Value Of Life

I came across this article the other day http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/03/10/parents-get-2-9m-in-down-syndrome-girl-wrongful-birth-suit/.  Take the few minutes to read it and then continue with this post.

Unbelievable.  I cannot fathom the thoughts of these people.  How can you say in one breath that you love your child, but also admit that if you could do it all over again, you would have aborted her?  Why?  Because she is not perfect.

Okay, I can kind of get the legal aspect of it.  It comes down to simple malpractice, giving them the right to sue the doctors for misinformation.  Trust me, after the number a surgeon did on my grandma during her brain surgery, I have often wondered why we have not gone after him.  But, to think that these parents would have killed their little girl if the test had come out positive?  And that they still think this even after meeting her?  It is simply unbelievable to me.

So they received $2.9 million for the cost of their child.  Because the doctors failed to prepare them for the expensive child they would deliver.  Hmm.  Where is my extra money for all the trips to the ER I have had with one boy so far?  Where is the extra money for parents whose children develop physical or mental challenges later in life? 

There are no guarantees when it comes to children.  We have no promises of perfect health or an easy road of parenting.  There is no way of knowing the decisions that they will make or how long they will live.  If there was some magic test to tell us of all the heartache that we as parents would face, then we might all give up and decide it was not worth it.

I have read many arguments about the value of this child's life.  Some who are in favor of the lawsuit argue that people should be able to abort their special needs children because of the quality of that child's life.  Seriously?  Who are we to say who is valuable and worthy of living?  Who are we to know what kind of life these DS kids will go on to live?  Every single day is a gift.

Nick's Aunt Judy had Down Syndrome.  She was a lovely person who passed away when I was pregnant with Caleb.  As the youngest sibling in my father-in-law's family, she was a joy to everyone.  Yes, I am sure it was a challenge for her parents and siblings, but would they change that?  Absolutely not.  Ask anyone who knew her and they would tell you how full of joy she was.

To this day, when we sing certain songs in church (especially anything with an Alleluia in it), we think of Judy.  She would belt out her favorite songs from the back row, loud enough for the front rows to hear.  I can imagine that she is leading the choir in Heaven right now.  Judy's love for Jesus and her family was amazing.  Everytime that the Rosenfeldts get together, we still miss her presence.

Judy was valuable.  She was worthy of life.  Just like every child who is killed because they are not good enough for their parents.  Or because they might cost a little more money than they are prepared to spend.

Oh, and by the way, there is this beautiful thing called adoption.  I have seen the arguments that special needs children do not get adopted.  Check out http://theshepherdscrook.org/.  This family in our church seeks out to adopt special needs children.  And they are not the only ones in the world.

Life is beautiful.  It is messy and most often not easy, but it is still beautiful.  It seems to me that every child should be given a chance to be a part of it.

Smells

Caleb had to fill out a paper at school titled "Things I Smell."

Always a fun question for preschoolers.

When I get up in the morning, I like to smell...EGG
When I play outside, I can smell...AIR
One thing I sometimes smell in the kitchen is...COOKIES
Another thing I smell at my school is...SNACK
One thing I don't like to smell is...ELEPHANT
My favorite smell of all is...EGG

So, apart from the obvious love of eggs and cookies that my boy has, he clearly has been to the zoo and visited the elephant house.  It does get pretty bad in there.  I mean, he could have mentioned Noah's diapers or our ridiculous fish tank, but he had to go with elephants.  He aims big.

I am still trying to figure out what air by itself smells like. 

Preschoolers Thoughts About Guns

After the infamous You Tube clip about the Invisible Children went wild last week, my kids started to pay attention.  Caleb saw the Today show talking about it while he ate breakfast and it really got him thinking. 

On the way to school that day, we picked up Caleb's carpool friend, Izzy.  In the midst of the kids singing silly songs and picking on each other, Caleb said, "Mom, can you tell Izzy the news?"

At first I did not understand what news he was referring to.  As far as I knew, our family did not have a baby on the way (I promise!) or had plans to sell the house and that is usually the first two things to think of when hearing "news."

He said, "You know, about the kids in Africa."

Now, it is one thing to explain the Invisible Children to my own kids in my own way, but to explain it to someone else's child?  Um, a little uncomfortable. 

I explained to Izzy that in some parts of Africa, there is a bad man who takes kids from their homes and teaches them to use guns to kill people.  I also explained that we should pray for the people in those countries. 

Caleb chimed in with, "He even makes them kill their own parents!"

Thank you, Caleb.  And thank you, Today show, for announcing such things at 7 a.m. 

Izzy thought about this for a moment, and then had two profound statements.

"My daddy uses a gun, but he doesn't use it to kill people."

And...

"There is going to be a lot of pets in Heaven.  Every time our pets die, they go there because God likes them so much."

Okay.  We went from Invisible Children, to dads who use guns to pets in Heaven.  I simply love preschool children.

Later on that evening, Caleb came up with a plan.  He said, "Mom, if that bad guy takes me and tells me to shoot people, I'll just shoot him."

Ah, the logic of my five-year old.

Another Wording Mistake

I just have to add to my previous post about my kids and their knack for saying the wrong word.

Caleb has had some chapping under his lip and just said to us, "My lip is chopped."

Sure.

Friday Deal

Anyone else have chapped lips during these winter months?  I know I do.  That's why I use the Satin Lips set.

Okay, cheesy commercial aside, if anyone wants to order the Satin Lips set from Mary Kay, you can get it for $15 instead of $18 for the next few days.  The first part of the set is a mask that you leave on for a couple of minutes.  Then you follow up with the lip balm.  They leave your lips feeling super soft.

Check it out and all of the other cool stuff that I sell at www.marykay.com/trosenfeldt.

Say That Again

-Abby was working on her research project while she was home sick this week.  She was told to look online to learn more about her animal of study, the Okapi.

The what?  Yes, the okapi.  Pretty sure that when I was in first grade, I was still learning about the basic animals that Noah could currently spot.

Anyway, she told me, "I'm allowed to look online.  I can go to Google and Ikeapedia."

Ikeapedia? 

When I asked if she meant, "Wikipedia," she said, "Oh, that's right!  Wikipedia!"

What a different world my little girl lives in than I did.

-Caleb has painful chapping under his lip right now.  He just came out of his room and said, "I need some more gasoline for my face."

Could he mean "vasoline?"  Let's hope so.

The Chronicles Of Poop

No one ever told me how much being a mother would involve poop.

Yes, I figured it out that I would be changing a bunch of diapers for the first couple of years.  I guess I just failed to see that it would be a couple of years-per child. 

Even so, I figured once they were potty trained, my concern for their bowel movements would not be that high on my list of things to worry about. 

Not true.

While Abby is a sweet girl who does her business and sees no need to describe it to me, I also have a son.  Mr. Caleb finds it fascinating to see how big his movements can get or what the shape resembles.  I cannot tell you how many times that I have heard the phrase, "Mom, you gotta look at this!" come from the bathroom.  Add on his stomach issues and needing miralax every day, my professional skills with the plunger and I am pretty much over discussing Caleb's poop.

Oh, but wait-I have a second son. 

Noah seems to have read the book on "How to be a boy to your mom who is a girl" and really worked on his special present for me yesterday.

He was napping (i.e. goofing off in his pack-n-play in my room) when I checked on him.  I could smell the poop from the stairway so I figured I was in for it.  When I picked him up, I realized that he had taken off his pants.  After I placed him on my bed to change him, I noticed that he had poop everywhere. 

Everywhere.  On his legs.  On his shirt.  On his fingers.  And, oh yes, on his face.

Now, my first reaction was to leave and flee.  If he is independent enough to remove his pants, then he can clean himself up, right?

I finally remembered his age of 17 months, grabbed the wipes and got to work.

Unfortunately, he must have been playing around in there for quite awhile because it took a lot of work to clean his hands.  I used those wipes and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed the poop off his fingers.  Noah, of course, sat there giggling.  Nick's son was not making me very happy.

I finally cleaned him up and went into Caleb's room to get new clothes.  When I told Caleb that Noah had pooped everywhere, he said, "Oh, I want to see!"

I immediately shut the door before he could follow me.

After putting Noah back down to nap and washing my hands for a very, very long time, I heard Abby run to the bathroom.  As I ran upstairs and held her hair back as she lost her two saltine crackers and ginger ale, I thought, "No, Abby, you're my clean, pretty girl that doesn't gross me out!"

But, instead, I rubbed her back and told her that everything would be okay.

And it will be.