A Slap in the face and A Kiss on the Cheek!

Until Now I have never truly understood the power of words. Whether spoken, texted, written or sung words have weight. Words of encouragment and love are strong enough to lift even the heaviest of spirits but words of anger, filth, or neglect are strong enough to break the jaw of the recipient because they have hit like a slap in the face.

In my life I have had my share of bruised and fractured jaws from careless words spoken by people I thought loved me... But my jaw has never been broken by words until now. When my son was born he lived for a little over an hour and so his dad and I did what any other parent would do and applied for a birth certificate and death certificate. The latter was a little hard to apply for but nevertheless we applied! This past week I had the unfortunate duty of visiting the Sylacauga health department to pick up both of the certificates for Cales records. When I walked in I expected to walk out with 2 pieces of paper but instead I walked out with something more a broken jaw (metaphorical) and a shattered heart! When I was handed my sweet boys birth certificate I was appalled at what I saw ... The bones of the birth certificate was the same as any other babies but what I saw written across it was terrible! Written across my babies birth certificate in big black letters was a word that knocked the wind out of me ... The word DECEASED!!!!!!! Not small in a check box but slashed across his life as if he never existed!! I didn't understand so I asked why that had to be put on there when I had a seperate death cerificate and the answer was ma'am according to the state of Alabama if I child dies the same day it's born Alabama does not require a birth certificate to be made unless requested ... So in other words my sweet babies hour of life wasnt enough for my state to acknowlege or validate!! Then I was told "atleast he wasn't stillborn" Stillborn mothers don't get ANYTHING!!! So let me get this straight a baby after 20 weeks gestation can kick it's mother , move her belly and hiccup but because an accident happened before birth that baby never existed??? It's not worth the state of alabamas time and paper to care about it's bereaved parents??? I say NO it's not right!! I believe all mothers deserve to have their babies life acknowleged!! 37 states have already passes laws stating that all mothers get some official record of their babies birth stillborn or not ... Whether they live 5 minutes or 50 years they recieve the acknowledgment of that life and now my friends my purpose from these ashes has been revealed by God to me I am going to fight for this to be passed in Alabama!! I will be starting a petition on facebook soon so please stop in and join and let's Acknowlege our Angels !!