The March for Life 2017: Why We March, Part One

Have you ever known there was something you were supposed to do? Have you ever felt so strongly that you needed to be somewhere doing something specific and there could only be one reason why?
On Saturday evening, January 21st, I felt so strongly that I needed to go to the DC March for Life scheduled for January 27th. Over the next few blogs I would like to share with you a pretty incredulous journey of just trusting God with the details.

Saturday: I posted on facebook to ask if any of my friends in the DC area were planning to march. The only ones who responded were also coming from out of town on buses. I looked through various airfare websites to see if I could get lucky with cheap airfare. I told my friends at dinner on Saturday evening that I really, really wanted to go to the March for Life this year.

Sunday: We went to mass on Sunday morning and all day as I read through my Facebook about women's experiences at another march just recently held in DC, I felt this urging and desire growing stronger. I know I must have mentioned it several times throughout the day to my husband.

Monday: In the morning, I called my parish to see if we had a group going and if there just might be a cancellation or last minute opening, just in case. I was told that we had two people from our parish going and they were tagging along with the Mobile Archdiocese group which is three hours away. There were no openings on the bus from Mobile, plus I would need Archdiocese youth clearance. I spoke to the one adult going and again told her that I really needed to go to this march. I felt that I was being called and at that point I was just going to have faith that something was going to work out.

Monday night: I'm again searching through airfare sites and tried Priceline and boom, an airfare that we could afford popped up from Pensacola to Ronald Reagan National so my husband said "just do it." Ticket was purchased and I again made another post on Facebook asking for a place to stay and a group to march with. I am a military spouse and we military spouses have a network of friends all over the world. Two of my friends tagged me in Facebook posts helping me in my hunt for lodging and a march group. Three military spouse friends offered me a place to stay, a few friends offered me rides if I needed them and one friend connected me with other wives who were trying to help me figure out the Metro, the commuter bus, and catching a ride on a bus with another parish. I took my dear friend of 29 years, Becky up on her offer to stay with her in Manassas and I was just going to figure out the rest of the details the next day because at this point, I knew God had the details.

Tuesday: I called the parish that was three blocks from my host's home, Sacred Hearts in Manassas. Whoever answered the phone seemed pretty incredulous and wasn't understanding that I was flying in from Alabama at the spur of the moment and didn't know anybody and do you have room on your bus? She transferred me to a voice mail so I left the same message for the second person. In the meantime, I went shopping with a friend because I needed a coat! It was going to be cold in DC and I'm not used to the cold anymore. And I just wasn't worried about how I was going to march. I had a plane ticket, I had a place to stay, and my friend Becky could teach me about the metro.

Later Tuesday: Another military spouse friend, Anni started a group chat with a DC friend named Mariana asking if she could help me out. Turns out Mariana attends a different parish also in Manassas and was going to the March with her husband. They were planning to ride an RV from her church down to DC. She had rsvp'd for 3 people but her friend who was supposed to go with her but had gotten sick and cancelled. She wasn't sure of all of the details but we made a tentative plan that I would meet her at the church at 7am for mass, and then depending on how many people were trying to cram into the RV we would either ride in the RV or I could tag along with her for the commuter bus.

Tuesday night: All of my plans seemed to be in place. I had a plane ticket, a place to stay, a somewhat solid plan for transportation to the march and someone to march with.

Wednesday: I spent Wednesday doing laundry, tidying up the house, downloading the Uber app and the Life360 app (so my husband could keep track of me) and packing my small carry on and purse.

I was so excited for my trip. And calm, so peacefully calm. And thankful that in the details, God had arranged for me to meet a new friend who said yes to letting a complete stranger tag along on their March for Life.

Stay tuned for the rest of my journey to the March!