{"id":7235,"date":"2004-05-24T08:13:15","date_gmt":"2004-05-24T08:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2004\/05\/required_reading_2.html"},"modified":"2004-05-24T08:13:15","modified_gmt":"2004-05-24T08:13:15","slug":"required_reading_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/05\/required_reading_2.html","title":{"rendered":"Required Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Mark Shea’s blog, a letter from a woman who is pregnant with an ancephalic child<\/a><\/p>\n

The value of Thomas Walter, Benedict and Charlotte cannot be measured by the length of their lives – we don’t apply this yardstick to adults, so why should we to babies? A baby is not a possession, an accessory to acquire. A baby is a gift, a new entity, a precious, individual soul loved by God. We are created for a purpose, there is a reason for our being here. Even if that reason is unclear to us most of the time, we are constantly affecting other people in our families, communities etc. Who knows what purpose can be fulfilled in 9 months and one day? I don’t know, but God does. I do know that Benedict left a lasting impression on our family, he made us slow down, savour life, and treasure our other children even more. He made us realise that we cannot control or predict what will happen in the future, he made us rely on God. And how often are we given the opportunity to really give another person true unconditional love? Love that truly expects no return? It is a blessing to experience that kind of pure love!<\/p>\n

So don’t pity us for carrying a child we know will die. Carrying this beautiful person is an honour. Grieve for the fact that our baby will die. We wouldn’t wish away the time we had with Benedict, and also this time we are now experiencing with Charlotte, just to save us the pain of losing them. I’ve always thought of it like this; if your 3 year old was diagnosed with untreatable, fatal cancer and had only 4 months to live; would you prefer the doctor kill your child straight away so that you didn’t have to >wait for his\/her impending death? Or would you prefer to spend as much time as you could with your child and love him\/her for as long as you had left?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Mark Shea’s blog, a letter from a woman who is pregnant with an ancephalic child The value of Thomas Walter, Benedict and Charlotte cannot be measured by the length of their lives – we don’t apply this yardstick to adults, so why should we to babies? A baby is not a possession, an accessory…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nRequired Reading - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/05\/required_reading_2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Required Reading - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At Mark Shea’s blog, a letter from a woman who is pregnant with an ancephalic child The value of Thomas Walter, Benedict and Charlotte cannot be measured by the length of their lives – we don’t apply this yardstick to adults, so why should we to babies? 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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