Sarah’s Story:

I am a seventeen-year-old girl (the fourth of twelve children), and our family has been involved in the pro-life/rescue movement since 1987. My Jewish grandmother immigrated to America after the German Holocaust during World War II. Because of her experience in Nazi Germany, she has always been strongly pro-life and taught us the same. Grandma was also the one who introduced us to Life Advocate. The magazine has been a valuable pro-life source for our family since 1991. I have much to be thankful for!
It was due to our involvement in the Wichita Rescue Movement (1987-1991) that we participated in the ’91 “Summer of Mercy” with Operation Rescue. And because of that participation, we switched churches (to a pro-life, pro-rescue church). Then, in this church family, God had us meet Bill and MaryKay Brown.
Shortly after we came to know the Browns, they adopted a little baby girl, who survived an abortion performed by the infamous “Dr. George Tiller.” This brave family began telling baby Sarah’s story and immediately Tiller had a judge issue a gag order. But her story had already gotten out.
Though Sarah Elizabeth Brown was lamed, blinded, and silenced by her abortion, her life inspired feet to stand “in the gap” and show the Way to the lost, shed light in the darkness and spread the Truth to those caught in deceit, and proclaim the words of God for Life to people ensnared in the philosophy of death. Sarah left this world at the age of five in September of 1998.
God has continued to use Sarah for his kingdom even after her death; MaryKay now heads up “Sarah’s Ministries,” where she and others offer women and families financial help, housing, clothing, expert medical help, adoption referrals, chastity counseling, post-abortive counseling, and other services.
Bill and MaryKay also speak at youth/pro-life rallies about Sarah and abortion, but most of all Jesus Christ, who is the answer to all our needs.

This is Sarah’s story.

Wichita, Kansas, July 13, 1993

Mommy was 15 years old. I had lived inside her for almost nine months. It was such a warm, comfortable place, and I liked to kick and swim around. Sometimes Mommy would put her hand over me, and that was nice. But most of all, I liked to hear her talk.
There, she was talking now. But she sounded nervous and sad. Someone called a “doctor” said something was wrong; that the “fetus” was in the wrong position but he would do the “abortion” anyway.
Then I felt Mommy lie down. I wanted to sleep, too. Then something sharp poked into my head. Suddenly I felt a terrible pain. I screamed. I screamed for Mommy, I screamed for the doctor, I screamed for someone, anyone to come help me. But nobody heard. That awful pain lasted two whole days.
Mommy was crying. The doctor said that the baby was coming and that Mommy must drive to a hospital. I heard the car start. Something was pushing me very, very hard; forcing me out of that warm place inside.
Suddenly, I was freezing cold and very wet. Mother said she never wanted to see me again. I tried to look at her, but I couldn’t see anything. I tried to kick, but my legs wouldn’t go. What had happened to me?
Someone at the hospital wrapped something warm and soft around me and laid me in a crib she called an “isolette.” She talked about checking into “a local family who might adopt.”
Family? All I wondered about was where Mommy had gone, why I couldn’t move my legs anymore, why no one heard me when I cried, and why I couldn’t see. Finally, I slept.
Things started happening.
A nice man and lady came to see me. They said they would take me. “She won’t live a year,” a nurse told them. “Not with these handicaps.”
They said they didn’t care, they still wanted me. And that’s how I met the Browns.
“Sarah Elizabeth was a little stranger that came into our lives. She was literally a throwaway child that nobody wanted.” MaryKay Brown, my new mother, told people, “God chose us to be her parents, and it was a great honor because she was such an easy child to love.”
Lisa was a friend of MaryKay’s; she and her husband had adopted a “biracial” boy whose mother was raped, but refused to have an abortion.
But Lisa still didn’t understand. “I used to make allowance for the ‘quality of life’ exception. I thought it would be OK to kill someone because they were handicapped and would probably be a burden on others.” she said. “But the first day the Browns brought Sarah home, I saw that it
wasn’t that way at all. It just wasn’t fair to decide that just because someone wasn’t completely normal, they should not be there; because their lives usually make more of a difference than most of ours would. That argument just wasn’t valid anymore.”
I often had “seizures.” They were no fun. And several times I nearly died. But MommyKay (that’s my nickname for her) and Daddy and my seven brothers and sisters asked friends to pray for me, and I got better.
I had trouble breathing, so at night they attached me to a breathing monitor (they called it an “apnea” monitor) with an alarm.
“She had a funny thing she’d do sometimes.” MommyKay said. “After everyone was in bed, if she was feeling lonely, she would hold her breath and make the alarm sound. We would wake up and check on her, and she would be lying there, fully awake, and when she heard us she would smile. Sarah was very smart about things like that.”
As I got older, I liked certain things. I loved people to brush my hair. I also liked Bach and “old-time gospel” music. But my favorite thing was hearing children play and laugh! It made me smile, and that was almost like playing with them.
MaryKay remarked, “Even though she wasn’t the world’s idea of what a normal human being should be, she was the greatest thing that ever happened to me....And in many ways, she was like a normal child. Sometimes we would play a cartoon for her, and though she couldn’t see, she could understand. She would laugh or cry out when it was funny or scary. I really believe she knew more that we thought.”
One day, MommyKay met a girl named Misty, who wanted an abortion. Even though MommyKay offered to help, Misty wouldn’t change her mind. Then MommyKay asked, “Would you like to see my little girl who survived an abortion?” When Misty said “yes,” MommyKay brought her over to see me. She looked at me and decided to let her baby live. I was so happy! MommyKay said it’s because I was just so easy to love. And now, Misty’s little boy named Alex walks and talks and sees like I never could.
A lady at church named LaVonne often liked to hold me.
“The definition of love for me is Sarah Brown,” she said. “Her life confirmed to me how wrong abortion really is, no matter what the reason. God has a reason for every life, and the reason He sends these special kids is because they teach us how to love....I’ve learned so much about love from Sarah: she didn’t care how you looked, who you were, or how you talked. She just loved everybody. And that is what real love is.”
Valley Center, Kansas, September 28, 1998
I woke up and felt kind of funny. My heart was hurting pretty badly.
Then MommyKay came into my bedroom to give me a breathing treatment.
“She smiled at me and then her heart stopped--it was just that fast.” MaryKay said.
I watched from Heaven as they took me to the hospital. The doctor said I was dead. Then he asked MommyKay and Daddy if they would donate my eyes to help two blind children see. They said “yes.” It made me shout for joy! I don’t need those eyes in Heaven; I can see, and walk, and talk. Now, two kids see with the eyes I could never see from.

“When I tell Sarah’s story,” MaryKay says. “I always stress that she was sent by God....Even though she was handicapped, she was never a burden. She gave us much more than we ever gave her.”
Many people who met me say that I put a face on abortion, that they could never forget, and that they now realized what it really was.
MommyKay has a friend named Kathy.
“Sarah was my inspiration,” she said. “Every time I held her I would cry. I would have her in my arms, and just look at how beautiful she was. Her brown hair was so lovely, and her blue eyes were huge....Then I would look at the marks on her head from the abortion and cry. It gave me the strength and courage to go on and fight for the other little babies. My kids were just extremely touched when they met her. And my dad became pro-life when he saw a picture of his grandson holding her. Sarah was just so sweet, she changed everybody’s mind.”
“She was the closest thing to a saint I will ever know,” MaryKay said.
“She won more people to Jesus than I ever will in my lifetime, and she couldn’t even say his name.”

Donations to Sarah’s Ministries should be sent to:
Sarah’' s Ministries Account #64207412
Emprise Bank
100 N Meridian Valley Center, KS 67147