a nice answer to my last, venty post...

This was posted in response to one of the threads on one of my favorite blogs. It was a thread about breastfeeding, and where in church it is and is not appropriate:



My mom is Spencer W. Kimball’s Niece and she always told me this story about when he came to her ward when she was a young breastfeeding mother.

The story she told goes something like this….She was in a meeting room or classroom discussing something with a big group and I guess she wanted to get up to breast feed her baby in the mothers lounge (which she hated) and the president said to her “You don’t need to go to the mothers lounge for any of our sakes. Motherly duties are beautiful. Stay here and care for your child.”…. my mom always talks about this.



I love Spencer W. Kimball. I was 2 when he died but he will always be one of my favorite prophets... if we're allowed to have favorites?

Finally, some news on the adoption front!!!

I didn't want to make any announcements until our paperwork was all offical... but we have our referrall!

That's right. We know who we're going to bring home to be a part of our family.

THey are sisters. Their names are Woineshet (pronounced winna-shet) and Meaza (pronounced may-ah-zuh.) Woineshet means "unripe grape" in amharac, and Meaza means "aroma." They are beautiful girls, 4 and 5 years old. They look much younger than this; I would have guessed Meaza at 2 or 3 years old like my other girl, and I would have pegged Woineshet at 4. But that's normal for third world countries and conditions involving poverty.

They are said to be very bonded to each other, and good at playing games with other kids. They are on-track developmentally. They have tested negative for all the worrisome diseases. They seem like wonderful girls and we're so excited to bring them home!!

The process from here: our paperwork has been officially submitted to the courts. Probably within 2 or 3 weeks we will hear when our court date is. right now, court dates are being assigned at the end of April; so on that track our court date would come in the middle of may, and then we'd go to pick them up 2-6 weeks later, depending on how long it takes for their visas to be completed. So right now we're looking at a possibility of picking them up in June.

Our agency director, however, has told us that they have trained a new judge who just began taking on some of the caseload yesterday. He's not working a full load yet, but everyone's hoping it means that the wait for court dates will shorten significantly, possibly by a month or two. So it's also possible we could travel much sooner... possibly by mid-late April or early May.


So cross your fingers, pray, etc, for us, that we'll pass court the first time and all will go smoothly for us legally, physically, and emotionally as we take on this huge adventure!

...and ice cream

Your Ice Cream Personality:

You like to think of yourself as a fairly modest person. And it's true that you don't talk yourself up... but you're also pretty happy with who you are. You are the type of person who likes to throw caution to the wind. You only live once, so you're going to live as large as possible. You are definitely a wild one! You are a very open minded, liberal, and flexible person. You love many things. You tend to have tastes that range from down home to cosmopolitan. You are a natural multitasker. You feel alive when you're doing more than one thing at a time. You are fun loving and sweet. You tend to enjoy joking around and teasing people.

The Ice Cream Personality Test

What girl scout cookie?

You Are Peanut Butter Sandwiches / Do-si-dos

You are easy going and naturally happy. You don't need a lot to make you smile. You genuinely care about people and are a great friend. You're always doing your best to make the world a better place. Even though there isn't an immature bone in your body, you still are like a big kid sometimes. Why make life complicated when the best parts are actually quite simple? You enjoy the small joys of life.

What Girl Scout Cookie Are You?

unintended discrimination

I think our church is full of wonderful men and women who are charitable and considerate. I don't think that people leave certain minority groups out in the cold on purpose; if it ever happens, it is simply because of a lack of perspective. A white, male, land-owning priesthood leader has likely not been there, and so likely misses things every once in a while.

I'm not talking about race here. Or even gender, necessarily (though this is an element).

I'm talking about young motherhood!! That's right. Here are a few examples that get my dander up a little on sundays:

1) The sacrament is not brought to the foyer in my ward. Because of the time change, my son's usual nursing time falls right smack dab in the middle of the sacrament. I have gone breadless and waterless for 2 weeks now.

--now I know this is something I can work on and solve myself. But I feel just a little left out... and I don't understand why they don't bring the sacrament out to the foyer where the young mothers (perhaps chasing an unruly toddler, or coming out of the nursing mother's room for a moment)can partake.

2) For the last several sundays, nobody has turned on the heat that heats up the nursing mother's room. I am soooo grateful my church has nursing mother's rooms... one quite roomy and one cozy, nestled in the doorway of the bathroom. I've heard of places where this has been omitted from the building design, leaving mothers to the indiginty of nursing in toilet stalls. Whenever I have to do this, I feel like nursing must be something dirty, that I have to do it on the toilet. Anyway, slight venty side note.

As I was saying, the nursing mother's room has been ice-cold for all the hours of church for the last two sundays, and I can't find the switch to turn the heat on! It's not in the nursing mother's room. Skywalker says it must be in one of the rooms next to it (either the Mens' bathroom or a classroom).

3) Sunday school is apparently not for young mothers who have kids in that difficult gap-age between walking and nursery. I have gathered from the looks directed at me when I have tried to attend with him (and he's really not that loud... little cooing noises, an occasional giggle) that babies are not welcome in Sunday school. Last sunday I spent the second hour in the foyer with all the other moms who have kids that age. I feel like, as a young mother, I'm being told that I don't belong in the ward, or in a classroom learning gospel doctrine. I should be chasing my toddler around the foyer instead.

You know, I can do that much more easily at home.

4) Nursing in sacrament meeting. I have tried it a few times (under a blanket, of course) but have gotten some wierd looks. Apparently, as a young mother, I'm not supposed to be in the chapel when I nurse. For some reason, nursing is considered an indecent enough activity that it is relegated to the bathroom stall or a special room so that nobody has to look at me.

the problem is, when I go to said special room, half the time there are moms in there chatting (and that presents another dilemma... should I be social and chat and be a good ward member that way, or should I be quiet and try to listen and be spiritually fed. Anyway) and so I don't get to hear much.


It's a vent, people. Sorry. Anyway, hopefully the purpose of this blog post will be to help people see that there is a problem. Us young mothers get little sleep, we're nutritionally challenged because we've got cute little babies suckin' it all out of us, we have little time to ourselves throughout the week, and we really don't get enough time with our husbands, either. Please, please don't take spiritual nourishment away from us, too.

Ideas? Thoughts, anyone?

*you can tell this has not been one of my best Sundays.*