"unPLANNED"

I recently finished reading an interesting book with my mom called "unPLANNED." This book is written by Abby Johnson and she tells about her experience working as the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas. Abby loved her job and really enjoyed the helping women/educating women aspect of the job. As director of Planned Parenthood, Abby ran the clinic and met with women who were pregnant and contemplating getting an abortion.

One afternoon the clinic was short-staffed and Abby was called into one of the procedure rooms to help out. The abortionist (doctor who performs abortions) was performing an ultrasound-guided abortion and Abby was asked to hold the ultrasound probe to the belly of the woman having an abortion. What Abby witnessed next was so sickening and gut wrenching that it would change her views on abortion forever. Even though Abby was pro-choice and had worked for Planned Parenthood for 10 years AND had had two abortions of her own, she'd never witnessed an abortion. Actually watching the abortion happen, coupled with the abortionist's cavalier attitude made her absolutely sick.

I really liked this book and it gave me a lot to think about. Even though I don't personally agree with abortion, I enjoyed learning more about some of the things that go through the minds of women contemplating having one. I also enjoyed learning more about Planned Parenthood, since it's an organization that I don't know very much about. One of the things pertaining to Abby's job at Planned Parenthood that I found troubling was that as the economy started to go down she said that the higher-ups at Planned Parenthood started pressuring her to push women into getting abortions when she met with new clients who were pregnant and considering abortion. (Performing abortions is how Planned Parenthood makes most of their money.) Another thing that was difficult for Abby was that a new 5 or 6 story Planned Parenthood facility had opened up where late-term abortions on babies as old as 24 weeks were performed  That really didn't sit well with her.

This book was a real page turner and got really intense at parts. I liked it a lot and definitely recommend it to people that enjoy interesting reads.

I Will Carry You

I heard a story on the news yesterday morning that made my heart feel good, so I wanted to share it. They shared this photo and the heartwarming story behind it.

This is a picture of former Marine, Jesse Cottle. In 2009, Jesse was serving in Afghanistan and was dismantling an IED when it went off, leaving him a double amputee. He's had his ups and downs, but has been able to recover physically, mentally and emotionally with the help of his family and his faith. He met his future wife, Kelly, in San Diego when she was in town for a swim meet. They hit it off and Kelly never thought twice about being with Jesse, despite his physical limitations. 

Jesse and Kelly got married last year. This picture of them the was taken recently when they were in Idaho spending time with Kelly's family. They were getting family portraits taken and the photographer had the family go into the river. Jesse took off his prosthetic legs and Kelly carried him on her back. This isn't something unusual for her, since she often carries him on her back when they go to the beach since Jesse's prosthetic legs aren't very supportive on sand. 

Anyway, the photographer took some pictures of Kelly carrying Jesse and posted them online. It didn't take long for them to go "viral" and they've been "liked" or shared thousands of times. Jesse said (regarding the picture), "It kind of symbolizes the kind of person that my wife is … The type of person that she is on the inside and out." 

Kelly sounds like a really special person. I loved this story and it reaffirms my hope that perhaps one day someone will be able to fall in love with me and accept me, despite my physical limitations. That's a tall order, I know, but I also know that with God, all things are possible.

Kimball's 6th Birthday

My nephew Kimball's 6^th birthday was last Friday and I was so grateful to be able to celebrate it with him since he was in town visiting.  My mom made peach danish for Kimball's birthday breakfast.

Later that morning we gathered in the family room and opened presents. It was fun to watch Kimball open his presents, and fun to see how excited Rebecah was to watch Kimball open his gifts.

My mom gave Kimball a set of his own K'nex since he always enjoys playing with my K'nex so much. He was excited and wasted no time before breaking them out and it wasn't long before he'd built several creations.

I know how much Kimball loves Magic Tree House books, and he wants to own all of them (there's 50 MTH books so far), so I was glad I could add to his collection. I also bought him one of the Magic Tree House fact tracker books. These are nonfiction books that go along with the fiction series. They're really neat because they talk about different things like space or mummies, places like ancient Rome and events in history. The one I bought him was about the Titanic (this was a fitting one for me to give him since the Titanic has always fascinated me). Kimball kept asking his mom to check the Titanic fact tracker book out from the library and was frustrated that she never let him get it. Little did he know that I was getting it for him for his birthday, and we wanted it to be a surprise!

Kimball with his presents, including seven Magic Tree House books:

Kimball's dad had to go back to New York to work part way through the Coffeys visit, so he unfortunately missed out on Kimball's birthday. Thanks to modern technology, though, he was still able to be a part of the present opening via Skype. I thought these pictures of Kimball talking to his dad on the iPad were really sweet.

Below is a picture of Kimball and me with the Magic Treehouse books I gave him, plus a picture of Annette and me and one of us with the kids. My mom and I went out to lunch to Pizza Hut with Annette and the kids after we finished opening presents. The kids love Pizza Hut and had fun eating the lunch buffet.

After lunch Annette took Kimball to Mastodon State Park for some one-on-one time (and Rebecah and I went home and watched Tangled). There's a little museum there that they spent some time exploring. Here's a picture of Kimball posing with a mastodon.

Kimball wanted hamburgers for dinner, and they were mighty tasty! This is a picture of his birthday cake. My mom recently found a recipe for chocolate zucchini cake and that's what Kimball wanted. I was a little leery of the cake when my mom made it for the first time, but it was actually really good. We invited my friend Kellie and her family over to have dessert with us. She has a little boy (Ethan) who's a few weeks younger than Kimball. Whenever Kimball's in town visiting he always asks to play with Ethan.

I'm really glad Kimball was here for his birthday; I sure love that little guy!

Grant's Farm

When Annette and her kids were here they went to Grant's Farm with my mom. I stayed home since I was still recovering from being sick. (Plus, Grant's Farm isn't the most wheelchair-friendly place.) Mom, Annette and the kids sure had lots of fun, though, so I thought I'd make a post about it even though I wasn't along for the ride.

I love this next few pictures. Kimball and Rebecah stopped to look at the goats and gave this guy's head a pat. I guess Rebecah's skirt looked appetizing because he started munching on it (in the second picture). So funny!

Above is a neat tortoise (I wonder how old it is? I've heard that tortoises can live to be really old and have really long life expectancies). Below are some beautiful, exotic-looking birds:

There were definitely some interesting animals to look at. I love the picture of this guy (a llama, I think). He sure thinks he's hot stuff (at least, that's what his face says!).

The animals were great, but one of the things the kids liked best were the misters:

Kimball looking at some of the antique carriages: