Wouldn't it be cool if we were all like that?

I was thinking today about Rachel. She loves going to the library each week and watching and playing with other kids. She loves any time she gets to play with other kids, really. It's so funny to me how kids can just run up to other kids and play with them without ever having met them before. It doesn't matter if they're older, younger, if they look the same, if they have a different color skin or a different accent - they're just potential playmates. It would be awesome if everybody was that way, wouldn't it?

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Upon arriving in the parking lot last night... "Home Depot!"

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Upon waking up this morning, to Lori. "Dragon fly."
Lori: "Dragon Fly?"
Rachel: "Rachel rode on a dragon fly."
Lori: "Where did Rachel ride on a dragon fly?"
Rachel: "At Home Depot!"

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Upon looking out her window as the car passed it today when out with Lori... "Taco Bell! I want a taco!"

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She would also later tell Lori "I like Home Depot."

Immobile

Yesterday, while being chased by yours truly, Rachel put her foot down wrong and sprained it. It's very sad, she couldn't put any weight on it yesterday without wincing, crying or just collapsing. Not much better today, she still cries and doesn't want to stand, though the swelling seems to be completely gone. We're hoping by tomorrow that she's able to stand on it again. The first thing she said to me this morning was "I need corn." when I went into her room to say goodbye to her before work. We had used frozen corn last night in a plastic bag as an ice pack.

Happy Birthday, Little One!

And many, many more.

0, 1

Mystery Plague Kills 29,000 Schoolchildren in Single Day

President declares state of emergency. Congress closes nation's school.

IMAGINE WAKING UP TO THIS HEADLINE. Now imagine that the very next day, it happened again -- and again. Each day for weeks, more children mysteriously died. Mass hysteria would break out. World governments would mobilize a global response. Congress would hold an emergency session. There would be a media frenzy. The world would not -- could not -- tolerate these catastrophic losses of innocent human lives.

Or would it?

In fact, the world tolerates exactly this kind of horror every single day as more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 die, most of hunger and preventable diseases. They die for lack of medicine or doctors. They die suffering and neglected. They die from simple things like diarrhea, respiratory infections, and measles, and they die of diseases virtually unheard of in America: malaria, or whooping cough.

Many of you reading this have children. Can you imagine your desperation at seeing your child slip away because of a bite from a malaria-bearing mosquito? What if all that was needed to save her life was a course of antimalarial medication costing just a few dollars?

But imagine that you cannot afford this, or there is no doctor or pharmacy nearby. I have visited many communities in which more than one out of four children die before their fifth birthday.

What these children really die from is apathy and neglect. The developed world has the knowledge, medicines, treatments, and enough money to save the lives of most of these children. What is lacking is the moral outrage to do something about it.

Who will speak up on behalf of these children and their mothers and fathers if we don’t? Earlier this year, the media ran stories commemorating the 50th anniversary of the polio vaccine. It brought back memories of my mother taking me to school to stand in line with hundreds of other children to be vaccinated. It was a time when the world declared war on a disease that struck some 50,000 children each year in the United States alone. The world had the determination to stop the disease, and we won. Fifty years later, only a few hundred cases of polio remain worldwide, and we are close to eradicating polio from our planet.

I believe we can do it again. But we’ll have to get a little angry first. Here are three ways to channel your anger:

1. Join the ONE Campaign, a historic global movement of which World Vision is a founding member. The ONE Campaign urges world leaders to commit to reducing poverty this year. Go online to sign the ONE Declaration at www.worldvision.org/one.



2. Talk to your church congregation about what you can do to help children living in poverty, such as holding a child sponsorship drive or drilling a well.



3. Pray for these children and their families. It’s no mystery what kills 29,000 children worldwide every day. And because we know, we have to do something.

With your help, in 2004, World Vision supporters enabled 1.1 million children to get vaccinations, provided access to clean water to 1.9 million people, and trained 810,000 mothers in health and nutrition so they can take better care of their children.

We need to do more. We can do more.

Please get angry. Please help.

Ways you can immediately provide aid...

• Provide a one-time emergency gift like blankets, food or immunizations.
• Give a cash gift of any size.
• Give a specific gift, like a goat or a year's worth of schooling or a fresh-water well.
• Learn about sponsoring a child or family.

Farewell, little turtle.

It was a sad weekend. Rachel's little turtle Booster disappeared.

And we stooped to a new low, doing the unthinkable. We had to call three stores before we found a little turtle that looked identical to Booster and gave it to her, letting her think it was Booster.

Click on the picture to the right to see a photo of Rachel hugging Booster II.

More Rachelisms

Tonight I got home late from a bible study and Rachel was already to bed. And by "to bed" I mean she was in there, in the dark, talking as she often does for 90-120 minutes each night after we put her in her crib. It's just what she does.

So I snuck in there and she watched me come in, but didn't say anything. I looked at her and she gave me a tiny smile but otherwise didn't say anything. So I crouched down to look at her through the bars. She slowly crawled up to me and -- almost inaudible -- whispered "hi"

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Rachel comes to visit me at work once a week to join me for lunch and a walk around the retaining pond. Two times now, looking at ants who cross the path, has declared that the ants are "gorgeous."

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Lori and I watched some old videos last night of Rachel when she was just starting to walk along the edge of the room. It was really sweet.

Start-up aims to ditch kids' training wheels | CNET News.com

NEWS.COM -- Using a gyroscope, this bike is more likely to stay upright. As it tries to keep itself upright, it causes the handles to turn, too, helping to make kids learn how to steer in the right way to keep themselves upright, all without training wheels... More...