Miriam's Story

As most of you know, I volunteer Thursday afternoons at Lifeline Crisis Pregnancy Center. As a counselor I talk with mostly young unmarried girls about unexpected (and mostly unwanted) pregnancies. Up until last year one of my fellow counselors was Miriam. Miriam and her husband Henry are desperate to be parents but have been unable to have a baby. They are pursuing several avenues to adopt. Maybe watching the anguish of casual sex resulting in babies raised by unprepared young girls or worse left dead in a sink got to be too much for Miriam. Regardless, Miriam now only stops by occasionally to visit.
Miriam had no idea that God was about to change her life dramatically when she dropped in at Lifeline on November 10th. This was the day that a scared and frantic young man called to ask if Lifeline was a safe harbor. Upon hearing that he needed to go to a designated place like a Fire Station or Police Department the man grew more desperate and insisted on bringing the baby to Lifeline. He came in with a tiny newborn just a few hours old and still not even cleaned up after the birth. He said he loved the child but that he and the mother were not able to keep the baby. He had delivered the baby himself by reading a manual. The counselors at Lifeline that day tried to comfort the man and discover any solution to help this man be a parent to his child. He insisted he had to go as he had a warrant with the police and he left his son. It was Miriam who took the little baby, cleaned him up and dressed him for the very first time.
After the man fled, the authorities were called and Lifeline became a crazy place where police detectives, paramedics and child protective services vied for space with girls with appointments for pregnancy tests. In the midst of the chaos, one of the Directors of the center told the police detective about Miriam and how she thought that God may have brought the baby to Lifeline for Miriam.
Well, the baby was taken to the hospital where he received a clean bill of health and then on to a foster home. Miriam went home and called her adoption case worker to let her know about this baby and her desire to be his mom. Over the next week Miriam and Henry prayed and tried not to get ahead of God in His plans. All of Lifeline, friends and prayer groups prayed for the baby his biological parents and for Miriam and Henry. Word came down that the court would decide the baby's fate based on whether or not Lifeline would be considered a safe harbor even though it is not technically so.
I'm tearing up as I write these next lines because I know how many tears Miriam has shed at Lifeline during the past years and how God used Lifeline to answer her prayers. Miriam and Henry were given just a few hours notice that a nursery inspection was imminent. They rushed to the store to buy everything necessary for a baby with money supplied by hopeful grandparents. Shortly thereafter, little Peter Henry was delivered to his parents Miriam and Henry after the court decided to grant Lifeline the status in the case as a safe harbor.
God is good and He is definitely Miriam's safe harbor. Prayers continue to go up praising God for his miracle of this child and asking for comfort and healing for his biological parents. Miriam's story is just one example of God's miracles. I hope it encourages you as it did me to remember that God is always at work in our lives and that His plans for us will come to pass.