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Prologue
a Journey of the Heart
This Journal is a love story. Actually, many love stories.
They tell the history of the Nurturing Network.
These are not the kind of love stories that will make their way onto the glossy pages of a Hallmark card or romance novel. They are the down-to-earth tales of ordinary people with extraordinary challenges.
Each of the leading characters is faced with a difficult choice that cannot wait for a better time or more comfortable circumstances. Each person’s thoughts are riveted to the necessity of making an urgent decision. And, until they do, they will reside in a crucible of ultimate proportions.
In these pages, you will find that there is nothing light-hearted or frivolous about any of these stories. There are 25,000 more, equally moving anecdotes in the Client files of the Nurturing Network. I only wish that the limits of time and space would allow them all to be shared too.
Each story reveals a similar, inescapable gravitas born of the fact that whatever choices are made, lasting, life-altering consequence will result. An inescapable urgency and finality contribute to the passion that runs through each of these stories. The anatomy of the dramas take on a familiar form:
There is the initial discovery. Followed in a split second by shock. This wasn’t supposed to happen to me! Denial moves in to cushion the blow. Then mind-numbing fear settles in. Panic takes over. Frantic thoughts consider a quick fix. That option is Dismissed.
There are many reasons.
The last vestiges of figuring an easy way out dissolve. Unbridled fear creeps back in. Self doubt takes over. What reason is there for courage or personal sacrifice when no one is showing that to me?
Trust is shattered and abject loneliness crowds out rational thought.
A stark realization sets in:
No matter what choice is made,
life will be forever changed.
This is the precise moment when we meet the women appropriately referred to as the Nurturing Network’s “maternal profiles in courage.” It is a singular honor to be invited into any person’s life when hope is wavering, faith is obscured, and love is battered. These are the most intimate and cherished of invitations that have captivated my heart and mind for over thirty years.
There is nothing weak or inept about a woman who turns to someone for help at the most vulnerable time in her life. There is also nothing magic or clever about the first conversation that takes place with each person in this predicament.
Each woman in crisis yearns to be reminded of truths that she once knew but now desperately needs to have refreshed
if she is to find her way to a better day:
You are not alone. A positive outcome is not too much to ask. You have more power than you may realize to shape your own story.
When these simple messages begin to be heard, the weeping starts to subside. Accusations become less topical. Self pity loses its footing. Shame is relegated to its proper place on the wasteland of guilt.
An unmistakable calm comes over the conversation. The pace slows even as the tone takes on a palpable energy and excitement. Hope begins to take root.
There is room for forgiveness. Even laughter. Options begin to be heard. Rationality returns. Problem-solving makes its way onto center stage. A helpless victim is breaking out of a self-imposed prison that has been in the making for many years. Real resources are being considered and accepted as gifts. Empowering choices are being made.
Tears well up, again. But this time — with gratitude.
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Reflections from the Founder
...the Journey Begins
Each person touched by the Nurturing Network soon discovers that they have embarked upon a Journey with no discernable beginning or end. Whether a Client, a Member or a Servant Leader, each person enters through the same narrow Gateway. They move on to both offer and receive Gifts. This loving energy lives on to nurture the seeds of a Harvest that becomes more abundant with each passing season.
Perhaps this is why those associated with the Nurturing Network often refer to their experience as “a Journey of the Heart.” I have borrowed this term for our Journal in the hope that their collective voyage might never be forgotten.
Each person plays a unique and essential role in this unending love story. In the pages of this Journal, I invite you to meet the unsung heroes who give meaning to the phrase,
“Compassion in Action”
Clients who find the courage to trust again,
to overcome fear and accept practical support from total strangers.
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Volunteer Members who nurture in more ways than can be captured in words.
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Families who open their heart and home to a woman
whose own family is unable or unwilling.
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Doctors and nurses who provide medical care
without charge and with the utmost of respect.
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Counselors who listen and guide, encourage
and inspire at any hour of the day or night.
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Employers who find a place at the professional table for a woman
who needs to keep her resume intact.
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Leaders in academia who provide expedited transfers to ensure that a
woman’s educational plans will not be interrupted or compromised.
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Lawyers who offer free consultations when boyfriends use legal maneuvering
to intimidate and undermine a woman’s resolve.
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Benefactors who fund tuition payments when a scholarship is lost,
medical bills when family resources are denied,
rent and groceries when safety risks require a confidential relocation.
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Board members who guide and inspire the leadership of TNN
while serving as Members in all of the ways mentioned above.
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Staff members who choose to devote sixty hours of work each week
and still donate their compensation.
These are the unforgettable characters who have written the script for the love stories you are about to read. They are the wayfarers along the path to a more hopeful life.
I invite you to take this opportunity to meet the Clients, Members and Servant Leaders who are the Nurturing Network. Consider the kind of world they are helping to form. Quietly and effectively, communities are being created. Families are being born. Friendships are being forged. Unconditional love is taking its rightful bow.
I hope that while reading this Journal, you may be moved to take this Journey with me. You may have your own hidden love story or you may sense that these “maternal profiles in courage” sound very much like your own sister, your mother, or your very best friend.
I invite you to take the hand of someone waiting to walk through the Gateway — to hope. You can make that difference. One that will be remembered for a lifetime. And beyond.
Let the Journey begin...
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In responding to the call to help build a culture of life, the Nurturing Network is compassionate and refreshingly apolitical.
We are not interested in joining the debate over whether and how to remove an alternative, but rather, in how best to provide for the urgent and practical needs of any woman faced with an unplanned pregnancy.
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The Gateway
Every person who has known crisis understands and respects the Journey.
It begins with a choice.
A brave decision to move forward beyond fear and anger.
To make room for thoughts and emotions that open the Gateway to healing.
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Each maternal profile in courage who calls the Nurturing Network
on this otherwise lonely passage yearns
to reclaim her life,
to restore her faith
in others
and herself.
These are the stories of the women, our maternal profiles in courage who have made the journey and passed through the Gateway to Hope.
In these pages we celebrate their
Courage
Humility
Forgiveness
Trust
and Perseverance.
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The Gifts
the Friends who gave them Hope