A Little History:
Our story begins in Pocatello, Idaho, circa 1972, when the lovely Debby Christensen agreed to a first, though fateful date with admirer, David Croshaw. Long story-short, he bade her follow him, and they went arm-in-arm to the Logan, Utah temple for establishment of an eternal family unit, Generation 1, on May 23 1973.
From their first blissful summer in Salt Lake City, educational pursuits took them to Provo/Orem, Utah, birthplace of Leslie and Rebecca, and to San Francisco/Oakland California, birthplace of Colin and Matt. Then, for establishment of livelihood, expansion of the tribe with Abby and Dana, and for raising/unifying of Generation 2, it was back to the roots in Pocatello for a rewarding sojourn.
In time, driven by a raging, but commonly shared sense of adventure and independence, one-by-one, Generation 2 escaped the homeland to distant regions of the country and the world, each ultimately developing their own tribal expansions by pairing with worthy mates and initiating Generation 3.
Now sensing fulfillment of their purpose in Pocatello, Generation 1 has also left those roots and transplanted to Cascade Idaho, from which base, they anticipate more abundant contact with The Posterity, Generations 2 and 3, in the future. That contact however, awaits fulfillment of a call to LDS missionary service in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, wherein they hope to help the state of the world by sharing the love of Jesus Christ.
So now, including Generation 0 (Grandma and Grandpa Christensen) home base includes Yuma, Arizona, Pocatello, Idaho, Cascade, Idaho, Vancouver, BC, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Spokane, Washington, Boise, Idaho, Los Angeles, California, back to Boise, Idaho, and on and on (Generation 3+) to infinity.
Our Mission Statement:
This is the blog of our eternal family unit. Initiated years ago, it served well as a journal, but even more so, as an archive of our personal interaction. It was a gathering place, a confabulation instrument, a unifying force for four generations of widely dispersed and progressively prolific posterity, and their valued associates. Though it served these purposes well for many years, it eventually took a back seat to new-kids-on-the-block, Facebook, and Instagram, and was sadly forgotten.
We now move to resurrect this blog with an added functional purpose of archiving the missionary experiences of Generation 1, of their movements and activities as they participate with The Gathering of Israel in the land northward. In so doing, we hope that via their own comments and posts, this blog will again serve to gather and unify the posterity and their friends.
As in the past, that the young and vibrant may know the old and tired, that enduring bonds may be fostered and maintained, that experience and encouragement may be openly shared, that posterity may embrace truth, and that hearts may be knit together, we must resist detachment despite our geographic divergence. We shall do so here. 
9 comments:
I hate it when I have to go to the bathroom right after I put my tutu on.
I hadn't read that Ensign article yet, so I just read it. When I was a student on OB/GYN, we had a patient who was pregnant with twins and wanted one of them terminated. Of course the OB referred her, but I would have liked to ask her which one she would like to keep.
There's no doubt that life begins immediately after conception. No one really disputes that. I think people like to argue when the Spirit enters the body. Some say it's right at conception, some say it's at birth. I would probably agree with the first one. After Lori got pregnant the first time, I knew 100% that it was a girl. You have to wonder if the fetus that dies during gestation will be included with kids who die before age 8 who will be raised by their parents after the millenium.
Birth control is one of those topics that the church does not make public statements on. Obviously they want us to follow the Spirit and make our own decision. Technically, all birth control (except abortion) is the same. They all prevent pregnancy, whether it's at ovulation or implantation of the zygote 3 days later. I've seen people come into the ER just to get the morning after pill. It wasn't my patient, but that may come up in my future. That treatment is almost the same as the birth control pill, just higher dose. Surgical birth control (for men or women) does the same thing also, excepting hysterectomy for health reasons.
We have used birth control. I won't really say which side is right or wrong, mostly because I don't want to judge others for that kind of decision and I don't want to be a hypocrite. This isn't really a topic I want to debate, but I would kind of like to see what everyone else thinks. It is a touchy subject though, so feel free if you want to tell me I shouldn't have started this discussion. I'll understand.
Colin
You are right, the church doesn't take any stand on birth control, they leave it up to the couple to decide how to deal with that. I personally don't think that birth control is wrong in any way. There is absolutely nothing wrong with planning your family the way you want. That is between a husband and wife and Heavenly Father. I was on the pill for a little while after I got married and I hated it, so I stopped taking it and haven't used any "birth control" since. I just paid attention to my cycles-which didn't always work perfectly!! I am planning on having my tubes tied after this baby is born because I really feel like we are done having kids (and that is something that can be reversed if needed). I have heard people say that using the pill is similar to having an abortion, but I strongly disagree with that. Those are unfertilized eggs, just like the ones we women lose with every menstrual cycle. I don't know much about IUD's but if they eliminate a fertilized egg, a zygote, that is not something I would ever consider using.
I worked with a girl in Tulsa who had an abortion via the morning after pill. This was right after I started and she was very open about it. I wish I would've been brave enough to say something, but I hardly knew her and never really had a personal conversation with her. I just heard her talking about it a lot. I was seriously disgusted with her, though. She was 28 years old and had been blessed with just as much privilege in her life as anyone. It was just an inconvenience she didn't want to deal with, and she acted like she had no other choice. She used abortion as birth control, which is abominable. She tried to make it seem like she was so strong and brave for making that "choice". That is the problem with living in a society where abortion has become so accepted. People who haven't had these morals taught to them by their parents have absolutely nothing with which to counter the view that it is completely and totally fine. I watched that video and I was amazed by the 20 year old who had 2 abortions in one year. Her mom professed to be a Christian, talked about how much she loves Jesus, but encouraged her daughter to abort her baby and repeatedly told her that she had made the right decision. I was also so impressed with the couple who chose to keep their baby with genetic defects, even though she would most surely die within hours after birth, if not before she was born. The didn't see it as a choice, they saw it as being up to God. What an inspiration!!
The IUD (as it is named) fits right in the uterus and basically makes an inhospitable environment for a zygote. They used to be just made of copper, but the ones they use today have progesterone in them and it does the same thing a progesterone only pill does, which is to affect the lining of the uterus. They are supposed to stop the period altogether. They are meant to last about 5 years and ovulation usually starts soon after it is removed.
I am all about birth control- my concern is that since life does begin at conception and an IUD basically destroys a fertilized egg after conception that I will not consider it, though the long-term effects are quite desirable, particularly because I am not good at taking pills of any kind every, single day... I was on teh BCP for 8 years between Valerie and divorce, and now I get to think about all that again. I dont like the idea of hormonal supplement to stop ovulation (makes me sick like pregnancy) and I am not doing IUD, but i am not sure what I will be doing. There is a new implant called implanon that I got a brochure on that sounds ok... but again, all those hormones...I dunno.
My thought was not that public birth control statement be made, but the method by which an IUD/IUC works is not allowing a fertilized egg to continue living. I definitely would not like the church to oversee that kind of stuff... It was the topic we did this week in my class so now my students are very well-informed. They had great fun passing around all the things we found at the drugstore yesterday ($100 worth!).
Also, my Dr last week told me that I should just tell Matt to get a Vassectomy because I have had enough surgery ;-) I told Matt and he had no comment. I elected not to get my tubes tied- actually, when asked, I did not hesitate to say no. It is weird. On one hand, I know that pregnancy/childbirth/baby are really hard on not only me, but in this case, a new baby as well. I just can't see putting another baby through all that again. On the other hand, I really can't fathom being "done" at two children. It is such a quandry.
Anyway. My head is killing me and I want to try to find sleep before Asher wakes up.
I kind of think like Becky (and all of you actually). Birth control in and of itself is not bad.
If you use it to procrastinate or not comply with God's plan for your family then I think it does become a sin, just like any other in which you defy God's will. That's why being close to the Spirit is so important.
I used the ring for the first 6 months we were married, because I was afraid of where we might be in the immigration process and was worried Alex and I might be living in different countries when I had my first child. Having a child alone and to have him/her not be able to be Alex during the first months/year of his/her life was not an option. Now I see that that was not really a valid worry, and that we probably should have just started trying from the beginning. Especially now that we've been trying for 6 months and no luck yet. But at the time, I felt good about our decision.
I'm not sure I'll ever use it again. We'd (optimistically) like to have 4 kids, and the only way for my "old" body to do that is going to be to pop them out one after another. So...we shall see.
I am hoping for popping them out for you Leslie! I also have a very strong suspicion (well-founded and many inqiuries) that long-term hormonal use (pills, injections, implants, ring, patch...) may lead to infertility. I have this idea because all of my friends who have been on it long-term are having problems conceiving now that grad school, or medical school or career establishment is finished. I suspect my generation will show that- right now, there is no data on it, also since menopause sets in after the ovary is depleted of eggs, do women who have been on hormonal bc have menopause later? There is not much data on that either. When I first went on the pill at the age of 20, my doctor said I should only be on it 5 years, but he prescribed them to me for 8 until I opted to not take them because there was no need. My friends have been on them 10 years and more most of the time. It is definitely a correlation I am seeing in my own friends and that I have discussed with my Dr. I do think it is an awesome thing to be able to plan families and I can tell you that a new baby brings such a sweetness to the lives of a family who had planned for, wanted and welcomed a new life. We are all totally in love with Asher, he is our collective heart.
ok, was on a plane with a guy from israel, he grew up in russia. he found out at one point that his mother had had multiple abortions as a form of birth control. he was appalled. in russia you could only have 2 children. we talked about abortion and i told him my concern was that we no longer have a reverence for life. he said in israel hey believe the life begins when the nervous system is formed. semantics. i gave him a copy of the proclamation. birth control is strictly between the couple and the Lord. i will say that birth control didn't always work out so well for us. when we got married there was a statement from the first presidency. they told us not to prevent our families for money or school reasons. they said if we did "we would reap disappointment by and by". from my perspective now, i cannot imagine how i would feel if i were to realize at some point that i had missed out on one of you. xoxoxo mom
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