Hi All,
    I want to Thank Pat Bull, especially, for the note on her
reflections. I have been struggling and struggling with how to set about
the future and 'really is it worth it?' when I have bad days. After
reading her post, I realize that no matter what I chose, if it is worth
it, important or involves people - it is going to be hard going and
there will be days when I ask 'is it worth it?.
    Pat Bull and the others on this list who have come before, have
paved the way for those of us coming up, in some ways you have made it
easier - many ideas, information, books, etc. are out there that never
were in the past. Heck, breastfeeding is in the mainstream news, which
was almost non-existant in the 70s when I first became a mother.
    I shall continue on and, even if it hurts my head when I'm hitting
it against the 'wall' of ignorance and I feel frustrated and angry when
I have a bad day, I will look up at my Anne Geddes poster (They Grow
Like Weeds) above my desk, to remember why I do it.
    We must all remember one important thing that I tell my children -
doing ('fill in the blank', getting married, having children,
maintaining your religious faith) is important because not only because
of the positive wonderful things they give to you, but because the
imoral, un-educated, and un-caring will continue to propogate their kind
and their ignorance without a second thought (or for that matter even a
first thought) and those of us who are willing to care and go the extra
mile need to push on despite the odds, to keep the message getting out.
Even if there are days when it does not appear to be! I received the
advice as an idealistic teen, worried about bringing children into a
world going wild from an older wiser woman, now I am passing that onto
my children.
    This is one of the things that I like least about our current
American culture, the lack of 'older, wiser' women willing to mentor and
'pull under their wing' a younger woman. It is one of the reasons I
still attend LLL and why I am here, I need you guys and maybe I have
touched one of the moms that I have encountered. And that is all that it
is about.

Leslie Ward
Vine Grove, KY
"The art of being a parent is to sleep when the baby isn't looking."
Anonymous