I kind of rejected that idea. But now I understand it a lot better – 15 or so years down the road.

I see a number of different ways of releasing children to God.

One of them is a gradual releasing that involves letting children start to make decisions for themselves. We raise them to pray about everything so that their decisions will more likely be God’s will for their lives and will lead to good things happening – the right things. We teach them to pray for direction and listen to what God is saying.

Another is letting God lead in their education. When we finally got settled at least temporarily in Kansas City (after traveling around from state to state and hotel to hotel), I asked my oldest son what he wanted to study. He said he just wanted to study the Bible. I was surprised. I wanted him to do a little more of some academic subjects, too, so I asked him to write about what he learned from his Bible study, and I asked him to do some math and science. But I have had to let go of lots of things and let God lead them in their studies because of the number of children I have and the constant changes we have gone through in the last 6 years. They have learned many new skills and developed interests that I have not been able to direct or even observe at times.

Another is to release them when they get older, and it’s time for them to do the thing that God has called them to do. We have always prayed that they would discover God’s will for their lives. I prayed for them when the older ones were young that God would reveal to them their gifts and talents and how He wants to use them to glorify Him.

The hardest is to say to the Lord, “This is your child. Do with him as You will. Not my will, but Yours be done.” I did this when they were younger when I dedicated them to the Lord. I consecrated each of my children to God for His plan and purpose for their lives. I put them in His hands. I have had to seriously consider letting my older children go and actually leave our home lately, and I must admit, it scared me. They’re not ready, and it’s my fault. I don’t know what they will do if they leave the safe haven of our home.

My husband is stepping in to suggest or demand some things that I haven’t made them do so that we can make sure they’re ready for life in the world. I hate to even think about such a thing. It’s ironic that I am experiencing this at the time that I’m reading this book. Some of the choices they are making and the things they’re becoming interested in are not what I would have chosen for them. But I’m just praying for God’s will to be done in their lives and that He will guide them in the way that they should go. I have had my faith tested yet again. This is probably the hardest test so far. But I trust God to take care of my children even when they leave my home and my care. I have had to face the real possibility in the last few days. Once again, I gave them to the Lord and said, “Yes, I trust You, God.”

Releasing our children to God is not a one-time thing. I have had to do it many times throughout the years. I release them to God, but I don’t release them to satan or the world. I will not turn them over to the godless educational system or to anyone who tries to draw them away from God. But the final release is up to them. When they are old enough, I will trust them to stay true to the Word of God which they have learned in our home and to seek His will for their lives. And I will trust God to equip them and carry them the same way He did for me when it was time. But not until it’s time.

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I have linked this post to Women Living Well Wednesdays. Visit Courtney’s blog and see what other women bloggers are sharing about family, faith, marriage, parenting, etc.