COLD FACTS

CHASK families are the back bone of a unique organization that is getting the notice of the pro-choice movement. Why? Your willingness to really commit to saving lives of special needs babies is speaking volumes about Christ’s love to the world.

Recently PBS contacted CHASK to find a couple of families that they could interview who would share about why they chose life over abortion for their child with special needs. The families needed to have known about their baby’s needs before birth and to have navigated through maternal fetal medicine.

We sent out a letter from CHASK via e-mail (if your e-mail address is not current with us, you would not have received the letter.)

We received many wonderful responses and were able to give PBS several families to choose from in the North East.

In addition, you as an organization and part of CHASK, are gaining the attention of genetic counselors, Christian social workers and OBGYNs advocating a women’s right to make a birth choice.

We are just about ready to send out a CHASK letter of introduction to genetic counselors and social workers. Getting the assistance of several genetic counselors in crafting this all important letter, we feel confident that we can gain some friends for CHASK. Our goal is to enable these health care workers to present life choices, if they feel it would really benefit a birth parent facing an adverse prenatal diagnosis.

We know that not all of the genetic counselors who get our letter of introduction are going to be ready to receive CHASK brochures, but we are overjoyed to have at least a crack in the door of an otherwise closed one. These are very important health care providers and are the very folks speaking with parents who are facing the idea of disability in their unborn child.

A woman comes into a Christian crisis pregnancy care center. Her unborn baby has a diagnosis of Trisomy 18, almost always fatal at birth. She is scared, exhausted from lack of sleep, and feeling pressure from her doctor to interrupt this pregnancy as soon as possible and try again.

The care center nurse counsels her to choose life. This nurse does so with confidence because CHASK families, like yourself, are willing to comfort, encourage and share with birth moms. Choosing life in the face of opposition from the medical community takes fortitude. In addition to the heavy sorrow of carrying a baby to term that will probably die at or before birth, some birth parents who choose life must steel themselves to argue firmly to give their baby a chance at life, no matter what the life expectancy is.

Incredibly touching stories of families making it through maternal fetal medicine all have a similar theme. It can be a struggle to convince medical care givers that, as parents, they are solidly convinced that they want to birth their baby in God’s timing. This angered one doctor to the point of throwing the chart onto the floor and stalking out of the room shouting.. “Then there is nothing I can do for you!”

Another husband and wife facing a stern upbraiding from their physician refused to agree to an abortion for their baby who was terminal. After not getting anywhere with the couple, the doctor turned and started chewing out the wife in front of her husband.

If these descriptions sound horrifying, they are, yet very real. We want you to know that there are Christians or at least sympathetic doctors who are very supportive of their birth parents choosing life. But the law states that even they must present the abortion option.

If they see that a family is leaning toward life for their baby, they can be very eager to support them. These are the professionals we are looking for.

Christ is truly miraculously holding these families up. Under intense persecution for their pro-life beliefs (the very time when folks should be surrounding them with love and support) some are pierced again and again, tempted to take the life of their baby.

This letter from a birth mom says it all… “Dear Tom, Right when I got off the phone with you, my next call came from the doctor. My son does have Trisomy 18 and with the heart defect. The doctor doesn’t think my baby will live long. I am scared but trusting in Jesus. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for THOU are with me.” Thanks for everything CHASK.”

Can’t you just hear the sorrow, yet deeply rooted faith of this mom. We are amazed at the strength that God is giving these birth parents who choose life in opposition to the medical field.

This is why we really are needing to keep the CHASK momentum up without failing. We have got to be there for those birth parents who have no other resource to turn to who will tell them, “Choose life because it is in your best interest and God really cares for you and your baby with special needs right now.”

One by one, you who are part of CHASK are speaking volumes about the issue of choosing life. You are laying down your lives to share your home and heart with those who are disabled. This very fact is astounding to some folks.

CHASK now has over 500 families either waiting to adopt a child with mild to severe special needs or to counsel a birth parent who is pregnant with a baby who has disabilities. These are experienced parents who know what living with special needs is all about and can offer honest, real-to-life solutions and resources to birth parents.

Here in the NATHHAN /CHASK office we have been through a variety of experiences with families, each one equipping us to better encourage birth parents facing a poor medical diagnosis for their baby. Our goal is to convince birth moms that God is in control of their and their baby’s life. Evangelism is always upper most in our minds as we seek to encourage and uplift those who are hurting. We seek to win souls for Christ as much as we want to save the lives of babies that God cherishes.

CHASK’s Older Children / Adoption CHASK is also ministering to families facing a difficult adoption situation and are choosing to disrupt the parent/child relationship. We have offered a spot on the CHASK web site for families to put a picture and information about their child to find another Christian home. Not all of these families are dysfunctional, with out-of-control children. Rather, each situation comes with its own tangled web of hurts, misunderstandings and grief. We have sought to help provide a safe and secure way for Christians to get themselves out of a dangerous situation. It is only after much prayer, thought and counsel that most families post their adopted child, grandchild, or child they have guardianship of.

We want to be very sensitive to these hurting families who have needed our support from the beginning and might not be in this situation if they had you or others to support them earlier. They disrupt because they feel their whole family is in danger. Or it may be because they are not able to struggle out of the shroud of bitterness that a child who has bonding difficulties can place on a family. Not all families are suited to care for all children with all problems.

If you are interested in supporting families who are facing the idea of disrupting and would be open to counseling them with honest, careful input, we’d love for you to be a part of CHASK’s group of parents supporting others in this area.

Interstate Compact?

After having a few placements under our belt, we’d like to share with you some of the observations we have had.

One is that not all adoption lawyers are educated about what it takes to implement a private adoption in the USA. We are assuming that this is just ignorance, but some lawyers are putting their clients through thousands of dollars of needless interstate compact paper work. Basically the law states that if an adoption is not through an agency or social services entity, and is strictly private, parent to parent, regardless of the distance between states (could be from Maine—Washington!) the interstate compact is not needed.

The law states.. And you can read it for yourselves at www.casanet.org Article VIII, Part A as thus: Article VIII. Limitations

This compact shall not apply to:
(a) The sending or bringing of a child into a receiving state by his parent, stepparent, grandparent, adult brother or sister, adult uncle or aunt, or his guardian and leaving the child with any such relative or non-agency guardian in the receiving state.

How Does CHASK Help Birth Parents Choose a Family?

We can hardly contain our excitement about having so many wonderful families for birth parents, who are contemplating whether to give their special needs baby life or terminate the pregnancy, to choose from.

We are currently submitting families to birth parents by state first. If a potential adoptive family has worked hard at placing CHASK brochures around their area, they should be the first to be introduced to a birth family looking for a loving Christian home for their child.

After that, we choose surrounding states. If we are having a fairly difficult placement, we then have the birth parent (or adoptive parent if it is an adoption disruption) write a bio and send a picture of the child and we put it on the CHASK web site www.chask.org under “Waiting Children.” Rarely do we need to place a younger child here. Mostly they are in the over-5-year-old and up bracket having bonding difficulties or other social problems.

Since January 2005, we have worked with families each week. Many of these birth moms are choosing to keep their babies, and not abort...even though their baby may pass into heaven upon birth on this earth. Read page 50 and 51 for one of these incredible stories. These parents are our heros.

Please consider adding CHASK to your daily prayer list. This spring and summer, please pray for birth parents making life choices. Please also pray for the ministry of CHASK and the Bushnell family, as we are walking out into the pro-choice arena seeking genetic counselors, social workers, doctors and others who can be the keys to finding more birth parents we can tell about your love for them and the ministry of CHASK.