Choosing life
In Memory of the Woman Who Chose Life
Forty years ago, a very courageous woman chose not to abort her baby.
Unlike many unwed mothers, this woman had been previously married. She had born sons and daughters. She had helped to raise a family. But now in her forties she found herself divorced and with child - the fruit of a brief immoral relationship.
If she was like other unwed mothers facing the challenges and stigma of an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy, she probably suffered from fear and disappointment. And I can only imagine the pressure she felt to try to erase the embarrassment, to end the physical discomfort, and to avert the potential shame and rejection she would experience as she faced her own legitimate children and extended family with the news that their mother had conceived a child with a married man.
Read the whole story.
99 Balloons: God's Power Revealed in a Tiny Little Babe with Trisomy 18 Labels: Mothering
posted by Crystal Paine at 4:50 PM
21 Comments:
One story that I think is also inspiring is Tim Tebow's. His mother was encouraged to abort him by the doctor as the doctor said that he wasn't going to be a healthy baby due to some meds she had to take. She didn't, and he went on to win this year's Heisman Trophy.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/dec/07121108.html
Today I wrote on abortion on my blog also. We just had a grandson born 2 months early and I look at this precious baby and think about how many like him are aborted every day. It makes me sick.
My post is here: http://aintnoplace.blogspot.com/2008/01/lesson-from-caden.html
That was a beautiful video! I bawled my eyes out!
That is a touching story. I have some opinions about the use of the word "legitimate" though. I think we (society) need to eliminate using 'legitimate" and illegitimate to describe children. No child is illegitimate so it doesn't even need to be said. Also I we did to eliminate the shame and embarrassment of being a single parent. Because this has certainly caused some mothers to have abortions that didn't want to.
Wow, 99 days of life. I loved the balloons, a wonderful picture of the beauty and preciousness of Eliot's life as well as the rapidity with which the days came and went.
We work with boys who come from disadvantaged homes and so often I think that many of them could have been eliminated by the mother's 'choice' before their birth. Most of them fit the demographic, most were unplanned, by the parents. But God has an intent for each one of them. I hear their home stories and my heart breaks for them. So many dads in jail, moms on drugs, tossed between family members. So much of what a child should never experience. Abortion is absolutely wrong, and we need to treasure these lives once they make it to birth as well. They aren't all available for adoption, but they all need God's love.
Those of us with our own children accomplish more than we know by simply loving them, loving their Dad (this is sooooo huge), and loving God, first and foremost.
-- Here for Life (borrowed from a local pro-life movement protesting a recently opened Planned Parenthood facility)
Thank you, that was just beautiful.
I can't watch the video now, but I just found the story so moving.
Today, I found out my husband and I are going to be blessed with our third child. Three in four years of marriage!
Oh Crystal, thank you for posting that! I am sitting here in tears...
There is a little box in the top of my closet that I look through every May--mementos of my very first baby that I lost to miscarriage fairly early in the pregnancy. An outfit my mom bought when she found out I was pregnant, a card a loving friend sent...
To quote Mother Teresa: "Every baby is a sign of God's love".
My heart and prayers go out to that lovely couple... I'm glad they've shared their story with the rest of us. Sometimes we don't know why things happen, but God blesses us and uses us to help others that are going through the same thing. I was devastated when I lost my baby, but God was there...And how many, many times since then have I held another woman's hand and said "I've been there. Your baby is in the arms of Jesus..."
I try to remember each year to thank my birth mother for giving me my life. This year I bumped it up a notch and did it on my blog (she checks in every once in awhile). 80)
Thank you for sharing the video. I cried as my husband and I watched it. It was beautiful and precious. As the daddy said this was one sermon which was not preached through a pulpit but God using a sweet little boy's life.
80)
Mary Beth
that video was sad, but sweet as well.
little elliots parents are extrememly brave.
and what a beautiful little boy!
What a beautiful bittersweet video. My heart goes out to the couple who had the courage to embrace and deeply love someone whom they knew would be taken from them. It is better to have loved and lost than to have never embraced love at all.
I watched though many of my own tears recalling and reliving my sweet baby girl whom we lost after 18 months of her short life. She too was not expected to live with her trisomy 21 and congental heart condition but she made it to her first birthday and even beyond that! I sure miss her smile. 29 years does not diminish the soft pain of her sweet memory.
"Miss you, Jenny. I'll bet you are playing with Elliot right now."
LifestyleofLearning.blogspot.com
40 years ago my mom was an unwed mother...and thankfully she chose life. We have one son and have been hoping and praying for another for 8 years. From soneone who longs to have another child, it breaks my heart to know there are women who still choose abortion. Which reminds me I need to stop by our Crisis Pregnancy Center today to drop off donations.
In 2002, a young girl found Mr. Wrong but got involved anyway. She got pregnant and thought he would be ready for "Happily Ever After". Mr. Wrong's response was "Here is $200. Go get rid of it". She threw his money to the floor, ran away and never looked back.
Had this young woman taken that $200, our son would have never been born in 2003. He was 6 pounds of wiggly, piggly, cutey-patootey, little boy with the biggest hands and feet we'd ever seen. He also had inches and inches of black curly hair.
This young woman met us in St. JOhn's hospital in Detroit and told us her story. She wanted her baby to live past the age of 16 (no guarantee of adulthood off 8 Mile in Detroit); she wanted him to go to college; she wanted him to play sports, play music, travel, and be happy. We promised those things plus we told her we'd teach him to love the Lord.
Ok, so she didn't get her $200 but what did she get??? Well... US. We love her. We pray for her. She's part of us, in our hearts every day. We email back and forth all the time. I talked to her on the phone for an hour on Monday. We have learned so much about her life... which is way different from ours here in Rural Ohio.
Our son blesses people wherever he goes. His smile lights up a room and his heart is tender for others. He's smart and healthy (a testimony to his birthmom's efforts to keep him that way in utero) and he's a great big brother. He's one big ol' blessing, all the way around!
We are thankful every day that our sons' birthmothers didn't make different choices
Thank you for sharing that video Crystal. It's a beautiful testimony to the beauty of life.
I cry every time I see that
I have read these testimonies before; thank you for posting them again, Crystal!
being only 11days post partum with our 3rd precious baby, it wasn't a wise choice to watch that video--but i'm glad i did.
our son was born 11days ago, and shouldn't have survived. we were carrying identical twin boys, and unfortunatly TTTS took our little Isaiah's life at 18weeks. Matthew is here, and strong and growing, and is such a blessing.
i was horrified after Isaiah passed away, that the doctor's asked us if we wanted to terminate. my husband was with me, and the confusion on his face, and in his voice "terminate what?" was just so raw.
every baby is a blessing, and i am truly thankful that the Lord has given us Matthew... :)
Even with all of the good stories,there are good stories with sad endings that aren't illness related.
My sister adopted a 3 week old boy in 1982.We are thankful that we with us for 21 years but he died of a drug overdose.Even though it has a tragic ending his mother didn't abort him and my sister had Danny to raise and call her own.
As I sit here in tears I am thanking Jesus with all my heart for the healthy little boy napping in the next room. I wish everyone could value life like that family does, truly moving!!
I am a mother today because 2 brave, brave women in Korea chose life.
Crystal, do you still have the video of Eliot's funeral? It is set to music and shows photos of the service. It used to be available online, but I can no longer locate it.
Thanks!
Ruth
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