Friday, July 9, 2010

Why I am Pro-life


Last week we had 2 speech experts spend two whole days with us, helping us become more confident in our public speaking skills - giving us constructive feedback that was really helpful.  On Tuesday, our assignment was write a speech over lunch, talking about why we were pro-life... The following is my speech written out to how I think I said it, I gave it off of keywords in person :-)

Every since I was a little girl, I have believed that all life is precious. My mom asked me when I was three years old - "what do you want to be when you grow up Abby?" Among other things, I mentioned that I wanted to be a nurse who took care of children all over the world. 

Every day, I saw children on the street, dressed in rags and begging. No one loved them and no one cared. I saw these children every day when my family and I were doing mission work in Romania for 5 years. I knew that even though the society considered them trash and the scum of the earth, God considered these children special, and therefore so should I. When I was 7 (our last year in Romania), my parents got involved in a street children’s ministry. I loved going down to the train station, where many of them lived in the sewers under the street, to serve them lunch. I loved watching many of their faces light up with just this small act of kindness and love. 



You might be wondering, what does this have to do with being pro-life? 

It has EVERYTHING to do with being pro-life - because of the foundational principle of the movement that ALL life is precious: whether it is elderly, disabled, unborn, or considered useless. These values became firmly rooted in me through my experiences in Romania.

My passion to become a nurse in order to protect the voiceless and hopeless did not waver through the years, it only strengthened. We moved back to the United States when I was 8 because my grandma was diagnosed with cancer. But through chemo, radiation and most importantly through God, she went into remission for 4 years almost as soon as we moved back home! But when I was in 7th grade, the cancer came back. We did everything that we possibly could to provide her with the best of care but the cancer was too widespread, and she spent her last five weeks on earth in an intensive care unit. While we basically lived in the hospital with her, I was able to experience for the first time how many medical professionals have no respect and do not help provide for people at the end of their life. Some nurses tried to drug Grandma up so that she would be so sedated she wouldn’t be a hassle. We fought for her - even though she couldn’t speak because of a tracheotomy, we could still communicated that we cared about each other - through hugs, through smiles, through notes passed back and forth. She was very alert and wanted to live as long as God wanted her to live. Some of her doctors pushed for us to end her life sooner, but that would have robbed us of our special goodbye that was peaceful and full of love. My grandma knew that we loved her and that we thought that her life was worth living and fighting for - and she too fought for every breath so that she could be with us just a little bit longer until her dying day. 

The nurses in that hospital impacted my life forever - those were 5 very formative weeks in my life. Those few nurses who were advocates for my grandma and respected and encouraged my family day in and day out made a difference in my grandma’s life and in my family’s life. From that point forward, I have wanted to grow up and be like those nurses so that I can fight for the lives of others who have no advocate. 

Then in high school I became more involved in the pro-life movement. I wrote in essay contests, participated in projects that reached out to the elderly and disabled in my community, raised money for orphans and the unborn, and even participated in a speech contest (where I went all the way to nationals). All these activities and more challenged me to research why I believed life was worth fighting for. Every year I became more and more convinced that God not only created every single individual in his image, but he also created each one for a purpose - no exceptions, no mistakes. Because this view is extremely opposed, I wanted to become more educated so that I could be an effective advocate for those that society has deemed unworthy of value and respect -  and this is why I wanted to attend the NRLC Academy this summer.

Many factors have shaped me into who I am today and why I am so passionate about protecting life. It is because I have seen with my own eyes (despite my initial perceptions and prejudices) that ALL life is precious in God’s eyes at any age or stage of development and therefore worth defending. 

4 comments:

  1. You said that beautifully, Abby. I've always believed that one day you would use your compassion (and soon, your skills) to help those who can't help themselves. You are God's hands and feet.

    Love,
    Grandma

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  2. Abby, I just read your speech to Mom. It was an honor to live these things with you, and to see God's hand at work in a mighty way.
    Dad

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  3. What a beautiful speech, Abby! Your heart is so wonderful and compassioniate for God's children. It is amazing that you made this during a lunch. I can only imagine what skills you are acquiring and the things you will be taking away from this experience. Your parents must be so proud of you. You have become a beautiful woman in Christ, every parents' prayer!

    Cathy Long

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  4. Thank you Grandma ... you are also a good example of being God's hands and feet - I want to be like you when I grow up :-) Love you.

    Dad - yes, I'm glad that we got to live these experiences together... Thank you and Mom for always helping us see the good within the hard. love you. AMEN!

    Cathy - Thank you... I agree, God is definitely helping me write these speeches in a very short amount of time :-) Thank you for being such a wonderful cheerleader and prayer support: I AM learning SO much - can't wait to see how all the puzzle pieces of my life thus far will fit together!

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