A Few More Things I've Learned Mo. 6

1.  It is best to keep your mouth closed when playing horsey with him on my knees... he drools.
2. Just because he is usually quiet and content in the mid afternoon does not mean he will be during a diplomat's presentation.
3. Necklaces, glasses, and hair must look like finger food.
4. If toys are absent, toes will do.
5. There is a reason for board books. No more sitting in my lap while I read my Bible.
6. If you forgot to pack an extra outfit in the diaper bag, he'll probably have blow out.
7. Don't lick your fingers when the food that is on them is pureed squash. 

http://heatherpaiges.blogspot.com/2011/11/few-things-ive-learned.html for Mo. 1

The Whistle Blower

Watch the Whistle Blower, but not for entertainment purposes. 

Check out demandabolition.org- this one is about ending prostitution from the demand side.  Help change the fact that trafficking awareness meetings are full of women.  Practicality says talk to the johns. 

Panicking like a Hebrew

Sometimes when I prepare to feed my 6-month-old son, he loses patience and panics- he throws his head back dramatically and screams all while wriggling and making himself hard to hold onto and harder to convince that "the food is right here, buddy.  Open your eyes."  I sometimes tell him, "Son, I know your needs.  I will feed you and clean you and keep you warm and give you love.  I have provided for you thus far, why would I stop now? I am going to take care of you." 

Today I added to my lecture, "You are acting like the Hebrews.  At the Red Sea, when they saw Pharaoh's army pursuing them, they flew into a needless panic.  Had God not shown His compassion for them when He brought them out of Egypt, had He not proven his power through 10 wondrous plagues, had He not provided for them a pillar of cloud (guidance, shade, cool) and a pillar of fire (guidance, light, warmth) in the desert.  Later, He would even give them manna from the sky and water from a rock.  Did they think He would abandon them at the sea?  Well, Son, God parted the sea and they walked through on dry land and THEN He wiped out their enemy.  Exodus 14.  Baby Boy, I have not failed you yet.  Why are you panicking like a Hebrew?" 

Then I realized that God has reason to ask me the very same question.  Wham!  Humbled.  "Heather, why do you worry about your life?  Look at the birds of the air...your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you  not much more valuable than they?  If God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  Matthew 6.  I have provided for you thus far, why would I stop now?  I am going to take care of you."  Oh. 

Coercion.

"The Making of a Girl" by GEMS http://www.gems-girls.org/

If you don't think "teen prostitute" and "commercial sex slave" are synonymous, please look further.  http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/overview?gclid=CIyahdSwlq8CFUXc4AodTSv0zA

A Tree in the House and an Egg in the Bush

Have you thought about how odd American traditions must seem to foreigners?  I recall an Indian student at Texas A&M inquiring of me about Christmas.  "You cut down trees and put them inside your houses... then you hang things on them and store presents underneath?" 
I can imagine his confusion regarding Easter as well.  We have invented plastic eggs so that we can stick candy inside them then hide them in random places for children to find.  Why eggs?  And whats up with the rabbit?  I like our traditions, but when you look at it from the outside, it does appear quite silly.