These White, Pro-Life Evangelicals Just Gave Birth to Black Triplets

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These White, Pro-Life Evangelicals Just Gave Birth to Black Triplets

Cosmopolitan

12 hours ago

From Cosmopolitan

A new op-ed in the Washington Post explains one white family's decision to adopt an African-American boy, a biracial girl, and, most recently, give birth to three African-American babies. It's a fascinating read.

Aaron Halbert and his wife Rachel are a pro-life couple whose backgrounds as evangelical missionaries have enabled them to "see [racial differences], and we embrace it." Halbert grew up in a family of missionaries in Honduras, "very aware of racial diversity because I was the blue-eyed, cotton-topped white kid who stuck out like a sore thumb," he writes. His wife Rachel grew up in Mississippi and it "took a few trips to Haiti [before] the veil of racial prejudice was lifted from her eyes." When they met, they bonded over their religion and the fact that they both wanted to adopt:

While we were fertile, we were both deeply convicted that one of the ways to be pro-life is to involve ourselves in adoption ... Knowing that it is often more challenging to find adoptive homes in the United States for non-Caucasian children we informed the agency that we were willing to accept any child except a fully Caucasian child. We did this with the deeply held conviction that if the Lord wanted us to have a fully Caucasian child my wife would conceive naturally.

Women - potentially pro-life ones - who give birth to children they may not be willing or able to care for is a real problem the Halberts are cognizant of. They, a pro-life couple, view this as an opportunity to make the world a better place.

After adopting their son and daughter, the Halberts were quick to notice how people would react to their mixed family (when not undertaking missionary work, they reside in a Southern state). There was an older white woman who "stared at us with sheer disgust" in a Walmart, Halbert writes in the Post, and he vividly remembers an African-American mother who looked at him with his children "and just shook her head." Halbert says he finds joy in the more positive interactions he and his family have had with strangers though - "there is something beautiful and enriching being the only white face sitting and chatting with some of my African-American friends as my son gets his hair cut on a Saturday morning," he writes. "There is also something wonderful in the relationship that is built as my wife asks a black friend on Facebook how to care for our little biracial daughter's hair. "

It was these reactions that prompted the couple to what they describe as "embryo adoption," or "rescuing these tiny lives created from in-vitro fertilization." (The Halberts's pro-life perspective extends as far as believing they have a duty to "rescue" embryos frozen by prospective parents but not actually used.)

They select African-American embryos specifically so their adopted children would feel connected with their siblings - Rachel recently gave birth to their three daughters, from only two embryos, after one split in her womb. The couple is thrilled by their newly expanded family and is so "thankful" at how it came to be: "What seems to us to be the logical outcome of being pro-life is still something that to others often needs much explaining." You can read their story in full here.

https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/white-pro-life-evangelicals-just-151705668.html