Drowning Slowly

Coming from a liberal family, I've held the same beliefs and politics that I was brought up to believe through high school, college and even into my first years of marriage. One topic that I had always been sure of was abortion...until I had my own child growing in my wife's belly. Before I considered having my own children, I was more understanding of the pro-choice stance. I could see how someone would want to have the option of terminating a pregnancy rather than completely altering their lives for the sake of an unwanted child, but to feel my daughters kicks and squirms, my fully alive and amazing daughter, I can't imagine giving her up. Even before I could feel her, I listened to her tiny heartbeat and it was better than any melody.

I don't know if life begins at conception, but it certainly begins well before birth. It hurt more than expected hearing some people say that Jess wasn't a mother yet or I wasn't a father yet on the respective special days this year. Of course we haven't gotten to the hardest part, and we haven't experienced our daughter's birth, but how dare they reduce my prepartum child to something less than just that...a child...my child.

I am not sure at this point in my life that it shouldn't be a choice, but what a terrible choice. What a heartbreaking and life-altering choice.

So, what's with the uncommonly heady issue you might ask? I don't know. This post is more for me than anyone I guess. However, it is probably good for you to know that I don't always ponder silly things like how to retrofit my Ridgeline for zombie combat. This is just another piece of me that I wanted to explore and share.