ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the real of abortion alternatives—sustaining life by keeping the baby, adopting out, or adopting in. The fact is, sustaining life is damn difficult as of the first feeding, and it never gets any easier. Many events can change the course of a child's life. Certainly many life-sustaining situations leave no scars, and even some adverse experiences bring joyful conclusions. There is simplicity of the real, and happy endings are a part of it. Complexity is reflected on many levels. Grandparents outside the Ronald McDonald House struggle with accepting God's will, especially when they fear what that may entail. In the civic realm—in the realm of the citizen-nachahmer pursuing the intimate social gospel—costly grace represents the kind of deliberate action needed to protect and enhance the sanctity of life. The task of the citizen-nachahmer is to understand fully Imago Dei through the intimacy of the social gospel.
