Vaccinations

What I am about to blog about is a very controversial subject to many but I am just going to put my point of view out there.... you do not have to agree with me!!

When Aubrey was almost 9 months I had a patient at my office come in, I think she had a tooth ache or something. I am not normally a big talker when it comes to hanging around in the opperatory and chatting it up with my patients. I get the room ready for the Dr. hand my patient the remote to the tv and tell them I will go get the Dr. For some reason on this day I hung around and talked and SOMEHOW we got on the subject of autism. I don't know if there was something on tv about it or what but that is beside the point. She had 3 children her oldest two were both severly autistic and she had followed the recommended vaccination schedule. She trusted her pediatrician like we all do. Her third child she had decided to have NO vaccinations until she was two years old and she was perfectly healthy. At first I looked at her like she was CRAZY! but then she began to really share her heart with me and I saw a lady who was hurting because she did not feel like she had been told the truth from her Dr. I became VERY mad that no Dr. had ever shared the statistics with me that this lady who was a STRANGER was telling me. Dr. Stricklin came in the room and the conversation stopped but my brain was going 100 miles an hour. I could not concentrate the rest of the day. I immediatly came home and got on my computer and started looking up Autism and vaccinations and side effects..... WOW! My mom had shared some with me on this subject back before I had Aubrey and I decided against the Vaccination in the hospital but I had really not thought anything else about it until this day. I dont know if I had to hear it from someone who had experienced it first hand or what but this hit my right square between the eyes and I was not allowing my pediatrician to give my child one more shot before she explained to me the possibilites of Autism. Aubrey's 9 month check up rolled around and I took my mom with me :) We got to the end of the appt. and she told me the nurse would come in to give aubrey the shots that she was due for and I spoke up, for some reason my heart was pounding, I was SOOO nervous. I guess I thought she was going to take my baby from me.... which she didn't but she did become VERY defensive and didn't answer my question all the way and told me I could do whatever I wanted to but she was NOT very friendly.... so I told her we would be having no vaccinations that day and I would call her when I was ready. The next day I started searching for a new pediatrican and I decided that day if I had to go through 50 Dr's I would. I wanted answers and I wanted a Dr. who would be patient with me and not push me. I wanted a Dr. who cared about my child! Ever since I met that lady at my office it is like God has put people in my path or shows on tv or even websites that I have just run up on that have opened my eyes to the possibility of vaccinations being a cause of Autism. He EVEN used Jenny McCarthy, WHO KNEW!

Check this out... the rest of this paragraph comes from www.mercola.com.... In 1976, children received 10 vaccines before attending school. Today they will receive over 36 injections. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Center for Disease Control assured parents that it was safe to not only give these vaccines, but that they could be given at one time with complete safety. In the early 1980s, the incidence of autism was 1 in 10,000 births. By 2005, the incidence had leaped to 1 in 250 births, and today it is 1 in 150 births and still climbing. One of the strongest links to this terrible set of disorders was a drastic change in the vaccine programs of the United States and many other countries, which included a dramatic increase in the number of vaccines being given at a very early age. No other explanation has been forthcoming from the medical elite.

That is from a Dr. who has studied this topic and came to the conclusion that there are cases where autism stemmed from a child being vaccinated. I am NOT against having aubrey vacinnated but why does she have to have 6 shots in the same visit when she is 2 months old? Why did they want me to give her 4 shots when she was 15 months old? Why am I looked down up on and get smirks from people because I choose to not allow this? I am not saying she will NEVER get these shots. I am just choosing to spread things out and take my time.

If anyone is wondering where this is all coming from, I had a chicken pox scare today.... Aubrey woke up this morning and she had what looked to me like bug bites on her legs and stomache.... I didn't think much of it she plays outside ALL the time and I just figured she got into some mosquitos or something.... It was mine and andys day to keep the 1 year old class during church so after sunday school I went in there and aubrey looked awful! I pretty much freaked out and thought I had exposed every child in the room to chicken pox!! Andy and I immediatly went to walmart we bought calamine lotion and oatmeal bath stuff and took aubrey home and soaked her in the bathtub and drenched her with calamine lotion and gave her a dose of benadryal! I began to doubt my decision to not have her vacinnated for chicken pox, I have said for over a year now... I had the chicken pox and lived through it... if aubrey gets the chicken pox she will make it. I began to question myself.... and a couple of hours later the bumps began to disappear and aubrey was acting fine.... so I was right this morning when I thought it was bug bites and apparently she scratched them like crazy during sunday school and had it all irritated. Mom gave me the website that I mentioned earlier and I have been on there all afternoon and it has made me feel much better and I know I am doing the right thing for Aubrey. I realize this is not right for everyone and other people have other opinions and I am ok with that. I will do what I think is right for my child and you will do what you think is right for yours and we will agree to disagree :) I hope after everyone reads this (if you make it all the way to the end) that you dont think I am an awful parent. I am just trying to learn as I go..... and I am trusting God to lead me and guide me.

It is time to go now, I may add more later!

The Zoo

Andy and I thought that it would be a good idea to take aubrey to the free zoo day last sunday. Aubrey had never been to the zoo and she loves animals! The rest of alabama thought it would be a good idea also and all of their kids must love animals also!!!! It was PACKED! We still had a great time and aubrey seemed to enjoy watching all of the people just as much as seeing the animals. Her favorite part of the whole zoo was seeing the ducks! Oh well! It was a good family day and next time we will just pay to go on a weekday so that it will not be as crowded.

Website

Check out my new website www.jeniferstewart.com

Give me feedback and pass the website around :)

Family

Learning....

I feel like all I do these days is practice on photoshop and try to learn new things..... tonight I have worked all night and I wanted to share it with everyone. I know it doesn't seem like alot but it is TRUST ME :) I am pretty happy with the end results though!

Memories

Andy and I are in the process of turning our front bedroom into Aubrey's playroom and while doing so we realized we had to much stuff, so we are planning for a yard sale next weekend. This weekend we almost got the whole playroom cleaned out and andy started working on getting down yard sale stuff from the attic. He told me I had two boxes to go through that were labeled "Jenifer's Stuff" :) I opened the first and it was just a bunch of disney VHS tapes.... since we do not even have a VCR most likely they will be sold (unless they are worth anything on ebay).
The second box took me straight back to highschool..... it was like a time machine as I sat on my bed and went through old letters and pictures and journals. WoW is all I can say, as I read through the first notebook of letters I had kept from friends and boyfriends it was like I was there all over again. The fun WONDERFUL times with my 3 best friends Stacy, Courtney, and Cindy. The memories I have with the three of them will last forever. I laughed as I read through letters about how one of us would have decided we didn't want to be best friends with the other ones anymore, how petty it was, but at the time how hurt we would feel. Looking back at pictures of us the week after new years that we all four spent together.... the things we thought of to do that week were so much fun I could not even begin to tell what all we got into that week :) I found my trading cards that Courtney and I collected for a year or two.... I don't even know what I am going to do with them all, I have folders FULL of animation trading cards. Does anyone even know what I am talking about?!?! I found my whistles from when Stacy and I worked at the YMCA together, we had sooo much fun getting a tan AND getting paid for it. I also found pictures of Cindy and I in her white car.... I don't remember what kindof car it was but all I can say is Roller Coaster Road, that should speak for itself :) I am blessed to know that although we have all gone seperate ways and have grown up I can still call all three of them my friend. I am so proud of all three..... Courtney I see how successful she has become with her Real Estate and how happy she is married to the man of her dreams Jamie. Stacy graduated college and is now working at UAB in the liver center ... helping the sick, she was always GREAT at being compassionate and loving. Cindy, took in her niece and nephews and gave them a Godly home to grow up in, I can not say I know many people who would take on a such a big life changing thing.... but I know Cindy probably has never even thought twice about it.

I then moved onto my journal that I kept when I was 17 and 18.... I met andy when I was 17 and I went to Summer Beach Project and lived in Panama City Beach for 10 weeks with a bunch of college kids. I am not going to knock beach project because I know of alot of people who have LOVED it.... and I was ministered to while I was there but I did not have a very good summer and I wrote about it ALL in my journal :) I did alot of spiritual growth when I was 17 and I am so thankful I have written it all down to go back to and remember. I have alot of memories with Andy written in the journal, we struggled alot in our relationship starting off.... if you read my journal you would NEVER have guessed that I would wind up married to this guy.... but about mid-way through God intervened and changed his life & his heart! Thank you God! Alittle over a year after he was saved we were married and God has blessed our marriage and given us the most precious gift of all which is Aubrey! It was so wonderful to look back at my prayer request and my concerns that I had lifted up to God..... and he answered so many of my prayers, he changed my heart in so many ways and it is just a reminder that I serve a loving God who cares about me! Even when I was a selfish spoiled little brat 17 year old that did ALOT of complaining He listened and comforted me when I was hurting because I lost my Papaw, He changed Andy's heart, and gave me a wonderful Husband who I love so much! It all reminded me of

Jeremiah 29:11-13

For I know the plans I have for you,"

declares the LORD,

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future.

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me,

and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me

when you seek me with all your heart.

I am so thankful that He has a plan for me.... when I was 17 I didn't know I would be where I am today.... now I am 24 and I have NO idea where I will be when I am 30, but I know that God has a plan for me. He will not leave me, He will always be with me guiding me every step of the way and I am SOOO thankful for that!

I then finished up my journals and closed everything back up walked out to the garage put it all back in the same box and closed the box up, the next morning andy said "does all this go back up into the attic" and I said "Yes, I am not ready to get rif of ANY of that!" One day I will get to through it all again.....

American Idol

For those who do not know I am a Reality Tv junkie..... I am alittle embarrased by that but what can I say I love it!!! There are not many reality shows that I have not atleast seen once. I recently discovered that Dish had added the Reality Channel to our package and we do not have to pay any extra! Andy knew this about a week before I did but he did not tell me because he was afraid I would never turn it off. He can not say to much because he is an espn junkie :) ANYWAY.... back to the whole reason for this blog. I am a HUGE American Idol fan I have watched every season except the very first one. I think some great singers have come from the show and some not so great singers have gotten there 10 minutes of fame from the show. Last year American Idol started Idol Gives Back. I remember last year watching it and tears streaming down my face.... I have never traveled very far out of the south and so it has never been brought to my attention the poverty that is literally in our back yard! I get upset when I can not go buy a new pair of shoes.... these people just want to feed their children. When the show was over last year I remember looking at Andy and declaring "We have to send them some money!" He did not object..... he knew that I was not asking if we could I was telling him we would :) I am a pretty up front person but I feel like I have a tender heart and when you show me children who need help..... there is nothing that could break my heart more. Last night was this years Idol Gives Back and they sure do know how to tug on some heart strings! This whole season they have shown where the over 70 million dollars went last year and some AWESOME things have been accomplished and I am honored to say that I am a part of it. I can not believe the things that kids go through over in Africa. If only they had a net to put over there head to protect them from the mosquitos..... They showed 4 brothers who had lost both of there parents to AIDS.... the oldest brother was only 15 the youngest was 3.... I will be totally honest if they had put a phone number up and said call this number to adopt these children.... I would be on my way to Africa to pick up 4 boys who did not ask for the life that they have been given. I am proud of American Idol for realizing the wide span of people that watch the show.... and not just asking for people to watch but for making people aware of what is going on around the world, and for asking people to do something about it! I had to Tivo the show because of church so I watched it last night kindof late and I did not realize that my Tivo did not record the whole show, I woke up this morning and saw alittle video with the 8 finalist singing "Shout to the Lord". I have to admit I was SHOCKED! I am so proud of the contestants and the show.... I shouldn't be, I wish it was normal to hear these songs on the show but unfortunatly it is not normal at all. I thought I would share the video with everyone just in case you missed it like I did. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Busy Bee.....

I have been soooo busy the last two weeks and I am not sure it is going to slow down anytime soon. Last week there was not one evening that I was home at a regular time, tuesday night and thursday night Aubrey was in bed before I even got home! This week not much has changed and when I have been home andy and I are working on getting our front bed room turned into Aubreys playroom so there are a million things to do when I walk in the door from work. We are having a yard sale next friday and saturday to try and get rid of some of our junk that we have acquired and piled up in the front bedroom. Last night I came straight in from work at 5:00 sat at the computer and did not get up until 9:45....I was editing pictures the whole time! Tomorrow, we have a birthday party from 12:30-2:00 I am taking pictures for the prom at 4:00 and a wedding shower starting at 5:00 which I will be late to. Sunday we have church and a birthday party from 2:00-4:00 and then church again tomorrow evening. Tuesday night I am having a Mary Kay party at 6:00 pm, (if you can come please come :) I have not sent out invitations I have not had time!) Life is so crazy right now.... I am ready for it to slow down a bit!

I love this time of year..... I love getting home from work and Aubrey being able to play in the back yard for a couple of hours before it gets dark.... I love having friends over and grilling out on the back porch while we watch our kids play....

I love that Aubrey has so many kids the same age as her at the church.... I am so thankful for a church that provides good teaching for my child to grow up in. I am thankful for friends who desire for their child to grow up in a Godly home just as I desire for Aubrey.... I am so thankful that my friends are so much like family. I am thankful that my family are also my friends :)

I am not real sure how I got on the subject of being thankful...... but I am glad I did! Sometimes we all just need a reminder to be thankful!

Have a blessed weekend!