Choosing Life

I read something wonderful in my devotional from yesterday. It made me think of Hailey and babies like Hailey, babies who some don't see as fearfully and wonderfully made, babies who aren't given a chance before they're even born, babies who someone decides might not be "wonderfully" made, who aren't a "beautiful creation,"  who aren't worth a chance at life regardless if that life is 5 minutes, 5 days, or 5 weeks, like Hailey...

But read this paragraph written by Mary Southerland:

Situational ethics is now being taught in many of our public schools.  One teacher, wanting to illustrate that human reasoning is many times wrong, gave the following situation to a class of high school students:  "How would you advise a mother who was pregnant with her fifth child based on the following facts.  Her husband had syphilis and she had tuberculosis.  Their first child was born blind, the second child died.   A third child was born deaf while their fourth child had tuberculosis.  The mother is considering an abortion.  Would you advise her to have one?"  In view of these facts, most of the students agreed that the mother should have an abortion.  The teacher then announced, "If you said 'yes', you would have just killed the great composer, Ludwig von Beethoven."

How moving is that?

No one can predict using science, statistics, or anything else, what will become of a child. We were prematurely told that Hailey might have a chromosomal disorder and were immediately confronted with the issue of aborting her. Then we were told using modern science and tests that Hailey would be a perfectly healthy baby. (Imagine all of those premature tests and decisions being thrown at pregnant women - imagine choosing an abortion and having a perfectly healthy baby when you were told that she had Trisomy 18 or something else like in the above paragraph.) But against all odds, Hailey wasn't a 'normal' baby. Against all odds for Trisomy 18 babies, Hailey survived for 9 months in my belly. Against all odds, she survived birth. She survived one day, two, and so on. She lived for 36 days.

There is a popular Bible verse mentioned in this same devotional and it happens to be one I added on to a maternity photo with Hailey in my belly. Here is the picture:

This is verse 16: "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

My world was rocked the day that I had to put these truths together with that facts that my baby girl was an 'anomaly', that she was 'incompatible with life' as some would say. My mind and heart had to expand to understand that God still created her even with all of her 'imperfections', to understand that she was still fearfully and wonderfully made by God - even though many people don't view babies like her that way.

I just love verse 16. How interesting and comforting it is to know that not only did God create her, he knew how long her life would be, 36 days. He created her. He knew her. He knew her life. He designed it. He has a greater purpose for all life that we can't ever imagine or understand.

Give life a chance.