Finding out that my child was going to die was a jarring experience. The doctor saw the problem with our baby and turned off the ultrasound.

“This baby has no chance of survival.” So much for the bedside manner.

I was reminded of him, and my baby, this weekend when my husband and I went on a grocery run before dinner. On the way home, we noticed a note tucked under the windshield wiper. We pulled over to read it. I was shocked, saddened, and angry. Hastily scribbled on the back half of a paper bag, it read:

My baby was born with a broken heart. It was supposed to be survivable but it wasn’t. The few un-sedated hours of his life were full of violence. Needles and chest compressions and bright light and yelling. The first time I held him, it was as he died. The second and final time I held him was when he was frozen in the funeral home. I wish every day that I had chosen to spare him by letting him go at 20 weeks. That would have been the most humane & loving thing I could have done.

Now, my bumper stickers make it clear that I am pro-life, so I suppose it’s fair game for anyone who wishes to leave a note. But this one really got to me.

This woman’s note said she wished she had ended her child’s life at 20 weeks. I imagine this was the point

It’s 3 p.m., and I’ve just pulled into the carpool line to pick up my two older children from school when a client calls. We’re in the middle of negotiating a multi-six-figure deal, so I take the call.

We discuss the big picture of the project, mainly consisting of a new brand identity and website for their organization. As we’re going over the finer points, the school bell rings, and the kids start rushing out.

“Can we revisit this later, Jack?” I ask. “The kids are getting in the car.”

“No problem,” he says, “I’ll hit you up on Slack with my final comments, and you can get back to me later.”

He pops off the line as I kiss the kids and get the scoop on the day’s happenings in third grade and kindergarten.

On the way home, I call one of my team members, who I know focuses most of her working time in the afternoons, when the neighborhood babysitter comes over after school.

“Hey, Jill, can you run some quick edits on that contract? I have a lot of kid stuff going on this afternoon.”

“Sure thing,” she says. “I’m on now until 5 p.m. and then again after 8 p.m.”

After an active afternoon of piano lessons, running in the sprinkler, and a doctor’s visit for my 18-month-old with an ear infection, we sit down to family dinner, a nonnegotiable daily event in our house.

“Mom, what kind of website are you making now?” my 6-year-old

Two Republican members of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections voted not to certify the 2020 presidential election citing a litany of concerns with the county’s election administration. Now — four years later — the State Election Board (SEB) chided the county for violating the law during the 2020 election but stopped short of referring the case for further investigation by the attorney general.

The SEB ruled 2-1 Tuesday that Fulton County must have an independent election monitor to oversee its elections after it found more than 3,000 ballots were scanned twice during the 2020 presidential recount.

The Georgia secretary of state’s office could not confirm how many of the ballots that were scanned twice were also counted, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution (AJC). General counsel for the secretary of state’s office Charlene McGowan said their investigation found “there are some duplicative ballot images in the ballot images that Fulton County provided, but what cannot be confirmed conclusively is if those ballots were included in the count.”

“Fulton County used improper procedures during the recount of the presidential contest in 2020,” McGowan concluded.

There are also 380,761 ballot images from the 2020 Election Day machine count that are “not available,” state board member Janice Johnston said during Tuesday’s meeting.

“Does the investigation confirm that there are missing ballot images?”

“Yes.”

Case closed. No cover up operation can conceal the fact that Fulton County did not have the votes it claimed it had. The recount could not replicate