I have often wondered about the value of picketing these clinics. My thought was that once a woman or girl had made up her mind to end the life in her that it would be difficult to change her mind, as people in such a position don’t shout from the rooftops their intentions, so you don’t realise who needs encouragement and discussion. In my city, our hospital has a wing in the regular hospital where the abortions are performed (both medically indicated abortions and option abortions in the same wing), so our Pro-Life prayer and witness teams can’t tell whose going in for an abortion or, let’s say, cancer treatment. I think this story witnesses so strongly to the fact that our very presence, quiet and prayerful, can be stronger than words. When your husband listened to the voice of Spirit that day, leading him to buy the balloon, God also allowed him the gift of seeing this girl’s change of heart. This story can now touch the doubters like me, reinvigorating my support for the warriors on the ground of the Pro-Life movement, and my desire to say YES to the call of the Spirit.

Just like St. Joseph, whose feast it is today, your husband listened to the Spirit, and in his YES helped a young, scared pregnant girl to say YES to the life growing in her. No doubt her life will be complicated, but hopefully she’ll always remember the joy of the moment she said “Be it done unto me” before she could have God-made life undone within her.

aw, D.  This made me cry.  When you are faced with a difficult decision and you ask God for a sign or ANYTHING to guide you in the right direction because you are so desperate and confused…he was her sign.  I have met a few women that have had abortions, they ALL regret it with every fiber of their hearts.  He saved a life and someone’s heart too.

Dear Anonymous,
My beloved husband is not the type to engage in a prayer vigil outside a PP office, either.  He’s not the type to post pro-life comments on his FB wall, or Twitter feed.  However, anyone who knows him personally sees by the witness of his life that he values life from conception to natural death.

As St. Francis is credited for saying, “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”  Know that even if God never calls you, or my husband, or any of us to witness for life in the same brave, public manner Mr. Borobia is, your walking IS your preaching.  Your life is your witness.

Thank God for champions of the pro-life movement.  Like Mr. Borobia.  Like my husband.  And like you.

Living a regular, normal life in a Godly way is the greatest and most difficult of all callings. I’m convinced.  Having the time and the ability to do something “extra” (such as a sidewalk prayer vigil or an hour with the Blessed Sacrament) is a luxury.  Because those things feel and are so obviously holy, they don’t require us stretch our minds and our hearts to embrace the normal drudgery of our daily vocations.  If my husband was constantly leaving the house to minister to others yet wasn’t here to play with and set an example for our children, to listen to my stories and worries, to take care of our house and our property, he would not be doing the most important thing that God has called him to do.  

Showing the face of Jesus to your wife is your priority.  Living the love of Jesus for the Church in your marriage is your priority.  Your family is your vocation.  Everything else is just details.  Please don’t ever feel that anything else is more important or should come before that.  My husband happened to be called at that moment for that one girl.  He has never prayed in a sidewalk vigil in the past and he may never do it again in the future and that’s okay.  The Holy Spirit doesn’t call us to do remarkable things.  He calls us to do ordinary things in a remarkable way.  I’ll keep you in my prayers!

Oh, Dwija, you have no idea how much I cried reading this post–partly because I know Tommy well enough to know how far outside his comfort zone he was, partly because I know I’ve been on the receiving end of those “little signs” that change a life, partly because I just love you both so very much.  More than anything, I love that in the midst of what is often a bitter, entrenched, and polarizing fight that can bring out the very worst on both sides, your husband found a way to advocate for hope and love.

This is so lovely, I pray to have the kind of compassion for others that you do. It’s not that I don’t have compassion… It just doesn’t seem to be my “go-to” response, the way it seems to be yours.

Beautiful testimony!  Thank God your husband was there and thank you for sharing!

Dwija, you (and your husband and especially the young woman in the blue car) have given us all a tremendous gift.  This is what it’s all about–the good news of a better way, a better solution than we might imagine on our own.  So glad you are writing here.  

He has a truly special gift for speaking to people’s hearts.  Lord knows he was the only person who could drag MY proud, obnoxious butt to Christ!

How absolutely beautiful!  It has to have been an inspiration from the Holy Spirit for Tommy to even consider taking the pink balloon–and how much more effective than something “preachy”. I’m proud to call him “son”!

Well, he had to get his smarts from somewhere….