The "Precious Feet" pin represents the actual size and shape of a pre-born child's tiny feet just ten weeks after conception. Most people have no idea how well developed the unborn child is at this stage in his or her new life. Even before implantation of the fertilized egg in the mother's uterus at approximately 5-9 days after conception, the sex of the new life can already be determined. Only twenty-four days after fertilization the embryo has regular heartbeats or pulsations (a legal sign of life). Six weeks after conception the mother has her first physical signs that she is pregnant and the tests for pregnancy are relatively reliable. By this time the unborn child's skeleton is complete, electrical brain wave patterns can be recorded, and the reflexes are present. At eight weeks the medical term for the unborn baby changes from embryo to fetus (little one, child, baby). All organs such as stomach, liver, kidney, and brain, are intact and functioning at this point. It is absolutely amazing to ponder how beautiful this development of life is as it takes place in the nurturing safety of the mother's womb. From the moment of conception until full maturity is reached at around twenty-three years of age, the only ingredients essential for normal human development are nourishment and time.

The reality of how precious that little life is never really affected me until it struck home in my own family. On February 19th, 1994, my wife and I decided to undertake a "Spiritual Adoption" of an unborn baby somewhere in the world in danger of losing its life. We started saying a little prayer each day for our adopted baby, asking God to protect it and allow it to be born. Both of our daughters were grown and gone from home at the time. Caroline, our oldest, was living in Orlando and working for Disney Feature Animation. Jenny, our youngest, had moved to Texas at age sixteen to live with her boyfriend. We said lots of prayers for her as well, but that's another story.

A couple of months later we discovered who the baby was that we had been praying for. She was our own granddaughter, Emily. Before we even knew that Jenny was pregnant we had almost lost Emily on three different occasions.

Emily's first brush with death occurred about five to nine days after she was conceived. Jenny was taking birth control pills at the time. The "Pill" actually acts as an abortifacient, meaning that it causes a hostile environment to prevent the fertilized egg from implanting itself in the wall of the uterus. Unlike contraceptives (contra, meaning opposed to, and concepto, meaning to conceive), which prevent the union of sperm and egg, abortifacients affect the developing human being after the sperm and egg have been united. Somehow Emily managed to survive the odds against her and she successfully implanted herself in her mommy's womb.

On April 1st, 1994, Jenny and her boyfriend went to Planned Parenthood to verify the results of the home pregnancy test she had performed after she missed her period. Abortion was never an option for Jenny, but once the test came back positive the folks at Planned Parenthood were bent on helping Jenny to "fix" her problem. You can read about her experience with Planned Parenthood by clicking HERE. Had it not been for Jenny's determination to keep her baby, we surely would have lost Emily to the abortionists at Planned Parenthood without ever knowing that we were going to be grandparents.

The third attempt to terminate Emily's life occurred when the "concerned" family of Jenny's boyfriend offered to pay for the abortion if Jenny would agree to it. That's when she called us and told us the good news that she was pregnant. We immediately drove to Texas and brought Jenny back home to live with us. Emily was born on December 10th, 1994. We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have had Jenny and Emily live with us for a couple of years. Jenny is now married to a wonderful man here in Virginia and Emily has a little baby sister named Katherine.

Each time I look at my "Precious Feet" pin I can't help but think of the 1.5 million unborn babies each year in the United States who never have the chance to grow to full-term like Emily did. I often wonder how many other potential grandparents will never know the blessings that a grandchild can bring to their lives. Unfortunately, the tragedy of abortion doesn't end there. There are also millions of potential mothers who will bear the psychological, and sometimes physical, scars inflicted by the abortion industry.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta gave a speech to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, on February 3rd, 1994, just a few days before my wife and I started our "Spiritual Adoption" of our granddaughter Emily. Mother Teresa told the dignitaries present at the Prayer Breakfast, "I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself." She went on to say, "Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion."

We should heed these words of wisdom by opposing the culture of death and recognizing the absolute sanctity of life, from the first moment of conception to the last moment of natural death. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Ending the life of the unborn child is not a choice that we are free to make. When we do not respect the right to life of the unborn child, there is also going to be a corresponding loss of respect for life in general. Thomas Jefferson once said, "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government." I urge you to "choose life, so that you and your children may live" (Deut. 30:19).

If you know of someone who is pregnant or thinks they might be and is considering an abortion, please tell them there are a variety of other options available that are not harmful to the mother or deadly to the baby. Some good starting points on the web are located at Crisis Pregnancy Centers Online, Birthright, and American Life League. For those who are suffering the effects of Post-Abortion Syndrome, including grandparents, fathers, mothers, and others, check out the Project Rachel and Safehaven web sites. Other Pro-Life resources can be found at Human Life International, the National Right to Life Committee, and LifeNews.com.