Coney Island Picture Show

Today a few of us went to Coney Island to hand out literature and take pictures of the plane flying overhead. The beach was very crowded, and many heads looked towards the sky as the plane flew by.

Click on a picture to expand.

Want to hold your baby’s hand?

Want to hold your baby’s hand?

Sometimes the toughest women are in the most pain. Once inside the walls crumble. Today a girl came in Linda’s screaming and swearing for an abortion. She is twenty years old and she came in with her mother. The father of the child and the girl’s mother want the baby. The young girl was adamant about ‘getting it out’. Linda, after some time, convinced the young girl to get a sonogram. This is the part I witnessed first hand. She came in the sonogram room tense, angry, scared. She laid down on the table and Sand, the sonogram tech, put the jelly on her belly. On the screen I could see how tense her body was. As she was looking at the screen she said, oh those are hands! Linda said, Yes, yes those are and here are the feet, your baby is all there. Sand then let the girl hear her baby’s heartbeat. Through all of this the young girl refused to let her mother into the room. After about ten minutes on the sonogram table she began to relax and become happy. Her baby left the corner of her womb and came to the center. Linda asked her if she wanted to hold her baby’s hand. Linda took the girls hands and placed them on her belly. She asked the young girl to just start talking and relax. She did. The baby reached up towards her hands; over and over again the girl held her baby’s hand. Miracle, God enabled and willed. She finally let her mother in to see her baby. To make a long story short, Linda thinks she is going to Keep. Pray.

I had my first turn around. The girl I spoke to about the joys of adoption decided to keep and parent her child. I congratulated her on giving her other child a sibling. I told her to keep in touch with me and the center.

Suckers – Adoption – Tampa

Suckers – Adoption – Tampa

I mentioned very briefly in my last blog the suckers received by the women after their abortions at Emily’s abortion clinic in the Bronx. Today I saw a woman on the subway eating a sucker and I was almost made sick. I don’t think I’ll ever eat one again. Julie told me how someone, I for got who, says they use suckers to sort of slap us in the face. Suckers because their child was sucked out a tube; however, instead they call them Dum Dum’s, because the women are Dum Dum’s for having an abortion. I wonder if there is any truth in all this. Do the clinic workers purposely give the women suckers after their abortions just to spite us sidewalk counselors? Or are we reading too much into it? Maybe the clinic workers are trying as hard as they can to liken abortion to having a tooth pulled at the dentist. The dentist always gives you a lolli pop, if it’s a good dentist a toothbrush accompanies the candy. Now, what about the women? Would I accept a sucker on my way out of the clinic after killing my child? Would I ask for a specific flavor? These are all thoughts I have been having…

I told a woman my story about the adoption of my little brother. I have to be careful of who reads this because he is six and does not know he was adopted. That conversation will come later in life. Basically if you know my brother or you ever meet him and you decide to under mind my family by saying, Oh you are adopted, I will then have to tie your tongue in a knot. ;) But let me continue; I told the woman my story while I was committing the ultimate sin at Liz’s, showing a client the supply room. Of course I wasn’t told until afterward of its sinfulness. I do not, however, regret it. She needed to see that we REALLY CAN help her! I believe the counselor at that given moment knows what methods are best to reach the client. My client needed comfort, reassurance, someone to tell her everything will be okay. So in the cluttered supply room with baby supplies all around us I told her my story. (one of them) We adopted my little brother and before him I never understood what unconditional love was. He taught me how to love with no bounds, because of the age difference at times I feel like he’s a son. I am very protective like a mother. I told her how much joy my little brother has brought to my life. Yes, he is a little pest sometimes, but he’s my little pest. I love him so much and I can not imagine how my life would be today without him. I then told her that if because of her situation and circumstances she is unable to keep her child, she has the opportunity to provide that same joy that I have to others. She is able to carry her baby and then place it in a safe place with a family that wants and is ready for a child. At one point we returned to the counseling room. I left the room for a second and when I came back in she was inquiring more about adoption. She left undecided but saying she was going to look into adoption. I am going to follow up tonight or tomorrow.

I was also able to meet a girl that is from the same town I am from in Florida. She came all the way to NY because she was so afraid of telling her mom she might be pregnant. Her test was negative, but she has missed her period for two months. I told her to come back in two weeks for another test. I gave her my phone number and I think we will stay in contact.

-Shallyn

‘America Runs on Dunkin’

Today I stood outside Dr. Emily’s abortion clinic, the biggest and busiest clinic in the Bronx, with Julie. For hours we stood on the gum spotted sidewalk, with a chain link fence keeping us ‘dangerous pro-lifers’ from the women driving in for their abortions. This was not the first time I have stood outside of an abortion clinic, I have also back home in Florida near my college campus. However, this is the first time I stood outside not only praying but observing and trying to learn the art of sidewalk counseling. Julie is flawless in her efforts, much like a young lady back in Tampa named Cari. Both are attentive and compassionate people. I watched Julie walk towards every couple, group of friends, and lonesome women walking towards the clinic with the same fervent look upon her face, she knows this back alley is a battleground and this facility has us often outnumbered. Even when women left the clinic with their souvenir sucker (Dum Dum lollipops) after their abortions Julie had the boldness to lovingly approach them. Never allowing herself to become visibly discouraged, she kept on counseling her heart out until just before the so-called doctors left for the day.

It rained today over the clinic at several different times throughout the day…
Twins were aborted today. Black babies, Hispanic babies, White babies, Indian babies…. All aborted today. This slaughter house holds no prejudice; money is still green no matter the color of the hand it’s coming from. The cha-ching sound is universal.

Julie road her bike to a Dunkin Donuts, myself riding the subway. At first the DD sign blended in with the other neon signs that were obnoxiously on in the day-time. Then I saw the safe, comfortable, delicious sign; it made me want an iced coffee, after all I was parched from standing outside the clinic in the sun. Just as I grasped the door handle I heard my name called from behind me. I let go of the door and turned around. It was Julie; she’d gotten stuck behind some slow pokes on the bike ride over. She told me if I was going in to go ahead and get whatever and she’d wait (or some equal dialogue was exchanged). I went into to grab the usual medium iced French vanilla coffee with cream and sugar, when I saw that their small was 20 cents more than a medium in Tampa! I was outraged, and thirsty, more thirsty than outraged. I caved and bought the coffee. As the guy was making my coffee I overheard the cashier girl talking with a man on my side of the counter, they seemed to be friends. He asked her why she wasn’t smiling and why she looked so sad. She looked around and sighed before she said nearly below her breath, I have an appointment. They guy paused then continued questioning her, abortion? Yes, the girl replied. With a pause, sigh, and jokingly light-hearted voice he remarked come on that’s killing the baby. At this moment I was unzipping my purse and pulling out the last English pamphlet I had left over from standing outside Dr. Emily’s. While I was extending the folded papers to her I spoke, we can help you, we can help you financially and in every way. I asked her to read the paper and think about it. I then offered to give her my phone number; she said the paper was enough. I said okay, and asked her again to read the paper and to think about it. She said okay, I said thank you, and then proceeded to walk out of DD. When I told Julie what happened she was more excited than I was. However, later on I realized the importance of this event, not only for the girl in DD, but also myself. I am not going to speculate on the outcome of the girl’s decision or her child’s fate, however, I can pray that God uses that pamphlet to soften her heart and make her aware of the help we can and will offer her. Now, like I said, this event was also for my benefit. Let me explain. I was feeling very small, insignificant, and ineffective. But the Lord gave me an opportunity to be bold (however small the boldness might have been). By being aware of my surroundings and receptive to His will I shared potentially life saving information by a simple extension of the hand, accompanied by a reassuring smile and a sincere plea to read the information. I pray God takes it from there and His child is brought into the world. I may never know, but it’s not about that, it is about knowing that I obeyed God by taking that opportunity He presented.