Marching For Life and a Blogger Meet

What an incredible experience! How fortunate I am to have participated in the 2011 March For Life in Washington, D.C.. Everything about this trip was amazing. From the people I traveled with, to the Vigil Mass at the basilica, to the march itself. Hundreds of thousands of people all marching for the right to life. My pictures do not do it justice:

Celebrating the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass at the Basilica. Getting a seat in a pew would have required us getting there 6 to 8 hours earlier, not 2. Arriving two hours before Mass landed us a seat on the floor in the crypt where we could watch from a t.v..

A wonderful highlight: meeting up with E from Bringing Home Baby?

The few minutes we had could have gone on and on...it was like meeting up with a friend I've had forever. I wish we could have spent more time together, I know we will someday! She made me get teary eyed (I was afraid if I started crying my tears would freeze onto my cheeks), little SBR made me laugh (he was a little top-heavy with all of his winter gear - he ended up doing a "downward dog" like no other, hilarious)! H is super-cute and the hubby (hi P) is such a great daddy. I just love them! It amazes me how what started off as Mission Impossible: to find a blogger I've never met amongst a sea of thousands of pro-lifers, was actually a meeting lead by the Holy Spirit which drew two ladies to each other and embrace in a hug before we really even knew if we were the people we were looking for! I love you E, and I'm praying for you as I know you are praying for me!

The March:

My next mission (can you tell I went to the spy museum while I was there) was to then find my group. There was just a minute of, "I am never going to find them" followed by sigh of relief of their familiar faces in the crowd. We were near the beginning of the march and it was all overwhelming. Remembering that this was Monday, it was mind-blowing to see how many people were here, flooding the streets of D.C. during regular business hours. Young people everywhere holding signs, chanting, praying. When we arrived at the stairs of the Supreme Court, we prayed the Rosary. The sea of people kept streaming in. It is a miracle no one from our group got swept away by the current! Then it happened: several of us had to use the washroom. You don't understand...the port-o-potties had a line of a million people in it and we had small children with us that had to go NOW! Then one of the security guards of the Supreme Court, who was near to us as we prayed to Our Lady, said we could go inside to use their washroom. And so we did. Eight of us marched into the Supreme Court of the United States and used their facilities during the March for Life. That was the best bathroom break I've ever had. Ha, ha!  Here is what the view looked like from "the other side"

Now, I didn't see the news report anything about this march. Let me be the one to report: hundreds of thousands, men and women alike, majority young people came to our nations capital on this day. They have inspired me to believe that not all young people are "lost" and that the Pro-Life Movement is on fire! I wish I could better describe the emotion of this weekend. All I could say is that if you have never gone before, plan on going next year. This is one event you must experience!

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Ironically, CD1 started on Sunday. This is my first cycle since the m/c and I found it fitting for me to begin on this weekend in which we are fighting for the right for all life, and of which I struggle to conceive and have recently lost. Someone said to me this weekend (in reference to our IF cross) that life isn't fair when some women can get pregnant so easily and others struggle. We IFer have heard this a million times, and have agreed because it is true. It is not fair, yet I feel honored. Honored? Yes, honored. When Mary appeared to the children of Fatima, she asked if they would suffer in reparation for others. Those children said yes. God chose them, blessed them, but blessed them in suffering. How is suffering a gift that God could/would give His chosen?  Well, why not? He has always done that...it is historical. It is cyclical. He did it Himself. He did it so sins could be forgiven. He did it for our eternal salvation. Those children said "yes" in reparation for others too. Could it be that He also has chosen us? What if our IF cross is God's way of asking us to suffer for the atrocities of abortion? Wouldn't we say "yes" as the children did in Fatima?

Our priest speaks a lot about us "placing ourselves on the paten" during Mass. That we are to offer our whole selves in thanksgiving to God, including our sufferings which He allows us to endure, uniting our sufferings with the Perfect Sacrifice so that our sacrifice will be acceptable. St. Paul says in Colossians 1:24-29; "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, of which I am a minister in accordance with God's stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to his holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory. It is he whom we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. For this I labor and struggle, in accord with the exercise of his power working within me." 

Do I really believe that this is all God's will? Was the loss of our baby God's will for us? No. I don't think that, I think our m/c was biology, not His will. But I do think that He allowed us to experience this and it is His will for us to offer that pain for others, which can be redemptive. As I begin my new cycle, I do not feel the fear and anxiety I felt a few weeks ago. Time can heal all wounds. As I go through my conversions which are bring me closer and closer to Him, and revealing He who is within me, I wonder how this fits into His master plan for me. His will. I picture God sitting there devising a plan on how to get me to realize His immense love for me? He must have thought that I needed to learn this the hard way, which is usually the best way to get the lesson across and to stick - forever. And that is what He really wants; the return of our unending love forever. He strips me of everything and I love Him more for it. He blesses me with suffering, and I love Him more for it. What is He going to do next, and can I accept it and love Him more for it? He says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." O Lord, make me weak.