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PART
IV.
CHILDREN -- AMERICA'S
GREATEST NATURAL RESOURCE
33. A Beautiful Choice or an
Unglamorous Option?
''I
was born to a woman I never knew, and
raised by another who took in orphans. I do not
know my background, my lineage, my biological
or cultural heritage. But when I meet someone
new, I treat them with respect For after all,
they could be my people.
"
-- James Michener
Family.
It
is the closest thing to immortality this side
of the grave. Family is the past, the present and the
future. Family is for growing up in, for going away
from, for coming home to. Family is America's most
productive and efficient department of health and
human services. Real families bend but don't break in
responding to life's challenges.
We are all a part of God's family, the best of His
creation. As the earth rotates, the lives of natural and
·adoptive families are often inexorably linked. This, in
part, is also their story regarding real life and death
matters. God often moves in mysterious ways to
complete the family circle.
So, it is with deep and fond appreciation that this
monograph honors, among others, young women with
crisis pregnancies who, though unmarried, boldly and
wisely developed adoption plans in the name of Godly
charity and true religion. With strength of character,
they carried their babies and also preserved their own
health and self-worth. Then, by ushering the new
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