I have a new heroine, and her name is Governor Sarah Palin! John McCain's new VP candidate, governor of Alaska, happy wife and mother of five. She's just dynamite!

Anchorage, Apr 24, 2008 / 03:42 am. -
Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin on Friday gave birth to her fifth child,
a son who has Down’s Syndrome.  She said that she and her family had
been “truly blessed.”

Governor Palin’s labor began while she was in Texas at the
Governors’ Energy Conference where she gave the keynote luncheon
address.  She was able to fly back to Alaska in time to deliver her
son, Trig Paxon Van Palin, at 6:30 a.m.  He was born one month early
and weighed six pounds, two ounces. 

Testing during early pregnancy revealed the baby had Down’s
Syndrome.  Governor Palin said she was sad at first, but her family now
feels blessed that God chose them.

The family released a statement which said, “Trig is beautiful and
already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face
special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us
with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. We
have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has
potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed.”

(This beautiful comment, in light of the fact that NINETY PERCENT  of women who are told they are carrying a baby with Down Syndrome choose to have an abortion.)

Hey, friends,
I'm sorry I haven't been a very good Xanga correspondent recently. I feel like I'm out of the Xanga loop lately.
Nothing too exciting has been going on since we got back from Colorado almost two weeks ago. I go to work every day at the paper, Doyle and I cook supper together, I usually take Hagrid for a walk before it gets dark. I read a lot. We took Doyle's mom Ruby out to eat catfish tonight.
We're hoping to get out in the country this weekend - I want to shoot some photos.
Fall is in the air here in the Ozarks, even though it's heated up the last day or two. I checked the weather.com records, and we had more days with highs in the 70s in August than we did in the 90s! It's been delightful to have cooler temperatures. And I just noticed in the last day or two that several dogwood trees in town are already starting to turn red! We have hopes of an extravagantly beautiful fall.
God bless each one of you tonight. May He build you up where you're broken down, and strengthen you where you're weak.
(Please leave a comment! I miss hearing from you.)

On our Sunday afternoon meander, we ended up in a little ghost town called Denver, Arkansas. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day. To see more, look through the photo album on the upper-right of the page.

 

BOULDER, CO. - Our week in the Boulder area has just been wonderful, with the best part for me getting to spend lots of time with my son, Alex, whom I hadn't seen in a whole year, since he moved out here to the Front Range of the Rockies last summer.
It's great to get to see his new apartment near downtown Boulder, within walking distance of "The Med," the Mediterranean Restaurant where he is the grill chef, get to meet his new roommates, see where he works, and just get a feel for how he's doing and what his new life is like.
We've been packing in lots of activity. Alex was able to take three days off this week, so we spent one day exploring up around Estes Park and taking a drive out the Ridge Trail (scary!) up to 12,000 feet, above the tree line.
We also made a trek down to  Red Rocks, the gorgeous and Mars-like natural amphitheatre, where bands like the Beatles and the Grateful Dead have performed.
We've spent time walking around the Pearl Street Mall, a walking mall in downtown Boulder, full of flowers, restaurants, street performers and bookstores. Yesterday we drove into Denver and spent several hours in the wonderful Natural History Museum, looking at dinosaur bones and mummies and exhibits about Native American life.
Alex has to go in to work at 4 today and tomorrow, and we leave Saturday morning, so we'll probably spend a couple of hours with him before he has to work, and do some more sight-seeing.
I'm already getting a stone in my heart at the idea of leaving Alex and having 850 miles between us  again.  But he's hoping to be able to come see us at Christmas this year, which would thrill me to death, especially if my younger son Jamie, who lives in Harrison, can be there, too.
I'm thankful that we've been able to make this wonderful trip, thankful to be able to see my son, thankful to be able to spend some relaxing time with my husband, thankful that I have a husband who will bring me out here to see my child, and thankful that we have a hometown we love to go back to.
I'm going to post a photo album of our trip to Red Rocks above right if you want to take a peek.