Sparkling Adventures Blog

[happy atheist]

You'll find the crazy start to ramp up at about Feb 2010 :)

It might not be crazy, but I'm finding uncomfortable amounts of Jeebus talk all the way back in 1997 during the African trip. It's like he flipped a switch and went from "Hey, Africa's fun and interesting" to "All worship talk all the time." I know that other people aren't as sensitive to that as I am, but I don't think I could have stood to be around him.

Interestingly, given Lauren's penchant for swimming where there are croc warnings, he talks about finding a lake to swim in. They were afraid there might be crocs around, but were somehow put at ease by a local with very bad French. In my book language barrier =/= reassurance that there are no giant hungry reptiles around.

eta: more ignoring warnings

Our stay in Monrovia became more hectic during our last week and a half there for two reasons. I became sick, and David made a good Liberian friend who took him places. So while I was languishing in bed, David was out roaming the city, changing taxis like a pro, and meeting many new friends. My sickness began with an infected ear from swimming in the ocean each day.

David and I made a ritual of going to the beach late each afternoon, despite the locals’ warnings that the current was dangerous.

When my infected ear started a fever that rose to over 104ºF for several days, we realized that the infection was more serious. A consultation with the American Embassy’s nurse recommended a doctor at the public hospital in Monrovia. This doctor ordered a chest x-ray which confirmed a lung infection and prescribed intravenous antibiotics right away. David and I weren’t happy with the doctor’s haphazard way of dealing with me, and we were worried by several disturb-ing symptoms that he didn’t address. I was now vomiting violently, even when I didn’t have anything in my stomach. We didn’t follow up on the doctor’s advice and the Embassy nurse came around to talk to me, concerned. She recom-mended that I check into the Catholic Hospital, where she assured me the care would be the best possible in Monrovia.

The following morning I was admitted to the emergency room and put on an IV. Blood test and the x-rays confirmed bronchial pneumonia on top of dehydration which led to partial kidney failure, hence the vomiting. We had gotten to hospital just in time.

Can an ear infection really lead to kidney failure?

[Dysfundamental]

Any high sustained fever puts a strain on the kidneys. My dad had a couple of kidney crises brought on by fevers (of course, he was in his 80s and in poor health generally).

[happy atheist]

Any high sustained fever puts a strain on the kidneys. My dad had a couple of kidney crises brought on by fevers (of course, he was in his 80s and in poor health generally).

That makes sense. I guess that's what happens when you ignore such a high fever.

But no worries! As soon as she was out of the hospital, she and David smuggled an orphan out of the country for medical treatment!

sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=360

I'm all for getting this poor kid some help, but it sounds an awful lot like kidnapping to me. Did anyone at the orphanage give permission?

[CheeseDeprived]

Her latest post has me speechless. She is rabbiting on about how difficult it is to accept offers of assistance or invitations to stay over. But right on the front page she has an entire section titled " Help me out here" and number one on the list is " invite us over".

So, it's apparently find to advertise that you want invitations but then you pretend that you don't know how to accept them?

I'm sure that was written in direct response to some of the discussions here. A few things she has written lately seem to be.

In that post she also mentions that her girls ask for baths when they arrive at someone's place... that's very telling, isn't it? :shock:

(Oops, I just noticed someone already posted about that. I should read first!)

[tropaka]

or shoes, natch

No, she's living on welfare.

http://singlemum.com.au/links/single_mo ... pport.html

The Australian or State government will give welfare to a woman who does nothing and owns a home?

[Blahblah]

^^yes. She is seen as the primary carer of four dependent, young children. Until the youngest child turns 8 she is entitled to single parent income support. On top of that are various tax breaks, medical benefits and rental assistance if needed. With 4 kids she will be doing quite nicely. Our government is indeed generous.

Payments can be asset tested but the family home is not included.

Once the youngest turns 8 she can get Newstart Allowance which requires her to seek employment (not find it necessarily, just show that she is seeking it) and pays slightly less than single parent support.

[lilith]

If she admitted to not living in the family home it would be counted as an asset for the purposes of determining her payment. And if she received rent (in cash instead of love and enlightenment) that would also reduce her payment.

I'm wondering about the house in relation to David qualifying for Legal Aid too. Defending a murder trial could easily cost $100,000, and I don't think he'll qualify for legal aid with assets of that value, and there is no way the famy home would be exempt if its not being lived in. And the Prosecutors will be well aware it's not being lived in and will probably ask questions if a Legal Aid lawyer and a barrister paid by Legal Aid appear for David.

Seriously, with the trial coming up the only sensible thing for Lauren to do is to move back into the home and make every effort to document homeschooling, counselling, etc for the girls. Not run around the country advertising the fact that her 7 year old cant read and her three year old plays unattended with scissors and they all swim unattended and rock up at stranger's homes dirty and hungry, and, and, and........

Even if DOCS signed off on her travelling without support or supervision (unlikely, I think they would have at least required ongoing counselling and working through a recognised curriculum), they are going to take another look when things come out at trial.

And Lauren has documented every step of her sparkly neglect and the deterioration of her child care and mental state for them.

She really is insane to have blogged so extensively and openly after Elijah's death and in the period in which prosecutors are preparing their case against David. It's certainly not too late to charge her as an accessory, or with child endangerment.

[lilith]

"Our girls have so quickly adjusted to our lifestyle that they don’t realise what a precious gift we are given by the people who invite us home. The girls aren’t afraid to say yes when offered yummy things to eat or drink, they’ll eagerly accept offerings of entertainment, and they’ll be forthright in asking for a bath in a new friend’s home. I’m the mature, boring adult lurking outside the house, not wanting to put anyone out, refusing cappuccinos and snacks, unable to really believe that what is offered is mine if I just accept it!"

This, to me, conjures an image of the kids descending on someone's home like a hurricane, hungry for the (relative) luxuries of a clean, roomy space, ample food, toys, baths etc, and Lauren hovering in the background, fucking about on her computer and not interacting with the hosts, allowing her kids to demand and allowing the hosts to fulfil those demands, while she stands back, detached and aloof. She may put it in terms of her being too polite to impose, but when her kids are obviously imposing so much, with her blessing, it just sounds rude.

[Blahblah]

Do you think that deep down she just wouldn't care if they did take the kids? It would probably be a relief.

[happy atheist]

"Our girls have so quickly adjusted to our lifestyle that they don’t realise what a precious gift we are given by the people who invite us home. The girls aren’t afraid to say yes when offered yummy things to eat or drink, they’ll eagerly accept offerings of entertainment, and they’ll be forthright in asking for a bath in a new friend’s home. I’m the mature, boring adult lurking outside the house, not wanting to put anyone out, refusing cappuccinos and snacks, unable to really believe that what is offered is mine if I just accept it!"

This, to me, conjures an image of the kids descending on someone's home like a hurricane, hungry for the (relative) luxuries of a clean, roomy space, ample food, toys, baths etc, and Lauren hovering in the background, fucking about on her computer and not interacting with the hosts, allowing her kids to demand and allowing the hosts to fulfil those demands, while she stands back, detached and aloof. She may put it in terms of her being too polite to impose, but when her kids are obviously imposing so much, with her blessing, it just sounds rude.

Her whole hanging back thing I find creepy. In all the videos she's nearly silent. She rarely speaks to the kids. When David was the one filming, she rarely spoke either. I think she is just totally disconnected.

[lilith]

It would take away her justification for her existence and her self image.

As an enlightened, nomadic, free ranging Earth Mother she has a purpose and an identity. She's interesting - interesting enough to have a daily blog read by many and strangers wanting to meet her and asking for advice.

If the children were taken by DOCS or relatives she'd just be another thirty something traveller, searching for a place and an identity. Nothing particularly unusual or interesting about that, and people certainly wouldn't be sending her donations and gifts and inviting her into their homes.

If David is sentenced to a substantial amount of jail time I fully expect her to hook up with someone and be pregnant again within a year.

[bbfreethinker]

I'm sure that the story about forming the letters LOVE is an old one that I read on the blog when going through the archives.

Edit: Apparently she wrote a "Christian unschooling' manifesto in 2010, which she updated into a secular version that she published last November. In it she refers to "A child", not "Seven year old Aisha":

sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=1785

I'm guessing she put herself forward for the interview and talked such sparkly bullshit that the journalist decided to make something up from her blog instead.

The picture is horrible. Poor Aisha. :(

I thought that sounded really familiar, but was too lazy to look it up. Thanks for finding it.

[lilith]

That was in reply to Blahblahblah, sorry about the cross post.

[Wolfie]

She needs to settle in an area that has a primary school with a Steiner stream, because that seems to be the style of schooling her 'unschooling' is following.

I don't think that her "unschooling" is following any kind of style of schooling. A Steiner/Waldorf school has more structure, even a free school has more structure. (meaning a school like this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_Valley_School )

[Blahblah]

She reminds me somewhat of that woman (Folbig??) who kept having babies but then murdered them one by one. I don't think Lauren would actually kill her kids. The similarity for me is that Lauren likes to be centre of attention.

She likes being pregnant, all the fuss that leads up to birthing, the actual birthing, being a good hippie unschooler, setting an example with her sheer sparkliness. Her obsession with telling everyone all about herself via social media to the exclusion of caring for the girls supports this.

The children are/were a means to an end and now she has them she isn't quite sure why or how to deal with them as entities in their own right. They are props in her self-penned soap opera starring herself. She has chosen the role of earth mother and it's as though they don't have identities of their own for her.

[chaotic life]

OMG, OMG, OMG They hooked up with ACFI????????

ACFI was one of the WORST child trafficking groups working in Liberia, one of the three who shut down the country to international adoptions for their stunts, the one where MY SON was housed, who allowed a couple in cultish QF mid-west US adopt him with two unrelated children in the very year Lauren and David where there, a family living in a 2 bedroom house with six kids. The SAME orphanage who offered us if we would send them $500, they would RECREATE our son's legal paperwork so we could finish his US adoption and citizenship that the first family didn't bother to do before they threw him away!

I can almost guarantee that ACFI was PAID for the child Lauren and David took out of Liberia. Quite frankly, I would strongly suspect that they were paid an "escort fee" themselves and got money for moving that child, but I know ACFI got paid for the child.

[chaotic life]

OH, and all of that food they were carting around was NEVER fed to the children. The children at ACFI were STARVED. Unicef and Liberian Social Services officials snuck into the orphanage in the middle of the night and determined that the food was being SOLD. The children were starved, nearly to death. My son is NOT the only child who escaped ACFI and can confirm the level of starvation they experienced.

My older son was in a much smaller orphanage in Freetown and while food was scarce, it was better in the orphanage than outside of it. My Liberian son used to run away from the ACFI during the day specifically to roam the streets in gangs to look for food. He participated in orphanage brawls because the winner got a portion of the food gamble winnings and sometimes winning a fight was the only way you ate in a day.

I would spit in her FACE if I could. I KNOW what happened at ACFI. She walks around telling her stories to sound so awesome and she HELPED with the starvation and trafficking of children and dared to write as if she was doing something amazing and wonderful. Twit.

[happy atheist]

Holy cow, Chaotic Life! I thought her actions seemed sketchy, but I had no idea.

[lilith]

Yeah, it all looked dodgy, but not quite that dodgy!

It makes sense that those organizations would use naive young Christian kids to do dangerous and illegal things though, and I doubt that many of them are silly enough to post all about it on their blogs.

[August]

Chaoticlife, their descriptions of the place they were staying in Liberia were pretty damning. I din't hae testomach to gonandrereadriht now, but they definitely talked about utter corruption.

The Australian or State government will give welfare to a woman who does nothing and owns a home?

Of course. Would you have her starve?

[happy atheist]

Of course. Would you have her starve?

I would have her get a job.

[miffy]

I don't think that her "unschooling" is following any kind of style of schooling. A Steiner/Waldorf school has more structure, even a free school has more structure. (meaning a school like this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_Valley_School )

There isn't much obvious structure in the early years. Its all about 'in your own time' which seems to be what Lauren is trying for. But I think its probably because she wants her kids to teach themselves because she can't be bothered. There won't be any encouraging & nudging them to learn like there is at a Steiner school.

[lilith]

Many unschoolers use the language of the Steiner philosophy when it suits their purposes, but they don't follow the whole system - cause that wouldn't be radical unschooling.......

As far as Lauren's parenting payments go - I wouldn't begrudge her her payments if she was honest when applying for them, admitting that she doesn't live in the family home, declaring donations, and charging market rent for her home to cut back her reliance on other taxpayers. I wonder if she returned the back to school allowance she received for Aisha and Brioni last week, since she very proudly doesn't use a curriculum or buy resources especially for schooling? I somehow doubt it, and I also doubt that that $400 will be in any way spent on her kids education - it will be spent on fuel for The Gifted Gypsy.

[August]

Many unschoolers use the language of the Steiner philosophy when it suits their purposes, but they don't follow the whole system - cause that wouldn't be radical unschooling.......

As far as Lauren's parenting payments go - I wouldn't begrudge her her payments if she was honest when applying for them, admitting that she doesn't live in the family home, declaring donations, and charging market rent for her home to cut back her reliance on other taxpayers. I wonder if she returned the back to school allowance she received for Aisha and Brioni last week, since she very proudly doesn't use a curriculum or buy resources especially for schooling? I somehow doubt it, and I also doubt that that $400 will be in any way spent on her kids education - it will be spent on fuel for The Gifted Gypsy.

Only because they already have as many ipads as children.

[lilith]

I'm not buying unfettered iPad access as a valid educational tool - I know what my kids use their iPod touches for. And they can at least read, so they can, and do, download books and use the Internet for free learning.

A non reading child could only really play games, watch movies, and listen to music. I'm actually shocked to hear that Aisha and Brioni aren't reading or familiar with the alphabet - I was assuming that they were at least able to google areas of interest, but apparently not .

Her data plan costs must be huge, especially since they are all mobile.