Hug your kids

My heart is bleeding after a story I read in the May 21 issue of the Oklahoma Gazette (the alternative newsweekly published in Oklahoma City). A couple took their nine-month old to the hospital because he was seizing and failing to thrive and had other problems he had been battling since birth. When they went in the next day to see him, they noticed he was behaving strangely and wincing when they touched him. Their doctor ordered a CT scan, and they found he had a skull fracture and was bleeding into his brain. DHS investigated the couple, thinking the baby's injury may have resulted from child abuse, but they found instead that it was caused by one of the nurses, who admitted that her actions caused him to hit his head (the article didn't specify what had happened). The baby died, months later, as a direct result of this injury and the family just settled the lawsuit with the hospital.

Once I read it, I wished Isaac were there with me so I could just grab him and hug him and be grateful for his presence in my life. I thank God every day that I'm fortunate enough to have a mother who can babysit every day while I'm at work so that I don't have to deal with day care, stories of abuse within their walls being so prevalent, especially lately. But not only do parents have to worry about their children in school and day care, but now we also have to wonder if they'll be hurt or killed at the hospital? The place they're supposed to go to get well, not the other way around? It's terrifying that this could and did happen, and my heart goes out to the parents of this little boy. I wish no one ever had to go through what they had to go through.

On another note, a different article in the same issue of the Gazette talked about urban gardening, and I think that may be my new obsession, along with making baby clothes (more on that one some other time). I've thought nonchalantly about gardening before, growing my own fruits and vegetables, but I've always dismissed the idea because I thought I didn't have time or I worried the dog would pee on everything, etc., etc., but I liked the assertion this article made that, in a time when everyone is trying to eat organically, there is no easier or cheaper way to do so than growing your own food. John's planted quite a few pepper plants, and I applaud him for that, but I won't touch them. His peppers are HOT.

I wish I'd had this notion last winter or in the spring, but I suppose it's not too late for fall gardening. The timing for that, in fact, is just right. I picked up a couple links (and added them to my list at right. I also stole some of yours, Tasha! Hope that's okay) and may head to the library to do some further research. (I got on this kick, literally, about 30 minutes ago.) What is nice is that John knows just about everything there is to know about grass and plants and soil and fertilizer, so he could be a lot of help. I'll let you know if I actually follow through with this idea or if it turns into yet another thing I'd like to try but never get around to. I was just thinking that, soon, I won't be able to shop the farmers' markets anymore, and buying organically from the grocery store is so, so expensive. I used to think that buying from markets would be expensive, but every purchase I've made has been comparable to or less than the amount of money I would have spent at the grocery store. Plus, what I buy from the markets tastes so much better than anything I've ever bought in a grocery store. Now there's some food for thought.