fantastic news

i received some very good news this morning: andrea's case has been overturned! it's something that we have been hoping and praying for since she was wrongly sentenced in 2002. i am so happy for her - hopefully now she will be able to have some kind of real life and a purpose. i wonder if this is going to stop her divorce. i hope not.

i know some people have differing opinions than i do. a lot of people would like to see her burn. she did kill her own 5 children. no one can deny that. but put yourself in her shoes for a minute:

you grew up in a home in which nothing you did was good enough. that makes you a perfectionist and also makes you pretty depressed a lot. you get through school with excellent grades and find the man you want to marry. you have one child. then another. and another. and yet another. and still one more. there are times when your family lived in a bus. your husband is cold and domineering. he makes you live by a very strict interpretation of the Bible. your friend and pastor sometimes dresses up like the devil to make a point about how you are probably going to hell. your husband leaves you every day to take care of 5 kids mostly by yourself. you start hearing voices. reality starts slipping away. satan has indwelled you. your children aren't developing properly because they are not perfect. you know they are going to go to hell if you don't do something. so you drown them one by one to send them to Heaven, where they can be in paradise. you call 911, fully expecting to be executed by the state. you want to die because if you die, satan will die with you. then the world will be free of evil.

i have been corresponding with andrea since 2002. i find her (in her sane state) to be warm, creative and very dedicated to God. she writes about things she used to do with her children often. she says she misses them. she gives me suggestions for things to do with my own daughter. she shared with me a picture of her, her husband and their first child making a "fresh start" in their brand new home. how happy they looked. she amazes me with her strength of spirit. if i were her, i would have found a way to kill myself a long time ago. but she didn't. and now she may be able to actually have a life outside of prison.

she will need to be under close psychiatric care, for psychosis can be a chronic illness. it's more commonly known as schizophrenia. life will not be easy. she will get called names at the grocery store, perhaps be spat on, definitely ostracized. society is so ignorant about mental illness. i wish this were not so, and am working with others to educate as many people as i can. but people seem to be pretty attached to their opinions. so be it. God knows what's right, and He is making it happen.