After a 1929 rape, a reunion of mom and daughter
By TOM BERG / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SAN CLEMENTE – For 77 years she kept it hidden inside.
Her secret.
Each May 22, Minka Disbrow silently wished a happy birthday to the baby girl she gave away in 1929. How is she, Disbrow wondered. Where is she? Who is she?
But there was no way of knowing. Not after what happened so long ago.
Back then, no one talked about sex. Or pregnancy. Or 16-year-old girls who were raped among the small dairy farms of South Dakota. So Disbrow bottled up her secret deep inside.
And kept it there.
Months turned into years. Years into decades. Until Disbrow woke up May 22, 2006, and after wishing happy birthday to her little girl, she prayed: Lord, if you would just let me see Betty Jane, I won't bother her, I promise. I just want to see her before I die.
Some might consider it a fool's prayer. Disbrow was 94. And her baby girl, if still alive, would be 77.
To meet would take a miracle.
SCATTERWOOD LAKE
She hauled water from a well. Used an outhouse for a toilet. Rode a horse-drawn sled to church in winter.
"At age 6, we had to pick mustard and potatoes in the field," says Disbrow, who also fed pigs and milked cows before walking to school. Chores increased after eighth grade.
High school is for city kids with nothing to do, said her stepdad, who kept Disbrow home to work.
You can imagine her delight to be invited to a picnic the summer of her 16th year. It was held at Scatterwood Lake with girls from a local sewing class.
Let's go for a walk, said her friend Elizabeth.
They meandered along the South Dakota lake – unaware of three men watching. Approaching.
The attack came fast. Its violence was foreign to a girl who still believed storks delivered babies.
"We couldn't go back and say we were raped," Disbrow says. "We were paralyzed. We never said anything."
She had no one to tell. No one to comfort her. No one to explain what happened. Nothing but cows that needed milking and milk that needed bottling and bottles that needed washing.
Nothing but chores.
"You just kept it all in your heart," she says.
Until her belly started to grow.
BETTY JANE
She was sent to the Lutheran Home for Girls in Sioux Falls, S.D.
"My mother and stepfather made up their minds, I was not to come home with a baby," says Disbrow.
It was there, someone finally explained what had happened and what would happen.
Betty Jane was born May 22, 1929, with a dimple on her chin and a good home waiting for her in Iowa.
"She was my darling," says Disbrow, who spent a month with her baby before being sent home.
Back on the farm, she milked cows each morning, worked in a slaughterhouse all day and faced more chores at night. Then, in the quiet of her room, she would write letters to the Lutheran home asking about her baby.
How is my Betty Jane? she wrote in one letter. Any word from her adoptive parents? I hope she's being a good girl.
Our holiday would be complete, she wrote in another, if we were to just get word about Betty Jane.
But of course, she couldn't.
And so the months turned into years. The years into decades. Until Disbrow woke up May 22, 2006, and prayed to see the little girl she gave away in 1929.
A fool's prayer?
Within days, a South Dakota court granted permission to a 77-year-old woman in Viroqua, Wis., to see some records she sought about her adoption.
It was at the Lutheran Home for Girls in Sioux Falls, S.D.
In 1929.
RUTH
Disbrow's phone rang six weeks after her prayer.
Do you know anything about Betty Jane? a man asked. Or Sioux Falls?
"Yes," said Disbrow. "But who are you?"
I'm the son of your daughter, he said. Would you like to talk to your daughter? To Betty Jane?
"My knees buckled," recalls Disbrow.
She learned that her baby girl, now named Ruth Lee, was married and had six children – including astronaut Mark Lee who'd flown into space four times.
She also learned how her prayer was answered: Ruth recently had undergone heart surgery and thought it wise to find her birth mother's health records. Her search uncovered Disbrow's letters and, eventually, the fact that Disbrow was still alive.
"I got goose bumps all over my body," Ruth recalls. "I just didn't expect that."
Finally, after 77 years apart, mother and daughter would meet. And Disbrow's secret would come out.
"Oh my goodness," she fretted. "What are people going to think? My own family doesn't know."
Right away, she called a daughter in Portland, Ore., to explain. Her secret gushed out – as it did, a joy overtook the pain.
"I never heard her so excited," says Dianna Huhn, 65, of Portland, one of two children Disbrow had from her marriage to Eugene Disbrow. "And from that day on, I have never seen my mom so happy."
Disbrow's family, friends and church all embraced her story. Grown men cried when she described it at Heritage Christian Fellowship in San Clemente.
And when mother and daughter met?
"It was like we'd known each other all our lives," says Ruth Lee, now 82.
"It was like we never parted," says Disbrow, who recently told this story to friends at her 100th birthday party.
Immediately after, Disbrow prayed again. She thanked God. She forgave the man who raped her. And she wondered something about him for the first time:
"I wondered if he ever watched the space shuttle take off, not knowing that perhaps one of those he was watching was his grandson."
Contact the writer: 714-796-6979 or tberg@ocregister.com
Showing posts with label Abortion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abortion. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Bioethics Symposium at Biola University
Professional Pro Life Nurses Upholding Ethical Practices
Educating...Protecting Lives...Caring With Compassion...
-------------------------------------------------------------
2011 Symposium
"Bioethics Unlocked -
Information Vital To Your Life"
Saturday, November 5, 2011
8:00am - 5:00pm
Biola University
13800 Biola Ave., La Mirada, CA 90639 (Crowell Building, Room #109)
Earn 6 Contact Hours
Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses
Provider Number 14443
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
GRAPHIC WARNING - Judge Kills Texas Sonogram Law
The law — one of dozens of anti-abortion measures that advanced through state capitals across the United States this year — was set to take effect Thursday.
A New York-based reproductive rights group had sued to block the law.
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said in his ruling that requiring a doctor to show women images from the sonogram and the sounds of the fetal heartbeat violates the First Amendment rights of doctors.
The ruling also struck down a requirement that allows women to avoid seeing the sonogram images only if they sign a statement that they are pregnant because of sexual assault or incest. The state cannot compel a woman to disclose such private information that she may not even wish to tell police, Sparks ruled.
Sparks ruled such disclosure is an attempt by the state to "permanently brand women who choose to get an abortion."
Friday, February 18, 2011
VICTORY: Planned Parenthood loses funding in House vote
(from CBSNews.com)
The House voted on Friday in favor of a proposal to ban all federal funding for Planned Parenthood and to eliminate a program known as Title X, which provides aid for family planning and reproductive health.
The amendment, which was put forth by Indiana Republican Mike Pence, passed with a vote of 240 to 185, with eleven Democrats voting for the amendment and seven Republicans voting against it. One Congress member voted "present." The amendment will now proceed to Senate as a part of the Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government through September.
Abortion rights activists immediately condemned the amendment as an "extreme and dangerous piece of legislation" and an "assault" on millions of Americans.
"The outcome of this vote is not a surprise, but it is radically out of step with mainstream American values and it is out of line with the issues voters want Congress to focus on," said Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, in an e-mailed statement.
"In attacking Planned Parenthood, the House Republican leadership has launched an outrageous assault on the millions of Americans who rely on Planned Parenthood for primary and preventive health care, including lifesaving breast and cervical cancer screenings, annual exams, family planning visits, birth control, HIV testing, and more."
Anti-abortion rights activists, however, have lauded the proposal's passage on Friday as an "historic vote."
"We are very grateful to the House of Representatives and its leadership for listening to the American people," said Penney Nance, CEO of the anti-abortion group Concerned Women for America. "Now it's time for the U.S. Senate to follow suit and finally cut off all federal funding to an organization that thumbs is willing to aid and abet sex traffickers."
In a Thursday night debate preceding the vote, conversation quickly moved to the topic of abortion rights and women's rights, as well as the relative merits of Planned Parenthood and Title X - a program that provides low-income families with aid toward family planning and reproductive health.
New York Democrat Louise Slaughter called the proposed cuts to family planning "the opening salvo in an all-out war on women's health."
And in a moment that commanded solemn attention on the House floor, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) discussed her own experience with abortion.
The House voted on Friday in favor of a proposal to ban all federal funding for Planned Parenthood and to eliminate a program known as Title X, which provides aid for family planning and reproductive health.
The amendment, which was put forth by Indiana Republican Mike Pence, passed with a vote of 240 to 185, with eleven Democrats voting for the amendment and seven Republicans voting against it. One Congress member voted "present." The amendment will now proceed to Senate as a part of the Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government through September.
Abortion rights activists immediately condemned the amendment as an "extreme and dangerous piece of legislation" and an "assault" on millions of Americans.
"The outcome of this vote is not a surprise, but it is radically out of step with mainstream American values and it is out of line with the issues voters want Congress to focus on," said Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, in an e-mailed statement.
"In attacking Planned Parenthood, the House Republican leadership has launched an outrageous assault on the millions of Americans who rely on Planned Parenthood for primary and preventive health care, including lifesaving breast and cervical cancer screenings, annual exams, family planning visits, birth control, HIV testing, and more."
Anti-abortion rights activists, however, have lauded the proposal's passage on Friday as an "historic vote."
"We are very grateful to the House of Representatives and its leadership for listening to the American people," said Penney Nance, CEO of the anti-abortion group Concerned Women for America. "Now it's time for the U.S. Senate to follow suit and finally cut off all federal funding to an organization that thumbs is willing to aid and abet sex traffickers."
In a Thursday night debate preceding the vote, conversation quickly moved to the topic of abortion rights and women's rights, as well as the relative merits of Planned Parenthood and Title X - a program that provides low-income families with aid toward family planning and reproductive health.
New York Democrat Louise Slaughter called the proposed cuts to family planning "the opening salvo in an all-out war on women's health."
And in a moment that commanded solemn attention on the House floor, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) discussed her own experience with abortion.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Planned Parenthood Aids Sex Trafficking
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Dear Friend, Shocking undercover video footage reveals a Planned Parenthood clinic manager assuring a pimp that the clinic would secretly offer full access to abortions and other services - despite knowing full well that the girls were underage victims of sex trafficking. To respond swiftly to this crisis - and to take decisive action to strip Planned Parenthood of all taxpayer funding - the pro-life movement is uniting this THURSDAY NIGHT on a huge nationwide webcast ... and your attendance is critical! On Thursday 2/3, at 8:30 PM Eastern (5:30 PM Pacific) attend the LIVE webcast at:
Joining Lila will be top pro-life leaders, including:
 Wendy Wright President Concerned Women for America P.S. Please forward this important message to family, friends, co-workers, church members - everyone! | |||||
 |
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Why “Sanctity of Life” Matters
by Jim Litchfield
Last Saturday, January 22, was the 38th anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision which opened wide the door to the killing of our unborn babies. We asked one of our church’s strongest proponents of Right to Life issues to write about what keeps him and his wife Carolyn in the fight.
Abortion.
It is worse than you can imagine.
Abortion. The word itself elicits emotions across the entire spectrum of human feelings. Abortion. Our response to the scope and severity of this issue will undoubtedly be what our generation is judged for in the history books.
Abortion. An act of violence that kills a child. Abortion. Approximately 50,000,000 deaths in the United States U.S. U.S.
With the 38th annual commemoration of the Roe v Wade decision this month, Christians are once again confronted with the question about what we should do, both as individuals and as the church, in response to the killing of innocent children in our society. What should we do? What does Scripture say we should do?
There are numerous Scriptural references to the sanctity of life, to the fact that life begins at conception, and that we should defend the innocent.
For instance, consider the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37). Is an unborn child our current neighbor (as opposed to merely being a future neighbor) in the sense meant by Jesus when He commanded us to “love our neighbor” in the parable?
If the unborn child is our current neighbor, what is our response supposed to be? The priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side of the beating victim may have felt pity for him but the Samaritan took pity on him. The Samaritan took risks and made sacrifices (a good definition of “love”) to save someone he didn’t know and to whom he owed no obvious duty (an extreme definition of “neighbor”). Even more importantly, if the unborn child is our neighbor now, we should be sobered by the fact that the Parable of the Good Samaritan is Christ’s answer to the question “. . . what must I do to be saved?” (Luke 10:25) Jesus said we are to love God and love our neighbor and then explained who our neighbor is and what real love looks like. How can this parable not apply to abortion?
Good works can’t save us but they will be judged as evidence that our faith is a saving faith. Jesus prophesied that He would judge faith by examining works: “Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me . . . Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of
these, you did not do it to Me.
It is Scriptures like these that motivate me to respond to the abortion holocaust. Theologian Francis Schaeffer wrote that if Christians won’t stand up against something as evil as killing a baby—then the world has the right to ask whether Christ is real. I want the world to know that Jesus is real. I want the world to know that He is alive. And I want the world to hear the gospel, as it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
Ephesians 5:1 commands us, as believers in Christ to expose the deeds of evil and darkness. The world is watching the Christian Church’s response to the abortion holocaust and deciding what they think about Jesus as they do. If Jesus’ people aren’t doing anything about abortion, a very clear statement is being made about Jesus!
There are many, many ways that Christians can respond to the evil of abortion. First and foremost, educate yourself about abortion. There are numerous websites with all kinds of facts and figures and research (abortionNO.org and abort73.com). Once you have a better understanding of abortion and the enormity of the abortion problem, draw near to God and ask Him the same three questions that Pastor Steve Osborn taught in his sermon in the Sanctuary (January 16) and the Commons (January 23): Where does the Father want me to deploy the finite resources of my life to stop abortion? Who does the Father want me to work with to help stop abortion? And last, specifically what does the Father want me to do to stop abortion? Ask these questions in faith and, as you listen for His answer, pray that the Father answers you just as Jesus prayed the Father would answer
Him (Luke 22), “nevertheless, not my will, but Yours, be done.”
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Body Parts on Shelves at Gruesome Abortion Mill
This is painful to read. With abortion clinics being widely available throughout the United States since Roe v Wade, babies are being murdered every day. This is but one story of the millions of children murdered at the hands of "doctors". God help us all.
(CBS/AP) PHILADELPHIA - A doctor accused of running a filthy "abortion mill" for decades in an impoverished Philadelphia neighborhood delivered babies alive, killed them with scissors and allowed a woman who had survived 20 years in a refugee camp to be overmedicated and die at his clinic, prosecutors said.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, was charged Wednesday with eight counts of murder for the deaths of seven babies and one patient. Nine employees also were charged, including four with murder.
Prosecutors described the clinic as a "house of horrors" where Gosnell kept baby body parts on the shelves, allowed a 15-year-old student to perform intravenous anesthesia on patients and had his licensed cosmetologist wife do late-term abortions.
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(CBS/AP) PHILADELPHIA - A doctor accused of running a filthy "abortion mill" for decades in an impoverished Philadelphia neighborhood delivered babies alive, killed them with scissors and allowed a woman who had survived 20 years in a refugee camp to be overmedicated and die at his clinic, prosecutors said.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, was charged Wednesday with eight counts of murder for the deaths of seven babies and one patient. Nine employees also were charged, including four with murder.
Prosecutors described the clinic as a "house of horrors" where Gosnell kept baby body parts on the shelves, allowed a 15-year-old student to perform intravenous anesthesia on patients and had his licensed cosmetologist wife do late-term abortions.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Associated Press: EU Court condemns Irish ban on abortion
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| The Fullerton Sentinel |
The AP report says that: "The judgment from the Strasbourg, France-based court will put Ireland under pressure to draft a law extending limited abortion rights to women whose pregnancies represent a potentially fatal threat to their own health."
Although the headline, similar ones appearing on numerous sites and papers, appears to be a lift on all abortions, is misleading, the fact remains that elective abortions are still illegal throughout the island nation.
Abortion as a means of birth control or as a means for minimizing the unintended consequences of a woman's actions finds no home in Ireland as it should be in the United States.
The notion that "it's a woman's body" and therefore we must all allow for mothers to murder their children is painfully flawed. Abortion should be reserved only for those who are gravely ill, the decision for which should be made by a licensed medical doctor based on survivability of the person and perhaps the patient's preference.
Selective abortion as a means of birth control should be prosecuted as first degree murder.
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