One of my passions, part 1

The kids are with Mom and Dad for the weekend, and I took a nap when I got back. So I was lying in bed tonight wide awake and thinking, and I thought I'd share my thoughts... :)

Everybody has things they get excited about, but a lot of the things I love may not trip your trigger. There are also plenty of things that I just don't care much about that others find quite compelling. Epidural vs. natural birth? Don't care. Organic food? Nope. Cloth diapers vs. disposable? Nada. You may feel strongly, and that's just fine, but I'm probably not going to get excited with you one way or the other. :)

There are so many great and wonderful things that God can call us to give a lot of time and energy to doing. For me, that's homeschooling. I'm passionate about it, and I enjoy spending my days on this. Another family might get really passionate about adoption, for example. I think its great that people adopt, and I read adoption blogs, but I don't feel called to adopt. I'm doing something different that God has called me to do, and those that adopt are doing the same. If we all got excited about exactly the same things, the world wouldn't be very interesting, and I like variety. :)

But its not like I have only one thing that floats my boat. :) Homeschooling takes so much from me right now that I don't have much time to indulge other passions, but a major one for me is caring for the unborn. One of these days, I hope to get more involved with that.

Once upon a time, over 10 years ago now, I was a volunteer counselor at a crisis pregnancy center. Because it was so long ago, and because I am not disclosing the city or any names and detailed descriptions, I feel like its safe to talk about this now.

I wanted to work with a CPC from the time I was in high school. I helped some other teen girls clean the one in the town close to us as a way to help out, but teens weren't allowed to counsel. So when I got the chance to take the volunteer training the first year that I was married, I jumped at that. I counseled at night after work once a week until we moved a year later.

I loved working at this center. It was a converted house in a downtown area, and everything had been done to make it as inviting as possible. The counseling rooms were decorated in soothing colors, and there were soft chairs and sofas. There were lots of lamps giving it a warm glow in the evenings.

When a woman came in, we would give her a pregnancy test to take on her own. Then she would come into the counseling room to talk while we waited for her test results. We had a standard form to fill out, and I'd ask the typical questions like name and birthdate, etc. We asked what she would want to do if the test was positive- parent, place for adoption, or abort. I thought this was really helpful because it helped her to think about her state of mind before she knew the test results.

If the test was positive, I would take out a wheel that would tell me her due date based on her last period. I would ask her about her concerns, about who was a support to her during this time, and ask about what she might need.

I always asked to pray with each woman, and I never had a single one refuse that. Each time I prayed, I would mention that God knew her, that He created her and loved her, and that He had a plan for her. I prayed for peace for her and for wisdom for her.

If a woman was leaning toward abortion, we would offer an ultrasound. The ultrasounds were done at the clinic by volunteer doctors and ultrasonographers. They would come in one night a week usually, and I would try to come back and be there if I had a client who was signed up for one. The doctor was male, and there would be another woman in there with him when he was doing an ultrasound.

I can't speak for all CPCs, but at this one, the goal was always to show gentle love to every mother and unborn child. Nobody pushed the mother to make a decision not to abort. If they asked about abortion, we told them that we didn't provide or refer for abortions, but that was about it. We asked questions and provided information about what was happening in her womb, spoke about the child as a "baby," and showed her pictures of fetal development. Anyone leaning toward abortion was told that they were always welcome at the CPC, no matter what decision that they made. I know that there was a post abortive counseling class available.

The whole goal was informed consent, and the prayer was that a woman would see the life in her as a life just like hers. Ultrasounds were crucial to this, and I saw firsthand how in awe some women were to see their baby's tiny heartbeat on the monitor.