The two most important and influential men in my life have much in common. You know the old saying about how you tend to marry someone just like your father. The longer I am married--the more I see that this is true. In the fall of 1990, I began dating Chris. It seemed everyone I told about my new boyfriend already knew Chris Enright. It kind of reminded me of the time in high school when I went through town soliciting donations for Project Graduation. Everywhere I went, people asked if I was Reverend Murray's girl.

As I got to know Chris, I marveled at how he was so friendly with everyone from waiters who served us to the cashiers at the grocery store. My dad also treated each stranger as a person with a story and a friend just waiting to be made. I was awestruck at how Chris handled our first real "crisis" together, just a few months into dating. I came down with a horrible and scary stomach virus, and poor Chris had to drive 3 hours with me lying in the backseat (just imagine--I won't go into details) to get back to the Waco hospital. He was a rock. He stayed by my side throughout the entire ordeal, and slept on the floor during my 4 day hospital stay. Similarly, when I was a teenager and began having migraines, my dad would sit by my bed, holding my hand and keeping a damp clothe to my head until I could fall asleep. He, like Chris, never complained about what a bad patient I was or all my agonizing (and certainly annoying) moaning and groaning.

My father was a man who loved nothing more than helping other people. His very nature was simply to serve others. As the best man said at our wedding, to know Chris Enright is to have been served by him at one point or another. And, while Chris fooled me with first meal he ever made me ("homemade" lasagna I later learned was bought at Sam's), he turned out to be an amazing cook. My dad, too, loved to concoct in the kitchen, and friends from high school have fond memories of homemade meals my father whipped up for us.

Today, sitting in the pew on the Sanctity of Life Day, I was again reminded of another common denominator between my father and my husband. You see, both of them were born from pregnancies that were not planned. And, so I stand in amazement by what may have never been. Had two women made a different choice so many years ago, David John Murray and Christopher Edward Enright would never have graced this earth. Their children and children's children would not exist. The ripple effect is endless--to consider how many lives would have been different, changed, and lacking because the impact of these two lives would never have been felt. It makes me want to recount every precious detail of these amazing men and share them with every woman wrestling with an overwhelming choice. I cannot imagine walking in the shoes of those women who must choose. But, I wish they could see what else I cannot imagine--a world that was never touched by David Murray and Chris Enright.

My sister and me with our dad, David Murray, on our last Father's Day with him (1989)

My husband, Chris, and me with our 3 children (just 3 of the 6 grandchildren of David Murray)