This true story was written by Elizabeth K.
Dear Save the Storks,
We don’t quite remember how we came across y’all, but we were blown away from the moment we surfed your website.We are on board with your mission. And we are blessed to be supporters of Save the Storks. Thank you for working so hard and applying innovative methods to reach expectant families.
When we were engaged, my fiancé (now husband) and I found ourselves pregnant and paralyzed in fear. We both came from Christian homes, and we both had reputations of being wholesome, pure, and godly influences on our peers. We even served together at our church. But when those two lines appeared as clear as day, we panicked.
We knew Grace “could” cover this, but our guilt and shame stole our joy and our conscience.
We asked each other, “What do you want to do?” As if we had control over the situation. We were actually monthly donors to our local pregnancy center, which made this conversation oddly complex.
Do we schedule an appointment with them? What will they think if they find out their donors aren’t living out their mission? We are beyond blessed to say that despite the lies the enemy kept planting in our minds, we decided to go to the Hope Center.
There we talked with two counselors who had walked through unplanned pregnancy with their own daughters. After our conversation, we knew the enemy could no longer tempt us with trying to “hide our oops” by taking the life of this precious child.
It is extremely hard to even write that as my six-month-old bundle of joy is giggling his little head off right now.
I wish we could say things got “better” from there, but the enemy continued to steal our joy throughout the whole pregnancy. I remember falling to my knees the night before Chase was born crying out to Jesus.
Love and joy. Those words were all my heart could manage to get out as the tears could no longer hold back.
It had been nine months of earthshaking news, futures forever changed, careers being put on hold, a wedding being pushed up, a wedding dress many sizes bigger than I ever dreamed of, checking off list after list and yet no joy towards this baby.
I was so numb by the guilt and shame that I even shared with those closest to me that I didn’t even love this baby. How can I be a good mom if I can’t even get the innermost parts of my heart to love this child?
As I trembled, I repeated those words, “Love and joy.”
I felt Jesus wrestle my heart, so much so that I went straight to sleep once I got up off the floor. Little did I know the next morning I would go into labor.
By 10:31 that evening on October 19, 2016, we finally met our son Chase Gabriel.
His middle name pretty much sums up our crazy nine month journey. When Gabriel came to Mary, she was frightened. I mean a young, teen trying to carry a baby in a culture like that without a wedding ring on her finger? I would have freaked too. Which I did.
But Gabriel was actually the messenger of her calling.
Tyler and I discovered this scripture passage along with this applicable insight a couple weeks before Chase was born. Deep down, we could feel the Holy Spirit revealing to us that this was not a mistake in heavens eyes, but rather a chosen calling to love and raise this blessing.
“Babies are blessings” really tripped us up during our pregnancy, because it didn’t feel like a blessing that our whole life flipped upside down.
But had we combated the enemy’s lies from day one with the truth, we would have walked this road of unplanned pregnancy a little more victoriously. We firmly believe that the first lie the enemy plants in the path of women and couples like us is the question, “What do you want to do?”
When families are trying to have a baby they don’t respond with a question to a positive pregnancy test.
Instead, they rejoice! That question timed perfectly in a moment of shock can also lead to irrational decisions rooted in fear and emotion. If that woman or couple could see nine months into the future how the birth of their child only changes them for the better, then their conversation about “covering up their oops” would be completely irrational.
There is no way someone could talk about killing their child when they’re holding them in their arms. But the enemy does his most lasting work when we are most vulnerable.
So, Save the Storks, thank you for all you do to intercede on behalf of those expecting families in their most vulnerable moments. Thank you for providing a window into the womb so families can see the truth about their situation.
Thank you for your innovative approach that continues to line the road of unplanned pregnancies in ways that throw the enemy off-guard and allows for more victories in this fight for life.
Though we never came across a Save the Storks bus, we know that vulnerable couples like us can and will be forever changed by encountering your supportive, grace-filled partners with the most effective game-changing resources.
We are believing and earnestly praying that y’all’s efforts continue to reach more and more vulnerable women and couples, so that more little ones can be giggling their heads off on this earth and so that more love and joy can accompany families on this unplanned pregnancy journey.
For just $30 a month, you can support Save the Storks in their mission of supporting women and their children!
