Free Someday: 3 (Sunrise) by Karen Kingsbury

with Ashley.
    Apparently her sister had talked with Jenny Flanigan, one of the CKT moms. Ashley filled Brooke in on a situation that had happened with one of the teenage girls in Jenny’s daughter’s circle of friends. The girl had gotten pregnant and had an abortion because she had no other option, no other voice of reason. Not even the voice of her mother.
    “The crisis pregnancy center closed just before Marissa would’ve needed it. Maybe it’s time someone reopened it, Brooke.” Ashley’s voice was brimming with emotion. “Maybe that would be part of my Sarah’s legacy.”
    The tears came quickly for Brooke as she pictured Ashley and Landon’s tiny baby born with anencephaly and her short life before leaving this earth. From the time Ashley received the terrible diagnosis, Brooke had been opposed to her sister continuing her pregnancy. Medical training and prior experience had convinced Brooke that only one option existed when an unborn baby was diagnosed with anencephaly. Abortion. Eliminate the pregnancy, thereby saving the parents the trauma of carrying to term a child doomed to death.
    But Ashley and Landon had done things differently, standing by their determination that God would bring a miracle out of their daughter’s life—however brief.
    The resulting birth and death of Sarah had touched Brooke like nothing before. It changed her. She had since come to realize that she could not suggest abortion to her patients. Not when the baby’s ultrasound showed anencephaly. Not ever. But never until this morning had she thought about taking her new understanding of life a step further by reopening the crisis pregnancy center.
    Brooke stepped out through the double doors of her medical building, and she could hear Ashley’s voice the way it had sounded moments ago on the phone.
    “Think about it,” Ashley had told her. “Sarah proved that life is precious. She was loved as much in her few hours as she would’ve ever been loved if she’d lived to be a hundred. Shouldn’t the babies of teenagers in our city have that same chance? the chance to live?”
    Goose bumps had run like electricity down Brooke’s arms and legs. A crisis pregnancy center was crucial. It would give teenage moms or moms in crisis a chance to see their unborn children, a chance to recognize their pregnancies for what they truly were—lives that deserved a chance.
    Brooke sighed and pushed through the doors of the hospital. She could think about the center later. For now she had to focus on the sick kids in her care. Especially Ethan. She took the elevator to the fourth floor, the one dedicated to children with serious illnesses. Down the hall and around a corner, she came to Ethan’s room.
    He was lying in bed, a precious bald child with huge blue eyes, but this morning he seemed more tired than usual. His mother stood next to him, holding his hand. She looked up when Brooke entered the room. Worry had creased her forehead and left dark circles beneath her eyes.
    Brooke took gentle hold of Ethan’s toes and shifted her attention to the small boy. “How’s my favorite patient?”
    Ethan’s eyes lit up. Even on his sickest days he was a ray of sunlight in a hospital wing of sorrow and darkness. “I got my pictures.” He pointed to a Mickey Mouse photo album on his bedside table. “The ones from Disney World!”
    A lump tried to form in Brooke’s throat, but she kept it at bay. “Photos of your trip. You’ll have to show me.”
    “He had a great time.” Ethan’s mother found the hint of a smile as she reached for the photo album. She was opening it when Ethan’s nurse Lindsay walked into the room.
    “Dr. West, good to see you.” Lindsay’s eyes met Brooke’s and there was an awareness, a sense that Brooke hoped Ethan and his mother couldn’t see. The child wasn’t doing well. His last surgery and rounds of chemotherapy hadn’t stopped the cancer the way they’d hoped. The treatment he was getting now was his last