Is it a young grade-schooler – full of enthusiasm, inquisitiveness and innocence? You cannot stop the smile that is trying to appear on your face, the joy that the young bring to your heart.

Or is it a freshman or sophomore in high school? The upper grades turn you into a “soccer mom” and you thought that high school would change that, but it doesn’t. There are more activities that take your time. And the homework assignments cover material that you never had in school. Are you wondering if your mother had these same thoughts?

Or is it a young adult, recently graduated from college? Now you are planning the wedding. You need confidence that you can prevent the “mistakes” that happened at your wedding. With new jobs, new home and a new beginning, the future appears bright for both of them.

And that tear? Is it because all of these thoughts will never happen. You now realize that it was your child that you aborted. No one, not even the people at the abortion clinic, told you of the mental anguish that you continuously suffer. The pain is unbearable.

Sue Martensen, Loda