National Sidewalk Counseling Symposium in Minneapolis.

Last weekend, some of us had the chance to go to the NSCSconferences in Minneapolis. We were very lucky to be there. We had the opportunity to get some training on sidewalk counseling. Despite I think the best way to learn is by experience, listening to those presenters in their lectures was good for us. Interns and whoever does sidewalk counseling, we do not have to be shy or scared. We need to have strength and trust in ourselves. Sometimes we may think that we won’t have the best or the correct words for all these women. However, God is with us in all those moments. HE will give us the best speech or the best words to tell them. It seems that this advice sounds very typical, but it’s totally true. After more than two weeks, I’ve seen that I’m not alone in this. I can always count on HIM.

There was this pastor called Walter Hoye. He told us about Stephanie Spidell and her daughter Khya. Here there is a short biography of Stephanie:

I'm a single mother of six children, including a special needs daughter named Khya, who was given an "incompatible with life" diagnosis of Alobar Holoprosencephaly, which means Khya's brain did not develop normally early in my pregnancy. She was not expected to survive the pregnancy. If she did survive the delivery, doctors predicted she may only live a few minutes or hours, six months at most. Khya is now almost two years old. The medical community heavily pressured me to have a late-term abortion, to end my child's life to "put her out of her misery". They said I would be traumatized if I saw her, but we loved Khya unconditionally and would cherish anytime we had with her. I'm very blessed and honored to be Khya's Mom. Along with my other five children, we are Khya's full-time caregivers and we want to share her story so that people will understand that all life is precious! What the world sees as "imperfect" or a "mistake", we see as our much loved little sister and daughter. Khya has taught us so much about faith, hope, and love. I thank God for picking me to be her mom.

You can watch the video by going to this link. It's beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOLQRCL5n5Q

To sum up, I’d like to thank the family we stayed with. They host us for two nights and they were super kind

with us. I used to live with them two years ago. When I told them that I’d be in town for three days, they

offered their house for the ten of us. Isn’t that nice? They also prepared an American breakfast on Saturday

morning which was delicious! We all want to say THANK YOU again for your kindness, and… see you soon!

You can see the ten of us enjoying our breakfast.