You should have seen her! She jumped a foot off the ground!
So said my daughter, recounting to her brother my reaction to today's news.
She was bouncing all over the place!
And so I was, with tears in my eyes as well. I cannot overstate my joy at McCain's pick of a truly pro-life running mate. Jonathan just thinks I'm brilliant because just yesterday I was telling him how McCain should pick a strongly pro-life woman. How did you know, Mom?
I didn't know. All I knew was the mentioning of various potential candidates by the media was making me ill.
It is so rare to have a truly pro-life candidate; one who you can believe really cares about the issue. Sure there are plenty of politicians who say they are pro-life but it seems like they are just repeating the words to toe the party line. And sadly there are even clergy who seem the same way - giving a nod to the pro-life cause but so half heartedly they seem to be just toeing the denominational line. And here we have a woman who believes babies are blessings, unlike Obama who has referred to them as a punishment. That's quite a contrast.
This pro-life candidate is a woman. And she is a mother. She knows that all that mumbo jumbo talk about choice and a woman's right to her own body has nothing to do with anything. She knows that the issue is all about someone else's body. A little tiny body straight from the hand of God and tucked away safe inside to grow and to be born into this world to be cared for and loved. Sarah Palin knows this and understands this because she is the mother of five children. She herself has experienced the swelling, full womb and the joy of the leaping baby within. She has known the exuberance of giving birth and bringing new life into the world, again and again. She has experienced this great gift from God and she sees children as the blessings that they are declaring:
Children are the most precious and promising ingredient in this mixed-up world you live in
But even more than that she is the mother of a special needs child, a child with Down syndrome. I can't describe the thrill I feel at the thought of this woman being nominated for the second highest office in our land. Having a special needs child was easy for me to accept. My Eliza was made by God and He made her exactly the way He wanted her to be. What is very difficult to accept is how the vast majority of the rest of the world sees her - completely unworthy of life. But Sarah Palin is not like the rest of the world. She recognizes the gift from the hand of the Creator. She has described her special blessing like this:
we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives.
She gets it. She gets life.
She believes it and she knows it and she lives it.
She knows it's not a choice - it's a child. A gift.
And she is in an awesome position to help the rest of the world see it too.
And that gets me very, very happy.
