It all began in 2008.
On a trip to Romania, I met the tiniest 6-month old baby I’d ever seen. She weighed only 6 pounds.
She had severe Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, other medical problems, and a large bed sore on her skeletal frame. She had been sent to the clinic my mom and I were about to volunteer at and was initially placed in isolation and then released for the first time when she was assigned to be cared for by my mom.
When Maria [not her real name] sneezed you couldn't hear her. When she cried, which was rare, no sound came out. When you stroked her face to tickle her, she wouldn't even crack a smile.
She was flat. Emotionless. Unloved.
I presume all she had known from conception to then was abuse and neglect. She drew no attention to herself because no attention was ever given her.
But then something changed.
Suddenly she was held. And rocked. And sung to. Suddenly she was kissed and cuddled. Her light—her life—was unleashed by my mom’s love, and it was amazing what happened next: she smiled, she laughed, and her cries made sound.
Love unleashes life.
It’s a concept. An idea. And when applied to encounters with our fellow humans, it is transformative.
How many more “Marias” are in our own backyard? Travelling the world for two decades and speaking to people about the controversial topic of abortion, and now other life issues, has lead me to many encounters with the lonely, the broken, and the abused. How do we reach peoples’ heads and their wounded hearts on matters of life and death that in some way affect us all? How do we hold conversations with kindness? How do we balance truth and love so that we preserve the lives of the pre-born as well as awaken the lives of the born?