4th of July and Family Freedom

As I rushed around baking pie and helping my kids get their supplies to make their cute desserts, as I asked everyone to wear red, white, and blue this year for our 4th annual 4th of July family photo, as I prepared appetizers, treats, dinner, desserts...

As placed band-aids on boo-boos, as I got dressed, as I nursed my baby, as we laughed and played, as we had a watermelon eating contest, and as I watched my husband make himself a cocktail with mint and lime....

As we dug through fireworks and put flag football belts on, as I watched the kids wrestle and play leap frog, as we took photos and shared family time...

As we did all of this I thought to myself how important today is to our family. I took many moments to reflect on what freedom means to to us as a family and how important freedom is.

Ways We Are Free

If we lived somewhere else we might not be able to have as many children as we do, by law. If we lived somewhere else I could even be forced (taken from my home and literally held down and forced) to have an abortion (even of a term baby). It happens in 2013.

If we lived somewhere else we might not be able to homeschool our children. Our children could be taken away from us even if we were giving them a good education, even if we tried to comply with laws (which are often inconsistent even when homeschooling is allowed) and even if we attempted to move somewhere where else it was legal. It happens. Parents lose their kids and/or are forced to put them in government schools, it happens in 2013.

If we lived somewhere else we might not be allowed to be any religion we wanted and able to raise our children that way if we want. It still happens in 2013. 

If we lived somewhere else we might not have as much health care freedom, although ours is slipping away and parental rights have been grossly challenged in the past two decades, we still have freedom. And we still live in a country that has vaccine exemptions for school attendance because no one should ever be forced to consume anything against ones own will whatever their medical, religious or personal reasons/convictions may be. Forced vaccination/ medication happens in 2013.

If we lived somewhere else we might not be allowed to stay home and give birth the way we chose to unassisted. (Or we'd have to lie about it.) Midwife assisted homebirth however is legal in many but not all states.

I'm thankful for these freedoms, and many more. Not everyone needs or wants the same freedoms, and that's why being free is so, so darn important.