Brrrr...is easter supposed to have snow?

Ava's crying...she wants to go to the beach to get away from cold Columbus!

Well, it's the usual Columbus weather around easter--cold! Except this year it seems to be extremely cold, windy and downright yuck! I have a cold, and i keep hoping i am not giving it to Ava. She seems a little more fussy than usual so i hope she isn't getting sick!

Last night on the way home from small group, she started screaming so loud! I have never heard her cry that loud for so long that i thought something must have been wrong. So i pulled over and checked her out -- no stickies anywhere, no spit up--she was just extremely hungry.

So i had to pull over into a bob evan's and feed her! Luckily, that did the trick and she went right to sleep. I told Brandon being a mom is hard because you always have to keep a level head even when you feel like you are going to crack.

I tease brandon now about a recent episode, but he understands Ava's sudden crying bouts. Last tuesday i went to the store and was gone an hour. i came out of the store and saw that my phone had a message - brandon had left a voicemail for me. On the voicemail, all it had was ava crying! And not just crying, but wailing!! It's funny what a 10 lb little person can do to you!

Anyways, it's Ava's first easter. we pretty much got her a cute little dress and sweater, but i think we are going to do the easter basket when she can understand the concept - like next year. We also are going to the easter egg hunt at my parents tomorrow and are going to dye easter eggs sometime this weekend.

I hope everyone has a great Easter. today is good friday. And it's as gloomy as every good friday usually is.

Happy Easter Everyone!

MOTHERLAND AFGHANISTAN_ a moving PBS documentary

"This is my lifetime dream coming into reality, and I always wanted to do something positive for the Afghan people in terms of health education and health care." (3:33)

MOTHERLAND AFGHANISTAN

A documentary about the deplorable conditions for pregnant women in Afghanistan

PBS documentary

I began to realize that I had made really a huge mistake taking this job. I couldn't do enough to change things under these circumstances."

Those were the words of Dr. Qudrat Mojadidi who is an OB/GYN and was forced by political pressures to emigrate from Afghanistan to the U.S. in 1972.

The highest infant mortality rates in the world
Motherland Afghanistan was filmed by the doctor's daughter, Afghan American filmmaker Sedika Mojadidi, who traveled with her father and mother to a country who has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world.


A blessed country
If these infants were born in the United States -- there is no question that they would live. But because of their country being in turmoil, they have no lifesaving equipment. I was floored when i watched a preemie baby who could not be helped because the hospital did not have any heat lamps, oxygen maps that fit the babies mouth, or even a heart monitor - a local afghan man had to keep the heartbeats time standing beside the doctor by motioning his finger back and forth like a piano timekeeper. It made my stomach sick.

The preemie infant dies later and the Dr. comforts the mother by saying that it was God's will and that she will have another child.

As i was sitting there at 3 a.m. nursing ava and watching the show on PBS, the reality of our great blessings really hit me. Maybe because we are surrounded by prosperity, we forget the great poverty and horrible conditions for other women across the world. Here, i had an ultrasound, epidural, great care, a state of the art room to have my baby and across the world, a woman sits on a cot being comforted because her surving preemie twin dies after a couple of days because the hospital does not have the bare necessities.

If you want to learn more about this film, go to


http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/motherlandafghanistan/film.html. It will really move you to pray that more will be done.





Here's more...


In 2003, nearly two years after the Taliban’s fall, he is invited by the U.S. government to helrehabilitate the largest women’s hospital in the country, Rabia Balkhi, now under U.S. sponsorship with a newly re-named Laura Bush Maternity Ward. He returns to his homeland with great hopes that with U.S. funding, he can help set in motion the large-scale changes necessary to stem the epidemic of maternal mortality in the country.



But when Dr. Mojadidi arrives at the Laura Bush Maternity Ward in Kabul, a city still plagued with danger and unrest, he finds deplorable conditions, with limited supplies and unsanitary facilities. As he tries to bring hope to the ward and make the best of archaic equipment and an untrained staff, the film introduces the women behind the statistics and exposes how the U.S. government's Department of Health and Human Services has impacted Afghan lives, particularly in terms of the devastating epidemic of maternal mortality.

Easter Rabbit

ethan and ava sit with the easter rabbit.

Kelly and I went to Easton last friday and saw the easter bunny with ethan and ava. Cute photo! I am glad ava was asleep because i remember how much colin and olivia hated the easter rabbit and santa! they always cry because they think they are so scary! it was a little weird that the bunny didn't even talk to them or anything!

zoo pics II

Ava takes a catnap after the long day.
tigers and bears, oh my!
Heather and drew are leaving columbus in april to do mission work in indonesia so we thought it would look cool to have their picture by this sign.
a lovely zoo worker took a photo for us by the daffodils.

Well, i love blogger, but don't like how long it takes to post pics! so here are some more from the zoo day.

Ava's first trip to the zoo with Wesley and Drew

Emily and Heather with Wesley and drew head to Asia Quest.
The flamingos were so vivid! they were my favorite.
Ava lies in the stinkiest flower in the world. ew!
We wore them out! A long day at the Columbus Zoo.

Zoo time...

Here are pictures from our first trip to the zoo with my cousin Emily and Wesley and her friend heather and drew. It was so beautiful outside, high 70s, and we had a great time! We really loved the monkeys! Too bad ava slept the whole time!

we will just have to take her back soon with cousins colin and brad.