Bella Babies

By Mark Earley
Lives Saved

When Christian actor Eduardo Verastegui devoted his career to serving God, he had no idea what might come out of his decision. He certainly couldn’t have imagined that his widely acclaimed movie Bella would literally save lives and souls. But that’s the story that author Tim Drake tells so well in his book Behind Bella.

As the book shows, God’s hand was on Eduardo and on the making of the movie from the very beginning. To prepare for his role in Bella, Eduardo wanted to find a real-life Nina—the co-lead in the film struggling with her unwanted pregnancy. So Eduardo paid a visit to a local abortion clinic.

Outside the clinic, a Mexican couple who had come to have an abortion recognized Eduardo from his acting days in Mexico. They approached him, and soon Eduardo found himself counseling them against having an abortion and telling them about the story of Bella. They talked for over an hour and on the phone in the days ahead.

A few months later, Eduardo received a phone call from the young man. He explained that his girlfriend had just given birth to the baby—a boy—and he asked for permission to name him Eduardo.

But baby Eduardo would not be the only child whose life would be saved through Bella. An old friend of Eduardo’s attended one of the film’s pre-screenings in Miami. He came in late to the film, and during the entire screening he was taking phone calls on his cell. His presence was so distracting that one of the film’s financiers almost asked him to leave.
Three weeks later, however, the man called Eduardo late at night to tell him about a mutual friend whose family was pressuring her to abort her child. She was scheduled to have the abortion the next day. But Eduardo decided to call the woman and counseled her to keep the baby. He even told her he would be willing to adopt the child if she would just carry through with her pregnancy.

The woman postponed the appointment and accepted Eduardo’s invitation to come to a pre-screening of the film. After seeing the movie, she decided to keep the child. Months later she told Eduardo that she had given birth to a baby girl named Bella.
To date, the producers of the film are aware of some 40 babies whose mothers were contemplating abortion, but who decided to keep their children as a result of seeing the film. Even the film’s lead actress, Tammy Blanchard, who played Nina, found life imitating art. Before the film’s release, she found herself pregnant. Prior to the making of Bella, she says that she never wanted to have children. She thought it was “pointless.” But making the film changed her mind.

And in December 2007, Tammy gave birth to a baby girl, Ava Jean.
Many have donated the film, along with the book, Behind Bella, to crisis pregnancy centers across the nation. By donating both to your own local crisis pregnancy center or buying copies to give as Christmas gifts, you could help the film continue to bear such fruit.

Though the film never received an Oscar, producer Leo Severino is happy with the awards it has received. “The living Oscars,” he says, “have been the babies saved and the babies adopted because of it.”

La Familia

From the left: Wendy, my younger sister, my mami, me (no, i'm not pregnant, just fat!, and Yesenia, the third child (you know what they say about the third child syndrome? Ask John, he suffers from it!)

My brother couldn’t make the photo, he was busy with the girlfriend.

Feliz Navidad!

Dr. Laura

After reading the article “Babies Need Love, Not Day Care” on Dr. Laura’s blog, I agree wholeheartedly that babies don’t belong in day care. Now, not everyone is blessed to be a stay home mom. Some are single mom’s who have no choice but to keep their kids in day care while they work full time to bring home the bread and keep a roof over their heads. After I delivered Sofia, I did not want to return to work. I didn’t want to leave her behind. But I am blessed to have my mother who lives with us who couldn’t wait to take care of our little angel. My mother told me that she would take care of Sofia just like she did when she had me. I come back to work with a sense of piece. Now, my mother has not promised to do this up until she goes to school. And when that happens, I do intend to quit my job, I just cannot picture anyone else taking care of Sofia. I rather sacrifice everything but not my daughter.

Now, John is not a big fan of Dr. Laura after she said this “grown man shouldn’t be playing computer games or any of the sort, that’s an immature thing to do” I agree!
I love John but I think that playing all these stupid games, yes, I said stupid is a waste of time and most importantly Family Time. I didn’t mind it when we didn’t have Sofia, but now, I think it is a waste of valuable time away from things that do matter. John has tried to get me to play these games but it is just not me. I think I quit after I successfully beat Pac Man, we are talking back in the 80’s, now; I play Solitaire once in a long while when the computer is slow. I’d rather play board games, it gets everyone involved and it is much more fun. See ya! S.S.

Tornado in December??

We were sitting down reading Jo and Rubens blog when this happened. Pretty scary stuff, I've never heard the sirens going off this close to Plano. I've heard one go off during the hurricane season, but never one in December and on top of that there were three of them going off. Well, sometimes I have no sense and in morbid wonder, wanted to see if there really was one. Sandra, brought me back and we went in and took cover in the bathroom. Luckily it was forming closer to the north of us in Allen and Mckinney. Still spooky though.

Later

John

I'm gonna say it!

What goes around, comes around!!!

The Cowgirls....

I love me some NFL on Sundays and Monday’s. Specially when all my emotions are set in one team. I truly look forward to watching good NFL games. The Cowboys played my second favorite team in the league, the Steelers. I had my heart set for a Cowboys win yesterday, I felt the win. T.O caught the only cowboy touchdown yesterday and it was amazing. My sister Wendy and I jumped and celebrated the T.O touchdown and we knew it was our game to win! We had it.

NOT! Then 2 minutes before the game was over to bring home the “W” Romo intercepted one last time and the game was over. Romo made 6 interceptions throughout the game and our offense failed to delivered, we cannot expect a respectable win with all these mistakes! All my energy and emotions were swept away and all I was left with was a scratchy throat from all the screaming. I hate giving myself in like that. All my emotions, ugh..that’s why I stepped away from cheering the Dallas Mavericks, they disappointed me two years ago in the Finals and once again when they were beaten by an 8th seed in the first round of the playoffs, they left me emotionally broken for several weeks.

At any rate, I don’t think Romo is THE Cowboys quarterback we need to win a Superbowl. I never thought he was it. With 3 more games to go, I don’t think we’ll even smell the word “playoffs.”

I’m venting about our lose yesterday but truly, I was emotionally drained yesterday and today is recovery and venting time. We watched Prince Caspian last night just to forget that Romo exist in our roster. - S.S

Homeowner

The beauties of being a homeowner are many. We feel blessed that we are able to keep our house in the middle of an economic downturn. But being a homeowner comes with great responsibility. (I took this line from Spider man “with great power comes great responsibility,” I love it) Renting is easy. Something breaks you call the apartment Manager and they come fix it at no cost to you. Something breaks in your house; it comes out of your pocket. Once you fix something, another thing is about to let you know that it is about to break.

Remodeling is fun, we love doing it, it is something you want to do to the house so you don't mind, but the story is diffeent when something needs to be repair for example: When the A/C breaks in the middle of a Texas summer is not fun. Right now is our darn living room Television set that does not want to turn on. The problem will cost us about $400 bucks to fix, so now I’m missing my NFL/NBA games along with Top Chef and all the Christmas specials. It is still cheaper than buying one of those LCD sets we have been wanting…we also have to replace our roof next year; buy a new set of washer/dryer, they still work, but the dryer takes twice the time to dry clothes, therefore it takes me all day to dry our clothes that could be done in half a day. The second bathroom toilet needs to be replaced; the garage door wheels thingy needs to be greased, Sofia room’s carpet had to be replaced twice due to some flooding in the A/C...that was not fun.

I really love my house but after 5 years we are still waiting for that moment where nothing needs to be replaced. I don’t think that’ll ever happened but I’m still grateful that we have a home with a fixed rate! At least we were smart about that. - S. S.

God is neither Legalistic or Liberal he is righteous

During the day I try to listen to 91.7 the word as much as I can. The programs are food for my soul and help me through my daily walk as a Christian. I like the practicality of it all and the messages really hit home. My favorite is Pastor Paul sheppard. The man has a wonderful gift of pointing out our sinful nature in funny but staight to the point way and always teaches unabashedly of what Jesus has to say on the matter. He brings humor to our struggle. Today his sermon was about God is neither legalistic or liberal; he is righteous. With all the Gay rights in the news, as a Christian I've been struggling with the matter of how to be loving but not condoning the lifestyle either. He told a story of a Gay man coming to him in earnest seeking of redemption, but was afraid that he would mess up the pastors church and the people in it. Pastor then replied he was too late, and that the congregation was already messed up... it was full of sinners. He also sited the scripture where the village drug an adulteress out in front of Jesus and wanted to stone her, and he replied, "let he who has never sinned cast the first stone". Of course as he wrote on the ground all the her accusuers left. He asked her . "where are your accusers", and she relied that there are none left to condemn her, and he replied "then I will not condemn you either go and sin no more". Jesus showed her compassion, but at the same time he didn't condone her sin. The point that Paul made was that the Church needed to be a soft cushion for those who have fallen to fall on, take them as they are, Love on them, and allow them an environment where they feel accepted (not tolerant of their lifestyle) and allow the word of God may begin the transformation of their hearts. Its easy to judge people for their sins, but I see now that you can't reach out to someone in genuiness that you think less of, and am also reminded of how I was before I accepted Christ, and how I acted the first few years of being a Christian.

He did pose another intersting question though... what was it that Jesus wrote in the sand? Because alot of people left after that.....

John

Christmas Tree

It is that time again and John loves to decorate our Christmas tree. I'm glad he does because my job is to make sure that the tree has gifts wrapped. We also purchased Sofia's first Ornament see the pic below. Next year we won't buy Waterford for her. John and I started a tradition our first year of marriage and purchase Waterford Crystal ornaments every year, Sofia will eventually inherit them all, that is just a few things we will pass on to her.

Paint Job

This past Thanksgiving weekend John and I decided for the third time in 5 years in our house to change the wall colors of our house, again. The first color was brown, John picked it and I hated it so after two years of protesting, we changed to a color that I would be happy with, I picked red and we painted the hall way green. after two more years, we got tired and finally went to Home Depot and this time we decided as a couple to choose a color we would both be happy with and we picked a beautiful light blue and we love it. Now, I don't know how long it will be until we get bored with it but for now, it will stay blue.


We are prepping for the paint job. I loved the red but it made the house dark and we like alot of light inside.


I was getting creative before my hand got all tired.


I kinda miss the red....but now is too late.


It took 3 coats of primer to get the red completely cover and two coats of primer to get the green cover. I was tired and by the next day, we were asking ourselves what were we thinking...


Here's the blue we fell in love with!

S.s.

Pro-Choice as Rhetoric

Walking and Talking
By Chuck Colson

The smartest thing “abortion rights” advocates ever did was to coin the phrase “pro-choice.” That shifted our attention towards the act of choosing and away from what was being chosen—the dismemberment of a human being in utero.
Eventually, however, at some point, “choice” has to go from mere rhetoric to an actual deed. Somebody has to actually perform an abortion if “freedom of choice” is to become a reality, as one medical student learned recently.
The November 23rd issue of the Washington Post Magazine told the story of a medical student named Lesley Wojick. She plans to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology and is unapologetically “pro-choice.” She even helped organize a “day-long abortion seminar” at her medical school.
At the seminar, a medical director for Planned Parenthood of Maryland asked the attendees, “How pro-choice are you?” She asked them what their families and neighbors would think of their performing abortions.
Wojick was determined to “walk the talk,” to make her “actions to be consistent with [her] words.” She thought that if “pro-choice” doctors like her didn’t do this, “the right to abortion might be rendered meaningless.”
Wojick then attempted to “walk the walk.” But not for long. During her obstetrics rotation, she realized that “vacuuming out a uterus and counting the parts of the fetus” wasn’t for her. “Somebody else . . . would become an abortion provider. But it wouldn’t be her.”
It’s not surprising. Once you get past the rhetoric of choice, what’s left is a bloody and, for most people, disreputable business. As Wojick discovered, even people who insist that it’s a right want little to do with the actual practice or the practitioners.
Someone else who understands what abortions really mean is Stojan Adasevic, a Serbian doctor who performed 48,000 abortions in 26 years. Studying medicine in communist Yugoslavia, he was taught that abortion was simply removing a piece of tissue.
Then he began to have nightmares about a field filled with children playing and laughing. When they saw him, they ran away in fear. In the dream, a man in a black and white habit explained to Adasevic that these were the children he had aborted. The man in the habit was St. Thomas Aquinas.
Adasevic insists that he had never heard of Aquinas. In any case, he knew what he had to do. He stopped performing abortions. What he calls his “conversion” came at a cost—the then-communist government “cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her job, and did not allow his son to enter the university.”
Today, Adasevic is a leader of the pro-life movement in Serbia and persuaded authorities to air the pro-life classic, The Silent Scream, on television. Not surprisingly, he has returned to the “Orthodox faith of his childhood.”
These stories are reminders that rhetoric can only obscure the truth for so long. Then those on both sides of the abortion debate will have to decide how to “walk the talk.”

Turkey Trot Photo

we are to the left of the pic. This photo was taken minutes before the race!