Good Stuff Coming Up

Well, it's been a while, I know! I've been really busy with loving my husband, raising my 6 children, going to school to be a pro-life nurse, learning as much as I can about God's beautiful creation of women, and sharing it with as many people as I can!

Lots of good stuff is coming up:
My next NFP class is on April 8, from 7-8 p.m. at St. Henry Church. The first one we had on March 11 was fantastic. It could not have gone better. My client from that class is charting and doing very well, I might add. Let me know if you are interested in taking a class.
nfpcoordinator@gmail.com

On April 10, John and I have been invited to speak at the marriage preparation retreat, Three to Get Married. We will speak about what NFP means to us.

On May 11, Aquinas College will be hosting an "Extended Formation Lecture on Humanae Vitae." More info to come on specific speakers. I will be helping Sister Mary Michael, O.P. with this, and I am honored to be a part of it.

Please, pray for all of these upcoming events. 

I know everyone knows someone who is trying to conceive, or who may have serious reasons to not conceive. Please, point them in my direction. I want to help them! The Ovulation Method is a VERY precise means of accomplishing either one of these two goals.

If you'd like to receive an email every time I update the blog, please let me know.

One last thing, please join me in praying that Nashville will get a pro-life ob gyn soon. We desperately need one. In the mean time, continue trying to convert your ob gyns!

God Bless,

Kim

God made it is easy. The world has complicated it.

I have been so super swamped the past couple of weeks. When will it stop =) I am still so in awe of how all of this NFP stuff is coming together. It really is amazing. I cannot wait to start helping couples find the true beauty in their marriage.

First:

Needed prayers.

I know so many women who are all going through different circumstances right now. Some are in their 40's, desperately wanting another child and unable to conceive. Some are engaged and trying for the first time to understand their bodies. Some are nursing their babies and wondering how they are going to put a little space between their baby and their next child. Some are just now hearing about NFP for the first time ever. They are currently using artificial means to prevent a pregnancy. They are seeking out the truth and asking questions. All of these women need prayers. Al of these women need support.

Second:

My rant.

I know that the title of this blog seems like a planned parenthood term, but it is really not. It is a simple term, that planned parenthood distorted. Just like the term, feminist. That was distorted as well. We are feminists here. We are for women. We want women to be able to be the wonderful humans that God created them to be. NFP welcomes this and encourages this. It really is the mantra throughout most of the literature you read concerning NFP.

i.e. NFP is a method of family planning

that allows the husband to respect the woman's natural fertility.

All of the women that I described above are all seeking to know their natural fertility in a better way. God lays it all out right in front of us. I have always been amazed in the simplicity that God used in creating us.

Third:

I thought I would start leaving you with something that you could really share with someone else.

Is it really this easy? Yes, it is!!

Husband and wife are making observations of the wife's fertility.

She charts 5 days of menses.

Then she receives the sign that her body is dry

and her uterine lining is beginning to prepare a home for a potential new life.

At some point, she begins to notice a thick, sometimes cloudy secretion on her toilet tissue. 
The next couple of days she may notice that the secretion becomes clearer, thinner and stretchier. 
Before long it will be almost like water. 
It is at this point that she is most fertile. 


Now let's step back...

What just happened here?

As her secretions were thinning out,

her body was making all sorts of preparations for a new life.

This slippery secretion is one that sperm just love.

They get in this secretion and are having the time of their life.

It is nourishing to them and revitalizes them.

It makes them swim faster and survive longer.

Also, when sperm are inside the male's body, before they are released,

they are in an alkaline environment.

At this point in the woman's cycle

her secretions have changed her uterine environment from being acidic to alkaline.

It's kinda like when you buy a goldfish

and you have to make sure when you put it in a new tank

the water must be the same temperature, or the fish will die.

Same thing with the sperm.

When the woman is dry and acidic the sperm die within 2 hours,

but when the environment is alkaline, they not only survive they thrive.

During this time of high fertility,

the woman is also more attracted to her husband than at any other time in her cycle.

She is drawn to him like a magnetic force.

God made it this way, in His pure genius.

Folks, this is how babies are made!!!

If the couple is avoiding a pregnancy,

she would wait 3 to 4 days after her secretion has changed back to thick.

This thick secretion is the mucous plug that is released just before delivering a baby.

God puts it there after the woman has ovulated, just in case a baby is created,

as a means of protection.

When a woman notices that this pattern of secretion has taken place,

she knows she has ovulated and marital relations can occur once again.

Why is this cycle considered a disease?

Why do women feel like they must take life threatening means to prevent this from happening?

Why can't they see that making simple observations everyday

can prevent a pregnancy from occurring?

God made it is easy. The world has complicated it.

So, go out and share the simplicity of God's design!!

God Bless,

Kim

WOW!!!

I can not write much at this time, because I am completely exhausted. I just wanted to let you all know that I attended the training (I did not get to sleep over at the convent =[ ) and it was more than I ever imagined it would be.

I will speak more about it in the coming days. I was amongst future Saints. Mercedes Wilson and Dr. Pillar Carva are two of the most amazing people I believe I will ever meet. They are doing the work of God and being attacked at every angle, but they still proceed forward, always moving up hill.

Please continue the prayers!

In Him!

Kim

St. Gianna, pray for us

Mary Our Mother, pray for us

Prayers Please

Well folks, I need some prayers. Nashville has been hit with some nasty weather. I need to be able to make it to the Dominican Motherhouse this evening and back home again late tonight. I will also have to return back early Saturday morning. I pray that I can make it there, and that they allow me to spend the night. Oh, wouldn't that be a pleasant weekend get-away!!!! I told the sisters I would sleep on a couch if I had to!

Alas, it is all in God's hands, and I am sure His Will will prevail! I can't wait to update you after this weekend. Mercedes Wilson gave her first lecture at St. Cecilia Academy Wednesday night. It was a grand introduction to what is to come.

God Bless,

Kim

At the Root of NFP

Yesterday, I had the honor of being part of Adalynne Dior's celebration of Life. It was beautiful. Guests were adorned in pink and white. I'd never seen a casket so small. I was keeping myself together for the most part. I did get a little emotional when Adalynne's mother, Erika, read the second reading from II Corinthians 13:1-13... Love is patient, love is kind, love knows all things, love bears all things... Father Mike's homily was beautiful also. I honestly don't know how he held himself together, the Holy Spirit I guess. He spoke of the incredible way that Erika and Ryan have truly lived Christ's Gospel.

However, it wasn't until I was walking up to receive Communion that I lost it. I saw the family, saw the casket, the picture of Adalynne, and the tears were pouring. I knew, as I was quickly approaching Father, that I would in that moment be united with Adalynne through the Mystical Body of Christ. I had so many emotions. The biggest being, that God is doing some amazing things with Adalynne. I know, without a doubt He has already begun. Erika and Ryan may not understand the impact they will have on countless other people.

But what keeps coming back to me is how interrelated this is with Natural Family Planning. With NFP, it's not that we are just open to life. It is a self-sacrificing life they we live. (I don't mean that in an arrogant way =) We understand that children are gifts from God. Our bodies are just the first stop for these individuals. It really has nothing to do with us. The child's soul is for the Lord, not for us. When God is calling on us to bring a child into this world, it is not on our watch, but His. I understand that this takes a quality prayer life and conversation with your spouse.

What brings this all full circle with Ryan and Erika is that, Erika seemed to realize that Adalynne was not about her. Adalynne was put here for Our Lord's agenda. Erika and Ryan made a choice that has now come to the attention of many, many people and will continue to linger around. It is a choice that few other couples have made. People are so afraid of pain. We think that pain is a bad thing. We take medicine to take away physical pain, emotional pain, etc... We work hard to get rid of it, and make sure it does not come back.

Erika and Ryan have embraced their pain. They have shared it with the world. We have embraced their pain. They lean on The Lord!

I leave you with the quote on the cover of Adalynne's Celebration of Life program:

"Every child brings us God's smile and invites us to recognize that life is His gift. A gift to be welcomed with love and preserved with care... always and at every moment."

Pope Benedict XVI

In His Holy Name,

Kim

A story of Faith and courage

There is a family here at St. Henry who I have never met personally. I have just recently learned of their incredible witness to the Faith and their miraculous story that has played out.

You will find their blog here. I first found it 3 days ago. A friend of mine told me about the family and gave me a brief introduction to their story. Friday night, I read the entire bog. Tears consumed me. Since then this family has taken over my thoughts and prayers.

There is so much swirling around in my head right now, it's hard to put it into words. I wish this mother had a soap box so big that the whole world could hear of her Faith, hope, and love for this child that God housed inside her womb for a short period of time, and then allowed the family the opportunity to embrace her for five days outside of her Mother's womb.

This young lady went against all of the Doctor's advice to go ahead and end this child's life, but she refused. Why? This wasn't about her. It was about Adalynne Dior and God's unique plan for her.

Erika says it best though:

I know there have been questions as to why we decided to travel the path we are going down. So, I am going to put it in a scenario; different situation but same instincts. As a parent, a mother rather, it is my first instinct to protect my children. If, Harrison were sick and I mean really sick; diagnosed with cancer and it had spread into a stage four; and we had tried everything to beat the cancer but the chemotherapy, radiation, bone marrow transplants, and stem cell transplants were not working, the cancer had continued to grow. Would we ask the nurse to give him a bolus of potassium to end his life just because he is terminal? Absolutely not, we would love him, cherish him, and do everything in our powers to protect the time he had left with us and pray like hell.

Adalynne is no different, just because her life has only been inside of me doesn't discount the fact that she is still my little girl; our little girl. She was conceived out of love, wanted, celebrated. Her life matters to me and it matters to my husband, Harrison, Houston, and even our Jack Russel Chloe.

Adalynne has a terminal diagnosis and it sucks, but she is still here. I live everyday and relish her movement while I sustain her life. I used to have this "feature" on our computer that counted down the days until my due date. Since learning of her terminal diagnosis, knowing I sustain her precious life, I don't look at it anymore. I don't want to know how far along I am in her pregnancy. It is almost like a count down of how much time we have with her.

Am I in denial? No, but I know her due date is February 7, 2010. And when that day comes she will not leave the hospital. That is why living and relishing in her every movement is so vital to me getting through this journey.

I love my little girl so much. She has been to Playa del Carmen, graduated college with her mommy, passed state boards, coached two soccer teams, helped a family in need in Guatemala, witnessed the union of six amazing people, been to every Titan's home game, and brought true happiness to me and even broke a few hearts. She likes going to the movies, she turns into an acrobat; flipping this way and that. She does not like it if I sit with my knees tucked up, it makes her move like crazy, and as soon as I put my knees down she stops moving. It is her own little way of letting me know she is perturbed with her mommy's current position.

Erika may not know it, but her sharing her life's events will change the hearts of so many families. When she accepted that her child would not live for very long outside of her womb, she did the most courageous thing a mother could do, and sustained Adalynne's life as long as time allowed. She sacrificed her body for her child's.

When Ryan and I were getting a second opinion, in regards to Adalynne's condition, I felt like the entire medical team, involved in the second opinion, strongly agreed termination would be best for Adalynne. I thought it was strange that even the well respected doctor asked, "What are you going to say and how are you going to handle the grocery store outings when someone asks you about your baby?" Was he justifying that as a feasible reason to end some one's life? Did he think I was going to just speed up the inevitable, because a stranger's harmless question? Had that questionable scenario determined a quicker means to an end with mothers before me? But, what do you say?

I do not mind, and it does not bother me when people ask me when the baby is due. It does not make me sad. I am very genuine in my answers. Like I have said before, I love this little girl so much. She is my daughter and I am so proud to be her mom, and no question or condition will ever change that.

Please, keep this family in your prayers and share their Faith with others. I know that God is going to do miraculous things with Adalynne's legacy that she has left us.

I hope that Ryan and Erika remember that when they are at Mass and receive Jesus in the Eucharist, that they once again reunited with Adalynne through the Mystical Body of Christ. My friend Kristi gives a beautiful witness of this here. Kristi is just another person who fills this world with Faith, hope, and love.

Peace of Christ with you all,

Kim

Press Release

It's almost time! Mark your calendars folks, because you are not going to want to miss this!

AQUINAS COLLEGE HOSTS RENOWNED NFP SPEAKERS

Members of the Pontifical Academy for Life to speak on the “Culture of Life”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (December 28, 2009)—On January 27, 2010, Aquinas College will launch its spring-semester lecture series with the visit of two members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who will speak on natural family planning. Dr. Maria del Pilar Calva Mercado, a medical doctor who teaches genetics and bioethics, and Mercedes A. Wilson, appointed by the late pontiff Holiness John Paul II as a founding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life in 1994, have organized and participated in various international bioethics congresses and United Nations conferences. Judith Leonard, director of the Office of Family Life and Natural Family Planning for the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, will also be speakin.

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is widely known in Catholic circles because it respects both the unitive and procreative purposes of marriage – a major ethical concern for Catholics. NFP is based on scientific research about women’s cycles of fertility and teaches couples to identify the fertile days in a woman's cycle so that pregnancy is avoided or achieved.

Since 1968, Mercedes A. Wilson has been teaching and promoting the Ovulation Method of Natural Family Planning, which is the most widely practiced method around the world. In 1986, she founded the World Organization for the Family, and in 1997 she established the Family of the Americas Foundation. At the request of Pope John Paul II, she organized 23 International Congresses for the Family in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Additionally, she has received three honorary doctorates and numerous awards for her work in the pro-life/family movement, most recently from Franciscan University at Steubenville.

“Mercedes Wilson has done the world a remarkable service in developing simple, clear NFP instruction that helps couples all over the world to be faithful to the Church’s teaching,” said Sister Mary Peter, O.P., president of Aquinas College. “The College is delighted to host someone who has had such an impressive influence on the establishment of a ‘culture of life.’”

Maria del Pilar Calva Mercado teaches genetics and bioethics and has been a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life since 2003. She serves on the Commission for the Family for the Bioethics Council of the Mexican Episcopal Commission and has written numerous articles and given international lectures on NFP.

“The Gift of Life vs. the Culture of Death” will be presented at St. Cecilia Academy Theatre at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 27. Reservations are recommended; please call (615) 383-3230 or visit www.aquinascollege.edu for more information.

ABOUT AQUINAS COLLEGE: Through a rigorous undergraduate curriculum that emphasizes the dignity of the human person, Aquinas College fosters the intellectual, moral, and professional development of students while preparing them for careers in the professions of education, nursing, and business. Faculty and students engage in a proactive teaching-advising partnership that enables students to cultivate rich interpersonal relationships in a Christ-centered, family-like environment. Personalized instruction in small classes ensures that each student achieves his or her full academic and personal potential. Founded in 1961 by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation, Aquinas College is located on a scenic 83-acre campus in the heart of Nashville and is the only four-year Catholic liberal arts college in middle and east Tennessee. For additional information, please visit www.aquinascollege.edu.

In Christ,

Kim