Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

I asked my friend Annie to give one of the talks at our "Entering Canaan Mercy Renewal Retreat" This year, which focused on "Entering Canaan" and the parallels of the desert experience and healing from abortion. Here is her talk based from the quote below:

The desert is not a dwelling place; it is only a path, a road on
which one comes to know the merciful love of God. Everyone who seeks God
must pass along it, since the experience of the desert is closely
related to the deepening of our faith in His mercy. (GOF:pg131)

I was asked to give a talk at one of these post-abortion healing retreats recently, and this is what I said…
When my brother died unexpectedly at the age of 25, many
people came to the wake. Though I was destroyed by my beloved brother's
death, I was holding it together until the mother of a high school
friend came up to hug me and whispered in my ear, "I lost my brother
when we were both very young too. We're

praying for you all." I wept openly in relief on her shoulder.

I held a handmade sign at the 2003 March For Life that read, "24 years
later my choice hurts me still." This was before there were hundreds of
"I Regret My Abortion" signs. Two women came up to me tentatively and,
in utter amazement asked, "Is that your story?" I said yes. They broke
into tears and gushed, "Ours too! Oh thank you!" and we hugged.

When someone has suffered through precisely what we've suffered, no
matter whether it was our own choice or not, our hearts swell with
relief, gratitude and comfort. This, to me, is the best kind of
consoling: BeenThere, DoneThat.

That is what God offers us all. After all, He knows how it feels to lose a child, too.

And it's why these retreats are so very needed and it's good that you're all here.

I was 20 when I had my abortion. My daughter would have turned 34 later
this year, probably already having made me a grandma by now.

These words stop me in my tracks. I still find it surreal and impossible that it's my life I'm talking about.

 

the rest is here: http://afterabortion.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-desert-is-not-dwelling-place-it-is.html