A First Hand View of the Sanctity of Life

My daughter was considered “disposable” by most of the medical community. She had a fairly rare chromosomal disorder called Trisomy 18. Although “so-called termination” was never considered, we opted for an amnio to find out what we were dealing with. When the results came back with a problem where 85% of pregnancies end in stillbirth or miscarriage and 90% of those 700 or so born alive each year will not live to their first birthday, the perinatologist “recommended a D&C.” When I commented that my baby was still alive, he said, “If you know she is going to die anyway, does it really matter when?” I was horrified. YES. It does matter.

Our baby girl survived and defied so many dire predictions! She lived with us almost seven months before going home to Jesus’ comforting arms! We had 206 days to cuddle and snuggle. We had over six months to build memories of her with our (then) four year old son. Seven people accepted Christ’s invitation for a personal relationship at her Celebration of Life Service. Thousands of visits to our homepage and journal (since March 2004) attest to the fact that this tiny life had a purpose! She was here for a reason! Was she perfect physically? No. Had she lived, would she have been mentally agile? No. Could she love and understand love? I believe she did.

What is the measure by which we deem life “worth” keeping? Where is the scale we use to measure a life’s worthiness? Is it really up to us to make those calls? We chose to let God be God and determine the number of her days and we have been so blessed by the doing.

During this week where we pause and reflect on the sanctity of life, I wanted to add my two cents. Life is sacred. Period. Our little girl has forever changed my life. I will never be the same person I was before. I am a bit older, perhaps a bit wiser. While I had deeply held convictions before Audrey Grace came to stay for a while, they are now a part of my very being. Every life has a purpose. Every life has a reason for being. God doesn’t make mistakes. And through it all, I can say that God is Good, all the time.