A Month of Thankfulness: Day 10

I am thankful for Sav-A-Life of Ripley.

I have been a volunteer client advocate there for over six years now and what a blessing I have received! This year we have become a medical clinic and have added an ultrasound machine and a bunch of nurses to the staff. In fact we've changed our name to My Choices Pregnancy Help Clinic but to me it will always be Sav-A-Life I guess. :)

Here girls/women can come for free pregnancy tests and an ultrasound to determine for sure they're pregnant. If the test is positive we then offer them six free individualized parenting classes. Following each class our client is given a gift bag filled with baby items...different things for each different class. Everything we offer is free...to our clients. Our community has been so good to help keep the center going. Donations of every kind are given to the center...money, office supplies, cleaning supplies, new baby clothes, all kinds of baby necessities....and we then pass the blessings along to the women we serve.

Working here I see such a wide range of emotions...from extreme happiness to extreme fear and despair. What a blessing it is to be able to "rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep". That's my job. To be their encourager. Their advocate. To explain their choices. And to encourage them to make the best ones for their life. Sometimes I can't sleep on the nights after I work because the voices of the women keep coming through my mind. I worry if they're ok. I wonder if they've gone to seek the special counseling I have recommended because they have a history of abuse. I hope that they are making good decisions. But in the end I just have to pray and leave it in the hands of God for He cares for them far more than we can ever begin to do at Sav-A-Life. We just want to be an extension of His Hands and be a blessing to each young girl/women who walks through the doors of our clinic.

Would you please remember My Choices Pregnancy Help Clinic in your prayers?

Thanks SO much !!

Marilyn