Where are we going?

I'm a little melancholy today and I need a place to think out loud.

Where is our country, our world for that matter, going??? So much is changing. I never dreamed that I would see in my lifetime the UNcivilization of our nation. We've become so selfish - so consumed with our pleasures, our convenience, our stuff. Simple pleasures are all but forgotten. Family and especially children are completely devalued.

I read a news article about a British couple, up in years who had an invitro pregnancy. She had twins via c-section but the twins she delivered were girls. She and her husband REFUSED them and checked out of the hospital after the father questioned doctors about how soon he and his wife could have another IVF procedure. They want boys to carry on the "family name". It said the nurses were, what was the word they used.......... "horrified" --- I should hope to shout.

My sister also posted a disturbing entry about the condition of things where she is --- I will leave it in her own words:

There is in this country of Bolivia a "Spanish Dream." Our American dream currently seems out of reach to many Bolivians, because they can't get into our country. So, they flee to Spain. Well, many of them actually leave their children behind and flee to Spain. There have been THOUSANDS in the past two or three years who have left and it has become common. Children with parents off in Spain has led to an increase in crime, youth gang activity and so on. Today, I got word of two parents-in-Spain stories that were so sad. The first is a fourteen-year-old-girl who got pregnant while her parents were in Spain. Now, pressured by a family member to get rid of all evidence by the time the parents get back, she--in her eighth month--has secured a premature Cesarean for this weekend. If the baby survives, some of our Bolivian friends have agreed to adopt him/ her. Please pray for this baby, whose biological mother is too selfish to wait one more month to make sure her baby will be okay. The second story was in the paper--are you ready for this? A three-year old was left in the care of her grandparents by her Spain-bound parents. Her grandparents apparently sent her off today with some other kids to do some shopping in a very dirty and dangerous area of town. She was playing on the train tracks near the Feria--a giant Flea-market kind of shopping center--and was hit by a train. Her arm was amputated by it. She is in the hospital, where they've been trying to reattach her arm. I don't know where to even begin to comment on this one. Three years old. Abandoned, sent shopping without an adult, and then left to play on train tracks?

Where is our moral compass that we could have so little value for our children??? Are they not a blessing? Our future?? Our hope?? Did God not call them our inheritance?

I read another correspondence from a missionary who shared that a little girl was brought into their orphanage this past month. She has been beaten so severely that she has a disfigured and damaged arm, limiting her ability with it for the rest of her life. Yet, she has continued to run away -- from four different orphanages if I remember correctly -- returning to her biological parents because she so desperately wants that illusive thing known as "family". The missionary shared that the little girl saw a picture of one of the girls being baptised her first day at the orphanage and she did not understand what the picture represented. She wanted more information about the man who was drowning the little girl while everyone stood on the bank and watched. Her little heart knows such violence -- to assume the worst because of her life experience. Can you imagine the despair of that little heart to assume that the little girl in the picture was of so little value, so little consequence that people would just watch someone "drown her"????

My heart broke and I wept. I don't understand........

I watch my little Bekah so full of life, her mop of very curly hair, speaking her first full phrases the last few weeks -- Stop it boys, Ni-night, Love-you -- actually that sounds more like "yuva-lou".

My little Judah-frog -- he isn't much older than the little girl who was left to play at the tracks --- OH how he loves to be outside. He brings me flowers every day -- my kitchen window is encased in vases of wildflowers (okay mostly weeds) --- He was running across the yard yesterday holding one of the spring chickens. The poor thing bouncing up and down in irritation, Judah leaned his little face down and stroked it. He has such a heart for little critters.

Zachy who showers me with kisses every day and at this moment is making my bed as a "surprise"

Josiah who is mechanically minded, has such a small amount of fear, and loves his "marvelous creatures" (the bees).

Gabrielle - such a young woman and still a little girl, changing before my eyes on a daily basis.

Elijah = my young man...... too soon he will be out stretching his wings and preparing for a family of his own.

Where will we be when they are ready to starting having children??? I heard a pastor yesterday speaking and he predicts that in two to four years America as we know it will be unrecognizable. That's a scary thought.


I'm sure that this is long and sad enough...... I won't belabor my post. If you would, please take a minute --- kiss a little person and tell them they are important, shed a tear, and say a prayer for children like these and for our nation. It frightens me to think of how far we have gone.

Doug Phillips has a quote which I will probably mangle but here is the general idea:
God's word says that debt is a curse and children are a blessing. In our society we apply for a debt and reject God's blessings.

What a sad commentary.