Raising Children with Love

 For young couples who want children, it can be difficult when those children don't come.  In this TedTalk, Rachel Moon talks about her experience with infertility. She talks about how it made her feel like a failure as a woman and even isolated in some ways. Even when she had a successful embryo, the implantation failed. She knew there were other options, such as adoption and an egg donor, but it was an emotional journey to decide how to move forward with having a child. Getting pregnant is just one step, however. Several years ago, I recall watching a set of videos, each made by one of two partners after an unexpected miscarriage that turned into a medical disaster. They shared how they had been so excited to become parents, and they struggled with the grief of losing that opportunity. Verywell Family writes, "research indicates that between 10% and 20% of people with a medically confirmed pregnancy will end in miscarriage" (2022). These miscarriages are a silent sort o...

 Abortion has been a hot button topic over the past several years. There has been talk about the right to one's body and the right to life. There has been talk about when life begins or if a handful cells has the same value as a fully developed human. Does life start at conception? Does it start with a heartbeat? With a first breath? Or perhaps it's not that simple. Perhaps it's not a matter of when life starts but when life becomes valuable enough to consider human. At what point is a fetus worth the same as an infant? At what point is an embryo more than just a few cells? The argument grows complex and difficult rather quickly. I do not have a perfect answer to these questions, but I do believe in the value of life--and that is what I want to focus on today. Life is difficult. But there is beauty to it too. I recall the first time I heard the song "7 Years Old" by Lukas Graham. I was in elementary school, riding the bus home from school when it came on the radio...