Monday, January 19, 2009

The Sanctity of Life

Yesterday was a moving day at church!! It was the day that we focused on the sanctity of life and how precious life is. Sadly, there are many in our world today that do not have the same opinion. That is made clear as so many innocent babies are killed while still in their mother's womb. I could go on and on about why this sickens me so much, but I would have to write a book to do so. Where it really hits home with me on a personal level is something that James shared with our church yesterday. He covered the whole gamut of this discussion including not only abortion, but also murder, suicide and euthanasia. He did a wonderful job explaining and showing from God's word how each and every life is to be valued. And he shared that just how God chose to bring us into this world, He and only He has the right to decide the time and the way and individual should leave this world.

We never imagined that we would be faced with the question of abortion, but when we found out that our second daughter Dana was going to have Down Syndrome, that is the option that was placed before us. We would never even consider such a terrible thing and of course that was the answer we gave before the question was even finished being asked. I was so shocked to hear how many people thought of us as some kind of heroes for making that decision. We weren't being heroic, we were having our baby that God so blessed us with. Why would we ever think it to be our choice to give or take away her life? God knit her being together in my womb and she was no less "fearfully and wonderfully made" by Him because she had Down Syndrome. As James shared this yesterday he went on to share what a blessing she was and is and what our lives would have missed out on if we didn't have her. At that point he told the congregation that he wanted to show them that little blessing and I let Dana go from the rear of the auditorium to walk down front to him. I wasn't sure what she would do, and it didn't really matter. But she was perfect, just like she knew her role and "performed" it right on cue! It was precious!!! As he held her for a few minutes and continued to share, there was hardly a dry eye there. Below are a few pictures our other precious daughter, Emily took. We need to be thankful for our lives and those of our loved ones and consider every day that we have as an honor and a privilege that God has given us the gift of life!!!




8 comments:

Whitney said...

This is so sweet. Dana is such a precious gift! I love her & I love your family! Dana was about to come sit with me, but her Daddy took her up! Haha, I could hear her "Wooo!" when he started speaking about her :) Love ya!

Jeannie said...

Thanks, Whit! I love you too! Yeah, she did want to sit with you! Mean ole' Daddy!

daynagonzalez said...

Thanks for sharing that Jeannie! I had a hard time not bawling my eyes out yesterday, and here I am crying again. Dana is precious and I am so thankful to know her.

Nana said...

The service and message yesterday was so good and how precious when Dana went up to be with her daddy. It really was a very touching and precious time. We love you guys and are so thankful to have you as our pastors. You have a precious family/

Kim C said...

so sweet. what a blessing. thanks for sharing. I listened to your playlist today. Great choice of music. I may come to you blog sometime and play your playlist in the background. I do that sometimes with mine, but you have a good variety of ones I don't have. Which a few of them I am going go add today. Blessings!

Tamara said...

Oh Jeannie, I am sitting here in tears after reading your heartfelt words. I never would have dreamed in a million years that Dennis and I would walk the same path that you and James have and yet, here we are. We too, were sickened and shocked when the doctors told us to abort Hannah and that we were thinking emotionally instead of logically. NEVER would we have even considered abortion and like you said, the blessing that we would have missed out on had we taken the doctors advice. Thank you for sharing this. I wish I had known the sermon James was going to preach as we would have visited your church yesterday. We think and pray for yall daily! You are a blessing to me!

Jaime said...

Ok! I thought I was done crying over this sermon and yet Dana's sweet face hugging on her daddy has left me with the same wet face as on that Sunday! Dana is such a blessing to your family, to so many others, and to me! I never would have imagined I would get to care for such a precious little girl. Thanks for the honor and privilege of having a part in the "Woozers" life. I love her dearly and ya'll too!

Anonymous said...

I love Dana sooooooo much!!!!! She is the best little sis I could ever have!!!! Love you Dana!