Day 28 - i could use another hour...

My friend came to pick me up so we could go to the vigil together.  It's always a little crazy in the mornings, getting some homeschool done, tidying breakfast & getting little ones going on tasks before leaving the house - with or without a few small people tagging along. 
This day was pretty chilly and we were leaving the little ones and going to the vigil ourselves.
"i'm sorry i'm late!" she apologized.
"No, i'm running late today too," i said, "i could have used another hour this morning..." But i leave the crumbs on my counter, and the fork on the floor.  i drop all - and pick up my gloves and my sign - i smooch downy head of tearful boy and go, promising to be back soon.
It was quiet there today. 
The man who always walks by me to buy his coffee at the gas station gave me a half grin & a head shake... and there was the usual bits of traffic waving or honking.  The guy who shouts out his window at me, "Save the babies!" made a pass by... & the cars came and went at that clinic. 
We were standing in silence when a car pulled out of the clinic. 
Sometimes they seem to leap at their opportunity to make that awkward turn out of the abortion clinic parking lot - and into the ebb and flow of normal traffic again...
"They must remember this day for the rest of their lives..." i murmur as a half thought to my friend who is beside me. 
"i'm sure they do." she replies. 
& it hits me again... this moment of crisis, this permanent decision... those unique little lives being taken.  This day - in all of it's hub bub might not stand out for me years from now.... but for some young mama & daddy, that frigid day in March will be forever engraved on their memory as the day they allowed the life entrusted to them to be taken away.  i'll come back here - as many times as i can... i'll find my way back to pray again, and again... but the passengers in that little vehicle with the dirty tail lights might only carry the memory of today's visit... and it will be vivid and permanent and fraught with the agony that left them desperate for a solution...
& i know that i will keep on praying and believing that God will allow me to see the end of abortion in my country...
And i will continue to pray for healing for each and every family that has walked the road that we saw those families walk today...