Candidate Statement: No decision a PUD commissioner will make will be related to abortion pro or con, so I am not sure it should be an issue in this campaign. Given that, I do have respect for all life including the preborn. And I believe that every mother should be supported in having her baby even under the most difficult situations. In 1969 my Catholic wife and I took on the responsibility for a life. A baby boy was born to a woman who could have easily chosen an abortion. She was single, already with five children, two of which had developmental problems, one was hydrocephalic, and she was told this baby would have problems. She didn't like the father, and she was fragile meaning she was extremely depressed but we are very grateful that she was strong enough and had enough support to bring the baby to into the world alive. We became that baby's foster parents when he was a month old and the mother tried to commit suicide. We thought that we  would give him a good start and turn him over to her when she was well enough. After a couple of years she asked if we would be willing to adopt him. By that time we had bonded with him and did not want to give him up. We thanked her and proceeded with the adoption. It hasn't been easy raising Greg. He's not "normal". When he starts speaking people can tell right away that he has speech problems. He has not learned to read. At five years old he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and that lasted five scary years until we learned that the diagnosis was wrong. At 12 he had open heart surgery to repair a heart valve. We have spent a fortune on special tutoring and therapy. Sometimes we felt it wasn't fair that we had to spend so much time and money on him and that people didn't always welcome us because he was different than their children. But the lessons we learned and how we grew while raising Greg have been worth it. We learned to be patient, to slow down and to quit worrying about appearances and most of all we learned it's best to love first and fix later. The happy ending is that Greg has turned out to be a fine man. He's 43, has worked part-time for the City of Vancouver for 12 years, lives in his own apartment, plans to marry his girl friend next year and is usually a happy fellow. He loves to operate our tractor when he stays with us on weekends. Greg has been a true gift to us and we look back and thank God that his birth mother cared enough about him to allow him to be born and allowed us to adopt him. Jim Malinowski