Many of us who have experienced abortion wrestle with our decision and desperately search for something we can call good through it. But God is in the business of doing the unexpected. His story in us is not one of a perfect life, but of a life redeemed by him.
Bette Noble tells her story of an attempted abortion which resulted in giving up her son, Michael, for adoption and a remarkable dream that led to the joy of being reunited when her son.
“Before I met him, I went to speak with a retired minister that my husband I both had talked with for various things – a very wise man. He said, ‘Bette, in sixty years of counseling, I’ve never heard a story like this. But I want to challenge you, because the Lord has not given you this story to hide it. He’s given it to you to proclaim his miracles and what he can do.‘”
Bette didn’t feel ready to tell her story, but allowed it to happen. She was very glad she did.
“I thought, oh dear, I don’t talk about things. But I agreed to meet Michael and his wife, and for my husband to come with me. We agreed to me in a neutral place and it was one of those tremendous experiences in your life – one of a kind.”
“We walked to the door of the restaurant – and this man ran up to me and said, ‘I’d like to hug you if that’s okay.’ I thought, okay, I think I know who you are, and said, yes, that would be fine. It was a very joyous occasion and a very positive meeting.”
Bette’s decision to tell her husband her story before they got married had a great impacted how the story unfolded.
“I wanted to give him the chance to leave the relationship. But he is a fine man, and he said that that’s not going to stop us from getting married; and he has been very supportive the whole time about meeting Michael.”
Fear drives so much of what happens around abortion. The choice to trust God and not let fear stop her led Bette to a new place in life where she found something she thought she never would – an unexpected family.
“Since then he has made contact with his birth father. It turns out that his birth father had been married for thirty years and did not have a child; and his brother had no biological children but had two adoptive children. So, Michael is the only birth child in his family between he and his brother and they have formed a very good relationship.”
“Remarkably enough, football games and birthdays – it is not unusual for Michael’s adoptive parents, my husband and I, his birth father, and his significant other all to be there at the same time and celebrating the good day.”
The goodness of God knows no limits, and his love restores even the furthest son or daughter. He sets the lonely in families. (Psalm 68:6) Like no one else can, he redeemed a long lost relationship to new life in Bette’s family even after so many years.
Bette Noble is the author of . Bette now concentrates on speaking and writing on pro-life and adoption topics based on her experience as a birth-mother and birth-grandmother.
A life redeemed
