Wow it has been 18 days!

The time slips by, catching us all unawares. Since my last post I have seen several milestones. I turned 39 on the 15th of October, my daughter has broken two teeth and almost crawls, my wife and daughter and I have gotten sick and (mostly) recovered from Pinkeye. (In truth Amy and Willa got pink eye, I got an ear infection. Amy also got bronkitis and a sinus infection...) Our good friend Jenny and Joe had thier new baby Julia Lea yesterday, and we got to see her looking at us with her big dark eyes, her natty black hair, and her super fun cone head!

The United States surpasses 300 million people within these last weeks, and I thought we were one of the countries that was not growing that fast. It is weird hearing about all of the different views on growth. In some parts of the world there are governemtn incentives for growing families, in others, more than one of two children are against the law.
I noticed the Roe-V.-Wade issues is rising to the top of public mind again. One state is trying to make abortion illegal this political cycle, and both sides of the issue are pouring dollars into the fight over this volatile issue. In the last weeks of our local Michigan gubenatorial campaign, the issue has come out in the mudslinging trash talk of each side as well.

Why are we not examining the social issues that surround this? It seems like if the right to life folks and the planned parenthood folks put some of this "education campaign" money towards schools, womens issues, and taking care of unplanned or unwanted children, that the abortion option might seem less like an easy decision. I go back and forth on this issue, and feel like we can not move forward with the extreme polarisation that has happened to this issue.

I admire in some ways the entrenched ideas of the Catholic church, that birth control might be a sin. They definitely lay out what is right in thier minds and take a stand. As a sinner, I can't tell how my actions might be perceived by the higher power. But humans will have sex, this seems to be a pretty basic hardwired urge. I don't think that it helps the debate to put sex into one little box that it is for creation only. Tell me all you Catholics, that you don't also enjoy it when you are not specifically trying to get with child!

So if humans will have sex, does it not seem smarter to look at making sure that men and women are taking the proper care of their partners? I will go on record saying that I had sex while I was single, I enjoyed it, but I also was careful to pick partners that I would be willing to help raise a child with, if that was the case!

I am the luckiest man in the world, as I did find the one right woman to be with forever, and had an amazing child, which we will both raise to respect herself, and feel good about herself, so that she will hopefully make great choices in her partners as well. End of story, the rest is taking care of each other, making good choices, and supporting outcomes that are unexpected. Believe me, if my daughter conceived outside of marriage, I would still support her 100%, and not make her feel like she did something wrong in loving the person she chose to be with.