Prepare a Room: A Path to Peace and Healing for Those Hurt by Abortion

For those suffering in heart, mind, and spirit after an abortion experience, help is offered here. A culture of denial about the traumatic effects of abortion has left many women and men trapped in regret, shame, and self-condemnation about their experience. How can those who have been traumatized by this deeply wounding scourge find a doorway to freedom and hope? Michelle Shelfer offers a ten-step path to peace and healing that addresses the damage done to identity and relationships by abortion and offers real-life tools to restore what has been broken. Embark on a journey that honors your unique story and opens the door to joyful restoration through discovery of the greatest love. Includes study-group questions and workbook space for writing. Perfect for your women's group.

We cannot expect to move forward from the hurt of abortion if the doors to an appropriate grieving process are shut. The doors might be shut by our surrounding culture that is unable to acknowledge just how traumatic abortion is. We might be singing that same old song ourselves-"It was no big deal, really." "All my girlfriends have done it, and they all seem okay." "It was a long time ago. I've left it behind." The doors to healing might be shut by the shame over what was done and the inability to look at it squarely in the face or take responsibility-by a desire to bury the experience before we have understood it. Maybe the relationships involved are just too painful to think about. Who wants to stir up a bunch of muck? What good does it do to open the floodgate of tears? Why revisit that regrettable mess? You have so many excellent and persuasive reasons not to seek peace and healing.

But what if a new hope were offered to you? A hope for new ways of seeing the value of your life, a new way of loving

others and loving your lost child, a new way of leaving behind the crippling guilt, a new help in carrying the burden of what you've done? What if you found an open door? I ask you to hold out hope that there may be relief in store for you. When you take even a tiny step, you gain a new perspective. You can look back at where you've been, because you're not there anymore. I'd be willing to bet that-even just having read this little bit of the book you hold in your hand-you can already sense movement. When you act bravely, life might just reward you with insight and a new sense of direction. If you're stuck, you might just get unstuck. Maybe you'll inch one step closer to closure. Maybe you'll be able to put guilt, shame, and self-condemnation behind you and just grieve the loss of your child without that extra baggage darkening your outlook. Or maybe you'll be completely transformed by the blessed release of a terrible weight you have been carrying for a long time. The story of what got you to this point is uniquely your own, and the story of how you move forward will also be uniquely your own.

I don't know what lies in store for you, but I am here to help. The intent of this book is to open that door to a process that will allow you to heal and grieve. It offers a ten-step path designed to take you from the hurt of abortion to peace. A chapter at the back of the book provides words from the Bible and prayerful insight for each of the ten steps on the path. Consult it as you go along.

What you get out of this book probably depends a lot on what you put in. I offer you no guarantees, but at the very least, Prepare a Room will give you ideas to make things better.

And the best-case scenario?

You will find a whole new life.