The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Is the Hand That Rules the World

Blessings on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace,
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
Rainbows ever gently curled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

Infancy's the tender fountain,
Power may with beauty flow,
Mother's first to guide the streamlets,
From them souls unresting grow--
Grow on for the good or evil,
Sunshine streamed or evil hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

Woman, how divine your mission
Here upon our natal sod!
Keep, oh, keep the young heart open
Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are from mother-love impearled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

Blessings on the hand of women!
Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,
And the sacred song is mingled
With the worship in the sky--
Mingles where no tempest darkens,
Rainbows evermore are hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

William Ross Wallace (1819-1881)

~~~~~~~~~~Art Notes:

Painting by Charles Edward Wilson. Twixt Sleeping and Waking, 1903. I love the gaze betwen mother and child - and the expression on the mother's face, which seems full of understanding that raising a child is a responsibility beyond measure.

Dear Bill and Martha -

You have been the inspiration for many, many changed lives. Your work helping us see a better way to raise our children has made us not only better parents, but better people. You have gentled our spirits and deepened our capacity to love and to express our love to our children.

Your legacy - in changing our lives and providing a better foundation for our children - will affect generations to come.

On this Mother's Day, here are just a few **Thank Yous** straight from our hearts.

My invitation

From Yvonne

From Greta - who just had her second baby May 6.

Hannah

Jenny

I know that there are many others who feel the same way we do. They're just too busy practicing the things you've taught them to sit down and write about it.

May God continue to richly bless you in the things that truly matter. You have made a difference in this world!

With love and gratitude,
Barbara
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Resources for readers:

AskDrSears.com

The Complete Book of Christian Parenting & Child Care: A Medical & Moral Guide to Raising Happy, Healthy Children

The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two

The Attachment Parenting Book : A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Baby

The Discipline Book: How to Have a Better-Behaved Child From Birth to Age Ten

How I wish I had more bunnies to give every mom who entered a comment in the adoption giveaway!

But, alas - I have only three. Please know that I am thanking god for each of you who opened your homes or who are awaiting children even now. May God continue to bless you with the things that really matter!

The winners of the three Shaohannah's Hope bunnies left these comments:

What a wonderful blog! I brought home two angels from Ukraine on March 7th, 2008 :) Emma, 5, and Micah, 19 months joined my two bio kiddos, Kristopher, 4 and Brianna, 2. Three of our four children have Down syndrome including both of our newest additions. We are fighting for a chance at life for Emma right now as she has a complete AV canal that is unrepaired. Her lungs are so damaged that we don't know if surgery is possible. Any prayers for Emma would be greatly appreciated!!! And of course a sweet bunny would be wonderful too :)

Meredith

We've been waiting for 16 months to bring our little cleft-affected son home from Vietnam. We should be on the home stretch, but nothing has been easy with this adoption and I'll believe we're going to get him when we're on the plane. (He'll be joining 6 brothers and sisters, including a brother who is also from Vietnam.)

Elizabeth

We adopted our son from the U.S. on February 29th of this year at 2 weeks of age. He is a sweet little fellow. We were matched with his birthmom, but did not have the $20,000 needed to complete the adoption. Our pastor challenged our church, on Sanctity of Life Sunday, to give generously to our adoption fund. The church raised $14,000 for us and a generous couple in the church loaned us the remaining funds to be repayed as we were able. Our church then gave us one of the most amazing baby showers. We have been overwhelmed with the series of miracles that God performed in order to bring this little man home!

Julie

Will you all email me with your addresses so I can send your bunnies? Thank you so much for sharing your stories- they really touched us all.

Don't forget this resource:

You can see the photos and read the moms comments at Our Little Extras - A Mother's Day Down Syndrome Celebration.

Or watch the slideshow:

Please send me yours if you'd like to be included! The more, the merrier!

Just received a wonderful surprise for Mother's Day, which I'd like to share with you.

See and hear it here.

Just wanted to share because our family has also sent gifts through WorldVision before. And I was so touched that Kari picked out something having to do with the arts because she knows that is important to me.

So, in case you're still wondering how to honor your mom tomorrow, here's an idea. You can bookmark WorldVision and use their catalogue anytime.

Please let me know - by comment or email - if I need to add you!

I've signed on for their affiliate program, so if you click through the button above or the one on my sidebar, it will not add to your cost, but a small percentage will go to maintain this site - just as when you use the amazon buttons here to buy anything from books to groceries (diet/organic/gluten-free stuff is easy to find and good prices) to appliances.

As a 30-7ear resident of California (I returned to Virginia in 2002), I can verify the truth of the saying "As goes California so goes the nation." While this has always meant a destructive slide, some citizens of California are determined that this budget crisis may be perfect timing for finally overthrowing Planned Parenthood's grip on state finances.

Following is the beginning of an email I received last week from the Coalition to Eliminate Abortion Funding.

During this state budget crisis, when our family healthcare services and children’s school programs are experiencing drastic spending cuts, California taxpayers request the Elimination of Abortion Funding, especially from Planned Parenthood, from our state budget.

The abortion industry does not need our tax dollars. As the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, reported $1 billion in income on its 2006-07 annual financial disclosure, with $114.8 million in profit and $1.12 billion in total assets (source: Planned Parenthood). One in four abortions is done by Planned Parenthood and this organization is very politically vulnerable due to several recent newsworthy concerns.

Planned Parenthood enjoys $336.7 million in government grants and contracts, representing one-third of their annual budget (American Life League). Planned Parenthood Federation President, Cecile Richards, receives nearly $1 million annual compensation (Washington Times) while teachers and librarians are being laid-off, music programs are being cut, and families go without healthcare!

Additionally, Planned Parenthood affiliates here in California, allegedly over-charged our state by at least $180 million dollars as described in this recent LA Times article. According to Victor Gonzalez, former vice president of finance and administration of the Los Angeles affiliate, he was fired for questioning Planned Parenthood’s “illegal accounting, billing and donation practices”. Planned Parenthood bought contraceptives at a discounted rate and then billed the state Medi-Cal program for 12 or more times the purchase price. An audit of the San Diego/Riverside Planned Parenthood clinic found $5 million in over billing charges in just two years. Very clearly, Planned Parenthood does not deserve our hard-earned taxpayer dollars!

You can read the rest of this position paper - plus draft amendment proposals - by contacting Wynette Sills at esills(at)earthlink(dot)net to be added to their mailing list.

Important dates:
Wednesday , May 14 - CEAF planning meeting
June 16 or 17 Stop Abortion Funding rally at State Capitol.

Please contact Wynette to let her know of your support!

'God’s plan was well in place for these embryos, and that was a plan of adoption instead of destruction.'

After years of infertility and being diagnosed with premature ovarian failure, Marlene Strege of California began to explore adoption. Her doctor recommended embryo adoption, and she and her husband, John, posed the idea to longtime friend Ron Stoddart, executive director of Nightlight Christian Adoptions. Stoddart investigated the idea and eventually created the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption program.

After prayer and research, the Streges adopted a frozen embryo, and on Dec. 31, 1998, they became the proud parents of the world’s first snowflake baby, Hannah.

Ten years after her first Mother's Day, Marlene Strege spoke with CitizenLink about the adoption of their little snowflake.

Read interview here.

Click banner below for more information on Snowflakes Adoption.

Every Mother’s a Working Mother
Barbara Curtis, Contributing Writer
May 5, 2008

It was the kind of splendid September day when sending kids to school just feels wrong. Fortunately, that year I was homeschooling and calling the shots. Plus we were living in California, an hour from the Pacific Ocean. For all I knew, it could be the last day of summer, and we wouldn’t want to miss that. So it was off to the ocean with five children under eight – Josh, Matt, Ben, Zach, and Sophia.

Together, we cleaned up from breakfast, prepped the car, then gathered beach blankets, umbrella, towels, swimsuits, diapers, sunglasses, sand toys, first aid kit, sunscreen, a cooler full of snacks and drinks – ay yi yi yi yi! Hello, motherhood – goodbye spontaneity.

I loaded the assorted car seats and strapped, snapped, and buckled five wiggling bodies into Big Blue – the 1989 Suburban we grew out of only a few years later. And we were on our way.

With everyone else in school, the whole beach was ours. I staked out our territory close to the water, hauled everything down from the car, and set up camp. For five hours I served as personal valet, sunscreen slatherer, weather advisor, recreation director, swim instructor, lifeguard, EMT, food concessionaire, manners consultant, bus boy, interpreter, peace negotiator, psychologist – not to mention lost-and-found.

Finally, I hauled everything back to the car, strapped, snapped, and buckled five sunscreen-and-sand-coated no-longer-wiggly warm, limp bodies back into Big Blue and headed for home.

The sun through the window was soothing, and the car was full of contentment. It had been a wonderful day and I was pleased with myself as a mother.

Then from the back seat, I heard Zachary clear his throat, and in his deadpan four-year-old Eeyore voice ask, “Mom, when are you going to get a job?”

Read it all here.

Michelle and Jim Duggar have just announced their 18th - due on New Year's Day.

You can learn more about the Duggar family - and even enter a contest to name their next baby - with 17 beginning with J, they're running out of ideas - here.

Michelle has been pregnant 135 months of her life.

Laura Ingraham is a radio talk host worth listening to with her sharp insights into politics, culture and faith. She is an outspoken Roman Catholic and defender of the pro-life movement. Also a survivor of breast cancer. After years of waiting for the Guatemala adoption process - which her listeners did not know of - she is now a mother.

Click here to hear Laura's announcement of her adoption!

Hi Barbara,

Time and again I read in your comment box about women and their moms and broken relationships. As you know, I have struggled for years with my own relationship with my mom. God has really been working in my heart on this for a long time, and He seems to have softened her heart during these last few months of my being sick (How thankful I am for being sick!).

Today I posted something on my blog about how important it is to forgive our moms for all of their failings. It is the truly the only way, I believe, to get beyond the tension and to be open up to what God might be able to do in our lives and relationships.

Those who've been reading here for a while know that I have a daughter who hasn't spoken to me or anyone else in our family (except one brother who has work ties to her husband) for over a year and a half.

I blame myself for this as I cut my own mother out of my life for many years, feeling justified because of her shortcomings and failures (my mother was not a Christian and involved in serious sinful activity until the day she died). Since I was a Christian and trying to be a good mom and since I was quick to apologize when I did wrong, I never foresaw this happening to me.

And yet it did. The simple fact is that no matter how righteously we live our lives, our children will do as we do (which is why parents are urged to let their children see them read, use their seatbelts, wait for the green light, etc). No matter how justified we feel in cutting off our mothers, we will have to face judgment for that at some point. Believe me, I have bowed before God acknowledging my mistake - which I might not have ever realized had it not happened to me.

God uses all things for good. So I am grateful that I had this experience to teach me how wrong I was about my own mother. While I didn't realize it before she died, I have realized it before I died. And I have apologized to my kids for robbing them of a relationship with their grandmother because making a decision based on my own comfort was selfishness, plain and simple.

Still, the sin plays out among the generations to come as siblings and cousins have been greatly harmed - and where God intended and has provided the opportunity for rich relationship there is none.

So do read Kari's piece Cherish Your Mom: Love Your “Enemy”! (?) and see if God has something for you there. I love Kari's writing style, which is very intuitive and poetic, with lots of space for contemplation as you read. Leave her a comment - and feel free to discuss if you feel yourself softening toward your own mother here.

I know that my own journey as a mom has been humbling. My heart has been softened and I've developed more compassion. If my mom were alive, I would go to her now and apologize for how I wronged her. But she's not and I can't. All I can do is expose my own mistakes and the unexpected consequences for others to learn from.

For more help, see
Why Forgive Your Mother?
Why Forgive Your Mother, Part 2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Art notes: Stained glass window, St. James Anglican Church, Nova Scotia, Canada, depicting Ruth and Naomi.