Our Family's "Sanctity of Life" Journey

Today is Sanctity of Life Sunday.  This is a day when believers join together and celebrate the fact that our God is the giver of life, a day when we pray for mothers around the world faced with impossible choices for the children they are carrying, a day when we mourn the 40 million children lost to abortion globally each year.  40 million.*

Three years ago, Billy and I had the privilege of pre-viewing the movie, October Baby, before its official release.  I was so moved by the movie, I blogged about it- Every Life is Beautiful,- I advertised it by wearing the free t-shirt we’d been given, and I told anyone who would listen about how they simply had to go see it.  I even went to see it again at the theater after it was released and then bought it on blu-Ray.  I was seriously passionate about this film.  The movie tells the story of a fictional young lady who discovers as a young adult that she is the survivor of an abortion.  It tells of her physical and emotional trauma.  It tells the story of her redemption in a wonderful adoptive family.  It paints a beautiful picture of mercy and forgiveness as she seeks her biological mother.  It is a fictional tale, but one that is played out in reality quite more often than most are aware.

This movie became all too real to us a year after we viewed it for the first time.  You see, our Addie Mihret was the survivor of an abortion.

I have previously not shared this with many folks for fear of sensationalizing her story and invoking unmerciful judgment from the clueless masses upon her mother.  However, as I consider Sanctity of Life Sunday, I feel the Lord is prompting me to share how abortion has affected our family.

We learned after meeting Addie’s biological mother, that she had been forced by Addie’s biological father to have an abortion.  He paid for it, she went, the doctor did the procedure.  It didn’t work.

The doctor said Addie’s bones were just too strong.  I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord was protecting her.  Why He allows other children to be taken home to him all too soon, I cannot answer, but He chose for Addie to live.  Her life is an absolute miracle.  From what I know about abortion survivors, there is potential for her to suffer physically and emotionally for the rest of her life, but I am so thankful that she has a chance at that life, as difficult as it may turn out to be.

I am thankful that though I will probably never see her again, I had the opportunity to know her and love her.  I am so thankful that her life was not snuffed out before she had the chance at impacting our family and the hundreds of folks who read my blog.  I am so glad that I know her laugh and her smile.  I am also abundantly thankful that Ellie Claire’s mother chose to give her life.  I am thankful that she is snug as a bug in her crib upstairs because she was given the chance to live.

I am so incredibly heart-broken at the millions of babies in our nation and around the world that will never take a breath outside their mothers’ “safe” wombs.  What fathers, leaders, writers, musicians, doctors, scientists, preachers, world-changers are missing from our earth because they were never given a chance at life?  It literally makes my stomach twist in knots.

There was a point in time that my horror at the abortions daily taking place in our country made me judgmental, angry, and indignant towards every woman who made that choice.  Let me be clear before I go on, abortion is a sin, and regardless of my feelings about it or those who participate in such, it’s wrong.  But before I go slamming my Bible in front of them, yelling at them and condemning them, I must first offer mercy.  After all, that is what I have been offered by our Father.  I need His mercy so much and so frequently, I am amazed that He chooses to call me His child.  When I made Christ my Lord and Savior, and in His grace and mercy, He imparted His righteousness upon me, He knew I was going to keep giving Him a gazillion opportunities to exercise His mercy weekly… okay, daily... and He STILL saved me.  

I have shared that Addie’s Ethiopian name is “Mihret,” which in fact means, mercy.  I see how the Lord had mercy on her life when he protected her from the poison of abortion.  I also see how her life calls me, as a believer, to offer mercy.  Addie’s story opened my eyes to a world that I had not had the opportunity to see before.  This is a world where there are mothers who are well aware that their unborn babies are in fact living, breathing children.  This is a world where women love their precious children.  This is a world where women are desperate.  They are desperate to not see their children live in the poverty and despair that surround their daily lives.  They are desperate to not watch their children waste away to nothing as they starve.  They are desperate not to watch their children beg on the streets. They are keenly aware that if they give birth to their child in their “unwed” state, their families will disown them and put them out on the streets.  They will have to quit school and have no options for providing for their children.  Many of these women, like Addie’s mother, are completely ignorant to the option of adoption, and most of these women have not yet been reached by ministries striving to offer them and their children a chance for a dignified, happy life.  Ethiopia is full of these precious women, but the United States is, too. 

When we hear about these women, is mercy and compassion our first response, or is judgment and condemnation?  And are we going to stand and shake our fists at the women all around the world who make the choice to abort their babies, and then sit by and watch apathetically as others choose life for their children, yet offer them no help?  No love?  No place to belong?  If we take a stand against abortion, we are right and just.  If we take a stand against women who are desperate, we are merciless and lacking in the love of our Father.  We must stand against abortion without standing against mothers.  We must stand for adoption and foster care and aid programs offering help to mothers who choose to raise their children.  We must in fact, do more than stand.  We must act.  We must step-up for the foster children in the U.S.  We must adopt children domestically and internationally.  We must support organizations like A Woman's Choice here in Louisville and Unadopted , which works stateside and globally.  We must offer assistance to families struggling to make ends meet.  We must support ministries like Living Hope Ethiopia, which runs the one and only maternity home in the country.   We must buy presents and gifts from non-profit "businesses" like Back to Africa and
Freeset.

Abortion is heart-breaking for both the children lost and the mothers left behind.  Let’s call it what it is- atrocious.  But let’s recognize that being appalled at abortion isn’t enough.   We have to do something, and I really, really don’t believe that includes alienating and belittling those that make what most of us who are followers of Christ consider to be a horrible choice. 

I frequently look at the pictures I have of Addie’s birth mom and long to wrap my arms around her again and tell her she is loved.  She is accepted.  She is pursued by a holy, gracious Father.  It breaks my heart that she is out there somewhere in Ethiopia, possibly struggling to feed her two sweet girls, while she is barely an adult, herself- but I am full of hope that my gracious Father will bring her aid- that through some ministry like Eyes that See, she will find dignified work and be able to care for herself and her children.  Her baby girl survived.  Will we now step up and offer this young mother the help she needs?  Let’s stop shouting and start doing something.  Let’s start recognizing the “sanctity of life” by helping those that are given the chance at life.

"Thank you Lord for the life of this little girl.  May you continue to protect her, and raise up people to help others like her."

* 40 million according to Guttmacher Institute.