BOOM! Ba-ba-ba-boom! Pop. Pop. Pop.

At six o’clock on Saturday morning, loud noises shook my husband and me out of a deep sleep. The night before we’d watched the tragic news about the terrorist attacks in Paris. In my half awake state my mind tried to understand. Could this be related? We were visiting a small coastal town in North Carolina. Yesterday’s events in Europe couldn’t be related to this, could they?

Gunfire continued in spurts throughout the morning. My husband called the local police to ask about it? We learned that the house-shaking booms were Marines practicing at near by Camp Lejeune. The smaller pops hailed the opening of duck and deer season. After the events of the previous day, I didn’t object to being awakened by our Marines.

At breakfast I remarked how sad I felt about what happened in Paris. Larry picked up his phone, “Siri, how many abortions were there in the USA last year?”

I knew what he was thinking. The day before my nephew and his wife had shared a sonogram of their son. Continue Reading