Reborn to Emptiness

By Chuck Colson

What to Make of Lifelike Doll Babies Nowadays, calling yourself a “born again Christian” might elicit disapproving looks and maybe even some snide comments. But there is an area where being “reborn” is a good thing. I’m not talking about Eastern religions—I’m talking about dolls.
The dolls in question are “incredibly life-like baby dolls” known as “reborns” that can cost as much as $4,000. As you have probably guessed, at these prices, the buyers aren’t young girls, but adult women.

For that much money you are not getting a simple piece of plastic. “Their bodies are stuffed and weighted to have the same heft and a similar feel to a live baby.” Mohair strands are individually attached to their heads, and they can even come with a “heartbeat and a device that makes the chest rise and fall to simulate breathing.” Given the attention to detail, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many owners do not treat “reborns” like other collectibles such as the Precious Moments figurines or dashboard hula dancers.

A recent BBC America documentary called My Fake Baby showed grown women doing more than playing with the dolls—they were, well, mothering them. They walked them in strollers, they secured them in car seats, and they even had “birthday” parties for them.
Sound familiar? It should. In her novel The Children of Men, P.D. James depicted a world in which no children had been born in two decades. The inability to have children had driven many women to treat dolls in exactly the same fashion as these women are treating “reborns.”
Of course, there are differences. While childlessness had driven the women in James’s novel mad, the “reborn” mommies can—and some do—have real children.
The words most commonly used to describe this phenomenon are “creepy” and “delusional.” One liberal blogger wondered whether she was “supposed to play along with your weird delusion?” After all, “you can drop her down a flight of stairs . . . and no one will call children’s services on you.”

Writer Rod Dreher is even less sympathetic. He calls these women “drag mommies” and says that something is “very wrong with them.”
Well, I have no idea what is going on in the hearts and minds of women who purchase reborns. But I will say this: There is indeed something “very wrong” with the culture that produces these dolls. Four years ago, I told you about dolls marketed to lonely Japanese elderly. The Yumel are “healing partners” designed to fill a void created by children that rarely visit and grandchildren they will never have, thanks to Japan’s disappearing birth rate.

Likewise, “reborns” are filling a void created by changes in the family structure. The so-called “freedom” we gained by postponing and even forgoing marriage and child-rearing has come at a price—loneliness and the sense that our lives are incomplete.

This isn’t something that can be overcome by conditioning. We are “wired for connection” as one study put it. If the God-ordained means for this connection is tampered with or blocked, that is, by having no children or fewer children as Americans are doing, we will find ways to act on our “wiring,” no matter how creepy they seem to others.

Walking the Garden

Spring Time is approaching and its time for the new growing season to begin. The garden is just about prepped and ready to go. We will have corn, zucchini, beans, lettuce, maybe cabbage, and definately pumkins...God willing.

Sofia practicing packing seeds.

Sister N Law

Vanessa (John's sister) came to visit us last night! John cooked blackened Salmon with couscous and spinach salad. (I made the salad)

Finish What I Start

As promised to myself, I have finish yet my third Softie project. This time I made a tree. I was suprised is a good size not small like the flying tooth octupus or the cross. This is my second best, behind the cross which was a pretty good success since everyone asked me to made them one. This tree took me about two weeks to make it would have taken me about 4 days if I wasn't a full time working mom but I did it! This tree required the sewing machine so, I had to get over my fear of working with one and I think I'm getting there!

High School Reunion

I got this today. I'm not sure whether I should be excited or just feel pretty old. High School was the worst experience of my life because I felt very insecure about speaking the English language nowdays I don't really care anymore. In High School I never cared about being popular it was mostly about clicking with the right people who understood me (not just my accent) but who I really was.

My senior year was, I believe, better than most because I had a good handful of friends to be goofy around and just be myself. I couldn't be myself with my dad, but that's another story. So, here it is the invite to my 20th High School reunion. I skipped the 10th because I was single and the boyfriend that I had then was not who I wanted to show around. I have until June to decide to go or not. I'll ponder on that until then....

Two Kids!?

Limiting Couples to Just Two Kids Is Not the Way to Save the Earth by Father Jonathan:

Yesterday, the chairman of Britain’s Sustainable Development Commision, Sir Jonathon Porritt, ventured into new frontiers of Green movement nuttiness.
Mr. Porritt gave the press a preview of the main conclusions of his commission’s proposals for England’s environmental policy, to be released next month.

He says curbing population growth, through federal investment in contraception and abortion, and encouraging citizens to recognize their moral responsibility by limiting their procreation to a maximum of two children per couple, must be at the heart of Britain’s global warming policies.
The only way to understand how such a mainstream scientist could fall into the clutches of such unscientific ideology, is to consider the nihilistic philosophy of life prevalent among many of the cultural elite of Western Europe and to some degree of America too.

They have not only rejected the sacredness of human life by denying the Sacred; they have emptied human life of all transcendent purpose.
Keep in mind as you read this that Mr. Porritt is not an irrelevant mad scientist on the fringes of society.

He is employed by the British government to draft policy. Here are a few of his most salient quotes, as reported by The Sunday Times: “I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate.” “I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible. It is the ghost at the table. We have all these big issues that everybody is looking at and then you don’t really hear anyone say the “p” [procreation] word.”

His deduction is almost logical if you support two arguments: 1) you believe all the catastrophic global warming predictions, including who is to blame (humans) and 2) if you share the world view that humans exist to be at the service of a sacred earth, and not the other way around.
The internal, twisted logic goes like this: The environment is sacred; we know with certainty global warming will be devastating for the environment; it is undisputable fact that global warming is mostly caused by humans; reversing human behavior may save us from our imminent demise; therefore, the best solution is to get rid of some humans, beginning with the undesirables.

Yes, beginning with the undesirables, as defined by Mr. Porritt. Apparently oblivious to the declining birthrate among Britons (currently 1.7 children per family) and appalled by teenagers who choose to carry their pregnancies to term, Mr. Porritt complains: “We still have one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in Europe and we still have relatively high levels of pregnancies going to birth, often among women who are not convinced they want to become mothers.”

Did I hear that right? We should make sure teenage mothers abort their children, for the sake of the environment? And it’s the British government’s responsibility to convince these women to choose that they don’t really want to become mothers? And, simultaneously, the government should convince the liberal, educated elite (the only ones who will pay attention to such government warnings), to limit their procreation to two children per couple, for the sake of the environment?

Is there no thought given to the horrors of government sponsored eugenics? Or to the need for human intelligence in the development of green technologies? Has Mr. Porritt considered who will take up his cause when he passes away? The only way to understand how such a mainstream scientist could fall into the clutches of such unscientific ideology, is to consider the nihilistic philosophy of life prevalent among many of the cultural elite of Western Europe and to some degree of America too.

They have not only rejected the sacredness of human life by denying the Sacred; they have emptied human life of all transcendent purpose. They have replaced man’s natural search for inter-personal righteousness with a new and easy godless ethic of “Green,” where the earth is the victim of human existence, and humans, ironically, are the only ones who can save it.

Yes, the tale of the new Green superhero–the one we are creating today by accepting the prophets of environmental doom–can only end with a man standing naked on the edge of a cliff, having freed the earth of every other human aggressor, and every other evil product of his making, and having the great courage to jump into oblivion.

God bless,
Father Jonathan

Vintage Card

This weekend we recieved a card from Uncle James and Auntie Silvia. I missed the old days where people wrote to each other and send greeting cards. I used to be one. I may have to start that again just to make someone smile. I like the card they send because it has a Victorian vintage feel about it. I love it! Thanks for thinking about us! You guys are awesome! Thanks for making my day.

Godparents

To choose Sofia's godparents was a hard decision to make. But we finally decided on one couple among several other great couples that we know will also make good loving godparents.

We decided to give that honor to Wendy and James Maloney. I can go on and on about the many good qualities about them, but above all is the love and commitment they have towards each other, their kids and most importantly the love of God in their hearts. So to our new Compadres! Thank you for saying yes to Sofia. We love you!

Stimulus through Contraception?

By Mark Earley
Fewer Kids to Feed

President Obama’s proposed economic stimulus plan, now past the House and on the way to the Senate, has a little bit of everything. The stimulative effect of some of the provisions, middle-class tax cuts for example, are easy to understand.
Other provisions, such as additional money for the National Endowment for the Arts, are a hard sell for stimulating the economy. Then there is the proposal that not only does not stimulate the economy but is, arguably, counterproductive.

The $825 billion plan includes $87 billion, over 10 percent, to help states with Medicaid coverage. And part of that money is to be used for expanding family-planning services and contraception. Now, reasonable people can disagree about whether government should be in the family-planning business, but it’s hard to imagine anyone arguing that these services promote economic growth—at least with a straight face.

Still, Speaker Pelosi gave it a shot. On ABC’s This Week, she told an incredulous George Stephanopolous, “The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now,” she said, and added that “contraception . . . will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.”
This is very revealing, and very wrong on so many levels. For starters, while I doubt that this was the Speaker’s intention, it has a strong whiff of eugenics—the attempt to “improve” the human race by reducing reproduction among certain classes of people.

The proponents of the measure aren’t concerned about upper middle-class families having more children—their concern is with poor people having children. In this respect, they are following in the footsteps of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, whose explicit goal was to “limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective”—meaning someone that wasn’t like her.

While no one talks like that today, Planned Parenthood has stated that its “core clients” are “young women, low-income women, and women of color”—the same people targeted by the stimulus proposal. The good news is that, after a public outcry, this money has been stripped out of the plan. The bad news—groups like Planned Parenthood who wanted it have been promised they’ll get it another way.

In addition to raising serious moral questions, the Speaker’s rationale really has it backwards. At the same time that Pelosi was claiming that contraception fostered economic growth, Japan’s employers are urging workers to go home earlier and, well, make babies.
As we have previously told you, Japan’s post-war economic miracle is threatened by its low birthrate. So Japanese employers are telling employees to go home and have bigger families. The Japanese have learned what Speaker Pelosi hasn’t—that “the age and growth rate of a nation help determine its economic prosperity.”

And as President Obama’s very story reminds us, tough beginnings tell us nothing about a person’s potential contributions to society. Ultimately, the issue here isn’t economics—it’s what we think about man. Is he the crown of creation, or merely another animal that frankly, the world could use a lot fewer of? Increasingly, many people think the latter and are acting on that belief.

Plano Pacer's Run

I ran another 5K this past weekend all by my lonely self, I haven't done this by myself in along time. John isn't running with me...yet. We had a pretty brisk morning but a pretty large crowd turnout at the race, 205 people turned out. There was no free t-shirt, but I only paid $5 for this race and you can't beat that!. I have never ran this race before and I don't know why, because this race is so close to my house, I left at 7:15 and was parking at 7:25pm. Is right on 16th street right behind Outback Steakhouse on 15th.

We started running the race at 8am, I was passing all these people, then I noticed that there was this lady with lots of grey hair running a good distance in front of me that I couldn't catch. Then, it hit me! I'm getting beaten by a senior citizen lady! Not so fast! I was able to pass her after the 2 mile mark. After that she was right behind me, she was actually trying to keep up with me. So, after the race, I went up to her and congratulated her on a good run and she did the same to me and said that being 65 is getting harder for her. 65!!!!! dang! I had a hard time catching up to a 65 year old senior citizen! ugh...I need to train more, eat better, do more abs...

But the good news is that I bettered my time!!! Speed class is working!!! I came in first in my age group!! finally!! I broke my last weeks record. mind you, there were only 3 people running in my age group, but I came in first!!! I waited to get my cheap trophy but they were taking too long and I needed to get back home so, hopefully next time, I will be able to get my long awaited trophy!

Just remember: Dreams take work! I did it!


AGE Group 35-39: Sandra Seaman 29:37
Stacy Kimbriel 33:01
Irene Lefan 35:51

Crazy Hat Party!

Yesterday, we hosted a crazy hat party. It was going to originally just be a get together, but then, I went to my closet and discover a red hat my freind Patricia had brought me from Mexico a couple of years ago that I had never put on. So, I thought of a crazy idea and make everyone where a hat so that I could wear my hat. John made enchilada dinner and I made the rice. The Cash's brought wine and made fondu and the Booker's brought more wine and apple pie. It was great and fun!

The Booker Family above. I liked the matching hats!


The Cash Family above. Hollis, I think, had the most original hat. He used his new bride's veil to make it a Mosquito Hat. Very clever!


The Seaman Family. John went Asian and wore his Japenese hat he bought on our Hawaiin vacation 4 years ago.


The guys! John, Hollis and Scott.

The Gang! We asked Arick, Mary and Scott's son to take our group picture.

Baby Butterfly