oh, sweet baby.
i remember you today.
You should be 8 already.
To me you remain
~as you were~
my tiny son.
The sweet gift that was your little life
That shattered mine & left me
awake
aware
alive.
Forever changed.
Forever grateful.
Oh Jesus, the gates of Your Kingdom welcome me now like they never did.
Blessed be your name.

“The Girl I Used To Be”
She came tonight as I sat alone,
The girl I used to be . . .
And she gazed at me with her earnest eye
And questioned reproachfully:
Have you forgotten the many plans
And hopes that I had for you?
The great career, the splendid fame,
All the wonderful things to do?
Where is the mansion of stately height
With all of its gardens rare?
The silken robes that I dreamed for you
And the jewels in your hair?
And as she spoke, I was very sad
For I wanted her pleased with me . . .
This slender girl from the shadowy past,
The girl that I used to be.
So gently rising, I took her hand,
And guided her up the stair
Where peacefully sleeping, my babies lay
Innocent, sweet, and fair.
And I told her that these are my only gems,
And precious they are to me;
That silken robe is my motherhood
Of costly simplicity.
And my mansion of stately height is love,
And the only career I know
Is serving each day in these sheltered walls
For the dear ones who come and go.
And as I spoke to my shadowy guest,
She smiled through her tears at me.
And I saw that the woman that I am now
Pleased the girl that I used to be.
Author Unknown

Another amazing website. This issue has really touched my heart. i knew that the rate of abortions where there was a diagnosis of Downs Syndrome has continued to rise, but i had no idea it was this bad.
http://www.gabrielsangelnetwork.org/body_index.html

i had an idea to have a booth at our "fun family carnival" here in GP with the heading "WHAT CAN I DO??" Then issuing a challenge to visitors to accomplish one prolife action by a deadline. After that conversation with our community educator, Michelle, i put together this list and emailed it to her. i had fun putting it together and i can't wait to add to it. I didn't include some of the ones we had written down on the phone... they included: monetary donations (maybe $5 to either APL or to VFL), letters to the premier, prime minister, our local MP or MLA, write a letter to the editor or to our office to be published in our newsletter... & i can't remember what else. They were supposed to inform us what prolife action they had taken and we would publish the good ideas and results of our challenge in our newsletter.
Here is a resource i found on the web... similar idea:
http://www.noelforlife.org/resources/readarticle.asp?number=199&topic=&display=
here's another one... i'm sure there are a ton out there...

http://www.priestsforlife.org/brochures/threesimpleactivities.htm

Here is my first little list... if you are reading this, consider it my personal challenge to *you* to accomplish *one* prolife thing this month. One voice can make a difference (if you don't believe me, read "Horton Hears a Who" by Dr. Seuss:)




*visit an old folks home (you could sing ~ or just visit or play cards)
*buy a baby gift for a family you don't know very well.
*Tell each of your children the story of their birth.
*Spend 10 minutes in prayer for our nation and it's anti-life stance
*Read at least 7 of the following scriptures:
Gen. 1:27 Psalm 100:3 Ezekiel 18:4 Isaiah 64:8 Corinthians 6:19-20
Deut. 32:39 1 Sam 2:6 Exodus 20:13 Gen. 9:5 Exodus 21:22-25 Hebrews 4:13
Lev. 18:21 Lev. 20:1-5 Deut. 19:10 2 Kings 24:2-4 Gen.4:10 Psalm 72:12-14
Prov. 6:16-19 Ezekiel 35:6
Matt 8:10 Luke 18:16 Matt. 18:14 Psalm 127:3-4
Psalm 82:3-4 Proverbs 24 11-12 Proverbs 31:8-9 James 4:17 Jer. 21:12 Matt.25:31-46

(Michelle, i used the scriptures that i found in the appendix of that book i gave you by Randy Alcorn _Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions_ pg.97-100

*Educate yourself on embryonic stem cell research in Canada
http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/bills_ls.asp?Parl=37&Ses=2&ls=c13

*Find out which charities you support are supporting embryonic stem cell research: http://www.healthcharities.ca/en/2002_HCCC_Brief_Health_Cmttee.pdf

*Decide to have another baby!

*Do research and find the answers to these 3 questions:
a.) What is the legal limit for abortions in Canada?
b.) What year was abortion legalized in Canada?
c.) How many abortions do your tax dollars fund each year?
(Michelle, you could probably think of better questions than these...)

*Walk by our hospital with a friend and pray for all the new mommas and babies born in GP.

*Send a card to support someone you've seen defending the weak and helpless by volunteering for a prolife cause.
(perhaps you could commit to praying for this person as they're following through on something you see as vitally important...)

*Do a bottle drive for VFL.

*Enter our prolife artwork contest... (ummm... just made that one up ~ thinking of the Knights of Columbus prolife calendars and thinking we could do something like that...) ~ was trying to think of something a child could do... My 9yo wrote a letter to APL and sent them her $12 in pop can money:)

*visit Randy Alcorn's website and read an article.
http://www.epm.org/

*post a comment on APL's blogsite http://www.albertaprolife.com/

*read a copy of "The Rose" from cover to cover.

Michelle, i think it's important to have a timeline for this challenge... Say by Sept 1st ~ They could phone the office and tell what they did or they can mail in the tear off portion of our sheet and send it in. Tell them we're hoping to have 100 prolife actions take place in GP by Sept 1st 2006 (or something like that). Follow up after the carnival by putting a challenge in church bulletins and update the churches every second week as to how many people have taken the challenge. Encourage people to be creative and to send us their suggestions to add to our "100 things to do to be prolife" ~ and we could publish these in our newsletter.
~ i know you had some others that we came up with over the phone... hope this helps:)
paige