It's About to Get Real

I just sent in a volunteer application to my local crisis pregnancy center. This makes me a little giddy. I have never volunteered at a CPC before, but I have wanted to for several years. At the same time, it's a little surreal.

I hear about abortion from blogs, websites, news stories, books, testimonies, pro-life booths at fairs and conferences, talks, fundraising events, YouTube, Life Chain,and once a Bound 4 Life protest. But I've never really...encountered it. Not for real. I haven't seen any "major" protests; none of the really big, hundreds-of-people marches, not even a protest standing outside an abortion clinic. I haven't met any obviously post-abortive women or abortion workers (though, considering about 1 out of 3 women get abortions, I've probably met several). What's it going to be like, working in a place that deals with abortion so closely? A place that is saving lives? The closest brush I've had with abortion happened like this:

I was going to participate in my first Life Chain. At this particular Life Chain, there was also going to be a diaper drive. Come to the Life Chain, drop off diapers, and stand for an hour or so with a sign. When I got to the Life Chain, there was a small pro-abortion group doing a counter-protest on a corner, along with their own personal food drive to give to the charity group Harvesters. Their idea was "let's go take a stand for women and do some REAL good by getting food for REAL people". (Yes, they were complaining about our diaper drive. Uh...yeah. I couldn't make it make sense either.) That was the idea. Now, I like Harvesters, and I played with the idea of walking over with my pro-life sign and giving them some. I ended up just donating food to my then-local crisis pregnancy center instead. 

Anyway. Before the Life Chain, I took some money and drove to Wal-Mart (it was my first solo drive :)) to buy a bunch of diapers. In line at the cash register, the following conversation ensued:

Cash register lady: Wow, what are you doing with all these diapers?
Me: *explain*
CRL: *few seconds of silence* *good-naturedly* I hate you, by the way.
Me: *laugh* Uh...okay...that's fine with me.
CRL: *still good-naturedly* 'Cause, I don't know if you have kids or not, but they're expensive. I have three.
Me: Um, yeah, that's why I'm buying the diapers...? I'm [my age], actually, and I have seven siblings, so yeah.
CRL: Well, get married and don't have kids! *laugh*
Me: Awww, but I like kids!
CRL: Well, adoption, then.
Me: I've thought about that, actually. I think I'd like to adopt. But we'll see.
CRL: *weird semi-long monologue about how her kids like her to pretend she adopted them* *finish check-out* Have a nice day!
Me: You too!

Yes, that was interesting. Looking back, I would have said some things differently, but considering I wasn't really expecting that, I think I did okay. But I really don't know what to expect going into the battle zone like this. It may be very anti-climatic since I doubt I'll get a very exciting job, but who knows. Thank God for sidewalk counselors, CPCs, pro-life lawmakers, Abort73, LifeNews.com, Tim Tebow, Justin Bieber, and the rest.

Soon, I hope this is me:

*Images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.