Thursday Thirteen - 13 Topics Worth An Extra Thought

Christmas' hurry is over, the hustle and bustle has come to its end. I am enjoying just watching and listening to my children in complete happiness and contentment with their Christmas gifts galore. Santa was very very gracious and generous with all of us and right now it's time to just be thankful and enjoy. So today's 13 is a reminder that in all of our joy and splendour, there are still so many things that need our thoughts and prayers and wishes. Here's a few just to help us all keep others in mind. 1. Mental Illness is hard, often harder at the holidays, but usually made easier when there is a supportive mate/friend/parent to support, and love, and understand, and medication and therapy and most importantly someone who believes in it with the patient. Here's one. How one husband does it 2. Every day the headlines are which big star is pregnant and has been hiding it from their fans, how a couple in the Midwest is having six, how children are abused or abandoned because no one wanted them, how this star or that is now pregnant after infertility treatments and it was just walk in, have ivf, walk out with twins. But every day there are also the silent soldiers who fight the battle to have a baby, who dream, and pray, and wish and want. Those who mortgage their house to pay for treatments, who teach needle squimish husbands to give painful shots over and over. And then when they finally reach the blessed POSITIVE, there is loss and their world collapses; and sometimes, sometimes it all happens days before Christmas. This is the story of our Pixxiee, she isn't alone. Pixxiee 3. Today the whole world lost one of freedom's greatest stars, a hope for the future who believed in a brighter tomorrow. Sometimes people think others don't deserve the chance to choose for themselves, others make the choice for them, with a gun and a bomb. At 6:13 p.m. Bhutto expired 4. Because some little stories need praise because they are really BIG stories in one family's world. Babies are amazing tiny people and sometimes the littlest things about them are the most amazing. Flip, Flop, Give Me That 5. This week for one family's Christmas Eve meant the end. Wayne, Judy, Scott, Erica, Olivia and Nathan* were taken away; the reason unknown, the suspects family, the result the same, they're gone. And now not only must the mourning begin, but also the questions, and the media, and the defense, and the doubt and the stories. But it doesn't change the basic facts, six people are gone. *the facts in this case are still under investigation. the names have not been confirmed. Three Generations 6. There are people in this world whose challenges we will never understand; how much they know, how much they dream, what they hear, believe, want. We just can't know. God meant it that way. We can't change it. It is us who must change to accept what is there and adjust our minds to think outside the box, and sometimes, sometimes, we have to think "right inside the box" A Daddy and his Cyborg 7. And one little girl will come home, while one little girl, her father, and a second young man will come home frozen in time. Two days alone in the rain and freezing weather, one little girl survived. And one little girl is the greatest Christmas present a family will ever receive, but forever it will hold hands with the loss of her best friend and the two men they flew with. Saying a prayer of thanks, while mourning a horrible loss. Francesca is a survivor 8. An artist dedicates his life to creating beautiful art with his hands. A group of thieves decide it's better off worth $3.00 a pound. I am sure that it was like losing children to the artist who has given hours and hours to his work. Copper worth more by the pound than by the beauty 9. A 17 year old dies on Christmas day in the San Francisco zoo, two more young men are severely wounded. Now the discussion is whether the tiger is at fault or the victims are. I don't know. The tiger killed the boy and injured two others, PERIOD. But was the tiger taunted and teased, and aided in escape? So is that person guilty of murder? If the boy who was killed taunted the tiger into her anger, did he commit some bizarre form of accidental suicide? Are three people hurt for no more reason than a cage was left unsecured? Who knows, the tigers aren't talking and there aren't any other eye witnesses to the escape. I feel like the arguments are so pointless. A wild animal did exactly what we should expect it to do. But, we lock them in cages and we expect them to change into docile creaturues there only for our viewing pleasure. So where does the finger get pointed? A tiger, a zoo and three young men 10. Sometimes the world turns us into tags, numbers, id's and no one remembers our names. Sometimes even when we are still children. Sometimes from the very beginning. And sometimes it takes special people to say I will love you for being a You, you are not a number to me, you are a somebody, you are our somebody. Boy Age 11-13 11. A single mom with children to provide Christmas for didn't quite get the lottery joke just before Christmas. Perhaps it's a warning we should all listen to, what's funny to us, is not always funny to someone else. A $25,000 lottery ticket - Not 12. The land of the American dream isn't as much of a dream anymore. This year there are so many who just can't afford to give their families a home, or had that home dashed from beneath them when their finances couldn't stretch to make the payment anymore. It's heart breaking to know that even with a good job, a good family, a firm foundation, a house is out of reach, and Americans have just stopped even trying to get a yes from mortgage companies and financiers. Maybe 2008 will be a better year. Less Applications - More Foreclosures 13. A little girl named Jade. Given up by her birth parents; adopted into a loving, prosperous Dutch family seven-years-ago at 4 months old; turned over to another country's social services department because she has "problems." What a good way to help her with her emotional detachment and psychiatric diagnoses. Then she becomes the center of attention and a media storm. What hope is there that she will find any peace and health? A little girl without a home - again And the bonus Teenagers every day have to take on parenthood. There's a hit movie about it, and it's all over the news when the mommy happens to be famous. What happened to "No", to "Don't," Hell even to "Birth Control"? Maybe a little education would go a long way. When did "have a baby first starting in your teens, then have a wedding later" become the vogue? A baby prepares for a baby A movie makes it a big-screen hit Happy Thursday all. The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!