The Most Courageous Thing

Here's a great question I heard on the radio: What is the most courageous thing you've ever done?

For me, the answer is easy. When my daughter was born, within a few minutes of her birth it was discovered that she had some type of health problem that wasn't immediately identifiable. They came to us and told us they would have to run all kinds of tests, including a spinal tap to check for meningitis. We had to sign all kinds of release forms that listed all manner of risks that came with the testing they had to do. It was such a scary time and the doctors told us they just weren't sure what was wrong.

The most courageous thing I have ever done was to place that situation completely and totally in God's hands and tell Him that she was His child and that if He wanted to take her home now, that He could do that. Whew, I'm crying even as I type this. After I did that, I felt such peace. God sent two different women to us to prophesy to us that all would be well with Olivia, and that God had a plan to use her and that this wasn't her time. One of the women said, "Miracles will be done because of her."

It turned out that she had Group B Strep infection, even though I had tested negative during a routine test at about the 36th week of pregnancy. My mother-in-law is of the opinion that she caught it at the hospital and not from me. After a ten day course of anitbiotics, she was able to come home from the hospital. And now, of course, she is a healthy, happy, wonderful, beautiful child. Praise the Lord!!

What's the most courageous thing you've ever done?




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Old grudges

Today before work I was in a place of business and overheard a lady loudly griping to the woman helping her (actually the woman had long since been finished helping her but was still stuck talking to her) about a loan of $500 that her and her husband had made to her husband's brother that had never been repaid. The woman working there asked her, "When did all this happen?" The lady replied, "About 20, maybe 25 years ago."

Wow. Now that's a long time to be upset about not getting repaid. How sad it must be to carry around a grudge for that long. The only person who is getting punished in that situation is not the one who didn't repay the loan, but the lady herself because she's been angry for so long. That's the problem with grudges: the one holding the grudge is the main one getting hurt.

It reminds me of when I was a teenager and would be mad at my parents for some reason, I'd be passive-aggressive and refuse to eat dinner. I only did that about two times until it suddenly dawned on me that the only one getting hurt here was me because I was sitting in my room starving while my parents where nice and full and not changing their minds about whatever it was I wanted just because I was refusing to eat.

Anyway, the woman helping me in this place of business this morning leaned over and said, "That woman drives us crazy." Well, no wonder. At this point she had moved on to another instance 10 years ago where someone else had "had the gall" to ask to borrow money. How sad.

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The Best Day

Today is a great day because not only is it Friday, it's pay day. Woo hoo! Not to mention the weather here in North Texas is a perfect 76 degrees with sunny skies and a slight breeze. Beautiful! This is one of those days when it feels like nothing could get me down. Even losing one of my two trials today didn't set me back too much. You should know I really hate to lose, but today I didn't care.

This little song I heard from Olivia's new day care keeps going through my mind:

Tell all the people,
The people everywhere,
It's gonna be a happy day!

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Another excuse

Here's another good one I missed in my previous post about excuses from traffic court: "Of course I stopped at that stop sign. You can't go through that intersection without stopping at the stop sign, so I stopped."

What do you mean you can't go through the intersection without stopping? Is there some invisible shield that doesn't allow passage unless you come to a full and complete stop? When you get to that intersection is your car programmed to automatically stop where all movement ceases before it allows you to drive it any further? I don't think so.

Oh, friends, I could go on and on with the excuses we hear. And I very well may. It feels good to respond here in print with my sarcastic remarks like I want to at the time to the person, but can't.

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Excuses from Traffic Court

As a prosecutor of traffic cases, it always amazes me when someone says, "I didn't (fill in blank with any traffic offense). I drive that route every day to work and I just wouldn't (fill in blank with any traffic offense)." If you're like most of us, the more you drive a route, the more you go on autopilot and the less you pay attention to what you're doing. Haven't you ever been so lost in thought that you've driven all the way home or to work without any recollection of the actual drive? Well, there you go.

The opposite of that excuse is, "I wasn't familiar with the area, so I didn't know you weren't supposed to (fill in blank with traffic offense)." Well, the less familiar you are with an area, the more careful you should be.

And here's another excuse we hear a lot: "The officer couldn't possibly have seen me (fill in blank with any traffic offense). He was too far away/behind a tree/turned with his back to me." Really. I mean, come on. He's a trained observer there for the purpose of seeing if you commit a traffic offense. Trust me, he saw you.

I like this one, too: "My car doesn't go that fast." Whatever. Yes it does.

Or here's a good one I had in a trial with an Hispanic police officer who wrote a ticket to an Hispanic defendant: "He probably stopped me because I am Hispanic."

But the one that takes the prize for the all-time greatest excuse for committing a traffic offense was the following (you may recognize this one from my Sustained! column): "My blinker was broken, so I stuck my arm out my window to signal my intent to change lanes. Now, the officer probably didn't see my arm because sometimes God makes it disappear, but I did stick it out the window." You won't be surprised to hear that the officer stopped her in a location where people buy drugs.


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Confession time

With all the conversation that goes on at Ninetandnine.com about television, you should know that we do watch TV at my house. I have one show all week that I actually make a point to sit down to watch, and that is the Apprentice. I've tried to analyze why I like this show so much, but I can't figure it out. I guess it's fascinating to me to watch someone in a position of power give the same task to two different groups of people, then to watch how differently those two groups end up handling the task. Then it's interesting to watch the people who did the worst job on the task try to defend their actions to Mr. Trump once they know they're close to being fired. Why I like to watch people defend themselves on TV to someone in power I don't know, since I watch people do it all day in the courtroom to the judge. Anyway, just thought I'd mention the show since that's what I'll be watching tonight.


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Bitten Again

Yesterday, Olivia got bit by another child at her babysitter's house. This is the sixth or seventh time she's been bitten in about 10 months, spread out among three different children who have done the biting. The first child was such a problem biter that the babysitter had to ask his mother to remove him from her care. The other two children are still there, but since today is her last day at this babysitter's, it's almost a moot point. It breaks my heart that Olivia has been bitten so many times, and I can't help but be a little angry about it. It makes me feel helpless that there is nothing I could have done to keep it from happening, and there's nothing I can do to Jade, the biter, to punish her for the bite (though the babysitter did discipline her). Hopefully her new day care won't have any biters in her class.

The good thing is now Olivia's getting old enough to tell us at least a little about what's going on with her. When my husband got there yesterday to pick her up, Olivia came to him and said, "Jade bite!"

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Quick Note

I won't be able to blog much today. It's a crazy day at work with crazy people who are here in abundance. Even our most patient, even-tempered judge raised his voice at someone today and told him to get out of the court room, which is probably only the second time in a year I've seen that happen. It's just one of those days....

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Ebay, I'm back!

With all the hoopla about finding child care for Olivia, I've been so distracted that I haven't even been bidding on Ebay. I almost always have a bid on something on Ebay. And no, it's not for strange things like this. Usually, I bid on gift cards for places I know I'm going to shop anyway, like Wal Mart. If I can buy a $50.00 Wal Mart gift card for $47.00 (including S&H), then I've just saved $3.00 on Wal Mart's already low prices, and without clipping coupons. Also, I found a great hosiery supplier (I go through a lot of this in my job) that sells it for much less than you can buy it in a retail store, even in a hosiery outlet store.

OK, now, don't make me regret telling you my secret and go bid up all the Wal Mart gift cards. LOL! As long as you stick to bidding on things like this, we'll be ok.


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Chris Rock and Abortion

Check out this article, Chris Rock vs. the Abortion Culture, to find out how Chris Rock may be helping the pro-lifers with his stand-up act.


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Great Quote

The following quote is attributed to Corrie Ten Boom, though I couldn't find a good citation for when she said it. Nevertheless, I've been thinking about it ever since I heard it on the radio this morning.

What did you do today that only a Christian would do?

International Opinion as Legal Precedent?

In a recent email, Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association points out that the Supreme Court, and particulary Justice Kennedy, has started to refer to the laws and opinions of other countries in order to reach decisions on US Law. The email reminds us that the selection of who will be on the Supreme Court is one of paramount importance, since once a Justice is put on the Court, he or she answers to no one.

In their decision legalizing sodomy, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority of the court saying it took into consideration the laws of other nations in reaching their decision: "The laws of Northern Ireland forbade him (a homosexual defendant) that right" (to practice sodomy). Kennedy also referenced the European Court of Human Rights and wrote: "Other nations have taken action consistent with an affirmation of the protected right of homosexual adults to engage in intimate, consensual conduct."

In the recent case involving capital punishment for those under age 18, Justice Kennedy continued this trend. Again writing for the majority of the court, he
wrote: "It is proper that we acknowledge the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty." The point here is not the ruling, but the fact that the Supreme Court looked not solely to the U.S. Constitution, but also to the laws of other nations.

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Day care at last?

Looks like we may have FINALLY found a day care for Olivia. The YMCA in downtown Fort Worth has one opening for an 18 month old. In addition to really liking the child care facility, I couldn't help but be influenced by the fact that each family with a child there gets a free full family membership to the Y. Now that's a good deal!

Plus she'll get free swim lessons and tumbling lessons included. I never learned to swim because of standards stating that it was immodest to appear in public in bathing suits, but my daughter will learn to swim. After all, anyone who starts lusting after my 18 month old daughter because she's wearing a one piece bathing suit should be immediately shot and killed.


Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Weekend recap

We survived our Saturday with two 2-year-old birthday parties. It was actually fun and we found a great place to have Olivia's birthday party.

Church was awesome Sun. morning. We've been out sick for a couple of Sundays, and it felt like I was a backslider coming home.

Last night we had our informational meeting for the HomeBuilders small group we'll be starting. It went really well, and I'm very excited about actually getting started. The only down side is that we won't start until the first weekend in April, since Spring Break and Easter are coming up and people have already made plans. But it does give us a little more time to recruit more couples, so the Lord probably worked it out that way for a reason. Hmmm, imagine that.