The center is not open today, but our Board of Directors is meeting. As I walked out to get a bottle of water, I noticed a car in the parking lot and it sat there for quite some time. Then the phone rings. Normally I would let the answering service take the phone call, but I know that pause. The pause of sitting in the car, it’s a moment for her to work up her courage. I never want to turn that courage away if we are physically on site.
I answer the phone and we begin to talk about scheduling her for a pregnancy test. We discussed how many pregnancies she’s had, and there’s a pause. I ask her if she’s had a previous abortion, and instantly she begins to wail. This was not a cry, this was a wail. I told her I was in the building and would like to come out to the parking lot and bring her inside. Wonderful, to have a board of directors that understands that the needs of the client come first. We were just wrapping up a board meeting and one of the members offered to stay late in order to better serve this particular client.
As we sit in the room, she continues to cry. She begins to share how she didn’t think this abortion had really impacted her. She felt like she had done what she had to do with no choice. But she said when I asked the question, all the emotions came tumbling down. She realized that if she had had a few more minutes to contemplate that last pregnancy, abortion would not have been her decision. She realizes now the grief and the overwhelming guilt she feels. We talk about scheduling her Post Abortion Recovery Bible study. We get her scheduled next week for a pregnancy test and ultrasound.
This sounds like a terrible and overwhelming story. I hope that you see the hope and the joy that will be restored. Hope in the future of her next pregnancy. Joy because that’s what God does with the broken, shattered ashes of our lives. It’s when we’ve done something that we feel we can’t live with, he provides his restoration, his peace, his forgiveness… That’s what she’s about to discover in our abortion recovery study. There is so much healing for women who find themselves in that space.
Because of you and the way that you partner with Turning Point, we are able to sit in so many different arenas of life that women don’t ever have the opportunity to talk about. Where do you go to share your abortion? Where do you go to talk about the decision you made for your child on adoption? These topics are not accepted in everyday interactions. The topics are filled with guilt and shame, whether spoken or unspoken. Whether real or perceived. There needs to be a safe place for these types of conversations and that is what Turning Point provides.
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