Laura Shaver was 19 when she found out that she was pregnant. Immediately, many emotions flooded her heart, but she said that since she was raised in a Christian home, abortion never really entered her mind. However, she knew that this news would bring so much pain to her family. Finally, she gathered all the strength she had and told her mother. She was upset, hurt and disappointed, but Laura said she still felt loved by her mother. She was a daddy’s girl, so telling her father was so hard. Being at the lowest part of her life, she drove home saying out loud, “I hate myself; I hate myself.” As she walked in the back door of her home to face her father with her head bowed in shame. Without a word, her dad wrapped his arms around her. Nothing but tears! That night she experienced the love of God through the response of her earthly father.
As the days went on, her parents asked her to go to a pregnancy resource center with them. Hesitantly, she went. In her heart, her only option was to get married and parent her baby. The man she was to marry was not a believer and living an unhealthy lifestyle of drugs. She walked into a PRC where she sat and listened to someone give her options, specifically adoption. With a courteous smile on her face, and confirmation of the Holy Spirit, her mind was made up: Adoption it would be. Within about 2 weeks, she miraculously admitted out loud two very important things: She was not supposed to marry this man, and she was supposed to place her child for adoption. It was her first step of obedience that brought her into a real authentic relationship with Jesus. As she spoke those words of admittance, confession and truth, God gave her a peace that surpassed all understanding. Peace was the foundation of her decision then and now, 27 years later.
After making that decision, Laura’s relationship with the Lord and her family began to grow and be repaired. Her life transformed as she spent time in God’s Word daily. Her relationship with Jesus created an insatiable thirst and hunger to know who God really was—His character, His promises and what that meant for her life.
In this episode of One Voice on the Charisma Podcast Network, you will hear how the Lord carried Laura through this decision and most difficult season in her life. What the enemy meant for harm, God turned it around for her good, and the Lord met the need of another couple who had been praying for a baby.
Laura took the last few months of her pregnancy to prepare for the hospital experience. Sheila, the adoptive mom, would be in the delivery room with her and be the first to hold her miracle. Two days after having her son, she had to hand him over into the perfect, waiting arms of his parents and walk out of the hospital with her arms empty but her heart at peace.
Psalm 62:5 (NIV) says “Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.”
Now Laura has the grand opportunity to be a part of Choices of the Heart and encourages young women who are facing a crisis pregnancy to make a healthy decision instead of the first thing that pops in their minds. In a world where abortion is popular, Laura is changing the lives of many through offering hope and another option!
“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving” (Eph. 2:7-10a, MSG). {eoa}
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Shawn Akers 
Rabbi Eric Tokajer 
