ProWomanProLife

  • The Story
  • The Women
  • Notable Columns
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Archives for All Posts / Charitable

On living plan A, again

April 15, 2015 by Andrea Mrozek 1 Comment

This is a post about self-care for mothers in large families.

However, it is also a post about making plans, and what happens when those well-made plans fall apart.

I imagine Veronique’s story may scare some. But to me, it is inspirational. We often find ourselves in situations we could not have envisioned. Veronique finds herself as the mother of a large family. I find myself doing something for my job that wasn’t ever on the radar, not even remotely.

My “plans” were probably as planned as Veronique’s, which is to say, not at all. Furthermore, my plans were boring. I had ideas about work and family that were entirely conventional.

The thing with family is we’ve learned to think it’s optional. We don’t need help, parents, siblings, spouses or children. We want them, many of us, but then, only when we really want them. Aka, not when it’s inconvenient. In varying degrees, family is always inconvenient. And this is true of many meaningful acts, the most meaningful acts. A pastor once challenged all of us to make sure we took time to smile, speak, buy a meal for homeless people on our way to wherever we were going. His point was that the moments when one is wandering around the downtown core with volunteerism on the mind having allotted the appropriate time are very rare. You have to choose to help in the moment when it is needed, when someone is before you, or not at all. Pretty soon you look a whole lot like one Ebenezer Scrooge asking if there aren’t any prisons or workhouses about for someone else to do the caring.

Learning to care about anyone at all starts in a family, where the care is compulsory either because these are your children or because this is your spouse and you signed on the dotted line for a lifetime, or because these are your parents who raised you and sacrificed for you. One of my greatest fears is that even in the family we now outsource so much that we have lost that sense of obligatory care, which means in short order we will lose all care.

I think I’m rambling now. Go read Veronique’s post.

prisons

“Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?” One should never miss an opportunity to post an Ebenezer photo so I’m grabbing this one right now. Carpe diem.

 

 

Filed Under: All Posts, Charitable, Featured Posts, Feminism

Kara Tippetts is dying…with dignity

March 20, 2015 by Faye Sonier 1 Comment

Kara TippettsKara Tippetts, the Colorado mama of four, is now in her final days. Kara Tippetts made  headlines in November when she encouraged Brittany Maynard to live out her days rather than kill herself. Both women faced terminal conditions. Maynard chose assisted suicide. Tippetts chose palliative care.

After her diagnosis, Tippetts wrote two books, both of which I’ve read over the last month. She also kept her community and the world abreast of her condition and her deterioration via her blog and Facebook page. If you have time, read through some of the articles written by Tippetts, her husband and her loved ones. They are powerful and they are hopeful. They speak to the sadness of death and separation from loved ones, but they also speak of love, community, hope and shine a light on the best palliative care has to offer.

A documentary about Tippetts is in the process of being made and the trailer is here. I hope it has a powerful impact on the global debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide. I hope it influences our common understanding of the term “death with dignity”.

Tippetts didn’t chose assisted suicide, but it would be dishonest to say that this woman is not dying with dignity.

Filed Under: All Posts, Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia, Charitable, Featured Media

Pregnancy Care Centre National Day of Prayer

March 20, 2015 by Faye Sonier 2 Comments

Woman in PrayerPWPL isn’t a faith-based blog, but we know a number of our readers come from various faith traditions. Please join me and pro-lifers across the country on April 2 for the Canadian Association of Pregnancy Support Services’ first annual National Day of Prayer. Put in your calendar, set an alert on your smartphone. Let’s pray together.

Some prayer points:

PRAISE for God’s mercy, grace, and for the privilege we have to walk alongside those who are hurting, scared, and alone.

PRAISE for the difference pregnancy centres are making in communities across Canada.

FORGIVENESS for our country, for not valuing each and every God-given human life.

PURITY for all leaders in pregnancy centres and for the church as a whole – to seek His ways and follow Him.

PROTECTION from the enemy and the lies put out to distort the reputation of pregnancy centres.

BOLDNESS to stay true to our mission, especially when that mission is counter-cultural.

Prayer is powerful. It changes the world, and perhaps most importantly, it changes those of us who pray. In the words of Elizabeth Elliot:

Prayer lays hold of  God’s plan and becomes the link between His will and its accomplishment on earth. Amazing things happen, and we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit’s prayer.

 

 

Filed Under: All Posts, Charitable, Featured Posts, Pregnancy Care Centres

Leo: his mother made his father choose between them

February 6, 2015 by Faye Sonier 2 Comments

This is a story of love and generosity for a dark day.

When Samuel Forrest’s son Leo was born in Armenia, his wife gave him an option: the child would go to an orphanage, or they would divorce.

Samuel chose Leo.

But the beauty of the story doesn’t end there. He started a GoFundMe campaign to get him and Leo back to his native New Zealand. He hoped to raise $60,000.

Samuel Forrest

Guess how much has been given to this man and little son?  $366, 285.

Let’s do that again: $366,285.

Samuel’s words remind us just how easily a society can devalue those who are different, ill or who have disabilities:

Forrest, who’s from Auckland, New Zealand, said he was completely unaware of the hospital practices in Armenia when it came to children.

“What happens when a baby like this is born here, they will tell you that you don’t have to keep them,” he said. “My wife had already decided, so all of this was done behind my back.” …

Forrest has recently been working with disability awareness groups to share his story in the hopes that parents will become better educated on children with special needs.

“After what I’ve been through with Leo, I’m not going to sit back and watch babies be sent to orphanages,” he said. “As a child with Down syndrome, that becomes somewhat of a label. If we can get around this label, we’ll see that they’re normal. They’re a little different from us, but they’re still normal.

“They all have niches and I want to work hard to find out where Leo’s special. This little guy is great.”

Oh, Canada.

Filed Under: All Posts, Charitable, Featured Posts

What do children really need and want?

January 28, 2015 by Faye Sonier Leave a Comment

We put off having children until we can offer them what we think is the world, and we sometimes abort them because we think we don’t have enough to give them.

Touch

But what do children really want and need?

 

 

Filed Under: All Posts, Charitable, Featured Posts, Motherhood

The Drop Box

January 9, 2015 by Andrea Mrozek 4 Comments

Screen Shot 2015-01-09 at 12.25.31 PM

This is a GREAT movie. I’ve seen it and I recommend it unreservedly. A tale of love. Of compassion. Of what one person can achieve. In select theatres March 4 and 5–sign up for updates and then go see it!

 

 

Filed Under: All Posts, Charitable, Featured Posts

Life’s real angels

November 17, 2014 by Natalie Sonnen 1 Comment

origin_3023750420(1)

True love is infectious, and nothing could be more fetching than seeing love emanating from a big, happy family.

This family is particularly special.  Janet and Keith accepted their first son, born with severe disabilities, with so much love that the experience of caring for him opened their hearts to later adopting another little girl with Down Syndrome.  This would be their third child.

The example of friends who had adopted three siblings with Downs also inspired them to adopt and they went on to adopt and foster dozens of disabled children.

Their own love and example inspired family members to open their homes to adoption and foster care.  What a beautiful testimony to the wonder and beauty of all human life.

This week I will have the opportunity to view this movie, about a pastor and his wife who did something similar to Janet and Keith. Again, through the acceptance and love that they gave to their son born with severe disabilities, they became open to the lives of other abandoned and disabled children.

The movie DropBox is about their journey from regular parents to heroic lovers of life and the little children who come to them through a tiny door built into the side of their home.

May the world be graced with many, many more people like them.

 

Photo credit

Filed Under: Charitable, Featured Posts

“Childcare and academia can be juggled”

November 5, 2014 by Faye Sonier 4 Comments

Follow this link to see the photo of a mama with her babe that went viral.

A photo of a graduate in gown and mortarboard breastfeeding her baby has been Liked over 170,000 times on Facebook.

The University of Sunshine Coast posted a photo of Australian mother Jacci Sharkey and her six week old son Alek on its official Facebook page yesterday, alongside a message of thanks from the mum. […]

“It wasn’t a statement [on breastfeeding] or anything like that. I would have sent the same picture to the uni had he [Alek] had a bottle or a sandwich … it was just the fact that I’m a mum, it’s not I’m a breastfeeding mum, just I’m a mum,” she said.

“It was really a message of thanks and that other mums can do it as well.

Women don’t require abortions in order to continue their education. Families and communities can rally around them and offer support. There are also organizations and programs that offer a helping hand as well. As this mama testifies, it can be done without a life being lost. There are choices other than abortion.

Baby

 

Filed Under: All Posts, Charitable, Featured Posts

Pro-life event in Lethbridge on Saturday

November 5, 2014 by Faye Sonier Leave a Comment

This sounds like a great event:

Country music star George Canyon will be singing for a good cause Saturday when he pays a visit to Lethbridge.

Canyon will perform in concert at Southminster United Church starting at 7 p.m. in support of the Lethbridge Pregnancy Care Centre.

The centre provides emotional and practical support for those facing an unplanned pregnancy or pregnancy-related challenges.

Piano

 

Filed Under: All Posts, Charitable, Featured Posts, Pregnancy Care Centres

I’m a pro-life mom with a broken heart

October 29, 2014 by Faye Sonier 9 Comments

You’ll likely notice that the blog has been fairly quiet in the last week. We don’t usually go dark this long.

I’ve been struggling to blog, even with the writing of very short posts.

I was overwhelmed by the terrorist attack in my city, Ottawa.

I’m sick. My husband is sick. My son is sick. We’re all tired.

I just finished writing an essay about abortion for a publication. It required considerable academic research and spending days reading about the conclusive evidence that abortion hurts a significant number of women and their partners. (Informed consent, anyone?) That left me emotionally drained.

And doing pro-life work, even volunteer activities while on mat leave, is harder for me than it was in my pre-motherhood days.

Last week, I came across an article regarding the ethics of killing children who survive abortion procedures. I was nearly sick. And I was nearly sick every time I looked at my precious baby that day. I was gagging. The revulsion was real and it was physical.

In Western society, we apparently need to debate whether, looking into the eyes of a living, breathing, screaming child, we should kill him/her. Because the child survived our initial attempt at killing him/her.

I could swear and scream right now still thinking about that article. I’ve been doing pro-life work for some time. I know this isn’t the first time that issue is raised. But it’s the first time I’ve really had to think about it since giving birth to my son a few months ago. I look at him and think about all the little boys and girls like him who have been killed, who will be killed, and who are being killed right now.

I’m angry. I’m sad. And I feel sick.

Woman

We live in one of the best countries in the world, and I’m proud to be Canadian. But we’re legally killing 100,000 of our little Canadians per year.

[TWEETBLOCK text=”Tweet this”] I’m proud to be Canadian. But we’re legally killing 100,000 of our little Canadians per year. [/TWEETBLOCK]

There are some days that I cannot wrap my head around that stat. Today is one of those days.

Canada is one of the great defenders of human rights. For everyone, except those of their own citizens who happen to be at an early stage of growth and development. They have no recognized human rights.

So here I am tonight, without much to blog about but feeling PWPL really ought to produce something. I’m down and frankly a little depressed.

I’m digging through my email and checking my listservs for something to write about. I follow a few links and then land on the page for National Abortion Federation (NAF). Who are they?

The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is the professional association of abortion providers in North America. We believe that women should be trusted to make private medical decisions in consultation with their health care providers.

For some reason, it never occurred to me that there would be a national association for abortion providers. Pretty dumb eh? And you know what my mind went to? I thought, “My gosh, their conferences and Christmas parties must be so depressing.”

Really. That was my first thought. Why? Because killing children as a career strikes me as a depressing job. So getting together to talk about it would only serve to emphasize the loss and sadness associated with that chosen career.

But their parties probably aren’t all doom and gloom. Because they believe on some or maybe all levels that they are helping women by helping them kill their children. Well-meaning health practitioners and doctors are dismembering and killing babies in the hopes of helping women. They are doing so even if studies from Canada, the United States, and Sweden clearly show that there are negative outcomes for a significant number of women and their male partners following their abortions. And of course all the dead babies whom they did not consider their patients.

All these stories and articles and heck, professional associations, break my heart. My heart breaks for the children lost, but also for the women and the men involved, and even for the professionals who participate. Abortion is a tragedy for all.

I can’t look at my son and not be more convicted about the good, the necessary and the vital work that pro-lifers do every day. I need to find some way to battle the staggering sadness and revulsion. And I need to keep hoping and loving and suggesting that there is a better way forward for our society.

One that is pro-woman, pro-child and pro-life.

Filed Under: All Posts, Charitable, Featured Posts

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Follow Us

Facebooktwitterrssby feather

Notable Columns

  • A pro-woman budget wouldn't tell me how to live my life
  • Bad medicine
  • Birth control pills have side effects
  • Canada Summer Jobs debacle–Can Trudeau call abortion a right?
  • Celebrate these Jubilee jailbirds
  • China has laws against sex selection. But not Canada. Why?
  • Family love is not a contract
  • Freedom to discuss the “choice”
  • Gender quotas don't help business or women
  • Ghomeshi case a wake-up call
  • Hidden cost of choice
  • Life at the heart of the matter
  • Life issues and the media
  • Need for rational abortion debate
  • New face of the abortion debate
  • People vs. kidneys
  • PET-P press release
  • Pro-life work is making me sick
  • Prolife doesn't mean anti-woman
  • Settle down or "lean in"
  • Sex education is all about values
  • Thank you, Camille Paglia
  • The new face of feminism
  • Today’s law worth discussing
  • When debate is shut down in Canada’s highest places
  • Whither feminism?

Categories

  • All Posts
  • Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia
  • Charitable
  • Ethics
  • Featured Media
  • Featured Posts
  • Feminism
  • Free Expression
  • International
  • Motherhood
  • Other
  • Political
  • Pregnancy Care Centres
  • Reproductive Technologies

All Posts

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in