I got home rather late having been sidewalk counseling at Surgi Center with Vivian, Gabriel and Caroline in tow. Then I had an afternoon meeting in "north" Macon. Not really all the way to Macon, but quite far. It was a very productive time, and everyone at the meeting took up a gas money collection for me- I was exceedingly grateful as driving all over North Georgia is getting expensive!
By the time I got home, it was 7:30 and Jon was trying to man the dinner preparation, his parents and grandmother had already arrived, and I had remembered a cake but forgotten the ice cream. It had been a long week, and Dolly (as I call Jon) was totally worn out, as was I. I just wanted to go to bed, much less have a party. Caroline was thrilled. She had picked out a bakery cake at Publix- that whole thing was rather funny. A couple weeks previous I had asked what kind of cake she wanted- meaning chocolate with chocolate icing, etc. She said," I want to go to Publix, and stand in front of the place where they put all the fancy cakes, and pick out my favorite." So that is what we did. Dinner as she requested: steak (grilled and we thought perfect, but slightly burned around the edges, to Jon's annoyance), mashed potatoes (made by Jon's mom when she arrived), salad, and crusty artisan baguette. After cake, she opened presents. It was a bit on the skimpy side this year. I got her a really nice white blouse with ruffles around the cuffs and collar, and a yellow sweater, and a couple pink bracelets. Margaret got her an adorable pants outfit with two different shirt options.
I think she was a little disappointed, but she tried to make the best of it, which I admired. Then the evening improved. MorMor and Papa gave her a check for $50 and she got to spend the weekend with MorMor (MorMor is swedish for mother's mother, and the name Margaret goes by). Then on Saturday, MorMor ordered her an "American Girl Doll", only not that brand name- there's another company that makes the same basic idea (Liberty Doll) , but American Girl (through Girls, Inc) gives money to Planned Parenthood, and has aggressively lobbied against abstinence programs in high schools, so that was right out.
The next morning, I was up at about 5:15 getting office work done. Jon got up later and packed for his trip to Chicago. After he left, I took Oliver, and headed to Surgi Center on Spring St.
There was a nice group of people praying across the street from the mill, while a handful of us did sidewalk counseling. We saved one baby for sure, by God's grace. Boy was that a tense hour and a half, while the family went back and forth.
After that I headed home to pick up the boys for strings lessons. Melissa had picked up Vivian and took her home. Caroline was off with MorMor, and the boys had been with Grandpa (my dad has been with us for 7 weeks now). After strings lessons, I hustled home to actually attempt some housework, but instead answered a lot of phone calls, and responded to email.
I pulled myself away from the computer, put on a dress and headed to a nearby event that was supposed to feature Huckabee as a before the concert speaker. Huckabee as in Mike, former Arkansas Governor running for President. We set up a table, and after a little while got word that Huckabee was tied up in Buckhead with some big financial supporters. Well, I decided to lobby for something since I had showed up after all, and got out Human Life Amendment brochures and started handing them out through the crowd. Oh, before that I had a picture with Kennesaw Mayor Church- guy with cowboy hat. I did make a couple of very good contacts, and had some amusing conversations. I was so glad to be back home. Grandpa, Charles and Jonathan were watching a movie, but I just went to bed. I did stop by the nursery to give kisses to sleeping Oliver and Gabriel who was still awake wanting to know if it was time to get up yet.
The next day was equally busy, but I'll spare you all the details. One thing that I did with my dear friends Shealita and William was to go to Bowen Homes in Atlanta to visit a family who had decided against abortion a couple weeks earlier. That was really a wonderful opportunity to minister to a family. We will be with them regularly-but more on that later.
Suffice it to say that I ended the weekend as tired as I began it, but two babies were safe in their mommy's womb and that makes everything worth it.
I have lots of pictures to download, but something is going wrong with the blog site, so I'll try again tomorrow.
