Safe Haven Expansion

www.SaveAbandonedBabies.org
www.NationalSafeHavenAlliance.org

Grrrrr..........
Yesterday morning in a suburb of Chicago, a 2 week old, Hispanic baby girl was bundled up, placed in a carrier and LEFT ON A GARBAGE PILE. A man looking for salvageable stuff found her at about 8am yesterday. No thanks to her parents, she's in good health and has been handed over to DCFS. Why go through all the trouble of dressing, bundling, covering with a blanket... only to leave your child in the garbage?
For the past week I've been researching whether to increase the legal age of relinquishment in Illinois from 7 days up to 30 days. At first I thought that doing so wouldn't change anything, because we still have women who abandon babies because they either don't know about the law, or are afraid to test it out. So how will increasing the age change the fact that some women are still too afraid to GO INTO a safe haven? I'll admit that I just don't know. If the law was different, would this woman have taken her baby to a safe haven instead of leaving her in the trash? No way to know. FYI, the current law only covers babies 7 days or younger. This woman would not have been covered by the Safe Haven Law if she had walked into a hospital and said, "I can't keep the baby." She'd have been directed to a crisis center, if she's lucky, or given a list of adoption agencies and told to go about her business.
What I DO know is that if we increase the age to 30 days, it will bring some much needed attention to this law, which was meant to save lives. As always, if even one life is saved by this law, isn't it worth it? If just one child is safely relinquished instead of abandoned or neglected, isn't that what matters? Don't frightened pregnant women need more options when they WANT to be responsible? When they can't keep their child, but want to keep them SAFE?

Out of Nowhere, Part II

A while back I received a call from an old friend. I was less than thrilled, because I remembered all the reasons we'd stopped talking in the first place. So I let it pass, and we haven't spoken since. I've learned that it's okay to walk away from people.
Earlier today I read a post from my friend here http://whatsinsissyshead.blogspot.com
(sorry, the linky thing isn't working) about friendship and how it wanes but can still be resurrected. It was a new perspective for me.

Then later on this morning I got an email from an even older friend - but this was one I was SO happy to talk to! The last time I saw her we were probably 15 years old, and I honestly don't remember how we split. Grew apart? No time for one another? Who knows. But I do have pictures of the last party we went to together. And so does she :) Anyway, got the email. She asked for my phone number, then she called me right away. It was great to re-connect, talk about our kids, and how our lives went from where they were, to where we are now. Also, it was great to explain to someone that my younger son was named after my father, that can say, "Yeah, he was a great guy. Remember when he used to...?" because she knew him. So few people in my life knew my father, it's comforting to speak with someone who did. She's also one of the *very* few people who ever met my half sister, the one I've been looking for over the past few years, with no luck.

Okay, so MySpace isn't a total waste :) Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised by the people who find me there!

Half Done Life

Some days I feel like I'm living a Half Done life. When people come to our house, I apologize that it's torn up in parts, because everything is Half Done. As in, "Welcome to the Half Done house! We're so glad you could come!" When I get an email about the Safe Haven project I'm supposed to be working on, I race to finish, because it's only Half Done. There's a file sitting on my computer. It's the book I started to write. You guessed it, it's Half Done.
The laundry at home is only Half Done, too.
Do I have some inherent problem with follow through? Or is life just that busy? Character flaw? Or standard mom stuff?
Anyway, this week I fully intend to finish my research on expanding the Safe Haven law, even while Bastard Nation is calling for a repeal of the SH laws in every state. Then again, they do have some crazy backwards thinking, those loonies at Bastard Nation.
But the book and the laundry? Those may remain Half Done for a while. I've got some baby saving to do.

Not Again!!!

GB has another crazy red, pus filled blob on his knee!!! How could this be??? It started as a little red spot. I told him I thought it was an ingrown hair (he'd die if he knew I was sharing this) and day by day it's just getting worse :( Of course it comes to a head (proverbial and literal) today, so that it'll be 2 days before we can get him in to see the doctor. We've been scrubbing, cleaning and peroxide-ing it, then using Neosporin.... and still, it's looking bad. WHY!?!?! I feel sooo bad for him, I know it hurts and he does NOT want me doing all this to torture help him :(
Gonna go slap a warm washcloth on it now. And hope for the best.
(That's what my trusty WebMd.com said to do. And they haven't lied to me before)

Oh, Hai!

With the handy dandy follow blog features now on Blogger, I'm spending far more time reading blogs than writing my own. Sorry to have neglected to share the dysfunction this week!

Belly told me his leg hurt, and showed me a spot on it.
He said, "Momma, I have a broo on my leg."
Me: Huh?
Belly: "A BROO, Momma. Look."
Me: Oh, and BRUISE. You have a bruise on your leg, right?
Belly: "No, momma. I just have one broo."
Apparently he believes bruise is the plural of "broo"

Golden Boy's class submitted weather pictures to Channel 7 News, and selected pictures were featured this week on air... including GB's this morning!! How cool is that?!

Headache Hell

For the past 24 hours, I've been struggling to function while feeling like my skull is being ruptured, and in so much pain I'm nauseous. At the store with the kids earlier, Belly started to cry over some ridiculously overpriced toy, and in between the harsh lights and his loud crying, I actially reached up and covered my head with one arm and my face with my other hand. I must have looked insane. I handed Belly the stupid Bakugan toy and with a grimace stuck on my face, told the kids we had to check out and get home. Sometimes just standing up or sitting down will make my head pound so much I can't see.
SO I go to my trusty friend, WebMd.com, and find that the symptoms and timing indicate menstrual migraines.
Which is the same conclusion I came to a few months ago when one hit me with so much force that I didn't think I was going to be able to drive home. Yet, once it was over, I forgot all about it, and was surprised all over again when WebMd spat out the verdict.
If I believed in Karma, I'm sure I'd have to have killed a busload of saints and burned down a day care center to be in this kind of pain. Is there a special place reserved in hell, called the migraine room? Forget waterboarding, if you really want to torture someone, re-create a migraine and then make them go to work and take care of children while they hurt so much they can't even cry, for fear it will only make the pain worse.
Oh, sorry, and I being a whiny baby again??

Piece of @&*%! A Rant on Thermometers

EVERY digital thermometer we've had (and there have been many) switches to Celsius at some point, aggravating me to no end, because I never remember the conversions. Sure, I can look them up, but at 1am when my son feels like a little furnace and I'm not sure if I'm overreacting or he truly could fry bacon on his tummy, I need to know the facts.
We tried the standard under the tongue/armpit ones, but never got any accuracy bc Belly won't sit still long enough for it. We tried the little forehead strips, but may as well have been reading tea leaves for the amount of accuracy there. So the last time there was a nasty sickness running amok in our house, we got a digital thermometer that is supposed to quickly and accurately read the temp from the temple of your little sickie. No fuss, could use it when he was sleeping, sounded great.

Last night his fever spiked to (at least by the thermo's readings) 103.4 and I just about had a heart attack. Never mind that I'm a veteran mom - I always feel helpless and clueless when my kids get sick. So Hubs and I debated it and took the temp over and over. It varied by a degree or so, but still, that's pretty high. Tylenol took it down, thankfully, and he slept well afterwards.

Fast forward to this morning, and all of a sudden this piece of crapola is reading in Celsius. Oh come on! I looked up a conversion chart, and it says that F 99.5 to F 101 are all going to read C 38. How's THAT for accuracy!? So, he could have a mild fever, or he could be on the verge of febrile seizures.... good old Celsius just won't tell me. So I'm going to spend the day hovering over him and using the best gauge of temperature I know....

Mom's hands.