Post. (Part Two)

Yesterday I edited chapter 1, today I got 2/3s of the way through chapter 2. Tomorrow I have the entire day to work on it, so my goal is to finish two, edit three, and start four tomorrow. 

Things have been going remarkably well lately. I feel so blessed. God is providing me with not only the patients to sit still for hours on end, but the ability to make quick decisions and fast changes and move on. I hate editing because I struggle so much with that, but lately I've been flying through it. It feels so good, especially after how tough last week was! 

My goal is to get my book to proof readers soon, hence the crazed editing right now. If anyone knows of a good way I can print in bulk (preferably inexpensively and quickly), then please let me know in the comments! 

Goodnight, dear reader. You are loved and not forgotten! 

(P.S. The title of this post still shows my inability to think of good titles.) 

Post.

Look at me,  I'm a party animal. 

This past week I had my highschool graduation party. The French family does not take the topic of graduation parties lightly, so I spent a whole lot of time cooking and cleaning and doing other such homely tasks as spray painting a twister board on my lawn and eating cookie dough.

This week I am attempting an entire book edit in a week. I have a looming deadline of the end of June, which is shortened by a family vacation, so I'm trying to get everything ready for proof readers by... Friday. Originally my list of things to do included rewriting a chapter, researching and outlining and drafting and editing (at least once) my two last chapters, and editing the remaining six. However, due to said graduation party and a pathetic spout of discouragement, I'm only managing to somewhat-research and outline the two chapters, edit the chapter I wanted to rewrite (which is much smarter and I feel dumb for not just doing that in the beginning), and edit the remaining six. All. Of. That. To. Say. :

This week is so much editing.

I'm off to my editing cave, I'll try to crawl out at some point and let you know how I'm doing. Or write about my feelings or a movie or an article I just read or how pathetic I feel when I write to much. Right now I'm feeling good, I just finished editing chapter 1! Solid start. Now back to work.

(The title of this post shows my inability to think of good titles.)

((Photo credit to Mrs. Huntington.))

When I Want to Burn Everything I've Ever Written

You know what I hate? Spending hours writing, then at the end of the day deciding all of what you wrote needed to be trashed. It's all worthless. It can't be used, and salvaging it would take as long as it took to write. Monkeys could have sat at a computer and typed random letters, and come up with something better than this.

It's on this kind of day I want to stand on my roof and scream for the entire world to hear,

"IT'S NOT WORTH IT!"

However, like every other day like this that I've experienced, it usually means I just need to move on. Copy and paste the 4,205 words of nonsense and an entire week of work to a file of such passages, and work on something else. I wonder if actually printing the pages and burning it would help me feel better. I bet on a good day I could think of some nice way to conclude this post with something meaningful that would make me feel better, but nothing's coming to me. So I conclude with the wise words of April Ludgate: "hard work never pays off."

New Ministry: And Then There Were None

One of my favorite things about the pro-life movement is the diversity with in it. Abortion is a massive topic that touches every area of life--health, law, industries, economy, religion, the list is endless. Because it is not any one topic, there are hundreds of pro-life organizations and ministries that work on fighting abortion in all different ways. Many accuse the pro-life movement of only caring about the fetuses but kicking the mothers' to the curb. I've seen that to be entirely untrue. Many, if not most pro-life groups focus on the mother. This can mean teaching the truth about abortion, urging women to choose life, helping them in practical ways through their pregnancy, helping them after the baby is born, helping them if they choose adoption, and supporting women who have had abortions.

However, there seems to be a new aspect of abortion that seems rather untouched by ministries. That is, until now.

Abby Johnson was a Planned Parenthood clinic director for 8 years. She began as a volunteer clinic escort, then worked her way up until she ran an abortion clinic. Then one day, she was helping an abortionist perform an abortion. The abortionist wanted to use an ultrasound in order to see what he was doing inside of the woman, and Abby was the one performing the ultrasound. She was shocked by what she saw--not a clump of tissue, but a baby, fighting to stay away from the harmful abortion instruments.

With the help of people praying outside of her clinic during the first 40 Days for Life campaign, she quit her job. Despite the financial difficulties, the lawsuits from Planned Parenthood, the embarrassment of leaving her friends and coworkers to begin working with the "enemy," she walked away.

She later wrote a book titled Unplanned that tells the entire story--from the Planned Parenthood booth at the volunteer fair in college to her praying with 40 Days for Life outside of her old clinic for the first time.

Now for the exciting news: God is using Abby's experience working for Planned Parenthood and dodging bullets trying to get out. In a month she is beginning a new pro-life ministry that tackles ground we've never touched before: a ministry to help clinic workers emotionally, spiritually, legally, and financially. They will provide legal protection from attorneys, funds necessary to quit their jobs and still provide for their families until they find a new job, emotional support, and spiritual counselors to help them on the road to healing.

If you say you're pro-life, you need to be pro-all life. Including the lives (both material and eternal) of clinic workers, abortionists, men and women who suffer from past abortions, and pro-choice advocates. As well as the young, the old, those of a different race than your own, the handicapped, the depressed, the orphans, and the widows. It's a tall order. I'm excited the horizons are expanding for the pro-life movement and a new group of people will be reached.

Life and Death and Apollo 13

I'm really becoming a fan of finding places in our culture where human life is valuable.

I'm a little behind on things, but I only saw Apollo 13 for the first time a few weeks ago. Anyways, it was great, and one thing in particular really struck me. When it looked as if Apollo 13 wouldn't be able to land back on earth, the entire world was captivated by the story. People put their normal lives on hold, gathered around their televisions, and prayed for these lives that hung in the balance. For three lives. Yet how often do we not care about far more than three lives that are hanging in the balance? While it's discouraging sometimes when people don't care about stopping the thousands of deaths each day from abortion, it's refreshing to see the world care about the lives of these three men.