Thank you so much for taking the time to read The Choice. It’s my desire to write novels that encourage, inspire, and entertain. Before you place this book on a shelf or pass it along to a friend, I want to share a few personal thoughts with you.
The sacrifice a woman makes to bring a baby into the world (along with the previous nine months!) is incalculable. One of my main goals in writing The Choice was to honor mothers. I’ve never had greater respect for my wife, Kathy, than during the birth of our first child. If you’re a mother, please allow a few drops of praise and appreciation to rain down on you.
The titles of books and movies often contain a touch of irony. There is intended irony in my selection of The Choice. Within the abortion movement, the word choice is a rallying cry for the right of women to terminate a pregnancy as an acceptable form of birth control. In this novel I want to show that the same word can apply to a woman’s decision not to abort her baby. Sandy is unselfishly “pro-choice.” She chooses not to go to the women’s clinic in Atlanta and prematurely end her pregnancy; she chooses to place the baby boys for adoption because, in the context of the story, it is the best decision for them; she chooses to place her own life in jeopardy to save her sons when she meets them as adults. Sandy’s actions at key points illustrate practical ways to redeem the word choice.
My ultimate hope is that readers of this story, regardless of age or gender, will be encouraged to make unselfish, sacrificial choices. Laying down our lives for others, in big and small ways, is at the heart of Christian living. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13 NIV). Wouldn’t more of that be a good thing?
ROBERT WHITLOW