Project Rachel

I'm a bit of a hypochondriac.  Okay, I'm a huge hypochondriac.  There was the time two years ago when I was walking with my friend Natalie, and I felt an unusual bulge on the back of my knee/leg.  I reached down to feel the bulge through my jeans, and I freaked out.  I thought I had an abnormal growth or some sort of tumor.  Turns out, it was just a turquoise thong that had gotten stuck in my pant leg in the wash.  



Then, a few months later, I had an unusually sharp pain in the side of my lower abdomen.  I immediately got on Web MD, went through the "symptom checker" and I realized that my appendix was probably getting ready to burst.  I freaked out again!  I was minutes away from heading to the emergency room, when my friend Emily's mom, who's a pharmacist, suggested that I take a warm shower and see how I felt before taking such drastic measures.  Well wouldn't you know, after the shower I felt like a million bucks. 



Finally, just this past week, I thought something was seriously wrong with me.  I've been incredibly tired lately, and I could not figure out why.  I've been sleeping more than 8 hours a night and napping 1-2 hours after work every day.  I started thinking of all the worst case scenarios.  Maybe I have cancer?  I'm probably Anemic. I have mono. No, I probably got bit by a tick while camping a few months ago!  I definitely have Lyme disease.  As you have probably already conjured, my mind gets slightly carried away (okay, extremely carried away) when my health is involved. Finally, I went to see the doctor, and I had my blood tested.  No anemia.  No Lyme disease. No mono. Slightly elevated thyroid levels, but nothing to be too concerned about.  I worried myself into a tizzy.



During my time of anxiously waiting to get my test results back, I did alot of thinking.  I prayed alot, and I came to the realization that worrying gets nothing accomplished.  Nothing!  Easier said than done, right?  I always talk about trusting in the Lord and knowing that He is always good, but at a times like these when I feel that things are out of my control, I begin to worry, moving myself further away from God.  I'm human though, and I'll be the first to admit that trusting in God is not always easy, and practicing what you preach is not exactly easy either.



Back in November of 2004, I gave a speech to our entire school (for a mock presidential debate) about why abortion is morally, ethically, all of the above, etc. wrong.  Later that same night, I went to my best friend, Jena's house, and took my first pregnancy test.  Positive.  Talk about having to practice what you preach!  No, I wasn't ever considering abortion, but for the first time, I realized how a woman could actually think that abortion was necessary.  When I found out that I was pregnant, I felt trapped.  "But I'll never do it again," I pleaded with God.  It would have been so easy to secretly have an abortion and to continue swimming and just living the good life.  Nobody would have ever had to know. But instead, I realized that I had a moral obligation to give life to the child that God created.  (Jeremiah 1: 4-5 The word of the Lord came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart") 

I knew that I had to practice what I had been preaching all along. That's big stuff for an immature, irresponsible 18-year-old.  But, somehow, I knew that this is what God wanted me to do.



Here's what the Bible says about abortion: 



Jeremiah 31: 15-17

"A cry of anguish is heard in Ramah--mourning and weeping unrestrained.

Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted--for her children are dead."



..But now the Lord says, 

"Do not weep any longer, for I will reward you.

Your children will come back to you from the distant land of the enemy.

There is hope for your future," says the Lord. 

"Your children will come again to their own land."



There are so many other examples of abortion throughout the Bible, but I like this one because it clearly shows how, although the slaughter of innocents is sinful and wrong, the children "will come back...from the distant land" and Rachel is comforted in knowing that her slaughtered children will be saved.  This verse offers HOPE and FORGIVENESS to post-abortive women, and guidance to those who are considering it.  We are all human, and yes, we are sinful by nature, but God tells us that He forgives us for our sins. The children will be saved. Doesn't that offer you great hope?  Yes, God is good!



Project Rachel reaches out to all women and men hurting emotionally and spiritually after involvement with abortion.  This ministry helps heal your wounded relationships with yourself, your child, and God.  Extending God's compassion, unconditional love, and forgiveness, Project Rachel offers hope and peace.

To find the location of the nearest Project Rachel near you, 

click HERE.  



"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Genesis 50:20

Creating an Online Journal for CPD

The importance of careful thought and reflection on what we do as both teachers and learners can not be overestimated in terms of the learning process and retaining information in a way that we can actually use it and make it part of our experience and practice.


Keeping a teaching or learning journal can be a really important part of this process of reflection and writing entries can help us to reformulate what we have read or analyse our experiences and draw conclusions from them which we can later return to, share and reflect on again.

For me Penzu is a really good tool which can help me and my students or trainee teachers to do this.

How to create your learning journal

• Go to: https://penzu.com/ and click on ‘Sign up’.

• You will need to create a password and enter a username, email address and agree to the terms of use. Then you just click on ‘Submit’.



• You can then start creating your journal entries by adding a text and title. Each entry is dated automatically and you can move from one entry to another using the tabs on the right of the page.

• To add pictures, you simply click on the ‘Insert Photo’ icon at the top of the page and locate an image on your computer and upload it.

• Once you have uploaded your pictures you simply click to insert the ones you want to use.

• The picture will appear in the margin and you can then drag it up or down to line it up with the text. Users click on the images to enlarge them.

• To share journal entries you click on the share icon and this enables you to email your entry to someone else. You can either include your name and email along with a message or this can be done anonymously.

How we can use Penzu as a journal tool.

• We can write short summaries of articles we have read and make a note of what our personal main points of interest or learning were from the article.
• We can keep a journal of our teaching or training work and reflect on how classes went, compare these to our expectations and make notes of things we would like to try differently next time.
• We can use it as an action research journal recording what we do in each lesson and setting out our objectives for the action research project. We can also ask students to use it to keep a journal of their reflections on our teaching and we can ask them to send us entries anonymously so that we can get unbiased feedback from our students on our teaching.
• We can include it as part of a peer to peer development program and partner up teachers to watch each others classes, reflect on what they saw and send each other entries.
• We can use it as a simple record of what we did in the class and what we want to do to follow it up in the next class.
  

The vital thing with all of these activities is that we return to our entries and reflect on what we wrote some time later. Immediate responses to what happens in our classes can be very subjective and emotional. If we record those responses and then come back to them at a time when we can be more objective we are often able to gain much greater insights into what happened in the class. In this way the journal enables us to capture thoughts and feelings that would otherwise be lost.

What I like about Penzu

• It’s free and very simple to use.
• The entries are private, but be can be shared
• We can add images to make the entries more memorable
• It can be accessed from anywhere
• It’s quick and date stamps entries for us

What I’m not so sure about

• It would be nice to be able to add a few hyperlinks (I think this is possible in the ‘Pro’ paid for edition.
• It would be nice to have the option of having images in the text rather than just in the margin (again, probably available in the ‘Pro’ edition)

Well that’s about all I have to say about Penzu for now. I’ve focused on its uses as a tool for teacher development here, but it is also a great tool to use with students too. For more information on using Penzu with students check out my teaching manual Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers, which you can read or download for free.

Related links:

• A Complete EFL Teacher Training Course Online
• Using wikis for teacher development
• Create your own social network 7 steps
• Three Views of the Future of English Language Teaching
• Teachers' Stories
• ELT classroom videos
• Social Networks and the Web 2.0 Revolution: Part 2
• Create your own social network 7 steps
• Creating an Online Classroom
• What are you Wanted for?

Best

Nik Perachey

Sights and Sounds at the NC State Fair

As I mentioned in my previous post, I volunteered to man the North Carolina Right to Life booth at the NC State Fair yesterday.  What an awesome experience!  Here are some sights and sounds that I observed:



1) Many passerbys were intrigued by our "fetal development" display, which showed four realistic looking fetuses at different stages, (immediately after conception, 4 weeks old, 3 months old, 20 weeks old, etc.)



2) While observing the fetal development display, one woman said to her boyfriend, "I never knew that a human life could be so tiny!" Yes, girlfriend, you got it.



3) Pregnant women walked up to fetal development display and exclaimed excitedly, "I'm this far along!" while pointing to various fetuses.  I could feel their excitement, and that's exciting to me. 



4) Young boy was looking at fetal development display with his mother. Boy says, "Where dey're clothes be, mom? Those babies are naked in there."  Mom can't stop laughing and finally replies, "Babies don't have clothes on, Jamal!"  Boy exclaims, "You mean I wasn't born with no clothes?  That's gross!"



5) Engaging in an interesting discussion with a pro-life family.  The woman proceeded to ask me about which mascara I use, and I told her Maybelline Full 'n Soft.  She pulled out her own mascara and asked me to show her how to apply it properly so as to get her lashes long and curled.  Before I knew it, the pro-life display miraculously turned into a make-up booth.  I showed her how to turn the wand backwards while applying it to her eyelashes, and then I quickly moved on.  Gosh, I love people.



6) Inappropriate man commenting on the bumper sticker that read, "Abortion Causes Breast Cancer."  He suggested that we have a new bumper sticker made that should read, "Stay Pregnant, You're Breasts Will Be Larger."  I told him I would promptly pass that bumper sticker request along to the Right to Life president.



7) More than 10 whole pages of signatures received for the petition to make sure that taxpayer money is not used to fund abortion in any health care bill.  Ahh, success.



8) Morality/Ethics discussion with three male college students.  I liked listening to their points, especially that it should be a woman's right to choose, but I think I forced them to think harder about the issue, by explaining that the Declaration of Independence states that we are guaranteed the rights that are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.  Without the first right, "the right to life," there are no other rights an individual can enjoy. Individuals have rights only to the extent that their rights do not infringe on the rights of others. 



9) For the first hour, I was the only person working our booth.  As I grew more and more parched, I noticed that my booth was near another booth which had a large display of trickling water.  Isn't that so typical? My boyfriend came to the rescue with H2O just in the nick of time.  Then he helped me man the booth.  Yeah, I know, he's awesome. 



10) After 3 hours of work, tired feet, butter pecan ice cream, hamburgers, french fries, a variety of mullets in all shapes and sizes, and carnies galore, we finally got to enjoy the Eric Church concert later that night.  Eric Church had a broken foot, but that certainly didn't stop him from jamming out. He made a grand entrance by crutching onstage and hobbling around.  Priceless.



In light of the State Fair theme, I'm going to leave you with some of my favorite haircut pictures of all time.

NC State Fair Tomorrow

Working the Triangle Right to Life booth at the North Carolina State Fair tomorrow....stop by our booth if you have a chance! 3-6 Sunday afternoon. Hope to see you all there!



Triangle Right to Life Website

Triangle Right to Life Blog

Bloggers Who Have Influenced Me

The Open Adoption Roundtable is a series of occasional writing prompts about open adoption. It's designed to showcase of the diversity of thought and experience in the open adoption community. You don't need to be part of the Open Adoption Bloggers list to participate, or even be in a traditional open adoption. If you're thinking about openness in adoption, you have a place at the table.



Here is Open Adoption Roundtable Writing Prompt #8:

Write about a blogger (or bloggers) who influenced your real-life open adoption and how. It might be someone who became an offline friend who supports and challenges you. Or a writer who makes you uncomfortable, but gets you thinking. Maybe a blogger who doesn't even know you are reading. Tell us about them and how they've affected you.



Okay, this is me now, Amstel, Stellie, The Amster, Amsters, Ames, Amiss, Maxima, Amakiss, what have you.  I decided to jump in on this Open Adoption Roundtable writing prompt because I've enjoyed reading the responses of some of the previous Open Adoption Roundtables.  They definitely make for some great discussion.  Okay, so a blogger who has influenced me....hmmmm.  This one's tough. I can't say that there has been just one blogger who has influenced me.  I am pleasantly surprised by the sheer number of people who are blogging about adoption in general.  Whether it be birthmoms, adoptive parents, adoptees, or families considering adoption, the stories about adoption on the Internet are plentiful (okay, you're right, I just wanted to find a way to use the word plentiful), interesting, and unique.  I have been influenced by every single adoption story that I have read.



I think I have been most influenced, however, by bloggers who have a negative view of adoption.  Bloggers who are opposed to adoption (natural family advocates) have influenced be because I never heard of any person who was opposed to adoption before.  I thought everyone would embrace my decision with open arms and realize that it was in fact a selfless act, not a selfish one.  After reading some comments from natural family advocates, I began to question my own decision.  Am I selfish?  Is Deanna going to hate me forever?  Is she going to have psychological issues, anxiety, depression, etc. as she gets older as a result of the adoption?  When I read more into these natural family advocates' blogs, I have to admit that I actually considered the "what ifs" alot more.  I thought about a worst case scenario of Deanna growing to resent me as she gets older, and I began to wonder if this could turn out to be a real scenario.



Then I turned back to the reason I chose open adoption for Deanna in the first place -- my faith.  Since the beginning of my pregnancy, I have relied on God to help me through this difficult open adoption journey.  "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11.  When I was in the hospital, signing the adoption papers, I made a deal with God.  I told Him that I would follow through with the adoption, as I believe He asked me to do all along, if He could promise that I would not regret my decision.  Ever faithful, He has not let me down.



I am thankful that there are so many different blogs out there about adoption because each one I come across educates me more about the decision I have made.  I love learning other people's perspectives, regardless of whether they are pro-adoption or not.  Each day, I learn something new about adoption, and I love that.  I am so thankful for bloggers with positive adoption stories to share, such as Heart Cries, the story of two Rebekas, Stephanie Jinelle's Journey, Andee Leigh, and The Story of A Girl.  These blogs carry me through when I'm having a tough day.  The Story of A Girl is a huge pick-me-up--because this young woman, who was raped in her own apartment and got pregnant, ultimately chose to carry her baby and place her in an adoption with a wonderful family.  She started Birth Mom Missions in an effort to "provide much needed (and often overlooked) service to women who have placed their child for adoption.  They offer guidance before, after, and during the adoption process to all women who ask, regardless of their choices made."  You can't tell me that's not courageous. 



While I'm definitely influenced by positive adoption stories by bloggers, I have been most influenced by those bloggers who oppose adoption because they have forced me to look deeper into my decision and to really come to terms with the "what ifs."  Make no mistake, these bloggers have not changed my mind about open adoption.  I still believe that open adoption has the potential to benefit so many people, including the adoptee, and I still believe, despite the negative stories, that Deanna will thank both Robbie and I someday for the difficult decision that we made.  The negative comments I receive often force me to think harder about other peoples' perspectives, to become more accepting of all views, and most importantly, to reaffirm my belief that I did the best thing I could for Deanna by choosing open adoption and placing her with Don and De.  There is absolutely no argument I have read that has changed the way I feel about open adoption. 



"Once we give our hearts to Christ, believing and trusting in Him alone for salvation, God says we become part of His family-not through the natural process of human conception, but through adoption.  "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship (adoption).  And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father'" (Romans 8:15). Similarly, bringing a person into a family by means of adoption is done by choice and out of love.  "His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.  And this gave Him great pleasure" (Ephesians 1:5). As God adopts those who receive Christ as Savior into His spiritual family, so should we all prayerfully consider adopting children into our physical families."

-What does the Bible say about adoption? 

 

AMAZING VIDEO!

Wow, this is crazy--two posts in one day!  But this video that I just saw warrants a second post.



Please watch this video...I know this woman, and she is amazing. 



Pam's testimony on how her Post Abortion Testimony saved the life of a beautiful baby that she now helps to take care of. 



Amen!

Holy Moly, 1 in 8?

Wow, I just read an article titled, "Why are 1 of 8 Girls Pregnant at Robeson High?"  Can you guess what the article's about?  Apparently, 115 of the 800 total females at a Chicago high school are pregnant.  That's astounding.  Officials say that the pregnancies are occurring despite prevention talks. What's going on here?



According to the article, officials say that a mix of factors is to blame.  "It can be a lot of things that are happening in the home or not happening in the home...Absentee fathers are another factor."  According to LaDonna Denson and several Robeson students, "parents not talking to teens and, in some cases, the pursuit of public assistance also factor into the pregnancies. Non of them thought they'd be moms at such a young age. They said they have support at home.  But not all girls do.  In fact, some girls get thrown out of the home."  



I think a positive in this story is that 115 women are not having abortions.  That's wonderful news!  But the problem is that teen pregnancy is a scary thing.  No matter how you choose to deal with an unplanned pregnancy as a teenager, no option will be easy.  Adoption, parenting, abortion.  All three choices have lasting consequences.  Once you get pregnant, there is not an "easy way out." I can't help but wonder what type of "pregnancy prevention" this school is doing?  Are they simply telling kids in health class, "don't have sex, don't do this, don't do that?"  Because I heard the exact same thing, and I didn't believe it would happen to me. I thought that birth control was a safe bet.  Obviously, now we all know that I made a wrong assumption. 



I have begun working on a letter to students, a slide show from my pregnancy, and a brochure about teen pregnancy and open adoption.  I think it would be absolutely amazing to be able to speak to these students at Robeson High School, but at the very least I would be more than happy to send them the teen pregnancy prevention materials in hopes that they would use them to educate students.  I'm not sure what the solution to this problem is, but I do know that if I heard someone like myself speaking about my experience with unplanned pregnancy, I believe that I would have made a different decision five years ago.  I think when a teacher or an adult tells a teenager to do something or not do something, it's easy to simply tune that message out.  When a peer or a young adult shares a personal experience, it is sooo much easier to relate to that. 



On another note, I came across a blog called, "After Abortion."  The more I read personal testimony from post-abortive women, and the more I meet and speak with post-abortive women, the more I believe that "abortion is a reflection that we have not met the needs of women" (Feminists for Life).  I read through some of this blog today, and I realized something that I never thought about before: Post-abortive women are afraid to speak out against abortion because they fear being shunned by both pro-lifers and pro-choicers.  What an excellent point!  When pro-life people bash women who have had abortions, they are only adding salt to the wound.  There is not reason to shun them; after all, don't we all make mistakes?  Redemption.  Post-abortive women are the people who have so much power because they have personal testimony about the lasting emotional, psychological, traumatic effects of abortion.  For example, Annie's Story, Pamela's Story, and Deanna's Story all share their personal accounts of how abortion has impacted their lives.  How wonderful it is that these women have had the courage to share their stories and to tell the truth about abortion.  



Deanna says that her blog "is a vehicle to express my opinions on choice as a woman who has been on both sides and now sees no other way but to recognize that LIFE is immediate and not to be discriminated against due to how early his/her development is. Life is a gift from God and His to give or take, not ours.....We do believe that God forgives and offers a momentum to post-abortive women to healing.  It is a process and different for each woman but my hopes are to make sure that if women don't feel they can ever tell another soul about their abortion experience, then at least they can view these videos and posts and identify with my experience knowing that they are not alone and that healing is theirs for the taking as well."



I think it's time that we stop shunning people for their mistakes, actions, sins, etc.  We are all sinners, we are all human beings, and we are all subject to temptation and sin.  We have no authority to judge others, to shun, or to criticize.  Let's leave the judgment up to God, and let's concentrate on working together to protect the innocent human life that He created. 



And now, I'd like to leave you with a stupendous video that I made with the help of Julia & Mary Beth Leonard to help you all prepare for the North Carolina State Fair this year:



Funny Thankfuls at the NC State Fair



Enjoy!