News

Image

June 3, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Twenty-three-year-old former college football legend and 2010 first-round draft pick as quarterback for the Denver Broncos, Tim Tebow, may be an up-and- coming NFL football star, but according to his mom, he is first and foremost her “miracle baby.”

Image

In his new autobiography, “Through My Eyes,” Tebow writes about his miraculous birth, his home schooled upbringing, the impact of faith and family on his life, and his determination to succeed, which led him to two NCAA National Football Championships with the Florida Gators and his NFL draft. The book was released May 31 from Harper Collins.

The star sparked national controversy during the 2010 Super Bowl due to his appearance in two 30-second commercial clips sponsored by the pro-family group Focus on the Family.  Pro-abortion groups organized a massive campaign to protest what they believed would be an overtly pro-life message aired during the Super Bowl.

The ad itself, however, was muted. It put the spotlight on Tim’s mom, Pam Tebow, as she mentioned how her all-star son “almost didn’t make it into this world.” 

“I remember so many times when I almost lost him,” she says. “It was so hard. Well he’s all grown up now, and I still worry about his health. Everybody treats him like he’s different, but to me, he’s just my baby. He’s my Timmy, and I love him.”

Tebow, meanwhile, charges into the clip, humorously tackling his mother to add, “Thanks mom. Love you too.” The ad then directed viewers to a website where they could view a lengthier clip in which Pam and Tim explain in greater depth how she refused doctor’s advice to abort Tim.

In his autobiography Tim relates how his mom had serious, even life-threatening complications during her pregnancy with him, the youngest of her five children. 

“A number of times they were certain they had lost me,” Tim wrote. “An abortion is the only way to save your life,” doctors had told Pam. 

“According to [the doctor], the ‘mass of fetal tissue’ or ‘tumor’—me—had to go,” writes Tim. 

Meanwhile, Tim’s parents, devout Christians serving as missionaries in the Philippines at the time, left the consultation with the doctor “shocked and a bit numb, but resolute in what course they would take.”  Pam refused the abortion.

The suffering mother experienced what her son called “an unexpected and indescribable peace. God’s peace…”  Her frequent bleeding ceased and she was able to fly to Manila where Tim was delivered. When Tim was born “a blood clot that was bigger than I was” followed immediately.

“Mr. Tebow, your child is a miracle baby,” the doctor told Tim’s dad. “I can’t explain how it happened, but despite all odds, he beat them. Only a small part of the placenta was attached, but it was just enough to keep your baby nourished all these months.”

“Mom had surgery when I was a week old, and she finally began to recover after the health challenges of many months,” writes her “miracle baby.” “The doctor told my parents that if we had not come to Manila, Mom probably would not have survived my birth.”

Tim adds, “My mom, dad, and family were so grateful for my safe arrival and thanked the Lord for His protection of both my mom and me.”

The football star says he has convictions about abortion because of his mom.  “I am so blessed because I had a mom that was so courageous … choosing to believe in me, that God had a plan for me,” he told FoxNews in an interview this week.

Twenty-three years later, now a famous star, the young man says that when he trains himself to his physical limits or tries to be a good leader, he does it “to be the best I possibly can be at it.”  “Everything I do I want to set the mark that this is how I do it because I do all things for the glory of God,” says Tebow.