Tag Archives: adoption

Unsung Heroines

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newborn getting weighedPhoto by Christian Bowen on Unsplash

By Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director 

Recently, a well-known, highly-respected columnist in Central PA revealed something she has hidden for far too long. And I want to applaud her.

Nancy Eshelman is to be commended for publicly revealing her secret of 57 years of having placed a child for adoption. Too often birth mothers who have gifted another family with a precious new life are hidden in the shadows and their story remains a mystery.  But every one of them does have a story.

Nancy’s story recounts the stigma that surrounded her unplanned pregnancy at the tender age of 15 and the shame she was made to feel at that time. She should not have been made to feel that way then, and no young woman today should feel that shame. On that point our society has evolved, but we still have work to do.

Without judgment as to the circumstances, a woman carrying human life within her deserves unconditional support and protection. Her body is providing shelter and nourishment to a human being who is unrepeatable and irreplaceable. She is giving life to the next generation and most likely, generations beyond that. She is already a mother.

Nancy’s story does not stop with the baby boy she placed for adoption, with whom she happily reunited years later. It carries on with his children and grandchildren and will continue with subsequent generations.  All because one woman, Nancy Eshelman, gave the gift of life, even under the less than ideal of circumstances.  The impact is immeasurable, the consequences infinite.

Let us recognize the adoption option as a noble choice.

Let us celebrate all birth mothers who grow and bear life, and in an act of selfless love, bestow a cherished child to another mother and father. These women are truly unsung heroines. These women give life.

Sharing Our Adoption Stories

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Baby ballerina

By Maria Gallagher, Legislative Director gallagher@paprolife.org

When I was a little girl, I learned that my mother’s favorite cousin, Valeria, had been adopted into the family. She was an individual with many gifts, including a talent for ballet and art. My father’s wish was that someday Valeria would paint a portrait of my mother that we could hang with pride in our living room.

Valeria lived far away, in the western part of the United States, so my mother was unable to see her. But a phone call from Valeria was a major event in our home and brought tremendous joy to my mother’s heart.

When Valeria passed away, she left my sister and me stacks and stacks of savings bonds. Apparently she had been buying them for us over the years, but never told my mother. The bequest came at a time when our family was in severe financial straits, so I was exceedingly grateful to the ballerina benefactor that I had never actually met.

Research indicates that, when a woman is distressed by an unexpected pregnancy, she views adoption as the worst option–worse than abortion. While we should do all we can to support women who wish to parent their children, for those who believe they are unable to parent at this time, we must share with them the beauty of adoption.

We need to share our adoption stories. They can save lives, and help form families made and sustained by the heart.

 

Making a Family Love Connection through the Internet

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By Maria Gallagher, Legislative Director
Gallagher@paprolife.org

I happened to be reading through a magazine when an interesting tidbit caught my eye. It was a blurb about a website dedicated to “using the Internet to build families.”

Curious, I decided to type https://www.adopttogether.org/ into Picture1my Internet browser. The homepage featured a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk by Hank Fortener, the founder of the website. He starts by going “old school,” talking about how a couple adopted his grandfather in 1929 from an orphanage. His grandfather and grandmother had a son, Chuck, who with his wife Anne had three biological children. Then Chuck and Anne ended up providing foster care to 36 children in their home. They went on to adopt a number of other children from many different countries, creating a stunning family portrait which appears in the video.

Determined to help other children find families despite tremendous obstacles, Hank founded a non-profit crowdfunding platform to help lower the financial hurdles that prospective adoptive couples face. Fortener notes that adopting a child today can cost as much as a luxury car. That’s where his organization comes in. Couples complete an online profile, submit a homestudy and the parent organization of Adopt Together then awards grants for adoption to prospective adopting families.

The marriage of entrepreneurial spirit and the Internet to create a family love connection is truly inspiring. Let’s hope that others can create equally innovative ways to promote adoption, which is the truly loving option for children who, in today’s society, could otherwise face extinction through abortion.

Couple Offers to Adopt after Watching Undercover Planned Parenthood Videos

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The undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s abortion practices have left many in our nation shocked and horrified.

kevincookBut one young couple who watched the undercover investigation decided they wanted to do something more.

LifeNews.com reports more about their story:

Kevin and Nicole Cook lost a baby to miscarriage almost two years ago and have been struggling with infertility ever since.

When the Kentucky couple saw the undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood profiting off aborted babies’ body parts, they were heartbroken, Live Action News reports.

“… it doesn’t break my heart .. it completely shatters it,” Kevin, a seminary student, wrote on his blog after watching the fourth undercover video, showing Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains’ Vice President and Medical Director, Dr. Savita Ginde, negotiating a fetal body parts deal, agreeing multiple times to illicit pricing per body part harvested, and suggesting ways to avoid legal consequences.

Kevin and his wife were moved to take action. Kevin sent out a call on his blog to mothers considering abortion:

If anyone out there reads this and is considering abortion, I will take your baby. My wife and I will gladly take all your babies! I’m completely serious. If you are pregnant and don’t want your child, we will. It’s not a fetus. It’s a blessing. Life matters.

That was in July. In October, the couple took their desire to adopt one step further and joined sidewalk counselors outside the abortion clinic in Lexington, Kentucky. Kevin and Nicole made signs that read: “God loves you and your baby” and “Please don’t abort … we will adopt your baby. Come talk to us!” Their passionate plea was met with mockery at the abortion facility, but they persevered.

Before going home, the Cooks took a picture of themselves outside the abortion center. They shared the photo and their dream to adopt on Facebook. Friends and family began to share the post and then it spread – to tens of thousands of others, according to the blog.

Four days later, Kevin shared good news on his blog – pregnant moms were messaging them about adoption.

He wrote:

The past few days have been insane! I’ve barely been able to touch my studies. … We’ve had literally thousands of messages from people all across the country. Many of them are supportive messages of encouragement. Even more are from families looking to adopt, either asking to be connected with a mother or for help in getting started.

… We’ve been in touch with dozens of pregnant women who were considering abortion, but after seeing our post reconsidered and messaged us. Amen to choosing life! However, a number of them seem to have fallen through for various reasons (miscarriage, no follow up communication, legal issues, etc).

We are still looking for the right situation for God to use us to save the life of a child who would otherwise be aborted, and we would love to be able to save two if God provides that!

The couple also has been very busy helping connect many of the pregnant women to local adoption agencies, according to the blog. They said many women who have contacted them want to choose adoption over abortion – but they just don’t know where to go.

The Cooks said they hope to “completely overwhelm” adoption agencies with birth mothers who have contacted them about their babies – and help save thousands of innocent lives from abortion.

Simple Reminders about the Value of Adoption

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Editor’s note: We are re-running one of our old column this month as part of Adoption Awareness Month.

By Micaiah Bilger

As I sit here at my desk and type, I can see my little sister’s picture in the corner of my eye. Her face is vibrant as she poses in her pink and blue ballerina tutu with little fairy wings and a flower pinned in her hair.

PortraitBelow that is a funny little picture that she sketched in church one day, a scribbly portrait of me and my husband. Every time I look at it, I smile. My husband has one big curly hair coming off the top of his head, and I think I have a tail.

Sometimes, I forget that my little sister was adopted. Even though we are 20 years apart and I was married before she was part of our family, I don’t think of her with an “adopted” label.

But when I saw that November is National Adoption Awareness Month, I was reminded that adoption brought her into my family’s lives. She has been a blessing in big ways and small ways, from her scribbly picture that greets me every morning at work to her filling my parents’ empty nest with the joy that only a child can bring.

And I just want to thank her birth mother and every birth mother who makes the difficult decision to make an adoption plan. I don’t know if my little sister’s birth mother considered having an abortion, but I do know she had the wisdom to see the value of her little girl’s life.

This is a short, simple post, but I just wanted to remind you (as I remind myself) of the value of adoption.

Learn more about adoption in Pennsylvania at AdoptPAKids.org.

3 Questions Lawmakers Should Ask Pa. Planned Parenthood

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By Maria Gallagher, Legislative Director

When pink t-shirted Planned Parenthood activists swarm the state Capitol in Harrisburg this coming week, they will likely be talking about “reproductive justice,” “women’s health,” and “family planning.”

PlannedParenthood1But chances are they will not be speaking about a number of aspects of their own annual report, which shows just how radical the nation’s number-one abortion performer is in terms of promoting abortion, minimizing adoption, and raking in the taxpayer dough.

The 2013 Planned Parenthood annual report showed the abortion giant committing more than 327,000 abortions. So much for the old pro-abortion mantra of keeping abortion safe, legal, and rare.

For every one adoption referral, Planned Parenthood performed 174 abortions. With that kind of average, the organization is may be a peak performer in the abortion business, but is a non-starter when it comes to promoting adoption.

Moreover, cries of underfunding seem particularly strange, when the non-profit devours more than a half-billion dollars in taxpayer money each year.

State lawmakers would be wise to ask Planned Parenthood officials some pointed questions, such as:

1.) Why are your abortion totals so high?
2.) Why are your adoption referrals so low?
3.) Why does a non-profit need half a billion dollars of our constituents’ hard-earned tax money?

The pink t-shirt parade cannot conceal the ugly truth that Planned Parenthood takes the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens each year…causes unspeakable pain for countless numbers of women…undermines adoption…and wastes hundreds of millions of tax dollars on an annual basis. Planned Parenthood Action Day is not a cause for celebration, but a reason for massive mourning.

Simple Reminders about the Value of Adoption

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As I sit here at my desk and type, I can see my little sister’s picture in the corner of my eye. Her face is vibrant as she poses in her pink and blue ballerina tutu with little fairy wings and a flower pinned in her hair.

PortraitBelow that is a funny little picture that she sketched in church one day, a scribbly portrait of me and my husband. Every time I look at it, I smile. My husband has one big curly hair coming off the top of his head, and I think I have a tail.

Sometimes, I forget that my little sister was adopted. Even though we are 20 years apart and I was married before she was part of our family, I don’t think of her with an “adopted” label.

But when I saw that November is National Adoption Awareness Month, I was reminded that adoption brought her into my family’s lives. She has been a blessing in big ways and small ways, from her scribbly picture that greets me every morning at work to her filling my parents’ empty nest with the joy that only a child can bring.

And I just want to thank her birth mother and every birth mother who makes the difficult decision to make an adoption plan. I don’t know if my little sister’s birth mother considered having an abortion, but I do know she had the wisdom to see the value of her little girl’s life.

This is a short, simple post, but I just wanted to remind you (as I remind myself) of the value of adoption.

Learn more about adoption in Pennsylvania at AdoptPAKids.org.

IRS Targets Adoptive Families, Pro-life Groups

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Every time I read about the IRS scandal, I find something new to shake my head at in disgust.

My most recent head-shaking started after reading about adoptivePicture1 families being targeted by the IRS for audits.

According to a National Review article, the IRS audited 69 percent of families claiming adoption tax credits in 2012.

Having a sister and a cousin who are adopted, I know the amount of paperwork and preparation, expense and time, waiting and emotion that goes into the adoption process. To saddle an audit on these newly adoptive families who are trying to love and care for a new child is just infuriating to me.

Along with the Tea Party and other conservative groups, the IRS also targeted a number of pro-life groups. They demanded to know how pro-life prayer meetings were educational and required the pro-lifers to promise not to protest Planned Parenthood. Read more about them here.

The Blessings of Adoption on a Sunday Afternoon

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On Sunday afternoons, I never know exactly what I will be doing.

One week, I may be mopping floors and washing dishes under the eye of my demanding step-mother. The next week, I’ll be saving lives with my red cape and trusty sidekick.logo

Or putting on my prettiest dress and hoping the prince will notice me at the ball. Or gathering sticks in the woods for a campfire by our covered wagon. Or urging on my trusty horse, Sunshine, as we race to the finish line.

All thanks to the imagination of my 6-year-old adopted sister.

Her imagination reminds me of her life in general and the lives of all adopted children — so full of possibilities. Their mothers recognized these possibilities when they chose not to have an abortion, and when they made the difficult decision to give their child to another family. And adoptive parents recognize these possibilities when they persevere through the paperwork and home studies and expenses to provide a loving home for a child.

Now, Pennsylvania is making the possibility of adoption easier to learn about. The Pennsylvania Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network just launched a new mobile adoption website this week at http://www.adoptpakids.org/.

The new mobile site allows people to search adoption profiles, view a photo album, and learn how to become a foster or adoptive parent.

Please stop in when you get the chance and learn more about adoption in our state. You can look through the photos of children waiting to be adopted and read short profiles about them. Just imagine their potential!

Adoption can be such a blessing to children who need families; but in my experience, the blessings that they give back to their families often extend beyond anyone’s wildest imagination – especially on Sunday afternoons.

Western Pa. Abortion Center Temporarily Stops Abortions

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Fewer abortions are happening in Pennsylvania today.

An abortion center run by Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania has stopped offering surgical abortions while it renovates its facility to comply with a new law. Sadly, the facility plans to begin doing abortions again when the renovations are finished. Read the news story here.

For this short time of renovations, we hope and pray that the women who were thinking about getting an abortion there this month will consider other options – keeping her baby or giving the baby up for adoption.

Pregnant women in Pennsylvania have access to support thanks to programs like Real Alternatives and other pregnancy resource centers. These community centers offer resources to women while they are pregnant and after they give birth. Learn more about pregnancy centers and resources available in your area here.

November also is National Adoption Month. Learn more about adoption in Pennsylvania here.