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~ Pretending to be a functioning wife, mother, friend and adult.

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Tag Archives: maryland

3 Things; Instagram, Broad City and Home Birth in Maryland

20 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by ericakatherine in 3 Things, Birth, Pregnancy, TV Shows

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Broad City, Chatbooks, CNM, Comedy Central, CPM, HB9/SB105, HBAC, Instagram, Jezebel, maryland, Midwives, smile, The Truth About VBAC: Maryland Families Need Access, VBAC

Today I give you another 3 things I think you should know about!

1. Chatbooks.com  Are you an instragram junkie? Do you have a growing collection of photos you’re not sure how to keep for memory sharing beyond your cell phone? Check out chatbooks.com. 60 of your photos will be printed in a 6×6 book for only $6 (shipping is free). I believe it’s set up so every 60 photos it automatically creates a new book. No muss no fuss! I’m going to give it a whirl, but since I’m a lazy instagramer, it may take me a while to get to 60 pics.

2. Broad City  For someone that claims to not have enough time to watch tv, I seem to watch quite a bit lately. I discovered Broad City after an article on Jezebel mentioned the show. The show offered a great answer to the “friendly” idiots that when walking by you on the street will say “you’re so pretty, you should smile”. I went and watched a few episodes and I love it.

If you find yourself to be more on the conservative side of life, it may not be for you… but then again, this blog most likely wouldn’t be either. So I guess if you’re even reading this it means you will probably find amusement in Broad City (on Comedy Central)

3. HB9/SB105  Recently the group Maryland Families for Safe Birth successfully got the bill HB9/SB105 passed through the HGO committee. This is bringing the state of Maryland one step closer to allow the licensure and legalization of Certified Professional Midwives . This is a great success and very important women and their reproductive rights.

One thing that was forced to be dropped by the committee was the inclusion of VBAC’s (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean).  This is extremely important to me as I someday want to have the opportunity to have a VBAC, preferably at home. The problem is that because CPM’s are not legal in the state of Maryland, the only option is a Certified Nurse Midwife (which there are not many of) or finding a hospital that claims itself to be VBAC supportive.

I ask you, if you live in the state of Maryland, and believe that a woman has the right to give birth how and where she wishes, with a supportive, educated and legal provider, then I ask that you take a moment to read this excerpt from MFSB and write the governors office.  Below that is also a short video about VBAC and the importance of giving women access and opportunity to VBAC.

PLEASE HELP NOW BY TELLING THEM YOU ARE UPSET ABOUT THIS: We need your voices to go straight to the top to pave the way for a win on VBAC. Please write, email, and call the governor’s office saying 1) you are so mad that DHMH kept VBAC out of bill HB9/SB105 2) why you think this is wrong and 3) ASK: “Please review the available data quickly and include VBAC in the scope for midwives as other states do”

Two places to contact:

Governor Larry Hogan
State House, 100 State Circle, Annapolis, MD 21401 – 1925
(410) 974-3901; 1-800-811-8336 (toll free, Maryland)
e-mail: governor
fax: (410) 974-3275; tdd: (410) 333-3098

JOSEPH M. GETTY, Esq., Chief Legislative Officer
Legislative Office
State House, State Circle, Annapolis, MD 21401-1925
(410) 974-3336
e-mail: joseph.getty@maryland.gov

 

Does Everything Happen for a Reason?

09 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by ericakatherine in Uncategorized

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airport, gaithersburg, gemmell family, gofundme, loss, maryland, plane crash, tragedy

Buying a house is a daunting, complicated task. You go in and out of homes checking boxes off the criteria list. Does it have enough bedrooms and bathrooms? Does it have a driveway? What school district is it in? Does it need a new roof? The most important question is do you think this is the place you want to call home?

Earlier this year in January the husband and I set out to find a new home. We want to grow our family, we both work from home and need our own offices, and we wanted to have a cute little neighborhood that had it’s own playground so we no longer had to cross a major six lane road to get to one.  We went in a lot of houses, but none of them could we say we wanted to be our home. Then finally, we got to the house that on paper we really thought was “it”. Normally those houses always end up being disappointing and the photos are better than the real thing. Not this house. This house checked off the most important boxes; bedrooms, bathrooms, a huge yard that backed up to woods. It even offered the bonus “tree house” tree, that the husband was so excited to build someday for our son.

What really solidified this would be the house for us was the moment I had while standing looking out the front door into the small cul de sac neighborhood. I saw only three doors down a small boy standing in the door looking at us, with his dad standing behind him. He looked to be about our sons age and that made me so excited. I pictured the boys outside with a basketball hoop, learning to play basketball together. Our two families sitting out on our lawns drinking some beers, enjoying the kids playing without leaving the vicinity of our home. It was exactly what I was looking for in a new neighborhood.

We were set to close on the house in February, with movers booked and all of our possessions boxed and ready to go. We had my mom flown in so she could watch the toddler while we attempted to work our jobs and move our household.  A very long story short, our mortgage broker and our realtor didn’t do their jobs, and we didn’t ever close on the house. We unpacked everything back into the same house we had mentally checked out of.  We were disappointed and frustrated, but both felt that maybe that wasn’t the house for us and everything happens for a reason.

Yesterday a small jet crashed into that cul de sac. That jet hit that house three doors down, the one with the small boy and his father standing in the door.

When I saw the news story pop up on Facebook, I instantly thought of a good friend who is a pilot that flies in and out of the nearby small plane airport. Any time there is a small plane crash I think of him and want to check and make sure its not.  I clicked the link to the news story and read that the crash happened on the address block of the house we never moved into. I instantly sent the link to the husband and said THANK GOD we didn’t move in.  He came running into my office and said he thought it was “our” house. We hopped on google maps and compared what images we had available to see which house it was. Once we figured out it was not that house, we felt horrible knowing it was the house with that family.

Initial reports claimed there was no one home, but I saw the minivan in the driveway. I prayed no one was home, that they were out anywhere but there. Later in the day I found out the little boy I saw in the door that day was in the house, along with his mother and newborn brother. They did not survive. The dad was at work, and their older daughter was at school.

I’ve spent the last day attempting to wrap my head around this tragic and completely freak accident. What are the odds of a plane crashing into a house? What are the odds that house is located so close where we were supposed to be living? I feel grateful, thankful and lucky that we were not in that position. Then my feelings shift to complete heartache and anguish for this family. What it must have felt like for that father to be at work and how he may have found out. Or that first phone call from a friend or family member checking in. Or how this man has had his family, his home, his life taken from him…and how the hell to hold it together to try and tell his little girl what has happened to her mom and brothers.

Lots of people believe everything happens for a reason, and I always have. While I can see how it is applicable to our situation, I’m having a hard time seeing how that works in regards to this family. Where does some greater good come from this? How could there ever being a reason that God/the universe/fate has brought such tragedy upon this family?

That image of the young boy and his father standing in the door will forever be ingrained in my memory.  It was once for all the memories we wouldn’t have with this family because we lost that house, now replaced with the sadness of knowing that little boy will never play in that cul de sac.

A Go Fund Me page has been started for the family to pay for funeral expenses and anything else they may need. If you can, donate. If you can’t, just say a prayer for this man, his daughter and the friends and family that tragically lost their loved ones yesterday.

http://www.gofundme.com/ig5cc8

Marie Gemmell and her two boys

Marie Gemmell and her two boys

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