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“I choose to love you.”
 There is no question that Hollywood has cheapened the entire idea of love. In movies, TV shows, and romance novels, the concept of love is often equated with shallow emotions, or worse, the mere biological functions of sex. But at a basic level, real love is about choices. We decide whom we will love, and we make a conscious decision each day to continue to love the object of our affections. Problems begin when we start thinking of love in the superficial ways the media presents it to us.
Children need to know that they are loved. They need to know that parents, grandparents, and others who have their best interests at heart have chosen and committed themselves to love them in an unconditional manner for their entire lives.
The most basic question in a child's heart is "Do my parents love me?" For those who have been adopted, the answer is clear. Their parents have chosen them and decided to love them unconditionally—just as our heavenly Father with love chooses those whom He blesses with the gift of salvation and adopts into his family.
Unfortunately, many young women who face crisis pregnancy situations have eliminated adoption as one of their possible choices. I believe our centers need to reemphasize the joy a child carried to term and placed with a loving set of parents can bring to all involved.
The greatest gift for any newborn is a pair of loving, committed, capable parents. When birthparents cannot provide that setting, very often adoptive parents can and want to. Several centers that I visited have "marketed" adoption most effectively by having the prospective parents create picture books of their lives. The picture books enable the birth mother to visualize her baby living in a good home with loving adoptive parents. That visualization helps her see adoption as a beneficial choice for her baby's future.
Adoption is an antidote for abortion. We must present adoption options as effectively as we can.
Jerry Thacker, Publisher
jerry@rightideas.us
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