March for Life Happenings

Boom.  Estimations put this years attendance above 600,000.  Eat it, America!!!  We are pro-life, and we're not going away!!

Oh my good grief, where to begin this post?  Perhaps it's not so smart that we literally just got back to campus from the March for Life, but I want to capture every shiny detail while it's still fresh in my head.

Wednesday:  Courtney and I had to attend the first part of our afternoon class, then we met up with the rest of our group of 12 from Rockhurst that were traveling to go on the March.  We took the school van to a Wal-Mart on the side of the highway where the 7 buses of Benedictine/K-State would pick us up. (Yeah, that's right folks, we made the news!)  The bus picked us up around 6pm and after a minor stop for some technical difficulties with another bus we were really on our way!

Thursday:  A day spent on traveling, naturally.  We pulled into DC and had Mass at St. Louis parish.  We were aiming to make it to the vigil Mass at the National Basilica, but due to time constraints just ended up borrowing a parish.  We made it to the hotel about 8:30pm and settled in to await the next day!

Friday:  The whole group loaded the buses and went to St. Patrick's for the Kansas (minus the Diocese of Wichita) Mass.  We grabbed some bagels and juice and walked down to the national mall.  That's not shopping, for those of you unfamiliar with the DC experience.  That's the empty space by the Washington Monument in-between the Smithsonian museums.  We were right in front of the stage, and speakers like post-abortive women, Rick Santorum, a Franciscan cardinal and some Greek Orthodox brethren, gave encouraging remarks and told us about the Pope's tweet.  Super cool.

Speaking of "super cool," it was cold, folks.   Twenty degrees cold. And it snowed (which was actually suuuuuper pretty and everybody came to consensus that it added to the experience). Everyone had tingling extremities and/or numb toes.  That kind of cold that settles into your bones despite the amount of layers...and trust me I had layers.  Tights, jeans, sweat pants, and a skirt over that.  Long-sleeve shirt, T-shirt, hoodie, and 2 coats.  Two pairs of socks and rainboots.  And still cold.  And you know what?  We prayed.  We sang.  We danced.  We MARCHED.  We celebrated LIFE, because NO ONE can take that joy away from us.

So cool

Ladies and gentlemen, Rick Santorum!

In my early college years, those of us on the trip would make the mistake of trying to locate specific friends from different places while we were getting ready to march.  It made it chaotic, and disappointing if you didn't find that person, and stressful on anybody else trying to help you in your search.  The past couple years I have resisted that urge, and have gone simply to march, to be fully present and aware of my purpose.  Which is why being found by one of my best guy friends from high school (Joe T.) and a wonderfully beautiful friend from FOCUS (Sister Mary Refuge of Sinners with the SSVMs) were HUGE blessings...really, my heart nearly burst as I ran to hug Sister, my beautiful SSVM novice in her grey and blue habit and white veil.  God is so incredibly good.

This is the banner I carried during the march.  It was kinda handy, I wore it "cape style".  I had "Rockhurst University Students for Life" painted on the back with another picture.  I had the banner with the Rockhurst side pointing out during the March when my friend Joe recognized me...it clicked for him when he saw the name Rockhurst and he realized he knew I went there, so he said my name and sure enough, it was me!

We made our way to a metro station a ways away from the Supreme Court building after we were finished marching (Union Station is just packed, so we decided to avoid that).  Our Rockhurst group decided to reconvene at our hotel, and simply spent the rest of the evening in each others' company as we found a local restaurant and enjoyed some fabulous Italian dining.

Saturday:  Again, our Rockhurst group created its own agenda for the day.  We awoke especially early and attended the Students for Life National Conference.  There were some fabulous key note speakers, and we look forward to sharing notes soon on our experiences, as we did not all go to the same break-out sessions.  After navigating the metro system once more amidst delays galore, we made it just in time to meet up with the Benedictine/K-State group for Mass at St. Dominic's to fulfill our Sunday obligation.

And this is where the trip became a pilgrimage for me.  We boarded the buses, made a dinner stop heading out of town...and I could. not. sleep.  I was literally awake all night.  My iPod usually helps me fall asleep on buses, but not last night.  But this was actually a huge blessing.  I had the chance to pray for everyone around me, and to catch up on some good Jesus time that had been sorely lacking lately.

Sunday (today):  I finally had a couple hours of sleep starting about 6am.  We had more leisurely time for stops today since there wasn't a push to get somewhere in a hurry.  Obviously we all wanted to get home, but still we didn't have to rush.  It was nice.  We pulled into KC and the BC group dropped us off.  And Courtney and I walked in our door about 8pm.

There you have it folks.  Just a day in the life ;-)