Happy Halloween, folks!  I must say Halloween is much more fun when you have little children to spend it with.  Due to the fact that Halloween was on a Saturday this year, I got to celebrate the day with my little students in group class.  We got dressed up, listened to creepy pieces like "Dance of the Goblins, and "Danse Macabre," and watched Fantasia (Night on Bald Mountain).

Here are my little ones- the Pre-Twinklers.  They were pretty freaked out by each other in costume.  Ha ha!
 

Here are my boyz- the early book 1s!  I think the fake muscles on these costumes are hilarious, and it sure did help their posture!!!


My mid-book-1ers.  Best costume of the day- Edward Scissorhands.  Try playing violin with 10 in. aluminum foil fingernails!


My early-book-2ers.  My butterfly twin was in this class, and little Vincent the storm trooper, covered from head to toe!


My late-book-2ers.  No, they are not rolling their eyes, they are watching their fingerings very, very closely...



After a very sucessful and FUN day of group classes, I headed home and got ready for Jeremy's and my Halloween party.

Our pumpkins- can you tell whose is whose?!  Ha ha.


 Jeremy, dressed up as a dragon tamer, helping me get ready for the party.


mulled cider- YUM!


The food is ready- we are ready to party!


And finally- the winner of our halloween contest- a little garden gnome with his mommy, the toadstool.

There are some issues that I just can't seem to get away from.  One is homosexuality, another is health care.  I remember Bill Clinton working (trying to work?) on health care back in c. 1993; these are some of my earliest memories of politics, and I am sure that health care has been an issue long before that.
Well now health care is the primary topic in Washington yet again, and it has been one of the primary topics in our church in recent weeks.  Our church decided yesterday to adopt the "Corinthian Plan," a plan that will decrease the health benefits for our pastors, yet allow other Mennonite pastors in the nation (who come from small congregations that can't provide benefits) to receive health care.  As we voted on this issue I had a slight hesitation- I wanted to protect our pastors and their families- I want them to receive the best care there is.  But isn't it worth the small sacrifice to ensure that other humans will also get necessary care?
I am reminded of this all too keenly in my own life.  I am one of the forgotten numbers in Washington.  I am a recent college graduate, I am working in a professional job, I am doing the work that I was trained to do, yet my employer does not provide health care by conveniently allowing us to work a maximum of 39 hours a week instead of the full-time 40.  So when I started my job I was left floundering, searching for an independent provider.  Thankfully I had not had any medical conditions in the past three years, or else I would have been denied.  I had been on a medication for one month, though, which I was no longer on, but it raised my premium by $20 a month.  Here I was, an early twenty-something, paying almost $150 a month for "health care" which came with a $3,000 deductable and didn't cover prescriptions or doctors visits... I take that back, they covered 55 cents of a $120 doctor visit.  This is a reality for a lot of people in this country.  And a lot of them are not as healthy as me.
Then I got married.  And all of a sudden I was joined to my husband's health care... 100% coverage of doctor's visits, substantial coverage of prescriptions, no monthly premium...  Am I thankful- you bet!!  But oh my goodness, the unfairness of it all.  What about those people out there who don't marry, or who don't marry someone who has a good plan, or any plan at all?  It frustrates me to no end that I am the same exact person I was 6 months ago- same job, same health issues... the only thing that has changed is my marital status, and that has made all the difference in my health care.

I was reminded of this most acutely a few weeks ago.  I was in rural NY with my husband and my parents, vacationing in my great-uncle's cottage on a lake in the woods.  A few days into the trip my arms started to ache, and then it traveled to my legs and my back and my neck... as soon as I got home I went to the doctor.  My symptoms were extreme- I couldn't hold anything, couldn't move my thumbs, couldn't turn the key in my car... So the doctor did blood work, and more blood work, and more blood work.  The results were "inconclusive," so she chalked it up to a virus I may have caught in the woods, like Lyme disease.  She didn't worry, and I didn't worry, because my symptoms gradually faded.  But that week I was terrified- my health, my career, and my normal life were in jeopardy.
Two weeks later I got the bill for the blood work: $1056.  The insurance covered  100%.  Six months ago I would have been in debt, paying for test results that gave me the satisfaction of one word: inconclusive.

Does this country need health care reform?  You bet.

Once I use to sing with joy and confidence:

For we are strangers no more, but members of one family;
strangers no more, but part of one humanity;
strangers no more, we're neighbors to each other now;
strangers no more, we're sisters and we're brothers now.

Now I sing with hesitant hope...