Standing up for LIFE

I have been convicted to go pray outside our Hagerstown's abortion clinic. It has taken me a very long time to respond. It's one of those things that if you push it under the rug maybe I will not have to deal with the emotions. Maybe. Just maybe it's not as bad as they say it is. 

One out of every three women has had a abortion. Actually it's WORSE than we think it is. Seventy percent of abortions come from churched people. The fear of the sin of sex is greater than the murder. It makes my heart break!  

I went Thursday morning for the first time. I was there from 9-10 but didn't meet any of the woman or workers because they often will switch their hours around a little because of us sidewalk warriors as they must have this morning. But I learned a little more of what happens and still stayed and prayed for the evil to be exposed.

 "If the church is not present, then we are saying what's going on here is acceptable." "We need to be a outward sign to the workers, clients, and community that murder is wrong." 

We are not here only for the tiny tiny babies. We are here for the doctors, the clinic workers, the mothers, and the fathers too. Each life has the same value as the other. And we ALL need Jesus. 

The beautiful part of this story is that God extends us forgiveness. We need to reach for it, and accept it. We are all sinners and deserve hell, but God has a redeeming plan!  It's just so beautiful. 

After Thursday and being there looking up at the building and windows, and knowing the death, I felt so overwhelmed by the evil. I didn't want to go back. Ever. It would be so easy to run. Following God is not always easy and certainly not popular. 

They say if you fall off your house, you need to hurry up and get back on. In other words, face your fears. 

So I headed back on Saturday morning. (This office has abortions on Thursday and Saturday.). And I took my army. Gary, little miss J, and my friend H that was visiting for the weekend and met more friends on the sidewalk. And then another friend driving by, saw us and stopped and brought coffee and stayed and prayed too.  I praise God for others joining me and boldly asking God to touch these precious lives. 

Satan has blinded their eyes and hearts to the murder. But God has the power to open their eyes to the evil and redeem them. Redeem them just like me. 

My friend agreed with me that we need training to effectively speak hope and Jesus into their lives. And then boom, she made it happen and it's going to be this Thursday and then the following Thursday.  So excited that God is raising up warriors. 

I would love for you to join me in prayer. Message/text me, come with me! Be a warrior. Please. 

I praise God that my daughter's birth mom chose life. When I'm out on that sidewalk, I feel in awe of how God protected her life. And that makes me want to fight for those precious babies. They are not just a clump of cells... They are little tiny babies just like my daughter. 

Celebrating 15 years

Mr G took us to Florida for the week. If you would have asked me a year ago if I would take my 3yr old along on our anniversary trip, I would have told you that you lost your mind. But we agreed, she had never seen the ocean that we know of, and just couldn't deny her of that. 

I will say that I never appreciated alone relaxing time with my husband in the past as much as I should have. You can in no way use the word relaxing to describe this week but it is worth it all to see the joy in her eyes of all the water and sand. She LOVES it!!  

Even when her lips are basically blue, she still doesn't want to go in. She wants to go from the pool to the ocean to the play set to the bathtub and repeat. Repeat. She informed us this morning... "I sad". "I no want to go home". 

I was actually dreading the traveling with her but she has done so much better than I expected. The airplane ride was a thrill to her and when seeing airplanes in the sky..says "Josie go too".  

She has NO fear of water and wants to go deeper into the water. She needs to learn how to swim sooner than later for safety reasons. She begs to take off her arm bands but demands to have her face mask on so she can have her head under water more than above. 

The joy of first time things are always so fun.. Even the laundry mat or getting a snack out of the vending machine, or ordering fries by the pool is sheer delight!  

Even sleeping has been good overall. Even with being on 1st floor and it is VERY noisy some nights. Mama has been very happy about this. I'll take 10:30 to 8.

I wondered how the sand would go. But I'm here to tell her... She doesn't even mind if she gets it in her eyes or mouth or hair. If she gets it in her mouth, she just chews on it. And my body shakes uncontrollably with the sound of it. 

She cracks us up so often. I painted her toes and she wanted to paint Baba's. I told her that boys don't do that. She looked at him and said with a serious face, "maybe sometime when you are a girl, you can". I was trying to get her to go to the bathroom before getting on the plane.. She said "I go poo out window". Oh my word. Hilarious. 

I just can't believe some of the conversations that we are explaining at age 3. 

Her lip is pretty much healed and this week all the stitches came out. We are to massage it three times a day for 30 seconds each time and she doesn't fight it. Although she still uses the excuses... Like here eat your carrots...she will look so sweetly at me and say "mom, No, it will bump lip". You can use this for aaaannnnyything you want to get out of doing. 

Two things I like about home.. I have a door on my bedroom. And I like the smell of my house. Oh ok, more than two. I love my not Mt. Everest pillow. I like being able to touch anything in my bathroom and still feel clean. I like my soap dispenser. Seriously. Best thing ever. It's worth the money. I liked that I could boil some eggs. I missed eggs. Can't believe I said that. Because I get soooo tired of fixing eggs for little miss, her first choice for breakfast. Did I mention that she has her own bedroom?  

And I was tired of sand. 

She explores everything. Especially in new surroundings. Like in the pool, the vents, or in the rooms, every nob or even texture differences in walls, or what every individual people is doing, or any thing driving by, or any sound. I have heard a million times a million times this week why or what's that. It may be a tad exhausting. But she's learning. A lot.

Hopefully we can have many more years together. Marriage is not always easy. And I have figured out that having children makes it even harder. But it's always worth it. Fight for it.