{"id":20487,"date":"2020-12-18T21:39:54","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T21:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paprolife.us\/blog\/?p=4106"},"modified":"2020-12-18T21:39:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T21:39:54","slug":"opening-every-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/prolifenewcastle.org\/2020\/12\/opening-every-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening Every Gift"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/paprolife.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/christmas-gift.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4107\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><button id=\"listenButton1\" class=\"responsivevoice-button\" type=\"button\" value=\"Play\" title=\"ResponsiveVoice Tap to Start\/Stop Speech\"><span>&#128266; Play<\/span><\/button>\n        <script>\n            listenButton1.onclick = function(){\n                if(responsiveVoice.isPlaying()){\n                    responsiveVoice.cancel();\n                }else{\n                    responsiveVoice.speak(\"By Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director In this season of gift-giving, pretty packages with glittery ribbons abound, stirring curiosity and creating anticipation. The completely unexpected gift is often the best. Someone takes us by surprise, filling us with a sense of delight and wonder as we carefully unwrap the layers to discover whatever treasure lies within. Imagine, however, we never open the gift. Perhaps the packaging is not what we expected. Or the ribbon is knotted and the gift difficult to open. Rather than embracing this gift with joyful anticipation, we are discouraged and discard it. Left unopened, we never realize what awaited us. When a young woman faces an unexpected pregnancy, she may feel overwhelmed by the gift of life she has been given. Perhaps it doesn\u2019t seem the right gift at the right time or under the right circumstances. There are knots and imperfections and fear of the unknown. The abortion industry plays into these negative feelings and says it\u2019s all right to discard the gift. That it\u2019s no big deal. That the gift of life is not a gift at all, but a burden to be rid of, a \u201cproblem\u201d that can literally be thrown away. And in a vulnerable moment, she may succumb to this distorted notion, allowing a unique and precious gift to remain forever unopened, its promise and potential never known. There may be a short-lived sense of relief. But that will eventually give way to a longer lasting sentiment: wonder at what might have been. And who might have been. Too many women today know the ache of the unopened gift. And too many lives, 62 million, have been discarded. That is why we must always endeavor to help women in crisis open every gift of life. With strong support, these mothers can see through the imperfect packaging of an untimely pregnancy. By making resources available to them, they can undo difficult knots, peel back layers, and see the gift of precious human life revealed. A unique gift given to only them at that specific point in time. A gift of life that can bring them or perhaps an adoptive family untold joy. A gift of life that will impact the world as we experience its promise and potential. As we exchange gifts this season, let us vow to cherish and support the gift of every human life, however it is \u201cwrapped,\u201d especially those gifts of life that are unexpected.\", \"UK English Female\");\n                }\n            };\n        <\/script>\n    <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By\nBonnie Finnerty, Education Director<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this season of gift-giving, pretty packages with glittery\nribbons abound, stirring curiosity and creating anticipation. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The completely unexpected gift is often the best.\nSomeone takes us by surprise, filling us with a sense of delight and wonder as\nwe carefully unwrap the layers to discover whatever treasure lies within. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine, however, we never open the gift. Perhaps the\npackaging is not what we expected. Or the ribbon is knotted and the gift difficult\nto open. Rather than embracing this gift with joyful anticipation, we are\ndiscouraged and discard it. Left unopened, we never realize what awaited us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a young woman faces an unexpected pregnancy, she\nmay feel overwhelmed by the gift of life she has been given.&nbsp; Perhaps it doesn\u2019t seem the right gift at the\nright time or under the right circumstances. There are knots and imperfections\nand fear of the unknown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The abortion industry plays into these negative\nfeelings and says it\u2019s all right to discard the gift. That it\u2019s no big\ndeal.&nbsp; That the gift of life is not a\ngift at all, but a burden to be rid of, a \u201cproblem\u201d that can literally be\nthrown away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And in a vulnerable moment, she may succumb to this distorted\nnotion, allowing a unique and precious gift to remain forever unopened, its\npromise and potential never known. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There may be a short-lived sense of relief.&nbsp; But that will eventually give way to a longer\nlasting sentiment: wonder at what might have been.&nbsp; And who might have been. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Too many women today know the ache of the unopened\ngift. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And too many lives, 62 million, have been discarded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is why we must always endeavor to help women in\ncrisis open every gift of life.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With strong support, these mothers can see through the\nimperfect packaging of an untimely pregnancy. By making resources available to\nthem, they can undo difficult knots, peel back layers, and see the gift of precious\nhuman life revealed. A unique gift given to only them at that specific point in\ntime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A gift of life that can bring them or perhaps an\nadoptive family untold joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A gift of life that will impact the world as we\nexperience its promise and potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we exchange gifts this season, let us vow to cherish\nand support the gift of every human life, however it is \u201cwrapped,\u201d especially those\ngifts of life that are unexpected. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director In this season of gift-giving, pretty packages with glittery ribbons abound, stirring curiosity and creating anticipation. &nbsp; The completely unexpected gift is often the best. Someone takes us by surprise, filling us with a sense &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/paprolife.us\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/opening-every-gift\/\">Continue reading <span>&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"excerpt-more\" href=\"http:\/\/prolifenewcastle.org\/2020\/12\/opening-every-gift\/\">Read More...<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":456,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prolifenewcastle.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20487"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prolifenewcastle.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prolifenewcastle.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolifenewcastle.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/456"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolifenewcastle.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/prolifenewcastle.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20488,"href":"http:\/\/prolifenewcastle.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20487\/revisions\/20488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prolifenewcastle.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolifenewcastle.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolifenewcastle.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}