My Enemy's Cradle

My Enemy's Cradle by Sara Young

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


LOVED the way this book ended!!! I am a sucker for WWII books and learning about what went on. A sucker for stories of survival. And of course, a sucker for romance and happy endings:) The unfolding romance in this story was just the icing on the cake! A must read!



A little note about this book for me:



I am embarrassed to say how ignorant I am to some things that have gone on in human history...I learned about something I didn't know happened during WWII. This story shows a bit of what was of the Lebensborn Organization(Wellspring or Fountain of Life). It was an organization set up by the Nazi's in attempts to "breed" the "Master Race." It is just shocking to read about these sort of things. In places like the Lebensborn Organization(or the one portrayed in the book), pregnant women were gathered like animals to be fed and properly fattened to supply endless blonde haired blue eyed children to the Nazi Regime. The babies would be taken from their mothers and put up for adoption to Nazi families. And sometimes, the babies were never adopted or not adopted for months. And for months those babies sat in nurseries unloved and untouched other than the every four hour feeding and diaper changes required. The worst part...learning that when the child was born, if it had a flaw like a cleft lip it was murdered and the woman who gave birth to the child was told the baby was a stillborn. It was sad to learn that babies were taken from their mothers at birth and adopted out to Nazi families against their will. There were so many more things just wrong about all that went on during this time in history...So much to reflect on and so many questions of how and why...



This book was so good and had such a sweet ending. I loved how it tells the story of a German soldier and his disdain for what the Nazi Regime was doing. There are probably so many untold stories where German citizens had no other choice but to do as the Nazi's demanded ie, giving up their land, businesses, son's, etc... I love how this book tells of a story like this. The untold stories of mother's and the loss of their babies(I don't love that this happened, just love that the story is being told to the world). I don't recall learning it in history class? Maybe I am ignorant, but I just didn't know this actually occurred.





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It's Finally Ours!!

After three months of waiting to close.  We finally did last week!!  We are super excited to fix it up and make it our own!  Now we have plenty of room for all of our visitors, so come down often...pretty please;)

My Baby's Baptism

Choose The Right

Our Parents came all the way down to show their support(My Mom couldn't make it, but she wanted to be here)

Leisa and two of her kids came to show their support.  Leisa is our babysitter.  She helps me with the kids for four hours after the nights I work so I can get a little sleep.  She is so great and the kids absolutely love her!

Bishop Wilson and Spence and Spence with two of the members of the Primary Presidency: Sister Morby and Sister Wilson

Our cute boy on his way into the church with his daddy

Dave calling to make sure I was coming.  The morning was a bit hectic to say the least.  I had gotten up early to cut up all of the fruit and while I was getting Drew finished with dressing we misplaced his tie, then Lila got into my fingernail polish, Drew burned his finger on the iron...it was just hectic, but we made it and we were so happy!  I was there right at ten am(when it started) so I only got a few pics:(  But I think I got some of the most important ones.

Thanks to Mom I have one of Spence in his whites with my dad.  I'm sad I don't have one with him in his whites with them or with his siblings.

A family shot(minus Sissy) after the baptism.

The boys walking back to our place for the grub.

All the cousins

Spence with Uncle Ryan's family

Me and the kids.  I attempted to get a full family shot, but Dave already changed out of his church clothes and...eh...I didn't force another pic on him.

The good eats

A few gifts:  Attitude: The greatest discovery of this generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.

Several books on baptism, a CTR Pin and ring, along with a start to a mission fund!!

We are so so thankful to our family who made it down to support Spencer in his choice to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We are so proud of him and we are so thankful to our family for the love and support each of them shows us whether in presence or over the phone or through blogs, emails, facebook.  When you stay in touch it keeps us connected and we feel loved by you.

My Baby Is a Wolf...And A Story To Remember

The White Tornado starts scouts now that he is the big 8!

Me taking a lot of pics to document his new fun adventure as a scout! 

And a shot of the group pulling their funny faces.

We walked to the church together, just Spence and I.  I was getting all choked up as we went.  My boy is growing up.  I know I say it all the time, but I just am a little sad with each milestone in his life.  He is becoming a little guy.  He is getting baptized on Saturday, and soon he will be a young man going on a mission and then a handsome fella ready to be married off. It just gets me...

  After I took all the pictures of him at scouts, I headed back for home.  I just started to cry.  Tears of happiness for my cute little guy, but tears of sadness too. Sadness that he is growing up way to fast and before I know it he will be out of the house and on his own.  Oh Spence I love you very much and hope as you read all of this stuff, you remember how sweet and special you are to me.

Love,

Mom

*A little story for your enjoyment...and believe me, it's only for your enjoyment, because I can tell you I definitely did not enjoy this:

So we head over to the scouts store to properly equip Spencer with all the right stuff on his first day as a wolf.  We enter the store and luckily we are the only customers.  The gal behind the counter is so sweet she says she'll help me gather all the stuff I need(I'm totally clueless as to what I need to buy...never been a scout and this is my first kid to enter scouts...)  Naturally, Drew is irritating Sissy and she starts to freak out and runs away from him.  He of course starts chasing her telling her, "Get back over here, you need to stay by Mom!!"  This only makes things worse, because now he is telling her what to do and with Sissy...you just can't do that if you are Andrew(he is the older pesky brother in her eyes) So she starts running away from him and it becomes a game of run around the store.  I try to stop her, but to avoid a complete meltdown from her, I let her run around since we are the only customers and heck, I should be in and outta there right?  I mean all I need is a shirt and a few little patches to sew on.  As I am figuring out which numbers I need to buy, I ask Spence to just check on Sissy to make sure she isn't causing any trouble.  He leaves me and walks over to where she is and with haste he returns to me and says, "Uhhhh, Mom, you better come check this out."  The scout employee looks at me and I Immediately think, "Oh great she's pulled everything off of the shelves."  So I excuse myself from the gal helping me and I head over to where she is.  I can see the look in her eyes.  She has done something naughty.  I get over to her, and I don't see anything at first, then I see it.  No those little pebbles on the floor on the aisle she is standing in aren't rocks, and neither are the pebbles in the aisle down yonder where she'd been running around.  Those rock looking pebble like things are really my worst nightmare...Poop!!!!!!  I was mortified!!!  I literally wasn't quite sure what to do next.  I knew there was probably more where that came from and I could see the at least a half a dozen up and down the aisle.  The cute little worker comes over to me(still not sure what has happened) and says, "Is everything alright?" I look at her, then look at the poop, then look at her again.  She is still clueless as to what is going on.  Then I say, "No, everything is not alright(nicely)...do you see those pebble looking things on the floor right there and there and there?  Those little pebble looking things aren't pebbles, they are my daughter's poop...yes every single one of them. I am so so sorry(profusely expressing my sincere apology all while trying not to cry of embarrassment), I will get this cleaned right up as soon as I get her to a restroom.  Do you have a restroom I can use?"

Yes, so there you have it.  My daughter pooped all over the scouts store.  After I got her cleaned up(luckily they were a bunch of little hard deer looking poops and there wasn't much of a mess in her panties, course it's probably because most of them fell out while she was on her rampage throughout the store!) I came out of the bathroom with several handfuls of paper towels ready to clean up the mess.  Well, that sweet gal had gone around and cleaned it up for me.  She was so sweet about it and didn't even seem bothered.  I literally was so thankful and just couldn't wait to get out of there.  I was so embarrassed and so upset with my kids. 

You can bet they all got a talking to about not running around the store! Not that I haven't given them the talk before, but I think somehow this experience will be ingrained in their heads and they just might not do that again;)

As for me, I called Dave in a rage and told him the whole story. 

Afterwards, we were heading back home and I just quietly cried to myself as I drove home trying not to let Spencer see me.  So pathetic I know, but I was so embarrassed and just so mad at Drew and Sissy for their behavior running around the store.  I was crying just thinking about how my kids were out of control and somehow I was feeling like a failure as a mother. 

But, now I can look back and take a deep breath and smile(just a little).  Kids will be kids.  I should have just put Sissy in a Pull Up.  Lesson learned.  Never go anywhere in public without a Pull Up on the kid!