What A Precious Gift!

Giving life and protecting life is a virtuous act. Christ exemplified this by His death on the cross. He died that He may give life to the world and it is that life that you and me are enjoying today. Any act aimed at giving life or protecting life is a wonderful adventure. It is a Divine act.

Gianna was thrown out by her boy friend when she was found pregnant. Gianna felt that terminating the pregnancy was the only way to retain their friendship. She booked an appointment for the termination of her pregnancy, but something stopped her from going in for it. She got re-scheduled for another appointment which she eventually kept to. On reaching the abortuary, she found a group of people praying. This touched her in such a way that when she was approached for counselling she could not resist listening to the reasons to give her baby a chance to live. This decision resulted in the loss of her accommodation and, eventually, her relationship. Consequently, a lot of confusion set up in her life.

But she Providentially found solace at the Good Counsel Network, where she was taken by the people she met at the abortuary. The Good Counsel Network is a Pro-Life Charitable Organisation in the Catholic Church that lives exactly by the work she professes to do. This Network gives holistic care to women with crisis pregnancies. The Network gladly offers to protect mothers and the baby - in the womb and after it's birth. The Network is an ideal Pro-Life group, both in words and in deeds. Gianna came under the care of this Network. As time went on, Gianna, as well as her boyfriend, were tested to have ‘AS’ genotype (making them at risk of having a child with Sickle-Cell Anaemia). A new pressure was mounted on her to terminate the baby, for fear the baby may be born with Sickle-Cell. Her tension became stronger than the one she had during the first trimester of her pregnancy. She was encouraged by the Network and the Nuns* to keep the child, and to trust in God who has the power to change every situation for the better; also, to talk to the baby in the womb always, that all will be well.

At the end of her pregnancy, she gave birth to a handsome healthy baby boy who was tested, after three months of his birth, to be ‘AA’ (free of sickle-cell); to God be greater glory and honour, Amen!

Gianna, with tears of joy, brought the baby to the Nuns to announce the good news and exclaimed: “WHAT A PRECIOUS GIFT I WOULD HAVE LOST!”

So many lives have been lost in this way. Ignorance, lack of a good sense of values, and more painfully, lack of love and respect for life, and lack of a belief in God, have cost a lot of innocent lives. This is very heart-breaking. Any charitable organisation that promotes life like the Good Counsel Network, or my own Religious Order, The Holy Family Sisters of the Needy, has to be encouraged and supported. We are all created by God in His own image and likeness, therefore, the right to live must be respected! It is God who gives life and, therefore, He is the only one who equally has the right to take life. It is an obligation to every created being to work towards protecting every life created by God. Let us appreciate our life, and God who gives it, by ourselves becoming protectors of every life.

Sr Mary Joseph Ogbuokiri HFSN

* The Nuns are the Holy Family Sisters of the Needy, a Nigerian order of Religious Sisters with a particular charism of pro-life work, of which the author, Sr Mary Joseph, is one. These Sisters run Good Counsel's Home for Expectant and New Mothers and their babies.