Silliness about Birth Order

BIRTH ORDER OF CHILDREN

1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.
3rd baby: Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.

Preparing for the Birth:

1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously.
2nd baby: You don't bother because you remember that last time, breathing didn't do a thing.
3rd baby : You ask for an epidural in your eighth month.

The Layette

1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes, color-coordinate them, and fold them neatly in the baby's little bure au.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean and discard only the ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?

Worries:

1st baby: At the first sign of distress--a whimper, a frown--you pick up the baby.
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your three-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swing.

Pacifier:

1st baby: If the pacifier falls on the floor, you put it away until you can go home and wash and boil it.
2nd baby: When the pacifier falls on the floor, you squirt it off with some juice from the baby's bottle.
3rd baby: You wipe it off on your shirt and pop it back in.

Diapering:

1st baby: You change your baby' s diapers every hour, whether they need it or not.
2nd baby: You change their diaper every two to three hours, if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change their diaper before others start to complain about the smell or you see it sagging to their knees.

Activities:

1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics, Baby Swing, and Baby Story Hour.
2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.
3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaner.

Going Out:

1st baby: The first time you leave your b aby with a sitter, you call home five times.
2nd baby : Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number where you can be reached.
3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.

At Home:

1st baby : You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of everyday watching to be sure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.

Swallowing Coins:

1st child: When first child swallows a coin, you rush th e child to the hospital and demand x-ays.
2nd child: When second child swallows a coin, you carefully watch for the coin to pass.
3rd child: When third child swallows a coin, you deduct it from his allowance!

Christians and Divorce- Alarming Statistics

Posted on Mar 31, 2008 | by Michael Foust

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Evangelicals are less likely than the overall population to divorce, although one out of every four evangelicals who are or have been married nevertheless have gone through at least one divorce, according to a new study by The Barna Group.

The telephone survey found that, among all U.S. adults who have been married, 33 percent have been divorced at least once. By comparison, 26 percent of evangelicals who have been married have been divorced. The poll did not ask evangelicals whether the divorce occurred before or after their salvation experience.

The survey was based on a sample of 5,017 adults conducted over a year, from January 2007 through January 2008. Of this sample, 3,792 adults were or had been married.

Christian researcher George Barna said Americans have grown accustomed to divorce.

"There no longer seems to be much of a stigma attached to divorce; it is now seen as an unavoidable rite of passage," he said in a news release. "Interviews with young adults suggest that they want their initial marriage to last, but are not particularly optimistic about that possibility. There is also evidence that many young people are moving toward embracing the idea of serial marriage, in which a person gets married two or three times, seeking a different partner for each phase of their adult life."

Among adults who have been married the poll also found that:

-- 28 percent of self-identified conservatives who have been married have experienced a divorce, compared to 33 percent of moderates and 37 percent of liberals.

-- 38 percent of those associated with a non-Christian faith who have been married have been divorced.

-- 32 percent of whites who have been married have been divorced, 36 percent of blacks, 31 percent of Hispanics and 20 percent of Asians.

-- 28 percent of self-identified Catholics who have been married have been divorced.

Nearly four out of every five U.S. adults (78 percent) have been married at least once.

"Government statistics and a wealth of other research data have shown that co-habitation increases the likelihood of divorce, yet cohabiting is growing in popularity," Barna said. "Studies showing the importance and value of preparing for marriage seem to fall on deaf ears. America has become an experimental, experience-driven culture. Rather than learn from objective information and teaching based on that information, people prefer to follow their instincts and let the chips fall where they may. Given that tendency, we can expect America to retain the highest divorce rate among all developed nations of the world."

For a person to be considered an evangelical by Barna researchers, a respondent must say: he has made a personal commitment to Christ that is still important to his life today; when he dies he will go to heaven because he has confessed his sins and accepted Christ as his savior; he has a personal responsibility to share his beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; he believes that Satan exists; eternal salvation is possible only through grace, and not works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today.

Among the 3,792 participants included in the survey there were 339 evangelicals, 1,373 non-evangelical born again Christians, 1,488 notional Christians, 197 associated with a non Christian faith and 269 agnostics or atheists. Of these, 875 identified themselves as Catholic and 1,997 as Protestant. Participants described their ethnic identities as white (2,641), African American (464), Hispanic (458) and Asian (128), and they called themselves conservative (1,343), moderate (1,720) and liberal (474) on social and political matters.


Michael Foust is an assistant editor for Baptist Press.

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Planned Parenthood 2006

LifeSiteNews.com 3/28

Planned Parenthood 2006 - 289,650 Abortions, $112 Million Profit, $336 Million in Public Funds

By John-Henry Westen

WASHINGTON, DC, March 28, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The newly released Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) 2006-2007 annual report shows that the abortion behemoth has increased the number of abortions it committed from 264,943 in 2005 to 289,650 in 2006. Total revenue amounted to over one billion dollars, with the organization's profit margin - "excess of revenue over expenses" - soaring from $55.7 million in 2005 to $112 million in 2006. Taxpayer dollars played a major role in that profit with the report acknowledging the organization received over $336 million in government grants and contracts.