Daniel J. Summers » Charter Member of the VRWC

I’ve received a final update from Charles and Judith regarding their baby girl. (Previous updates here)

Our baby Mary Florence was born around 5:35 A.M. August 28, 2007. She was alive when born, but sadly she died in my arms a very few minutes later. Even though we were expecting it, we were not prepared for the hard reality of it.

Physically Judith is doing well. She had a fever for a time but her temperature is now back to normal. Of course there is pain after childbirth, but Georgetown University Hospital has been great.

Once again our grateful thanks to all of you for all of your kind words, thoughts and prayers.

Although the outcome of this is not what any parent would hope when they here of their soon-to-arrive baby - but, we know that we can trust God, and that He knows why the outcome was the way it was. Continue to keep Charles and Judith in your prayers, as well as the rest of their family; their oldest son has just been deployed to Iraq.

Lauren Green, a correspondent for Fox News, has written an editorial about a loophole in the partial-birth abortion ban. It is informative (and instructive), but throughout, she tells of her own path from being pro-choice to pro-life. It isn’t really different from some of the things I’ve said here - it validates them, to some extent. Thank you, Lauren, for sharing your story; I pray that many others share your epiphany.

Check out the Agence France-Presse picture and caption…

An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City. At least 175 people were slaughtered on Tuesday and more than 200 wounded when four suicide truck bombs targeted people from an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq, officials said.(AFP/Wissam al-Okaili)

This propaganda is missing one crucial detail. If you don’t know, put your mouse over the picture to find out. Even though this is categorized under “funny stuff,” it’s more sad than funny.

(Hat Tip - Emperor Misha I of The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler)

My last immigration post linked to an article about stepped-up enforcement of illegal immigration. Two stories that have come out in the past week underscore the importance of this. The first is an illegal from Peru that killed several college students. He had been arrested twice before and his immigration status was known, yet he was released. The second is a drunk driver in Texas who slammed into a car so hard, the thing burst into flames and killed an entire family.

I don’t care how hard they work, and I don’t care how much businesses think they gain from exploiting these people. None of it is worth stuff like this.

Update #1 - Newt Gingrich goes in-depth on this in his “Winning the Future” column this week.

A week ago Saturday, the boys and I went to the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in Pueblo de Cochiti, New Mexico (between Albuquerque and Santa Fe). I created a Webshots gallery of some of the views we saw - enjoy!

This past month has been very busy, as I’ve been wrapping up some college classes. So, with little time to write things myself, here are some links to some articles I’ve enjoyed over the past week.

When a House vote is over, it’s over, right? In House Democrats Fail Democracy 101, Tom DeLay writes that the “most incompetent speaker in American history” needs to revisit House rules.

Could it be that illegal employment enforcement is just around the corner? In Crackdown on “Questionable” Social Security Numbers, LaShawn Barber writes that many employers are firing employees with SSNs that have been flagged as suspicious.

Good news in Iraq is bad news for Democrats - that’s what Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) seems to think anyway. What can you say about a party that has put itself on the opposite side of American victory?

And finally, just for fun - In Defense of Drunk Astronauts.

I’ve received another update from Charles and Judith about their baby. (Previous updates here)

(July 21) The baby’s heart beat often skips a beat, kind of 3 beats and then a skip but it is not always that regular. Friday they did a fetal echo cardiogram and discovered that the baby’s heart has 2 small holes in it. The holes can easily be repaired later when the baby is stronger and they may even close on their own. However they are concerned because this can be associated with chromosomal disorders, especially Down syndrome (trisomy 21), trisomy 13, and trisomy 18. Babies with Down syndrome can live but few babies with trisomy 13 or trisomy 18 live more than a few months.

It is too late for amniocentesis (a test for these chromosomal abnormalities) as there is no fluid to speak of. They could get a genetic sample from the blood in the cord but the expert they had that does this got another job and they do not want to try it. It is hard to do especially since the baby is moving more and there is some risk of infection. They could use a needle to get a sample of the placenta.

A part of the amniotic fluid is urine from the baby. Whenever Judith urinates some fluid comes out. They collected some of this morning (Saturday) and will collect more, and send it for analysis. It will contain cells from both Judith and the baby and they hope to test the baby’s cells to see if it has a chromosomal anomaly and which one.

For more information on this see:
http://womenshealth.jhmi.edu/ob-ultrasound/patients/nt_info.html#1st%20question8-1-07

(Aug 1) The results of the chromosome tests are back. It is definitely not trisomy 13, trisomy 18, or trisomy 21. There are some other possible chromosome defects but they are very rare and they usually do not test for them. Also babies with those defects usually result in a miscarriage. The baby is a girl. The baby’s heart rate has dropped down twice now probably due to compression of the umbilical cord. The amniotic fluid usually protects the cord but of course we have no fluid. When the cord is compressed the baby is not getting enough oxygen and if the heart rate stays down too long they will deliver the baby via c-section. Judith and the baby are now being monitored for the baby’s heart rate and for contractions 24 hours a day. They also do sonograms and for the baby’s heart they do echocardiograms. The main problem is the development of the lungs and the birth defect.

Thanks for your prayers.