Why I'm Voting for McCain

Or I should say, why I voted for McCain. We were able to vote early which was nice. We are so blessed to live in a free society where citizens have the right to vote for the leadership of this great country. While I don't deny Obama's charisma and eloquence, when I see all that he supports and would support as president it is very sobering. I listen to talk radio most weekdays and feel like I get a good picture of what's going on that would never be reported in the mainstream media. So I write this post with the desire to inform others of what I think is terribly alarming and grips my heart.

One of the main reasons I'm voting for McCain is because he is pro-life. Obama's stance on abortion is the most radical in Congress:

• "He supports legislation that would repeal the Hyde Amendment, which protects pro-life citizens from having to pay for abortions that are not necessary to save the life of the mother and are not the result of rape or incest." Basically, he wants tax dollars to go towards subsidizing abortion.
• "He has promised that 'the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act' (known as FOCA). This proposed legislation would create a federally guaranteed "fundamental right" to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, including, as Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia has noted in a statement condemning the proposed Act, 'a right to abort a fully developed child in the final weeks for undefined 'health' reasons.' In essence, FOCA would abolish virtually every existing state and federal limitation on abortion, including parental consent and notification laws for minors, state and federal funding restrictions on abortion, and conscience protections for pro-life citizens working in the health-care industry-protections against being forced to participate in the practice of abortion or else lose their jobs. The pro-abortion National Organization for Women has proclaimed with approval that FOCA would 'sweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws [and] policies.' "
• "Obama, unlike even many 'pro-choice' legislators, opposed the ban on partial-birth abortions when he served in the Illinois legislature and condemned the Supreme Court decision that upheld legislation banning this heinous practice." 98 Senators voted for the ban on partial birth abortion - showing members of both parties are against this practice. I cannot see any instance (and indeed have heard that medically there is no case where it would necessary to perform a partial birth abortion to save the life of the mother) where it would be beneficial to deliver part of the baby, puncture it's skull, extract the brain, and deliver the rest of the baby. For those of you who may not know what partial birth abortion is - that's it. It is a grievous act.
• "Senator Obama, despite the urging of pro-life members of his own party, has not endorsed or offered support for the Pregnant Women Support Act, the signature bill of Democrats for Life, meant to reduce abortions by providing assistance for women facing crisis pregnancies."
• "In an act of breathtaking injustice which the Obama campaign lied about until critics produced documentary proof of what he had done, as an Illinois state senator Obama opposed legislation to protect children who are born alive, either as a result of an abortionist's unsuccessful effort to kill them in the womb, or by the deliberate delivery of the baby prior to viability." In other words, if a baby survived an abortion, that child should be left to die. Jill Stanick, an OB nurse at Christ Hospital in Chicago in 1999, discovered that they had been doing abortions in the labor and delivery department and that any babies who had survived the abortion were placed in the soiled linen closet to die. In outrage she wrote to hospital administrators only to be shocked to learn that this had been going on for 20 years in full knowledge of the administrators and others in the hospital... and she was fired. You can read the full story here which includes her interactions with Obama: http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000007034.cfm

I quoted the points above from an article written by Professor Robert George who has a long list of credentials that I won't list here. I've heard these points from multiple locations, but I think he's much more clear and accurate than I could be. You can read the full article at this link:
http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000008450.cfm

A few other things that concern me about Obama are his stances on foreign policy and national security. Another issue is his support for the Fairness Doctrine. As far as I can tell, the Fairness Doctrine restricts free speech and I think even our freedom of religion. " 'Reinstating the Fairness Doctrine would muzzle political debate and free speech.' Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said it should really be called the 'Un-Fairness Doctrine.'
'It would amount to government censorship of the airwaves,' she said. 'The government simply has no business dictating radio content.'
Christian radio is a prime example. If a program offered a biblical perspective on homosexuality, stations would be compelled to offer airtime to a voice from a pro-gay point of view.
When the Fairness Doctrine was in effect, many broadcast outlets – especially Christian radio stations – chose not to air issues programming, thereby avoiding the restrictions."

McCain's prolife stance is not the only reason why I'm voting for him, but isn't the issue of life a foundational issue to consider? Doesn't this issue say a lot about someone's core values?

I have been thinking and praying so much for this election the last few months. I just wanted to verbalize some of the things that have really concerned me.

The Furious Love of Jesus

I just listened to an amazing sermon online (title listed above). I think he has great things to say about why bad things happen in it as well. When we were at our seminary classes last summer, they recommended this pastor, Tim Keller, who's church is in NYC. Aaron and I just love his teaching - it just connects to your heart, and I love Jesus more every time I listen to him. Here's the link to the sermon: http://sermons.redeemer.com/store/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=24
Look for the title (The Furious Love of Jesus) and just download it onto your itunes and it'll play there. Also, on the left is a link for more "free sermons". There's some great topics to choose from. Sara, there's a great one in the "parenting" topics about the benefits of raising your children in the city - it was really interesting! I think you'll like it.

Just wanted to pass along this resource - it's well worth checking out!

Malachi (Chai) Daniel Jones

We have a nephew! I'm a little late to post this - he was born on 10-9-08 and weighed in at a healthy 9 pounds, 10 ounces! We got to meet him last Sunday. We're excited to welcome the newest Jones and excited to be an aunt and uncle :).

Here's brothers and kids - what a great family :). Love you all so much!

Picture Pages, Picture Pages, Time to get your picture pages...

And if any of you know what that is, here's to old school Nickelodean! On with the pictures!

My friend, Londa, watches Liv on Thursday afternoons while I go to campus. This is a great shot to capture one of their many adventures. Yup, Liv is as big as the backpack and not quite sure what's going one... :) Thanks Londa!

We had our fall retreat last weekend. Liv was a big hit and got LOTS of attention. By suppertime on Saturday, she was just zoned from all the stimulation. She didn't have any trouble taking 2 naps that day. Anyway, I was helping Aaron with something and a few students were watching her, and when I stepped out upstairs this is what I saw: 10 students with a baby in the middle. It was pretty cute. But really, I'm so grateful the students enjoy Liv and also so grateful that Liv enjoys them!

Here she is just wandering around the camp with me. She was looking at lots of things!

I can eat my yogurt!!!

Mommy's jacket looks so nice on me!

16 months

Liv is 16 months today! Aaron and I did an unofficial check of her measurements. When I put her on the scale with me she was about 20 pounds (Yay! We finally made it! :) and 29 inches. So she's definitely growing and getting bigger... just not getting bigger than anyone else :). Today she repeated a few words after Aaron and I. This is the first time she's really done this. She said "socks" as we were folding laundry, and when we were putting her to bed, she repeated our "Amen" after we prayed for her with an "a-mu" or "mu". I'm hoping she's going to start getting those words out! She really understands what we say to her but for the most part still talks with babble which continues to sound like the intonations of sentences without the actual words. And she knows a few signs and uses those a lot. But sometimes I'm just so curious as to what she's thinking in there! And a few days ago she gave Aaron a back rub - she kept patting his back and then would rub her hands around. It was so sweet. So I'm behind on posts and have lots of pictures!

We went the the apple orchard last week and enjoyed great weather and got some good apples!

Liv hung out in her stroller for a little bit while we picked a few apples.

Here's Jake and Hilary (our roommates) and teammates, Lefty and Heather.

And here's myself, Liv, and Londa.

The trees were loaded with beautiful apples - looking forward to some fresh apple crisp!

6 Months!

Wow! It's been 6 months that we've had Liv already! That's gone quickly! She's getting big (relatively speaking - still under 20 pounds, but definitely growing!). She's now saying "hi"... a lot. It sounds more like "Hi-ee". And she'll say this to lots of people or to Aaron or I or our roommates when we come into the room. She definitely understands what we say to her and will use a few signs (all done, more, please, eat, sleep) and will nod yes and no. She's still making lots of sounds and sometimes a random word here and there. I just keep waiting for all those words to come out! She's starting to eat a little more variety, and she eats any fruit we put in front of her... still working on the veggies :). She's smart and figures things out pretty quickly. She likes to watch people and ride in her stroller at the mall or around the neighborhood. She loves people and loves to be held... by anyone who's willing. It's just been fun to watch her learn and grow. What a blessing to have this little peanut as our daughter. It's surreal to think about how we took this big plane to the other side of the world to pick her up and bring her home. She's our daughter and hand-picked by God for our family!

Saturday, In the Park...

We went to visit some friends in Rochester on Saturday. It was a gorgeous day and a lovely drive. We also really enjoyed seeing friends that we don't get to see too often. We ended up going to a really nice park there and got some great pictures of Liv... and she loved it! She got a kick out of the little slide. I'd let her go on top, and Aaron would catch her on the bottom. She'd kick her legs and squeel... it was pretty cute.

This is a good "scale" picture. Small girl, big park!

"I'll follow you dad!"

"Mom and Dad go down the big slide with me!"

"Yeah, I'm pretty cute... what can I say?"

2 seconds later...

Uhhh... the spaghetti was laying loose like that in the cabinet already... and I just found this empty box lying around...

I love Liv's expression in this picture. Aaron was watching Liv this morning, and as he said, I turned around for 2 seconds and then there was spaghetti all over. Liv can open the cabinet door that has a lot of pantry items in it as well as pull-out shelves. We've tried to "baby proof" that cabinet by only putting unopened foods where she can reach them and pull them down, etc. Well, she can now open a sealed box of spaghetti. Time to reshuffle :). All the shelves up higher are packed full, and these lower shelves get more and more sparse :).

2 Years

Joshua 4:19-24:

"The people came up out of the Jordan... And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan [river], Joshua set up at Gilgal. And he said to the people of Israel, 'When your children ask their fathers in times to come, "What do these stones mean?" then you shall let your children know, "Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground." For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.' "

It's hard for me to believe it's been 2 years since Payton went home to be with the Lord. This anniversary has been easier than the first. We still miss her. We still wonder what she would've looked like and been like if she were still with us, but we realize with gratitude that she was most likely spared from a long uphill battle. She is in heaven and whole and praising Jesus! I wrote out the verse above as it's something I periodically do on my own - take stock and remember all that God has done for us. Here are a few of my own "stones" that I'd like to list as gratitude for what the Lord did through Payton.

• Stone #1 - God's provision. Like last year, I've been re-reading the blog through the last few weeks just remembering the journey that we were on 2 years ago. As I've re-read it lately, I can't get over how the Lord sustained us and provided for us. He abundantly met our needs throughout that time. I also can't get over the prayer support that he provided. Literally thousands of people were praying for us and holding us and Payton up before him. It still just absolutely humbles me to see how the Lord worked through the prayers of others to sustain us and Payton.
• Stone #2 - A little missionary. I am always amazed when I think of how the Lord used a tiny baby on life support to impact the lives of so many. Payton really did have a ministry. I don't know that I could even explain or understand it, but I saw it. People who came in contact with her were impacted. He used her mightily. It also brings home to me the intrinsic value and sanctity of life. Life in its nature has value, and we are not the judge of that value - God is the source.
• Stone #3 - A precious daughter. I will forever be grateful that Payton is my daughter. What an honor to be her mother, and what a gift to know her and have experienced her little life.
• Stone #4 - Livie. I've never said this on the blog before though I alluded to it in our little bio at the top, but I knew how many weeks Liv was born at. And one day out of curiousity, I counted backward. It is not outside the realm of possibility that as our first daughter left this earth to be with the Lord, the life of our second daughter was beginning. It just rocks me everytime I think about it. I was never "without" a child - I just had one on the other side of the world I didn't know about yet.
• Stone #5 - My own Heart. The Lord has done SO MUCH in my own life and heart. It's so hard to even put into words, but I am immensely grateful for how Jesus continues to heal and change me. He has been so good.

So there's a few of my thoughts from today. We're still on the journey He has for us. And always as I look back on how the Lord has taken care of us up to this point, I can look ahead knowing He'll do the same in the future. I'd encourage you to do the same :). Much love, the Joneses

Snapshots from September

Here's Livie sleeping solid in her nap - slept through me coming in and taking a flash picture...
We went to the fall festival in town and had a little picnic lunch midway through. The weather was just perfect - such a great day to just stroll around.
Livie likes to sit like a "big girl" on the couch. It usually doesn't last for too long before she's on to the next thing, but it's still cute :).
Brief driving lessons... the only ones she'll have until she's 18 :).
Liv loves to look out the window. If I know when Aaron is coming home I bring her by the window, and she gets really excited when he drives up. She LOVES her daddy!

So there's a few pictures. We taped Survivor and the Office on Thursday and are watching them now. Those 2 shows and Biggest Loser are my "shows" for the season :).

Catching up with Pictures

These are pictures I took on our film camera and then uploaded from the picture CD. So they're not quite as sharp as digital, but the camera we have really does take excellent film pictures. I love to use it sometimes. These first 2 are from early August. Liv was loving the hose at Granpa and Grandma Jones' house. It was a riot.



These last 2 pictures are from the day we had her adoption finalized. We took a few of her in the front yard before we headed to the court house. I love the one of her with her big grin :).

Liv continues to entertain and keep us busy. She still isn't saying many words. She'll say a few occasionally, but mostly it's still babble. Every once in awhile she'll pull one out really clearly though. But she definitely understands what Aaron and I tell her, and she'll nod "yes" or "no" and knows the sign language form "more" and "all done". This has been so helpful to just feel like we can communicate a little more. And she knows what are "no-no's". Sometimes she'll touch something and then come and stand in front of us and shake her head "no-no" with such a serious face. It's so hard to not laugh and repeat that yes, that is a no-no and good girl for not touching it. She's eating better but is still selective... definitely not one of those kids that eats whatever you put in front of them. Probably her favorite thing is a tortilla with turkey lunch meat and cheese all rolled up. So now I'm figuring out what other foods we can put between a tortilla and cheese :). She ate up egg in there this morning. But slowly it seems like we're expanding her menu. And she LOVES to watch people. We took her to the fall festival yesterday (perfect weather to just walk around!), and she was so content in her stroller to just look at all that was going on.

Ministry this fall has been great. I am just loving what I'm doing and the students I get to work with. It's just been a joy. I feel like so far I'm finding a good balance between being at home enough but also getting out there and working a bit too. Most days it feels like I have more to do than I can get done, but that goes for anyone. So I don't see that as being unusual :).

Well, Happy Fall as it's officially here!

Catch up

Hi! I went to a women's retreat this past weekend in North Carolina and was gone early, early Friday morning and didn't get home until late Sunday night. So I spent a good part of last week cleaning, packing, grocery shopping to be gone, and now that I'm home I'm catching up doing the same things :). But it was an AWESOME trip. Wow, Jesus is a good time :). We stayed at this retreat center on the Eastern side of the state in the mountains, and it was just beautiful. The lodge was higher than the surrounding mountains; so the view was just incredible. I just tried to soak it in. And I got to spend time with a dear friend and really enjoyed time with her as well. The travel there and home got a little long, but it was worth it. On Sunday evening I landed in and took off in the remnants of Hurricane Ike. My connection was in Detroit, and it was super cloudy and rainy and somewhat windy too. Fortunately it wasn't that bad. I was really grateful for that. And it was so good to come home to my wonderful husband and sweet girl. I don't think she was scarred with me being gone for 3 days :).

I've got a lot of pictures to download and post, but I'll get there. Aaron's been working a lot this week; so hopefully this weekend we'll get caught up... Until then, enjoying this beautiful weather!

Sharing

Livie shared her graham cracker with her teddy bear today. It was pretty cute.

Lots of Hugs

I got to go to the weekly meeting last night and see many students... and give lots of hugs. It was SO good to see some of my students again. I just missed them a bunch. It was a great meeting. As usual, the first meeting of the year is pretty full. I'd say we had 180-200 students there. Typically by the end of the semester we're averaging 120, but it's still fun to start with such a huge group. I don't have a whole lot to say. I'm waiting for Aaron to come home from "Burly Man". The male students plan an overnight camping adventure with numerous contests to see who claims the "burly man" title. Aaron went for a bit tonight to help out. But some of the events are duct tape tag where each guy puts a piece of duct tape on their chest. The last guy with the tape on wins. And they give points for push-ups, eating random things, canoe tipping contests, a river run (which running barefoot in a rocky river bed is tougher than you think)... Anyways, the boys really like it each year.

Another random note, Aaron and our roommates (don't think I've mentioned that we have roommates - a couple that interned with our team last year and joined staff with Campus Crusade this summer are living with us for a few months) anyway, they were watching the Republican National convention, and I came home and caught the tail end of it. We were watching it on PBS, and at the end when they were doing the confetti and balloon drops, the commentary was priceless: "Here's the confetti." Long pause. "Multi-colored confetti falling." Another long pause. "Those fireworks are on the screen, they're not actually going off in the building." Excellent play by play!

Not much else going on here. Just thought I'd post a few thoughts while I'm up :).

2 for 2

There just aren't words. My friend Holly's pictures continue to just amaze me. Well, she's 2 for 2 with the Jones family. She took some pictures back in the spring, and they turned out fantastic. THANK YOU Holly! I'm so very grateful!
www.hollypetersphotography.com/livjones