I am so angry

Ohhh, I am just so fuming. I was reading this article on the CBC website and I made the mistake of reading some of the comments. I was absolutely shocked.

I don't care what your political views are or your opinions on the environment to even start to compare Steven Harper with the current government in Zimbabwe is seriously disgusting. These people who are writing these comments would never dare do this in Zimbabwe - they would be tortured for weeks and left for dead in the bush. The secretary general of the MDC, Tendai Biti, has been jailed on charges of treason, for making statements against Mugabe and the government. In a world where one of the opposition party cannot stand up against the government without being jailed what hope does the average citizen have. There are bandits of Mugabe's who have said they will kill anyone who does not have the stamp saying they voted.

My Dad can't get his sister on the phone because someone stole the telephone lines in her area. Poverty and despair are so rampant that some one thought to steal a phone line!

Mugabe and his actions are news now - but trust me it is not new. This has been going on for years!

I guess the fact that so many people feel free to post their own political views in a public forum such as the CBC website proves that our country is in a very different political position than that of Zimbabwe (or many other countries for that matter).

What makes me truly so angry is the people who commented can't see past their own issues and see the real tragedy in the making. To read this article and turn around and make comment on our own political situation seems extremely egocentric and blind to the suffering of others. Not everything is about us!

Wes keeps telling me that I should post this on the CBC comments, not here - but I guess I figure if people are prepared to make public statements like that in the first place they likely won't listen to me. Wes is likely right but I am not going to do it anyhow! So I am ranting at an audience who is not guilty. So this is a misplaced rant - I just needed to get it off my chest.

Guardian Angels

My mom always says that during the toddler years a child's guardian angel works over time. I always thought she meant that they some how manage to avoid serious injury when they fall off their bike or a chair or something of that nature. Here is a little story that happened in our house last week that shows how Gavin's guardian angel has been busy.

We had a visit from our neighbor Max and his Daddy. We were all outside in the yard. I had to come in the house to fetch something for one of the kids. Gavin followed me in the house. As he came in he picked up a couple of my old puzzle books from the recycle pile. The rest goes like this...

Gavin - Mommy, why are these in the garbage?

Me - They were in the recycle pile not the garbage.

Gavin - We can't recycle these - we must keep them.

Me - No, we have new ones and those are all used up.

Gavin drops the books on the floor.

Me - Gavin, pick those up and put them back where you found them.

Gavin - That's OK, you can do it.

Me - Gavin.

Gavin - Mommy.

Me - Gavin, watch how you talk to Mommy.

Gavin - You watch how you talk to me Mommy.

Now I turn around from my task and try to grab him by the shirt but miss. He runs out the door, giggling and saying (as I chase him) - You can't catch me.

By now he is a couple feet from our visitors so I stop the pursuit and say - You are just lucky we have guests mister!

Gavin - (saying to our guests) I ran away from Mommy!

Guest - Why did you run from your Mom.

Me - Because I was about to throttle him!

So as you can see Gavin's guardian angel has been working overtime protecting him from his pregnant mother. This is my third pregnancy and one of the few things that has been consistent throughout all my pregnancies is that I have a shorter fuse than normal. So you see he lives under a charmed star right now!

Don't get me wrong, normally he is a very good little boy - but he is after all three and a half.

Finally some sun

We have had a few thunder/rain storms today but thankfully the sun has also been shining for the most part. We played in the yard with Max and Isaac this morning. The kids had a blast. We have been doing indoor stuff for so long that it has really become a drag.

I cannot express what a morning outside with the kids did for my spirits! I'm a new gal!

We are hoping the weather holds for tomorrow as Wes hopes to get some stairs on the deck (so his pregnant wife can stop climbing up and down using a bucket and a great deal of luck). We also want to continue working on building our little garden area. We have a timeline now - I got excited and bought some tomato plants to put in - oops!!

Baby news

I had an echo early this morning (way to early for me). The tech told me that unofficially (the doctor needed to review the tapes) the echo looked great and the heart looks fine. So good news.

We even had some sunshine today - whoohoo.

The kids are in the bath right now, laughing and carrying on with Daddy. Bronwyn is becoming a real "daddy's girl." When I am changing her bum or trying to get her to do something she doesn't want to do she says in a whining, pleading way - "Daddy, daddy daddy daddy." It is really cute actually.

Gavin on the other hand is having issues being apart from Mommy - which seems to include Mommy taking a shower! Sheesh. Oh well they are only young once. I truly don't hope he'll be standing beside the tub screaming and hollering for Mommy when he's sixteen. Truly I hope he isn't still doing that - it is a pretty scary visual!

Gavin is enjoying his swimming lessons. Oh no - a little naked girl has escaped the tub and found her Mom. Gotta go!

Hope

I have been thinking a lot lately about just how important hope is. Hope will make you hang on when every other indicator says to give up.

On a grand scale, hope is what helps many alive and struggling in Zimbabwe cope with their lives. On a smaller scale (although no less important), hope keeps the Mom of a sick little boy plugging away. Hope is God given - there is no too ways about it.

Recently, a friend of mine was describing an interacting she had with a health professional who wouldn't give her any positives about her son's development. The professional claimed that she didn't want the Mom to hang on to false hope and be disappointed. WOW - this blew my mind! What stunningly bad logic.

Hope is not about being disappointed if and when life fails you. Hope is about being able to hang on and continue WHEN life disappoints and fails you. To tell a parent not to have hope is basically telling them to stop trying. Thankfully, my plucky and very sensible friend put this advise exactly where it belonged.

I think of my family in Zimbabwe, hanging on to hope, because frankly that is all they have to hang on to. Mugabe can kill people, he can kill an economy, he can devastate land and destroy enterprise - but he cannot take away their hope.

We never have any idea what the future will hold for us. There will likely be joy and there will more than likely be sorrow. We gain nothing by losing hope, no matter what our current circumstances. Hope can be the comfort and catalyst that helps us rise from our current situation.

I hope my thoughts don't offend you, they are after all just my thoughts.