First week on night shift and I'm not going to lie, it for sure gives me the heeby jeebies! But to be able to offer up that fear and anxiety for all of the young pregnant girls who feel so much more fear and anxiety that I have all week combined, is a blessing that makes it all worth it. Originally I was on day shift this week for the third week in a row, because a friend of mine from Mesa, Arizona was going to walk with me for a day earlier this week when we were walking through Phoenix-Mesa, but this turned out that she wasn't able to walk due to conflicts. So when I got back from walking a full 15 miles [5 fo them in the wrong direction so that was pretty stinky], I found out that our walk leader was not doing very well due to lack of sleep. So I decided to pull a double and switch over to night shift since it was my turn to be on it anyway. I walked another 14 miles that night so a total of 29 miles in less than 24 hours. I was completely exhausted when the night was over so I slept well in the RV even though it was so hot you cold barely breath. That first night we walked through Phoenix, like right through it which was pretty interesting, but there really wasn't any point that I felt unsafe.
Tuesday night was a different story. I walked night shift in the middle of the desert where there were no lights or anything anywhere around. We heard rattle snakes right on the side of the highway that we were walking on but it was pitch dark so we couldn't see anything. There was also movement in the bushes at the side of the highway that were almost scarier because you didn't know what it was that was making that noise. Well to make it worse Tim, the guy from Ireland whom I was walking with that night, kept talking about what if this... what if that... he likes to bring up serial killers and people being assaulted in the middle of the desert, in the middle of the night. Well I was jumpy so I was literally clutching my rosary with white knuckles praying over and over to God to send down his angels to surround us and to scare anyone or anything that would harm us away. Well I survived so my prayers must have worked. Later in the morning I walked with Father Hilary to the top of a mountain and at the top it said, "Welcome to the top of the world" it was amazing! After I walked 13.5 miles and the group as a whole walked 30 miles for our second night in a row, we headed back to the RV park. When we got there we were told to leave Thomas there in case his mother came to get him and head back out to do more miles. So we did, only Father David joined us as well. I walked 2.5 miles with Father Hilary and Father David right when we got to where we left off and then Becca and Tim walked about half a mile because then we had to get to mass which we were offering up for one of the girls on our walk and her family who are going through a hard time right now. So those 36 hours I walked 45 miles! Never thought I could say that!
Yesterday we drove the RV to Hilary's house, a friend of Sean our walk leader from Steubenville. Her famly is wonderful and very full of life, love and God's message. Last night I only walked 11.5 miles because we were walking through an Apache Indian reserve and it was a little creepy. Also I was dead tired and my feet were hurting more than usual. So I didn't walk the last mile that I would have had to. But there is no way that we could have gotten 30 miles last night because we had a really short shift, but we still walked 25 miles and I'm pretty proud of that.
Today I didn't get much sleep for my walking tonight, but it's Thursdat night so it's my last night of walking. Let's just say Thank God it's Thursday. We'll be in Las Cruses [I don't know how it's spelled] this weekend speaking at churches. It's pretty close to the border! Please keep us all in your prayers.
Until I get another chance to write,
Leah Sedelle
I love babies
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