November is Adoption Awareness Month

Adoption is a blessing… for everyone involved

I’m adopted. I’d be pro-life even if the issue didn’t affect me personally, because human life is sacred. But for me, it is personal. In January of the year I was born, our Supreme Court told the young woman who found herself expecting… the yet-unknown me… that it was her Constitutional right to end her pregnancy. New York State, where she lived, had granted her the right in 1970. Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal throughout the country.

States whose majority of residents are pro-life are not allowed the right to protect the smallest of our defenseless.

It’s scary. A teen-aged girl had the right to kill me. The right.

In 1973 a teen had the right to end my life. Grateful she chose life. #adoptionawareness Share on X

But she didn’t end my life. She chose adoption.

How could I not take personally the assertion that women have the right to kill their children before they’re born?

As an adoptee, I take a woman's right to abort personally. My #righttolife Share on X

Let’s face it. In a society that deifies sex and preaches free sexual expression, you’re going to have high rates of unplanned and undesired pregnancies. We’re also not great at teaching people to take responsibility for the results of their choices. Pair that with our modern, commercialized, self-indulgent American Dream… we’ve killed millions. But it’s relatively neat and tidy. We don’t have to look into their eyes.

I honestly don’t understand how anyone who has held a newborn or seen a sonogram can think abortion is acceptable. Some even think it’s commendable.

How can anyone who has held a newborn or seen a sonogram think abortion is acceptable? #prolife Share on X

Our values as a nation are twisted. Convenience and expedience over compassion and self-sacrifice.

Grateful my birth mother honored my #righttolife over her #righttochoose abortion. #adoption Share on X

Read more of my adoption story on Defying Shadows.

The Important Role of Pregnancy Centers

When a young woman finds herself expecting unexpectedly, or suspects she may be pregnant, what are her options? Well, there’s her primary care provider or her gynecologist. Not something all women have, and some are ashamed or scared of someone they know finding out. Many who find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy are only kids themselves.

At any age, an unexpected pregnancy can be scary, overwhelming, and confusing.

Planned Parenthood is good at marketing itself as the go-to option for birth control, pregnancy tests, and services for young women experiencing unexpected pregnancies. If, from their perspective, a young woman didn’t manage to keep from getting pregnant, Planned Parenthood is ready and waiting to help her get rid of the pregnancy, so she can move on with her life unburdened by the life inside her. Their approach is narrow and plays on fear. The opposite of empowering.

Planned Parenthood's approach to unplanned pregnancy is narrow and plays on fear. Not #empowering. Share on X

Good pregnancy care centers take a holistic approach. They work on building up young women who find themselves unready for pregnancy or parenthood. The goal is not to wipe out the obvious consequences of an unplanned pregnancy, but deliver a healthy baby to a physically and emotionally healthy young woman. Adoption affirms the dignity of both a woman who is not ready to raise a child, and the child. For young women who choose to keep and raise their babies, pregnancy care centers provide parenting classes and support for both the expectant moms and to dads who want to be involved. Aid is given to meet as many physical, psychological, educational, and emotional needs of the parents as possible, so they can provide the best care for their baby – in the womb and after he or she is born.

Adoption affirms dignity, of the woman not ready for motherhood and the baby. #adoptionawareness Share on X

Prenatal care. And the choice between adoption services or support in parenthood. Young women are equipped to navigate the world as responsible parents and adults. Empowerment.

Those who claim pro-life proponents are only interested in saving fetuses by denying abortions need to stop narrow-minded stereotyping scare tactics and catch up with modern medical facts on fetal development.

Adoption Isn’t Just for Infants

Hundreds of thousands of kids are in the US foster care system. While some have parents who can get on their feet and provide a safe, loving environment for their children to come home to, many stay in foster care, waiting for a stable home, for years. Many are in and out of the foster care system. We are in desperate need of more good foster homes.

I have great respect for good foster parents, and for parents who adopt children out of the foster-care system regardless of existing behavioral, psychological, or physical issues their children may have. I have great respect for families who choose to adopt kids with special needs domestically or abroad.

These people are heroes.

Everyone deserves love. Every child deserves the security of family. Every child deserves a childhood.

Everyone deserves love. Every child deserves a childhood. #adoptionawareness #fostercare Share on X

Pro-Life is the Only Biblical Choice… and That Doesn’t Just Mean No to Abortion

Conception to natural death.

Honestly, I just don’t have time today to give this topic the attention it deserves…

The Church is designed to give practical care to meet physical needs as much as it is able, and soul care, without exploiting those who receive, or give, care.

November is Adoption Awareness Month.

How has adoption touched your life? Share your story. Share the love!

Would you like to show your support for adoption, and maybe start some conversation with a comfy shirt? All that AND you get to help a great family with their second adoption! Check out the shirts here! Update: This campaign is complete, but you can click to let them know you’d be interested in these shirts being offered again!

Meet my friends the Blacks and learn more about their adoption journey!

 

You can read more of my adoption story on Defying Shadows.

More Sanctity of Human Life posts on Fruit of Brokenness:

Life, My Right

The Sanctity of YOUR Life

For the Imperfectly Fathered

Fearfully and Wonderfully Broken

Suicide Prevention Week: My Story