On Tuesday, April 23rd,
our doors opened for the first time that morning to a young girl at 11:30 am.
She didn’t know anyone who had already been here. She didn’t read about us on
the website. She didn’t even have an appointment. She just saw our sign, and
walked into our center. She needed confirmation of her pregnancy, but she truly
needed so much more. I walked her into the counseling room, and introduced
myself into her hopeless season.
She was
just 16 years old, working to earn her G.E.D. Her boyfriend, also 16, was on
schedule to graduate early. They wanted to provide for this baby together as
their own, little family unit. The plans were already made: They
would live in his parents’ house until he graduated. They would then move into
an apartment together to raise their new baby themselves, no further help from
his family and no initial help from her’s. This
was the life she planned for herself. She planned to have a child right then at
16 years old. But why? Why was her family unconcerned? Why was she running into
this unstable life? Without prompting, she admitted the reasons to my unasked
questions.
“My mom is dying.”
She
continued to explain that her mom was diagnosed with cervical cancer only a
year previously. Now the cancer had attacked to such a vicious degree that her
mom laid at home, heavily sedated and unconscious. The doctors involved in her
mom’s case told the family that she only had 3 more weeks to live,
if that long. Cancer, as so common with the disease, ravaged this woman’s body
beyond medical rescue.
The
client’s older brother planned to move his wife and baby into a home together once
his mother died. The client’s younger brother planned to move into their father’s
house. This family’s father, long-divorced from their mother,
did not even speak with our young client. The moment his ex-wife had passed
away, he planned to sign over his custody to whoever his daughter decided to live with.
No fight. No offer of comfort or protection. Just immediate rejection.
Her
security in a family structure was first struck with the
excruciating pain of divorce. Then a ruthless, fatal disease struck second. Her
guaranteed future as a legally parentless minor finally demolished all security
the word “family” once provided. She ached so
desperately to have that acceptance again, to be a wanted, vital member of a family
-no matter what that looked like-that she planned to start one herself. This
was the journey that brought this 16 year old girl into my counseling room.
With
such a sense of loneliness in the room, I shared the only hope she could find
rest. I told her about the relentless pursuit of her Creator to have a
relationship with her. I told her that
rejection in the Garden of Eden wasn’t enough to push God away. He saw that the
only way for her to even have the option for relationship with Him was the
merciless death of His own Son-and He saw her as worth it. I shared with her
the impact of choosing Christ, and the assurances He brings. She intently
listened, but, once I finished speaking, she simply gave a short response of a
few “I don’t know”s. Though she did
allow me to pray over her, she kept her heart closed.
The pregnancy test
read positive.
Her dad doesn’t care.
Her mom is too
sedated to even hear the words that her only daughter is having a baby.
“So
you are no longer strangers and outsiders. You are citizens together with God’s
people.
You are members of God’s family.”
Ephesians2:19
You are members of God’s family.”
Ephesians2:19
This
young girl is frantically searching, but she’s just finding herself even more
lost. Pray that she remembers the Savior that she learned about today. Pray for
understanding in her estranged father and healing in her dying mother. Pray
that this 16 year old, pregnant girl knows that she is noticed, wanted, and unashamedly
loved by the Father. Pray that her heart
softens and realizes the Hope that is waiting to embrace her, protect her, and
secure her in His family.
