Losing a Child

Everyday we get women coming to us wanting to have an abortion. The levels of awareness as to what an abortion is and how it will affect their life varies. Once they come to a full realization of what it is and understand that they can actually carry the baby to term and everything will be okay, there are marked transitions that often occur. There is suddenly hope where there had been despair; openness where everything was closed; courage in the presence of fear; and over time, there develops joy where there was sadness and the anticipation of grief. When these changes happen and deepen through the pregnancy, it is beautiful to see the heart of the mother that blooms with anticipation and love for her child.

As she is waiting for her child, once unrecognized or mistakenly unwanted and now cherished, one of the hardest things to experience is a miscarriage. It seems like a malicious game with the heart, that once having decided to embrace the life of her child, the mother is then deprived of it. But God is able to bring miraculous good out of every situation. Only he knows what transpires in a heart. Loosing a child by decision to abort leaves a mother with an entirely different pain, as we have seen, than the undesired death of a child by nature. The regret and grief take on a much different form, one which is more open to healing and hope. In the comparison of these two losses, I find a lot to contemplate on. Both are death of a precious unborn child, the same child (or in one recent case, twins) at one time rejected and another accepted. But the difference in the two circumstances in some cases can be total. Either way, we pray for healing and comfort for these women who are enduring the painful loss of their child.