Choosing…

I just spoke with a woman who made a choice.
Because of this choice, she has been shunned by her friends.
People who do not even know this woman are talking about what she has done.
Even her own family has nearly disowned her.

This woman chose to begin a relationship with a man who was abusive.
Other choices led to her becoming pregnant.
But these choices,
These are not what has caused scorn and even rejection from those around her.

She discovered the little life living inside of her after she had already made the choice to walk away from this man.
And there, she found that she faced another choice.
And she chose life for her child.
After much consideration, and what she called destiny,
She chose an adoption plan for her child and found Lifeline.

It was this choice that eventually led to the chastisement she is now experiencing.
No one in her culture understands the decision she has made.
No one in her culture even cares to…
People would rather scratch their heads at her, speak against her character, or worse in her eyes–
Speak things about the choice she has made that are not even true.

This woman stared in the face of the life that she would welcome this child into, and said that this was not what she wanted for him… no matter how much love was there swarming inside her.
This was a decision she made.
It was no one else’s.

As if making this choice were not already, difficult enough…
People ask her how she could choose to “give her child away.”
People condemn her for not “struggling with her child.”
People attempt to make her feel guilty for the decision she has made.
These perspectives are those of people who do not understand the sacrifice:
One of great courage, for the benefit of her child and the children she is currently parenting.

What can be seen by just reading this small attempt to convey her story is that this woman possesses a great deal of strength; an attribute that life cultivated early on.
This has served her well throughout this journey.
And will continue to do so…

Zooming out for a moment, or maybe zooming in, the larger story is that God has been there all along.
His love, his presence, his commitment is the thread that is strung through all of these experiences; it is woven into the fabric of her life. And indeed, is the strength that until this point, she has known as her own.

This woman is coming to realize the reality of this and is pressing into God in a way she has not known.
I am convinced that as she chooses Him, He will deliver her into places she cannot even begin to ask for or imagine.

And so it is that as this woman chose to listen to The still small voice that gently guides her…
And as that led her to choose life and life in abundance for her child, what she did not know is that she was likewise being led to choose it for herself.

And so it is that this is what she has chosen:

Beauty for ashes,
Strength for fear,
Gladness for mourning,
Peace for despair.

O what a glorious God. Glory and honor and praise to Him, the One whose heart, whose very character is to make good on all things… if we let him. His heart is wholeness. His heart is restoration. May we choose this, and may we honor these women who have chosen this for their children and for themselves.

Please join me in believing God for wholeness in her life, that through the power of the Holy Spirit she would experience healing. Believe with me for her safety. Believe with me that relationships in her life would experience restoration and richness like they have not known, and that others would fall away, as God moves her forward. Believe with me that the adoption community/family in her area would begin surrounding her, that she would be strongly supported. Believe with me that the Holy Spirit would begin to open her to choosing community among the body of believers, and that his body would serve her and her family and that salvation would come to their house.
Believe with me for these things on behalf of all birth mothers.

Thank you so much for being the body with me in these things.
Hallelujah, that he has given us such access and authority in his Son…
God, pour out your goodness on the life of this courageous woman and on the lives of other courageous women like herself, that they would know and choose your character and that it may result in praise and glory…

Kara Leigh Pritchard
Birth Mother Counselor