Linda For Life Stories From the Sidewalk

  She's Sad and she`s Happy 😥😃 The flower did it again. It gave me an opportunity to open the door to conversation with a mom crossing the parking lot to Planned Parenthood. She walked up to take the flower and we started a conversation. I asked if she was pregnant. She was. She was also scared and confused. She has a difficult relationship situation. Her man wants her to have an abortion, but she does NOT want to have one. She has grown children and a good job supporting the family. He doesn't live in town. She wants to have this baby. After talking together at the Outreach building, and having Sarah join in on Facetime, she sorted things out. We talked to her man on the phone. He`s more on board but not in a supportive way. She made a  complete change in her thoughts and emotions. She said she is having this baby because she wants to and if he doesn't support this decision she will do it without him. She high fived me and said I can do this. We are meeting for lunch tod...

 Surprised by life 😊 We often think that one event ends at the culmination of that specific occurrence. We celebrate small victories, and we grieve over endings. I think it is important to remember that life is a journey filled with directions and events. This has certainly been true with my experiences within the pro-life world. It truly is life and death work. It is hard, really hard when a mother-to-be walks away saying she has chosen to have an abortion. It is almost impossible at that moment to keep in mind that she may, at a later time in life, choose life because of our conversation.  The flip side of that has been my experience with the moms who do choose life for their child. These are the mothers we celebrate with. These are the moms that keep us motivated. Several of these new, young moms have been motivators in my pro-life work AND in my life in general. This confirms my belief that we need to work on building a better community of support. We all need support. I ...

She Was Crying  😢 She pulled up in the driveway with her eyes pleading and tears falling. I asked her if she was okay and she half shook her head. When I asked if she was pregnant the dam broke, and she was sobbing. I asked her to come over to our outreach building for a few minutes so we could talk. She was in a hurry because she had to pick up her kids. We sat for a while in the building, and she explained that she was 16 weeks pregnant with her 4th child by her husband, who was having an affair with another woman. She was heartbroken, and didn't know what to do. She just knew she was pregnant again, and was afraid to tell anyone because of the situation with her estranged husband. Just as we were talking, Sarah called and I switched her to Facetime so she could talk to her. Sarah commiserated with her, and told her she wasn't alone in her feelings or her stress of raising kids. I left her with words of encouragement, my phone number, a list of resources and a mommy`s bag. S...