We’re returning to Wow Me Wednesdays when we invite really innovative, creative, supportive friends of The Nest to write a guest blog. I’m blown away by the next several week guest writers. If you would like to write a blog pertaining to our mission or ministry please email Carissa at carissa@thesparrowsneststl.org
This week’s guest blogger is a true friend of The Sparrow’s Nest. We’ll call Brett Kunin one of those uncut diamonds in the rough. He’s hysterical but cutting, but at the very core one of those really good guys who takes parenting very seriously. I never knew his story until now. I hope you will be as blessed as I was to read his guest blog.
There’s this nightmare that plays over and over in my head. My girlfriend and I are standing in our kitchen arguing about what to do about the situation we’ve found ourselves thrust into. There’s a Yellow Pages book open on the kitchen counter. The phone book is opened to abortion clinics.
You see in January 2001, my girlfriend became pregnant. We were shocked. We didn’t know what to do. We had been living together for a year. She was 22. I was 30. I was established in my career. I owned a home. Still we contemplated doing the unthinkable. We didn’t plan for her to be pregnant. We didn’t know if we wanted a child.
Thank goodness we shut the phone book that day and never opened it to that particular page again. Today I look at my son and I shudder to think that if we had made that choice he would not be here. How different would my life be today? I know that my life would not be filled with the love and daily doses of laughter and joy that my son gives me.
Now think about a teenage girl. She’s 16 years old, a sophomore in high school. She’s made a mistake. She’s made the same mistake that many of us have made. Her family is horrified. This frightened teenager’s parents are so upset that they kick her out of the house. Her boyfriend and his family offer no help. She doesn’t know what to do. There’s nowhere for this young pregnant girl to turn. It seems like she has no choice. Her parents want her to choose an abortion.
There’s another girl out there who’s homeless to begin with. She was orphaned as a baby and has been in and out of foster care her entire life. Now she’s pregnant and living on the street. What’s she to do?
My girlfriend and I were in a position to care for a child. We had a warm home, the support of our families, and the financial means to care for our son, yet we were still terrified. I cannot imagine the terror that surely goes through a teenage girl’s mind when she learns that she’s pregnant and is now faced with the overwhelming responsibility of surviving pregnancy and raising a baby.
I remember how difficult pregnancy was on my girlfriend, who soon became my wife. She was nauseous and uncomfortable; her clothes quickly became too small. There was so much to do. We needed to buy a crib, a car seat, and a high chair. We needed bottles, diapers, and clothes for the baby. Again, we had a comfortable home and it was still miserable for my wife during pregnancy. Now imagine a frightened, homeless teenage girl going through these same experiences. It’s almost unimaginable.
Up until now, an abortion may have seemed this young girl’s only choice. That is changing however. This girl now has a real choice. The choice is now available for her to turn to caring arms and motherly wisdom. She now has a place to go where she will be accepted. She will have a place to go where she will learn that she is not alone. This place will give her and her baby a fair chance. It will be a place where she will learn to make healthy choices for herself and her baby. That place is the Sparrow’s Nest.
I choose to donate to the Sparrow’s Nest because I’ve made mistakes, but always had the means and the support to recover from my mistakes. Many teenage girls don’t have the means or any support so they make a decision that they must live with and will likely regret for the rest of their lives.
I choose to donate to the Sparrow’s Nest because I’ve witnessed firsthand how difficult pregnancy is on an adult woman who has a home and a partner. The burden on a homeless teenager is not something that I’ve witnessed and I feel no one girl should be forced to endure pregnancy and childbirth alone.
I choose to donate to the Sparrow’s Nest because I understand that my donation is an investment in the future of my community. I realize that helping a young mother and her child get started off on the right foot in life can make all the difference.
I choose to donate to the Sparrow’s Nest. Will you?
You can read more about Brett’s life as a single dad at http://www.1andahalfmen.com/