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Now for the next step - God willing, in 5 years, ordination to the permanent diaconate. Prayer muchly appreciated!

One of his classmates went through a pregnancy and birth during the program and brought the baby to every class with her - the director issued the toddler a certificate of 100% attendance!

In the midst of the stress, there have been many small events that have let me know that God has not forgotten me and that there is a meaning and purpose here. I am very thankful for these small blessings.

Friday is my half-day in the office. If I don't have a mom in labor to sit with, John and I try to have Friday lunch together. There is a Japanese restaurant in town that we go to quite frequently on Fridays, and there is a waitress there that knows us and will have our tea on the table pretty much the moment we show up. Yesterday, we were partway through our meal when she informed us that the restaurant owner would be buying us dessert - wonderful fresh pineapple.

Today was the diocesan Respect Life seminar for PRLCs and also the NFP community. There was a great speaker on perinatal hospice. We have attended this event every year since we moved to Rockford, and it is always a blessing. This evening was the annual support the military dinner in our parish, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. There was a USO style show as entertainment, and one of the skits featured 4 knights in hula skirts over shorts (very funny). And.....I won the 50/50 drawing! Just a small gift from God to remind me not to fret or worry about things. Remember the lilies of the field.

Which reminds me, that earlier in the week in a parish study group, we had been talking about that passage from Matthew 6:
25 'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,* or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?* 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, "What will we eat?" or "What will we drink?" or "What will we wear?" 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God* and his* righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 'So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today.

So thank you Lord for the little gifts and help me to put my concerns in their proper perspective.

I gave her that dress!

The Catholic Medical Association is having their annual meeting in a few weeks and we will be going, I am looking forward to that. We now have a local chapter and there have been a few really good meetings including one on theology of the body.

Our parish just started doing the Epic series on Church history. So far I've only had to miss one class due to a birth - and we've started RCIA again, and this year we have a fairly large group. Keeping busy.

We grew some nice vegetables this year and I have a freezer full of rhubarb for winter cooking. It is supposed to freeze tonight, I suppose that I will have to harvest all the last tomatoes, even though they are still green. It was not a warm summer, and the tomatoes suffered. The CSA came through but they had some of the same problems. It's at times like this that I miss living on the West Coast.

If any of you are still paying attention, put a comment in the box so I know you are there. Let me know if I should try to get back to blogging on a regular basis or just let it go.

I do hope and pray that whatever changes there are will help persons like my patient who was just told that her insurance won't cover care from a midwife. No matter that I am certified, licensed, work within the system and have hospital privileges. Midwives as a class are categorically excluded. And it is perfectly legal.

After I finish working on the Pope talk (or maybe inbetween revisions) I need to start working on the next talk we will be doing - on the Holy Spirit.

I am SO GLAD that so many resources are now available online! For example, the Bible, the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Catechism and the early Church Fathers (among many other public domain Christian writings). Of course, I am still surrounded by my other reference books from the Didache to the didache high school textbooks!
Any suggestions on the Holy Spirit?

My sister was born abroad to American parents. She was born in a military hospital. However, she was required to obtain a certificate of naturalization and to my knowledge would not have been eligible to become President due to her birth status.

My concern in posting the letter below was that I did not want there to be a constitutional crisis should Mr. Obama be elected. I am still concerned about this. I would be more reassured if I could see a copy the actual Certificate of Live Birth that was filed with the local registrar. Alas, computer generated abstracts are simply that. GIGO. But the computer generated form is what you would likely get if you were to try to get a copy of your own birth certificate from just about any state in the Union.

I broke one of my own rules by not doing more assiduous fact checking. I sincerely hope that somewhere there is the requisite proof that all candidates for public office do in fact meet the requirements for that office as spelled out in the consitution.

A prominent Pennsylvania Democrat, Phillip J. Berg, filed a case in Federal Court on August 21st, demanding that Barack Obama produce evidence that he is a natural born citizen of the United States. Only a natural born citizen of the United States can serve as President. Sen. Obama could have put the matter to rest by producing a valid birth certificate. Instead, he and his lawyers fought tooth and nail to block access to Obama's birth records.
Here is a video of Philip J. Berg talking about his case.

Since that video was recorded, the Federal Judge assigned to hear Mr. Berg's case, Judge R. Barclay Surrick, a Bill Clinton appointee, ruled that an ordinary citizen of the United States does not have the right to file a case in Federal Court to challenge the credentials of a candidate for President of the United States!

Why would a Federal Judge go to such lengths to protect Obama?

Berg has now filed a request for an immediate injunction from the U.S. Supreme Court, to review his case before the election is allowed to take place.

Today's headline on WorldNetDaily is: "Constitutional Crisis Feared over Obama's Qualifications"

Evidence exists to substantiate the claim that Barack Obama is not a "natural born citizen" as required by the U.S. Constitution. His own paternal grandmother claims that she and two of Obama's half brothers were present at his birth in what is now Kenya, in 1961.

If elected, Mr. Obama may be the first candidate to win the election and be constitutionally barred from taking office. This would be an electoral disaster of epic proportions.

Courts in Hawaii have denied the public access to Obama's birth records by finding that the American people do not have "a tangible interest" in Obama's birth records. In addition, Barack Obama and his lawyers have stopped the release of his records at Columbia University, Occidental College, and Harvard Law School, all of which should include his birth information.

People hide the truth because it will hurt them. A candidate for President has an obligation to the American people to produce valid proof he or she is a natural born American citizen. This is what the American people want. Instead, we get nothing but stonewalling from Senator Obama and millions of Americans believe he is hiding the truth.

Senator Obama, we demand you produce a valid birth certificate that proves your birth in Hawaii. As a would-be President of the United States, you should provide a certified copy to every journalist who asks about it and to the Courts and plaintiffs in all the lawsuits seeking it. You must make the original available for inspection by any expert or news agency. Come clean and end the speculaton!

We must not let this issue corrupt, compromise or destroy the Constitution just because Senator Obama and the media want him to win the election.

Why won't Senator Obama produce a valid birth certificate for the court?

Why is the media silent on this issue?

In the absence of valid proof, the only logical explanation is that Barack Obama cannot produce evidence that he is a "natural born citizen" as required by the U.S. Constitution to be President.