I Have A Say Thanks to My Mom and Dad!!!

Being the oldest of 11, I am so thankful, especially now, for my Mom and Dad saying "yes" to life! Growing up, we never had a ton of money. My Dad was a high school chemistry teacher and my parents decided from the beginning that they wanted to have one of them home with us. My mom gave up her teaching career, and raised me, followed by 10 others! My Mom also taught all 11 of us at home for part of our childhood before we would head off to Nativity Catholic Grade School. My Dad worked long hours, eventually earning other degrees so that he could first become dean, then principal, and finally, when I was a sophomore, he was named Roncalli High School's first president. My Dad and Mom both sacrificed SO MUCH for us.

I remember, even as a young person, getting stared at by people, and I remember the comments they would make. I can still hear a dental receptionist asking my Mom "Are these all yours? You know how children are made right?" followed by a real insidious but ditzy chuckle, followed by a secretarial gum crackle. My Mom and Dad were always tight budget wise, and I'm sure at times ached with a desire to not have to take bags of clothes from other families so that we could have clothes. I'm sure my Mom and Dad had desires to simply go to Nordstrom and buy us and give us all our own new clothes and Gameboys and Reebok Pumps etc. I'm sure they at times really wished they could just get a new car and not have to drive a fifteen passenger van around. I'm sure at times they wanted really badly to just go to a restaurant and sit back and enjoy a big expensive meal instead of having to cut coupons and craft together economic meals on the stove.

But they chose life for us, and they chose sacrifice for themselves.

I often think about that ditzy secretary now when our family gets together almost every weekend for dinner to laugh and hang out. Some of the siblings might be out of town or busy with other obligations, but inevitably, all weekend long, every weekend, our family gets together. Sometimes, when we're out at a restaraunt, I see the couples who are alone with each other. They hardly talk to each other and the loneliness is palpable. A part of me feels bad that we're having so much fun with our 8 tables shoved together, telling stories, laughing good hearty and healthy laughs. Sometimes I wonder if one of the couples sitting in the restaurant quietly and solemnly is that dental secretary - who now has piles of money and can eat wherever she wants, but doesn't have hardly anyone to share it with. My heart breaks for the people who are alone, especially the ones who are alone because, when they could have been having children, they instead bought into the contraception lie and lived for themselves only.

I have a say today, and so do my ten younger brothers and sisters, because my parents chose life. Mom and Dad - thanks a million!!!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Anne Hazel Has a Say

Cecile Richards, you are right.

Not every voice is heard.

I am the youngest of eight: two boys, five girls (the oldest is a boy in Heaven…the 7 of us living were all born within 8 years, no twins). If my Mom and Dad had listened to your ideology, I would not be here because according to you they had too many children. I thank God that they had all of us and as I was growing up I wished we had a bigger family. My Mom and Dad have been married 43 years and they raised us with a lot of love and self-sacrifice and on one pay. For the nine of us we had 3 bedrooms (who says you can’t put 5 girls in one bedroom!) and one bathroom. They raised all of us Catholic and we all practice our Faith with devotion. My childhood is filled with happy memories. We have found spouses that are like ourselves, faithful Catholics as well, thank God! You don’t speak for me or for any of my brothers and sisters.

None of us have ever used contraception and we all see life as a beautiful gift. Among the five of us that are married we have 15 children (8 years old and younger) and we are not done yet, God willing! We are all raising our children in the beautiful Catholic Faith. 

I also have 2 sisters that are consecrated virgins. I doubt you would invite any of us pro-life women to have a say. Why do only women who use contraception have a say?  I have the most wonderful husband. I knew he was a gentleman the first time I saw him. I thank God every day for my husband. We have two little children and one in Heaven. I miscarried our second baby at a mere 13 weeks and he was a perfectly formed baby boy. At thirteen weeks we even knew he was a boy – go ahead and keep saying they are just a clump of cells, or a “product of conception” or whatever dehumanizing terms you give to our little ones. What my husband and I saw on that very heartrending day when I miscarried him was a baby, plain and simple.  Why is it that you think that men should not have a say? Men have no say because they are men? Men have just as much say as women because as far as I know, women are not asexual beings. All men have a say because they are our fathers, brothers and husbands. We all have a say because we are alive. How false feminism is destroying our culture! What has happened to the day in which men protected their mothers, sisters and wives? There are still many men who love women for who they are and not for what they can get from them. These men have a say and even if you don’t want to hear them, we do. Don’t speak for us.

You say women know that birth control is basic healthcare. You don’t speak for me, Cecile Richards. Count me out! I have a husband that loves me more than to reject what defines me as a woman, namely motherhood. Is rejection of motherhood basic healthcare? I love my husband more than to reject his masculinity and fatherhood by using birth control. We have never used it and we never will. Birth control is a rejection of the other. Is that basic healthcare? You call it “protected sex”…protection from what? Is it protection from the one you love? I pray every woman will come to know what real love is. Birth control prevents children. When will we stop talking about children as unloved, unintended and a burden? Is the rejection of children basic healthcare? Many times birth control aborts a tiny baby. Is murder basic healthcare? “They are going to have sex anyways” so provide our youth with birth control? How is degrading young girls basic healthcare? Birth control pills cause so many problems to the woman’s body and you call this basic healthcare?  If you were so concerned about women, why has Planned Parenthood eliminated the voice of millions of little girls who will never have a say? By the way, many abortionists are men. You let them have a say every
time they kill a little baby girl, but you will not allow true men to have a say?

The families that love life are having many children…we are growing in numbers and we love the Catholic Church and we are not going away. Cecile Richards,

HERE COMES THE CATHOLIC CHURCH!
Anne Hazel

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