By Dave Andrusko
It was only a week or so ago that we wrote about the music video, “This Time.” NRL News Today received some nice feedback but I didn’t realize until yesterday that John Elefante’s moving pro-life/pro-adoption tribute to his adopted daughter, Sami, and her birthmother had gone viral. Posted to YouTube September 16th, “This Time” received more than 100,000 views in just the first five days.
Sami’s birthmother was only 13 at the time and the lyrics are based on the true story of what she might have experienced as “She sat cold in a waiting room/ frightened and all alone/Watched the clock tick down/ knowing that her baby would soon be gone.”
“Although I am overwhelmed at our success in such a short period of time, I am not that surprised,” Elefante told Christian Newswire. The former lead singer of the group “Kansas” added, “This is a subject that folks are extremely passionate about and I feel this video delivers this powerful message in a way that hasn’t been done before. Some have called it the new pro-life anthem.” (See thistimeforkeeps.com]
Elefante’s empathy and understanding is as clear as the music video is powerful and supportive. “I can’t imagine life without my daughter, Sami, and it just breaks my heart that pregnant young women much like her birth mother, instead of choosing life for their babies, are denying them the chance to be born,” Elefante told Abby Carr “If our song can in any way bring attention to this issue and encourage those who are considering abortion to choose life through options such as adoption, then we couldn’t be happier.”
In the video we know the grandmother is deeply concerned, but the girl angrily slams the door and when next we see her she is at the abortion clinic. As she drifts off into a half-sleep in the waiting room, she dreams of celebrating her unborn baby girl’s third birthday and watching her grow into a woman.
It would likely take something as powerful as a “picture” in her mind’s eye to convince her this is desperately wrong. The abortion clinic staff is shown restraining her from leaving. “They said, “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine/ You’re still young we see this all the time.”
But something more powerful than her fear and her embarrassment at being pregnant at such a young age wins out. Sami’s teenage mother makes it to the phone to call for her own mother and the last scene is her outside, visualizing her baby at three or four, just as her mother arrives to take her home.
The music, as you would expect from a multiple-Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, is just tremendous. The lyrics weave the story of why she ran to the abortion clinic….and why she chose life.
Be sure to watch “This Time” at thistimeforkeeps.com.
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