Celebration of Life

“Our baby is deformed,” Scotty said. “Luke has a congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), a deformity in one baby out of 2500.”

“Luke’s liver and intestines are in his chest and his lungs are not developing,” said Janell. “But we are not giving up our baby.” While the family listened, Scotty and Janell explained that Luke had a 35% chance at life.

“When we went to San Francisco we talked to specialists on CDH,” said Janell.

“They told us that Janell is a candidate for fetal surgery,” said Scotty. “They would like to perform a trachea occlusion by inserting a balloon into Luke’s throat and blowing it up in his trachea to force the liver and intestines down.”

“Hopefully, the lungs would have time to develop before birth,” said Janell. “We want to know what you think. We need your help.”

Emotions stir in my heart as I relive these moments, but our family stood together through the fetal surgery and the birth of Luke. We stood together through major surgery five days after birth to relocate his intestines and liver so his lungs could develop. We stood together through recent surgeries to eliminate a bowel obstruction.

At first we were afraid to grow attached to Luke, but none of us could resist the opportunity to hold him close. When we held him we prayed for him. “I don’t know how anyone can look at our baby Luke and not believe in God,” says his dad, Scott.

Luke has grown into an active, affectionate three year old little boy. Aunt Gina says, “It’s like he’s returning all the love to us that we have given him.”

We would have missed the joy of watching Luke grow if Janell and Scott had chosen not to be bothered with all the problems. We would have missed the opportunity to draw together as a family and pray for Luke. We would have missed loving him, holding him, taking him camping, to McDonalds, Sunday school or the zoo.

I think of these things today on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. It’s hard for me to believe that more than 40 million abortions have been performed in the United States since 1973, of which 4% were cases of rape or incest. Abortion is legal until the moment of birth in all 50 states as determined by Roe vs. Wade and on accompanying case, Doe vs. Bolton in 1973. It doesn’t have to be this way because more than one million couples wait to love and care for an adopted child.

Abortion has left its ugly scars on lives of people across the globe. Many women suffer guilt, depression and insecurity from the choices they made to have abortions. If you are one of these women, and do not know about Post Abortion Counseling and Education, please call (916) 880-4040. PACE offers hope, encouragement, and healing through small, confidential groups. The foundation of this ministry is a 14 week Bible Study. God loves you and forgives you, and He doesn’t want you to suffer any longer.

If you would like to get involved, here are some simple ways you can help:
1. Pray for an end to abortion.
2. Volunteer your time or financial support to Pro-Life groups.
3. Share your convictions with your children and grandchildren.
4. Participate in Pro-life events held in your community.
With your help and prayers, God can change our future. He can bless us beyond our expectations.