There are moments in my life where the learning curve is steep. Right now is one of those moments. Making decisions about how to grow our family has opened my eye to the myriad of moral and ethical questions involved with in vitro. I thought it was a simple procedure of implanting fertilized eggs into the uterus, but then as I dug deeper into the process the whole idea of embryo selection, freezing the remaining embryos and then the question of what to do with the embryos that you no longer need/want really struck the wrong chord with my pro-life views. There is a wonderful article on the Vatican website that spells out the important questions a Christian must ask of herself when looking into this process. The link to this article is:
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdlife/documents/rc_pont-acd_life_doc_20040316_x-gen-assembly-final_en.html . It is not light reading, but if you have 30 minutes, and you want to puruse the topic, it is an eye-opening read.
That being said, my interest in adoption has now been piqued even further. Did you know that you can adopt a child domestically by private means (simply an arrangement between two lawyers), through an agency or through a government program called "foster to adopt"? I had no idea. Then, if you are interested in international adoptions you must know the rules and current political status of adoption in the specific country in which you are interested. For example, right now U.S. citizens cannot adopt from Guatemala until some kind of Hague decision is made. China has curbed its adoptions because it wanted to look good for the Olympics (although they say it is because domestic interest in adoption is on the rise), adoptions from Russia and Eastern Europe are weighted down by the same issues present in U.S. domestic adoptions-- alcohol & drugs. Other countries like Korea and the Phillippines don't have these issues, the children for adoption from these countries are available because of poverty/abandonment. What madness and sadness there is in the world! But the beautiful thing about adoption is that it brings good-- family, provision, hope-- to situations that would otherwise be tragic. And the good comes to both those doing the adopting and those who are adopted.
So then, in vitro, though it does provide one with a child, also ultimately eliminiates many of the 5-20 lives it starts. It brings evil (death, indefinite frozen state, and at the worst, stem-cell research) to a good (life). But adoption, on the other hand, brings good (family, love, shelter, protection, education) to those children who need it most. What are your thoughts on in vitro? Have you ever explored the topic? I would be interested in hearing what others think about it as well.
Georgia landing a big one on Kiev. She also did this to Truman on this trip. She loves to love!
Me, Shelley, Truman & Gigi at the Denver zoo. I miss my good friend Shelley!
Here we are at the hotel restaraunt eating breakfast. For some unknown-to-us reason, the waiters kept apologizing every morning and comped every single breakfast we ate even though we insisted on paying. It was probably good this happened because I had a voracious appetite each morning and ordered a whole heck of a lot of food.
Uncle Butch, Aunt Brenda, Kendal (she is so tall and beautiful! I can't believe she has grown so quickly), me & Gigi
Georgia is not growling here, she is actually saying "cheese".
The cousins playing in Uncle Butch's back yard. They are growing pumpkins out there. Isn't that cool? You can see the pumpkin patch a little better in the photo below. This photo is also a great action shot of Trent! He is becoming quite the sportsman from what I understand having scored 2 points in his first basketball game! Go Trent!
Whew! What a crazy last 5 days. Rodolfo had an SPE conference in Denver that Georgia and I joined him on. I don't know under what illusion I was when I made the decision to go along with him. Traveling and staying in a hotel can transform the most angelic toddler into a hairy monster! Not to taint the image of my darling that I love so much, but here is a brief summary of her transformation. We had a nightly/daily scream-a-thon before bed/naptime, the falling off the bed episode, the repeated flushing the toilet syndrome, the introduction of the phrase NO WAY!!!, the lets throw our sippy cup across the airport waiting room and see how far it will fly as I drop to the ground kicking and howling episode, the I refuse to sit in my airplane seat episode which resulted in hugging the adjacent stranger's leg and holding on for dear life so that mommy could not pry me off episode, and finally, the grand-finale, the pilot of the plane getting on the intercom and reminding the entire plane that all passengers must sit in their assigned seats, even two-year olds episode. These are the low-lights of the trip. The highlights were much, much, better. We saw my Uncle Butch, Aunt Brenda and cousins Kendal & Trent, we hung out with Jehan and Kiev and we also saw my roomate from college, Shelley and her husband Jason and son Truman. Georgia did enjoy kissing as many babies as she could, as you can tell from the photographs. She even started kissing a little 3 year old girl who was standing by her as she looked at the apes at the Denver zoo. Actually, Denver was quite a beautiful city. The parks are amazing-- hello Washington Park! The people are sporty and warmly casual, and health seems to be a top priority of the masses. The area of Denver we visited most had lots of pedestrians, which both Rodolfo and I love! We've often talked about longing to live in a pedestrian city. The weather was gorgeous and the shopping great! Georgia and I visited Congress Park twice and really enjoyed the swings and the playground. I wonder what it is like there during the winter months? Oh, and the old mansions and cottages were so spectacularly picturesque I find myself asking, is there a home in there for me?
