I am so blessed. I have been given one of the greatest gifts ever and for it I am so very thankful. You have been given one of the greatest gifts too. That is the gift of life.
Maybe you haven't really thought about it or maybe you don't really see life as a gift. For me, I have thought about it often. I've thought about what I would have missed out on if I hadn't been given that chance.
The chance to be a daughter, to feel loved and cared for.
The chance to be a kid, laughing and running in the sunshine.
The chance to be a student, in awe of every new thing learned and discovered.
The chance to be a friend and to have some pretty amazing friends.
The chance to find love, the once in a lifetime kind.
The chance to be a mom and watch my children blossom and grow.
The list could go on and on....
I know, if things had turned out differently, who is to say that I would even realize that I was missing out. But then again, who can say that I wouldn't.
Just recently, before the elections, I was riding home in the car with my kids. They were talking about all of the political signs on the side of the road and all the different issues that were involved in the election: Taxes, pollution, common core, abortion, etc. From the back seat, our daughter piped up and said, "Mom, what is abortion?" I explained it in the most age appropriate way that I could to an eight year old. That sometimes when a woman gets pregnant, for one reason or another but often because she isn't married, the woman decides she doesn't want to keep the baby, so she goes to a doctor and he helps her get rid of it. Then I hear a huge "Oh".... and after a moment of silence she says, "Mom, I know why abortion is such an important issue to you....because your birth mom could have had you killed."
I was amazed. She got it.
I was born in 1973. It was a pivotal year in the abortion world as Roe vs. Wade was passed in January, just months before my birth in August. I have often thought about the fact that my birth mom was just a couple of months along at that time. Young and unmarried, I have wondered if abortion was ever something that she considered. And every time I think about it, I am so thankful that she didn't make that choice.
Abortion was the topic I chose for my persuasive speech during my freshman year of college. I picked it because I figured it would be a topic with a bit of personal connection to it. Little did I know the effect that the study and research would have on me. Although I knew generally what abortion was before that time, I found the details of the procedures that I read about to be haunting and the possibility of what could have been became more real.
I introduced the speech by sharing a story of how I imagined a young college aged girl to be as she found out she was pregnant, a story similar to what I imagined things were like as it was realized that my existence was just beginning. Alone and scared, this girl pondered what her options might be. Adoption. Abortion. What would she choose? When I reached the conclusion, I announced to the class that this young girl had made up her mind. After much deliberation, she chose life. As a result of her choice, I was able to stand before the class and give that speech. It was at that point, I broke down and cried.
I have always been thankful for the gift of life. It is something I have thought about often since I was a young person. I realize the sacrifice that was made by my birth mother to go through pregnancy, birth me, and then give me up. This sacrifice became even more real to me after I had my own children. I cannot imagine what pain could have come through the kind of separation of having to give up your child. It could only have been done out of great love.
In my teenage years, at times I thought and wished for an opportunity to tell my birth mom thank you for what she had done for me. I wondered if I wrote Ann Landers and asked her to publish my letter in her column of the newspaper if somehow my birth mom would happen to read it and realize that it was me talking. But then I realized the chance that could happen was pretty slim.
So, I never wrote the letter.
But God granted me the desires of my heart and through a crazy unexpected turn of events, many years later, I was able to thank her.
More on that coming soon....
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