Every Life Is Beautiful

Sometimes my son mentions that he could easily have been aborted.It would have made sense.  Josh grew up for 8 years with his alcoholic, drug addict mom.  Her daughter, 6 years older, was being raised by the grandparents. He could be an inconvenience.But his mom birthed him and kept him—and exposed him to poverty, crime, abuse, neglect.  When he was finally taken from her at age 8, he was broken-hearted, confused, angry.And God sent him to our family.We welcomed him, but it took years for him to believe we would not abandon him.  And in those years he took all of us through some very hard times.Occasionally, on very bad days, he would wish he had never been born.But on many days I have heard him express gratitude that his birth mom did not abort him.A few days ago my husband and I watched a powerful movie, October Baby.  It is based on the true story of a girl, Hannah in this film, whose mother tried to abort her, but she lived.   A couple adopted her, loved her, protected her.But when she discovered the truth of who she was, she embarked on a difficult, emotional and real journey to find who she was.I cried.  I think my husband did too.The words that come to mind for this story:  redemption, forgiveness, love, grace, hope.The tagline for the movie is "Every life is beautiful."  Hannah discovered this.That’s what we know as we see what God has done in our son’s life.You won’t want to miss this movie when it opens in March.  You can learn more here, and you can watch the trailer here.Believe again that every life is beautiful.What about you?  How have you discovered the beauty in your life?c2011 Judy Douglass