My Birthday Wish

The obstetrician pointed to the five foot statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in his office and said, "It is her will."  

 A sneak peek inside the forthcoming pro-life book God Moments III: True Love Leads To Life.

From Chapter Two ~ Help That Kills Isn't Help At All.

My Birthday Wish

My mother retold this story to our family at the birthday party she threw in honor of the gift of my life the day I turned forty six.  

Her obstetrician, who had a very large statue of the Virgin Mary in his office, walked into the room and proclaimed the news that my mother, who was twenty four years old at the time, was pregnant again. 

I was baby number three. My brother was almost three years old, my sister was about eight months old, and my mother was anemic and exhausted. 

My sister’s birth less than a year before had been premature, and so she had to remain in the hospital until she weighed five pounds. 

Our mother was discharged without her baby, who remained in the hospital for another two weeks.  

As a result of their separation, she was not able to nurse her newborn daughter and the loss of this precious opportunity to bond caused her great sorrow.   

However, because she was unable to breastfeed her fertility returned quickly, circumstances which led to my being created.

The Irish Catholic obstetrician picked up on my mother’s anxiety about being pregnant again. He pointed to the five foot statue of the Virgin Mary nearby, and said that it was her will.

      
He then asked her if she had observed the couple that had left his office before her visit;  they had been unable to conceive a child.   
 
When I was born, she asked the doctor about my weight; I was a healthy six pound baby. My children listened intently as she recalled the doctor telling her that she had another little girl.  

God love my parents for not viewing children as something to be planned according to their schedules. They understood that children are always planned by God. My brother, sister, and I were blessed to grow up with siblings close in age, and we were each others’ friends and playmates.

How things have changed in one generation. Today children are often viewed as a right, to be rejected or sought after at all costs, depending upon what we want at any given moment.  Modern, and faulty thinking, says children must be planned, or delayed for unjustifiable reasons, or frozen, or discarded in a variety of different ways. 

Married couples use immoral artificial contraceptives, or do not welcome children at all, or will accept one or two, maybe.  Unfathomably, abortion is legal in the United States, and fifty million children have been killed in the name of freedom.  

We have children if we want, when we want, and how we want, and then half of all marriages end in divorce because it pleases us to seek further happiness elsewhere, leaving our children without two full time loving parents the way God intended. 

The love of God should find its first expression within the family through humility, love, sacrifice, and service. How we insult our most loving and generous God with our ingratitude, arrogance, selfishness, and lack of charity and chastity!

How few people are even willing to acknowledge publicly that they include God in their family planning, and make it a point to be generously open to life. How many are persecuted by others for living it.  

Yet when we include God and His laws in our planning He, and we, are happiest.  We are happiest when we seek to do God’s will, because He always knows what is best for us. 
 
 Thank you, Mom and Dad, for giving of yourselves so generously and lovingly. As a parent now myself, I know that truly living your faith nobly and heroically was not easy. 

Thank you for not demanding that I be exactly what you had in mind, exactly when you wanted. 

 Thank you for not putting me on your wish list, after a big house, a new car, careers, trips, acquiring more money, or other insignificant goals. Thank you for accepting me into your lives and for loving me in imitation of Christ.

Because my parents were not materialistic and chose to love sacrificially, my three children had the chance to be born.  

Because my parents had their focus on eternity, Joseph Karl Publishing exists today to  defend human life and dignity, promote Catholic faith formation throughout the lifespan and around the world, inspire, encourage forgiveness and healing, and guide precious, immortal souls to Christ.

Because my parents chose life, my children and I were able to do the work God has assigned to us, to let others know that they are loved and valued beyond measure and that their lives have great purpose.

True love leads to life, and many, many, many other beautiful things. Value and peacefully defend every person’s right to life, from natural conception until natural death.

"Help that kills isn't help at all."  ~ True Love Leads To Life 

My son, with Blessed Mother and her Son. 

My birthday wish on the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ (when this story was written) is an end to legalized abortion and euthanasia in the United States and throughout the world, and that every single person is so properly loved and valued that no one would ever even consider having one.

~ Michele Bondi Bottesi

“The absence of planning does not justify killing.” 

 ~ True Love Leads To Life 
 

 

The pro-life book God Moments III:  True Love Leads To Life, the third book in the award-winning God Moments series written and compiled by Michele Bondi Bottesi, will be published in print and as an e-book fall 2012.

Joseph Karl Publishing extends its thanks to the many people who shared their very beautiful and touching stories in the book.  God is at work in you! 

 www.josephkarlpublishing.com