Weekly Column

By Myrna Maloney Flynn, MCFL President

Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. 

-- Luke 6:38

This week, I had the pleasure of talking for the first time with one of MCFL’s longtime supporters. We planned to “meet” over a video call* and, as I thought ahead to our conversation, I knew there was one thing I wanted to find out: why he is so committed to the pro-life mission. So staunch is his support that he answered my question before I had a chance to ask it.

He told me he’d been adopted and, as he got older, realized what his birth mother must have gone through, the magnitude of her sacrifice, and the impact of his adoptive parents’ decision. “If Roe v. Wade had been around, I might not be here,” he said. “This issue will always be at the core of my being.” Then, elaborating on all his parents provided for him over the years, he explained his consistent MCFL support. “Their  [human rights] pro-life work continues, even though they’re not here anymore, through me.”

This pandemic prevents us from rallying at the State House or gathering for our spring events, yet my colleagues and I continue to advance MCFL’s mission to “restore respect for human life and defend the right to life of all human beings, born and pre-born.

Our Board members and staff are writing op-eds, posting the undeniable truth of prenatal development on social media, and applying nonstop pressure on our elected officials. We are investigating questionable practices that are considered the “norm.” Our volunteers are informing women of the better option, recruiting new members, and, of course, donating. 

None on our team want anything in return for their gifts. Yet I fully expect that they will one day find goodness packed, shaken, and poured into their laps.

This Tuesday, May 5, provides you with an opportunity to bolster our work—work that is significantly more challenging due to the coronavirus. I understand pandemic-related fallout is affecting people in a variety of ways. But, if you can, I humbly ask that you consider making a contribution to our state’s oldest pro-life organization during Giving Tuesday, somewhat of a “new” national holiday. You don’t have to wait until Tuesday though. Take a moment now to visit our website. 

Thank you for whatever gift you are able to make. And thank you for the support you provide simply by being an ally—one who will read this and reaffirm in your heart the value of human life and the work we do to protect it. 

For those following the story of Baby Hope, an update: the five-month-old once again astounded her doctors in Boston last week, when a preoperative MRI revealed that, over the last few months, most of the brain tissue that had been in an external sack at the back of her head went back inside her skull. According to her mom, Joy, “The doctor is amazed and hasn't seen anything like it.” Surgeons operated successfully, and indications are that there was little, if any, damage to brain tissue. “She looks great,” Joy told me. “She will still have battles ahead of her, but they have gotten a lot easier.”

I wish you a week filled with gifts, whether they are eagerly anticipated or unexpected. May they overflow, inspire, and multiply. 

Myrna

*Though it has become the go-to video conferencing tool for organizations and individuals alike during Covid-19 lockdowns, Zoom, and its leaders, ardently support abortion rights and Planned Parenthood. In June 2019, for example, its CEO signed onto the national “Don’t Ban Equality” campaign, which called attention to workplace “restrictions” to “comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion.” Google Meet is an easy-to-use Zoom alternative. However, through its support of the United Way, Google indirectly supports Planned Parenthood.

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By Myrna Maloney Flynn, MCFL President

Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone, but still miraculously my own. Never forget for a single minute, you didn’t grow under my heart but in it. -- Fleur Conkling Heyliger

Some might be over the platform, but I still appreciate Facebook. I doubt I’ll ever find much value in seeing photos of your dinner, but I do get a kick out of toddler antics—OK, really anyone’s antics, as long as they’re clever enough to make me LOL. There aren’t enough reasons to laugh out loud these days. I’ve got to give it to Mark Zuckerberg for presenting them. (Now we just need to convince Zuck to divert some of his company's earnings toward pro-life causes.)

Last spring, I found myself captivated by a Facebook friend's frequent posts. I'd lost track of most of what he'd been up to since junior high, but it was apparent from his updates that he and his wife were going through the arduous ordeal of adopting a child. 

It wasn’t a smooth process or a swift one. Some posts revealed the couple's vulnerabilities, fears, and their many anxieties. Other updates announced milestones and sequential challenges they'd gleefully overcome. From what I could tell, the two spent close to two years as hopeful adoptive parents, making their way through "the system." 

In August, they finally travelled to South Korea and visited the same agency from which my friend himself had been adopted. That week, hundreds of us back here in the States tuned in daily for what had become the best reality show ever. We followed my friend and his wife through airports, landmarks, and, finally, into a play area where we got our first look at their son. 

Facebook's ubiquitous blue "thumbs-up" icon that my friend had been receiving on each post swept exclusively to red hearts as two became three, and we all got to welcome Hudson into a family. My friend snapped the picture above as they headed back to their hotel to prepare for the long trip home. My friend's simple caption to his photo: "Success!"    

As you may know, November is National Adoption Month, which falls appropriately on the heels of October’s Respect Life messaging. My purpose today isn’t necessarily to encourage you to adopt a child. But I would ask that we each listen for what may be a call to consider it or to go out of our way to support someone who is. Adoption by Choice is one local agency to know about. 

If you are aware of someone facing an unexpected pregnancy, point her to MCFL’s website, where she can find supportive statewide resources. While not adoption agencies themselves, they will refer women who seek adoptionfor their baby to reputable, life-affirming, organizations.

Here's to those who have responded to the call to adopt. Here's to heroic women who so bravely give their babies life and opportunities. And here's to the men and women who help to make "the system" work, those who make it a success.  

by Robert Aufiero

{ The following is a letter to the editor written by Mr. Aufiero, reprinted here with the author's permission }

After reading the release in The Patch regarding Senator Lewis and his support of children seeking adoption, I felt the need to respond.

The one particular reference in the release that calls for a reply is the sentence that talks about a population that may not always be visible. During the time that Senator Lewis has been a public official, regretfully he has forgotten about a part of the population that is invisible namely unborn babies. Senator Lewis, in each of his official roles as State Representative and now State Senator has vigorously opposed initiatives such as removing taxpayer-funding of abortion. He has been endorsed by the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, which is the largest provider of abortions. Among his legislative efforts, he notably took steps to protect sharks and was quoted as saying "the practice of "shark finning," which is both morally repugnant and harmful to the health of our oceans, is when a shark's fins are sliced off, often while the shark is still alive, with the mutilated shark thrown back into the ocean, unable to swim and left to die.

Caroline was thirty years old when she found out she was pregnant for a second time.  She had been in the military. She had done a lot of things that were risky, and made a lot of decisions she wouldn't have advised a daughter to make.

Yet she was shocked when she saw that she was pregnant again; and she was terrified .   She had broken up with the father of her child, and her son at the time was only seven years old.  Because she primarily raised Josh alone, she knew how difficult it was. She knew how much she could offer -- and she didn't think it was enough.

She knew her daughter deserved more than a single-parent home.

Caroline attended a Bible study at that time and there she met a woman who told her about open adoption. She learned very quickly that open adoption could be an empowering and life-affirming choice.  Even though Caroline felt terrified, she felt better knowing she could give her daughter a better life than she could offer on her own. 

The adoption center she was referred to was located not far away, in San Diego, CA. 

With a leap of courage, Caroline contacted them. Soon she was meeting with the adoption director, with whom she shared her fears, concerns, and, most importantly, heard about the resources for her in her challenging situation. Finally, she heard one of the most amazing options--adoption, an open adoption, one where she could have contact with her child, while also letting her child grow up with the two parent home she couldn't give.

She couldn't understand exactly, but she left the adoption center feeling happier than she had in months. 

Both she, and her tiny daughter, she realized, could be cared for. 

At seven months pregnant, Caroline got to choose the couple who seemed best-suited to care for her daughter.  In fact, it was less than five minutes after meeting them that Caroline knew they were the ones.  

"Mark and Bethany are perfect; there are simply no other words to describe them," she has said again and again. And it's true.

Caroline has described Mark as being everything she ever wanted in a father herself.  Caroline adored Bethany from the start, and for good reason. "She's like the sister I never had. Bethany was meant to be a mother. I'm so proud I was able to give [her] the gift motherhood."

We all want the best for our children. But we don't always feel we have the resource - or the options - to care for them the way we want to. We certainly don't always have the ideal situation. Yet Caroline can say with 100% certainty that she gave her daughter the absolute best when she placed her with Mark and Bethany.  Caroline refers to the adoption like this: “Unlike abortion, I didn’t lose my baby:  I gained a family through open adoption, and so can you.” 

In celebration of November as National Adoption Month, we’re featuring a series of adoption-related articles on the MCFL blog. 

If the name Dave Thomas sounds familiar, you’re probably old enough to remember him as the founder of the Wendy’s fast food chain who appeared in their commercials in the 80’s and 90’s, until his death in 2002. But he’s also known as an advocate for adopting children from foster care, children just like he was. 

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is driven by this goal: finding a loving family for every child waiting in foster care to get adopted. They are the only national charity dedicated solely to finding permanent homes for the more than 140,000 children in foster care. 

The blessings extend to both the children and their adoptive families, as one adoptive parent said: “Adoption has been an incredible blessing to our family. Our daughter has brought tremendous joy and laughter into our home. You'd only have to meet her once to know how true this is. If I try to imagine our family of seven without her I can only picture a huge chunk of our heart missing.” 

Every child is adoptable.