West Coast Walk For Life

Participating in the West Coast Walk for Life was a great experience. I have never done anything like this before and I am so glad that I did. Next year, I hope that my husband and children will be able to walk as well.

We started the morning bright an early with mass at 6:00am. This was a very emotional mass for me. I cried almost the entire mass; I did get there a few minutes late but I cried almost the entire time that I was there. I felt the Holy Spirit moving me that morning.

On the bus, we prayed and said the rosary. Then we watched Horton Hears A Who, which when you are paying attention, chronicles the Pro Life struggles. A person is a person no matter how small! It was a quick bus ride and we were in San Francisco before I realized it. (A nice little nap helped out.)

It started to rain just as we got into San Francisco. But it did not dampen our enthusiasm.

This was the banner for our church's group. I liked our banner because it was not in your face and it was a positive message for women and for babies.

After unloading from the bus, we walked just a block to the Plaza where the speakers were. It was here that it started raining, and then it started pouring! It was hard to hear all the speakers but what we were able to hear was inspiring. We were there for about an hour before we started the walk. I was so happy that my wonderful sister bought me a rain poncho! It was a life saver in many ways.

After walking for about an hour, there was a little tower by the water that people were going up to take pictures of the crowd. I darted up it so that I could see how big the crowd was. It was amazing seeing the crowd from above.

This was the crowd in front of us! Little did I know that there were even more people over the hill. It was about here that my other brother in law got a phone call that the group he came with was all ready done and at the park waiting for them. The people go as far as you can see and there is a hill at the far right of the picture that they went up.

Here is a close-up of our group: My two nieces are in the red jackets with white lining, my other niece is behind them in the gray poncho with blue collar, her friend is in the red shirt with white jacket, my brother in law is in the navy blue jacket with white stripes directly behind my niece and then my nephew and brother in law are in the denim jacket, orange poncho and dark sunglasses! That orange poncho was our guide and we could see it even if he got ahead of us. Again I was thanking my sister for the ponchos!

The crowd was very peaceful with many people saying the rosary. I never felt worried or nervous being among all those people. It was an amazing experience.

This was the crowd behind us! There were people as far as you could see going both ways. There was a helicopter taking photos from above. I have been trying to find them on the Internet but there has been very little publicity about the entire event.

The crowd was very diverse with priests, brothers, nuns, old people, young people, families and little babies. This one was such a cutie I had to take her picture. This was towards the end of the walk when we were walking up the hill.

At the top of the hill, I took this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. It looked so pretty peaking out from the trees that were all around.

After coming down the hill on the other side, you can see the crowd gathered at the park in the center of the picture. There were people all through here when I took the picture of the people ahead of us! We had heard that there were suppose to be around 40,000 people there that day. Even with the rain, the people stayed and walked. I would love to find out how many actually walked.

When we made it to the park, we gathered up and then walked to our buses. They were about two blocks away in a school parking lot. The buses were all lined up and we got loaded up and were on our way in no time. I was amazed at how easily the logistics worked. We were on our way back home by 3:30pm, and I was kissing my babies at home by 8:15pm that night.

It was a wonderful day, with lots of emotions. I am so glad that I went and I can't wait to take my entire family next year!

Checking In

So much for trying to post everyday!

Just downloading some pictures for a future post, one that I had planned on posting at least a week ago. But it is off to bed because tomorrow I am heading to San Francisco for the Walk for Life! I am excited about going and can't wait to participate.

We start with mass at 6:00am at our parish church so I have to get to bed, but remember to pray for all of us traveling to the walk and for all the babies (and Mommas) that we are walking for! May it be peaceful and may we change some hearts and lives!

A beautiful thought

"When the time comes, as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I've often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God -- and a terror will rip your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there'll be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world -- and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, 'Spare him, because he loved us!'"

-- the late pro-life hero, Congressman Henry Hyde

I read this quote after the election on Let the Little Ones Come. It has crossed my mind over and over since then. What a beautiful thought this is. It gives me hope in the midst of this depression.

Go Sarah!

Here is a great speech given by Governor Sarah Palin on the sanctity for life. This is a must read and there is also a video feed as well! Way to go Sarah!

I have to give kudos to Let the Little Ones Come, as that is where I found the link for this.

He stands for Hope?

I cannot remember a time that I was not pro-life. When I was young, I remember my mom showing me a tape, I think it was called "The Silent Scream". It was a tape of an ultrasound that was done while an abortion was taking place. I can still see that tape in my mind; how that baby tried to get away from the suction tube that was going to kill it. This ultrasound changed the abortion doctor who performed that abortion and many others. I was to young to have had a position on abortion before that tape, put I have never changed my mind since that day.

So when I read a post the other day on Letthelittleonescome, I was surprised at what I read. She titled the post Horror, and she was right. The post had a link to an article about Barack Obama and his beliefs on the unborn. It was about his vote on an bill that would give a dying child a respectful death. His vote and his comments are unbelievable for a candidate who claims to be the candidate of hope?

I never knew that babies are sometimes born alive, even though they were born because of an abortion. This alone is very disturbing to me, let alone leaving a living human child in a laundry closet to die because they didn't die in utero. It made me think of ancient times when the Romans and Greeks would leave their unwanted children on the rocks at the edge town. When I heard of the atrocity of that practice I was so glad that I lived in a modern world where such a practice would be prosecuted, not practiced at a hospital.

We have a huge decision to make this November. While I have not been a big John McCain fan, he is pro-life. If he picks a pro-life running mate, that will be even better. If Barack Obama gets elected, what will the future hold, especially for the unborn? I pray that we will not find out.