For Jenny

There's a middle-aged lady I met a few days ago that really brought prospective to the way I view adoption and the process one goes through to obtain this precious gift, a child. In my years of declaring the importance of adoption in place of the alternative, abortion, I have never met someone with a story quite like this precious ladies.

Her name is Jenny and this is her story...

In 1956 Jenny's mother was extremely torn between the world of sex, drugs, and men, and the life her parents were expecting her to live. High society, glitz, glamor, and an image to uphold were just too much for a young girl who was being pulled into an under world of the complete opposite. It might have been the force her parents were putting on her or it could just have been the lure of "freedom". Whatever the reason, in the late summer of 1955 she packed a small backpack of essentials, snuck out of her house and never looked back on her quite, yet controlling, little family in northern California. Life would never be the same from that moment on.

Out on the streets she found that life was not all she had thought it would be. From Southern California, to Chicago, to New York her journey kept becoming darker and darker. The man she initially ran away with had long ago dumped her on a street corner in Laguna Beach, but she felt she couldn't return for fear of what her parents might say or do and her own selfish pride. So, from city to city she went only to find more and more rejection. Relationships only existed to feel an empty, emotional void, and also kept her rapidly increasing drug habit alive. Once in New York it seemed there wasn't much left to destroy of her life, but one bitterly cold night in early January of 1957, Jenny's mother discovered that she was going to have a baby. On top of the numerous diseases she had contracted from her "liberal" lifestyle, there was one thing she hated more than anything and that was to bring a child into a world that she despised. There was but one simple solution. She had met a friend that knew someone that took care of situations like this. It would be quick and cheap. That was what she liked to hear. On the evening she was to have the abortion she was walking down a back street when she came upon a church building that was alive with music. Joyous melodies began to spill into the streets from the half opened door and there was something that drew her to take a closer look. Now she had never been a religious girl or even been brought up in that type of atmosphere so when she saw what was taking place inside this building something inside her spirit screamed to go inside. Once in the doors she met a beautiful family of people that welcomed her in with open arms. From that moment on she knew she could have this baby, but only if these kind people would raise it. Sadly she didn't believe she could be a "fit" mother and care for a child when she was but one herself.

There was a young lady and her husband who attended that fellowship who had been trying to have a child for quite some time but to no avail. When she met this couple she knew that this was the man and woman that she wanted to raise her baby girl. Although she still very much wanted to be apart of this childs life she felt it best that her baby be raised by two responsible, loving parents. It was agreed upon and they got everything legally in order for them to take over custody when the child was born. On August 27, 1957 Jenny was born and given to her new adoptive parents. On December 20, 1957 Jenny's birth mother passed away from a disease she contracted while in the dark season of her life. The new family then moved south to Alabama where Jenny grew up to be a very successful and healthy woman who now has a family of her own with 3 grandchildren. All because of the power of love and how one decision can effect the lives of so many. Let this encourage you that YOU can make a difference...today. May you be moved by the power of love to change someone's life forever. It will be one of the greatest decisions you will ever make.

J.