January 23, 2012

Marching, marching, marching



Today a quarter of a million people are in Washington D.C. to March for Life.  I hope that when my kids are middle schoolers and older we can make the drive across the country to participate in the March.  But I hope even more that by that time abortion will be illegal and a shameful part of our country's history.

Let me say that I understand many of the reasons parents chose abortion. 

Parenthood is hard.  I had to give up many, many things that I loved in order to be a good and responsible parent.  I continue to make those sacrifices every single day. 

I understand the fear that comes with finding out you're pregnant.  I've held a positive ept and thought, "Oh shit." 

I've wondered where the money will come from and I've worried that I'm just not cut out for the job of motherhood. 

And I have stared long and hard at a baby with special needs, wondering if his life was going to have any good in it at all.  I have thought about the claims that every life has dignity and, looking at a promise of vegetable for a child, I have wondered if it is true.

But despite all that I still know that no matter what I think or feel in a moment there is an absolute truth in this. 
All life is valuable. 
Every person has dignity. 
Every child is a gift. 
God is faithful and generous.

6 comments:

  1. I went in undergrad and each year I think "I hope it works out so I can make it next year." When actually I hope every year that we won't have to go next year that instead we will be celebrating the day when it was overturned.

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  2. I've stared at at least three epts and thought, "Oh shit." I think if more women were open about that fact, that learning that you're carrying another life can be scary, **and it's ok to be scared**, than the fear wouldn't morph into excuses to end that life.

    Thank you for this post.

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  3. Great song choice (that was my favorite album in high school)).

    I stared at that last test and thought oh shit too. And now, everyday I am thankful for that positive test. I still have anxiety over how we're going to make ends meet sometime, but it's a temporal concern, not an eternal one, you know?

    I hope to make it to the march one year too. An lady "advanced in years" who was sitting behind us this Sunday made my day when she complimented us on our family and how we were a witness to life. Made my day.

    Dignity. That's what it comes down to. People will try to argue it's not a person until some gestation age they are comfortable with, but that's semantics. The devil's hand in this is almost palpable

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  4. Love your honesty here. People need to know that being pregnant, becoming a parent, isn't somehow magically easier for "pro-lifers". I've said a thousand times that I hate being pregnant.

    Have you read Huckleberry Finn? I'm reading it out loud to my girls these days and the similarities between the views on slavery to views on abortion, Huck's moral crisis as he tries to figure out why something that's 'right' (slavery) feels so wrong....it's just incredible. Anyway, I recommend that everyone who hasn't read it as an adult do so. Such an moving historical comparison!

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