Christie: My Mother-in-Law Coined Phrase ‘Every Life is an Individual Gift from God’

[excerpt]

“You need to know that this is an important thing to me. I'm tired of watching lives wasted as I believe every life is an individual gift from God. And, you know, I use that phrase all the time. I want to tell you--and I'll take your questions--where I got that phrase from because she deserves credit for it. It's my mother-in-law. 

My mother-in-law is 86 years-old. She is the mother of 10 children. Marry Pat is one of ten children. She has six older brothers, two older sisters, and a younger sister. This woman is amazing. And, once time, I've gotten into a discussion with my mother-in-law and my father-in-law. One of those Christmas discussions that you get into, like latter at night, when almost all the other guests have gone home and everyone's had just enough wine to be little bit more open than you might be otherwise.

 I said to my father-in-law, or to my mother-in-law first; I said, 'Mom, ten children.' I said, 'If you had to do it all over again, would you have ten?' And she looked at me and she said, 'Yes, Christopher, because every one of my children is an individual gift from God.' And I thought, 'Well, that's pretty amazing and powerful.' And it stayed with me and I use the phrase all the time."