We recently celebrated my 57^th Birthday and as with most of our life events, we celebrated on the show with family and friends, and our extended family and friends which means all of you! It was a wonderful day as my amazing husband, children, and family along with my mentor and friend, Lloyd Zeigler, recalled the moments of my life that brought me full-circle to where I am right now. It’s truly been a fairytale story, with all of the tragedy and triumphs that make for a good television drama – except it was all very real. The life and times of Lori Graham Bakker could have been a great soap opera, if it were a fiction. But my life was not fiction. It was real – and God has given me “beauty for ashes” as it says in Isaiah 61.

Today, my birthday wish is for my life’s story to touch someone who needs healing – someone who may feel like they’ve committed the unpardonable sin through abortion. My wish is that they (or you) would let God go in and heal you in your innermost being. I still want to help women heal from abortion – my heart hasn’t changed and I know there is more work to be done because abortion touches one in four women. It could be the preacher’s wife you see every Sunday that looks so “together.” It could be your next door neighbor, or your shopping buddy. But rest assured, you know someone who has had an abortion and they need healing!

I listened to my children, five of them that God has given to me since I met and married Jim, each one telling what it meant for me to be their Mother, and I couldn’t help but marvel at how God has redeemed my life and been so good to restore the years the devil had stolen.

I remember in the early days of ministry, visiting the inner city of Phoenix and becoming the “church lady” to the Mexican family that eventually gave me my five children. I was there the day Little Lori was born, and then there again last year when Little Lori gave birth to Olivia, my beautiful granddaughter. That’s what I would call “full circle.” No one could ever have anticipated that day in Phoenix when Little Lori was born that one day she would be our show Producer. I was the first to hold her and I was the one who cut the umbilical cord. The Bible says in Psalm 113:9 that God gives children to the woman who has none and makes her happy! And Claire, the little 9-year-old girl who cried for her birth mom when she first came to live with us said that God gave me her heart and gave my heart to her and now there is no other. She’s been my strength and my “wise one” and she just graduated from college with honors! And what can I say of Nena? Oh my goodness, where would we be without our Nena (Maricela) who is the COO of this ministry and a leader of leaders? Once, one of the kids asked her, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Without hesitation, Nena said, “I want to be just like Lori Graham, a church lady!”  Ricky has grown up to be our “Preacher Boy,” called to the ministry to preach the Gospel! And finally, we can’t wait to see how Marie is going to “change the world.”

When I was young and foolish, I destroyed the ability that God gave me to be a Mother.  I suffered tremendously because of my decisions back then, especially as I matured and realized what I had done.  I had wanted to be a Mother since I was a young girl.  I loved to play with dolls and play that I was a Mother, even from the very early years of my life.  To have that taken away from me was devastating, and I grieved over it for a long, long time and still do at times.

But God has a plan for all of His people that does not include grief and sorrow.  Instead of the ashes of my barren life, God gave me 5 beautiful children to love and raise.  He is a God that loves to restore and bring your life full-circle back to what He intended for you from the beginning.  He loves to give you beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61), and He will when you love Him and seek Him with all your heart.