A Choice to be Made

To anyone who has held a newborn baby as they sleep, you know children are a gift from God, and as such an imparted responsibility from God to the parents. This is a responsibility to take care of that child, raise them up to be good and kind, and to put that child's life above their own. Now as much of a blessing life is, I realize at times these blessings are not always timed according to our schedule, to our framework or ideal moment. Life happens according to God's plan and there is really no use fighting it, we have to take the good with that bad, if only to remind us how precious the good moments are. Life is so short, but what is important is how you choose to spend it.



For Keith and I, we are unlike most couples, we got to choose when to start a family, it was not thrust upon us unplanned or in the midst of personal challenges. We chose to go down this road without the map, others find themselves at a crossroads of which way to choose. Left, right, or even forward. Since my birth year (1986) there has been an estimated 32,142,340 abortions in the United States.*  That is around 42 thousand abortions estimated each year in the United States.** In the United States there are over 100,000 couples and singles that are pursuing adoption to find their children in a given year. People seeking adoption are predominantly choosing to adopt due to reasons of infertility. *** I believe each life created has a purpose and to grant that life existence is a blessing beyond measure.

As a woman just seeking her own child, I cannot know what it is to have to consider these crossroads, but I have seen the blessings of adoption bringing lives together to share in love and togetherness, and in that family.Choosing life you will never have to wonder what could have been, but just know that there is life and with that the possibility of opportunity. Choose life and be someone's partner in a miracle. After all, adoption is first and foremost an act of love on all sides.

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*Robert, Johnston. "Historical abortion statistics, United States." Abortion statistics and other data-Johnston's Archive.  http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/ab-unitedstates.html (accessed January 13, 2012).

**Population Reference Bureau. "Abortion:Facts & Figures." http://www.prb.org/pdf11/abortion-facts-and-figures-2011.pdf (accessed January 13, 2012).

***"Overview of Adoption in the United States." The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/FactOverview.html (accessed January 13, 2012).