Completing #22: Save a Life!

January 29, 2010 = Epic.

We saved a baby!

U of M's Students for Life group sends a small group of volunteers out to the local Planned Parenthood every Friday and Saturday (days when abortions occur) year round to do sidewalk counseling. Due to classes, work, and a general nervousness about it, I have never been able to go. This morning, however, was different. I got up early, put on five layers of clothes, and headed out in the -5 degree windchill to stand with the other young adults
from our club for the first time ever.

What a great experience it was.

A young woman got out of her car to walk into the clinic when Elise, a fellow student, called out to her that we cared and that we had resources for her if she wanted them. She asked what they were, and we called back that we had other options for her, that we had seen people hurt by abortion and that we didn't want that to happen to her. She walked in. We thought we had lost.

15 minutes later, she came back out! She came over and asked how long we had been standing there. We told her we'd been there for a few hours and handed her some information. She asked questions about how far along she was, what to expect inside the clinic, what other options we could offer her, and after sharing a few stories, she went back inside. 

We began to pray.

Over an hour and a half later, after we'd about given up hope, she came back outside with the words "I DIDN'T DO IT GUYS! I DIDN'T DO IT!" I wasn't there but Elise said that she looked like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. =)

I'm pretty sure that was the most epic thing I've ever crossed off the list. Ever.

The courage shown by that young woman can only be that of our Lord. I have never felt the power of prayer as much as I felt it during that rosary. Those 5 small decades held so much hope, so much strength, so much faith... I felt it. So did she, apparently, because inside those hard, cold walls, she stood up for the truth. Please keep her in your prayers -- she needs ongoing prayer for an ongoing decision to keep her baby to term. Her tiny baby needs our prayers as well, as do all of the women that enter those doors each day.

Thank the Lord for that tiny baby!