Moms and their children brought the power of life-affirming pregnancy help to life in the nation’s Capital this past week as Heartbeat International hosted Babies Go to Congress.
The Babies Go to Congress initiative has brought more than 180 moms and babies to Washington D.C. to tell their stories in some 400 Congressional offices since its beginning in 2009.
Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and the world.
Moms and pregnancy help representatives share personal accounts of pregnancy help with federal lawmakers and staff during Babies Go to Congress, giving living proof of how pregnancy centers are good for America.
This year the event had the added element of a special briefing on the White House grounds with administration staff.
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Shawnte felt hopeless and abandoned after finding out she was pregnant with her third child and the baby’s father leaving. She’d lost her job and her only means of transportation.
“I felt like I lost everything that I needed to provide (for a child),” Shawnte said. “Both my mother and her father tried to convince me that an abortion was best.”
When Shawnte entered a pregnancy center, she encountered a staff member who asked her whether she wanted to have an abortion.
“And my answer was “No” she said.
The center connected her with Mary’s Shelter maternity home in Fredericksburg, Va.
“Mary’s Shelter is not just another maternity home,” Shawnte said. “Mary's shelter is a foundation for mothers to become who they were ordained to be.”
“Mary’s Shelter offered structure and offered a community and offered hope,” she said. “Having Bella as my daughter right there was one of the best decisions that I ever made in my life. Every day I hear how much she looks like me and acts like me, and I'm just reminded of how important life is.”
“I am now a mother of six beautiful children, and I use my story of resilience to help shape the outcome of others' lives around me,” said Shawnte. “I work with mothers who have lost their children to CPS, helping them to be reunited with their babies. And I also advocate for single mothers. And I'm a strengthening families coach as well.”
Valencia was working on getting her life on track when she became pregnant with her daughter Kennedi. She had begun to realize the relationship she was in was not good for her.
“And it came out even more once I learned that I was pregnant,” Valencia said. “He made it very clear that he did not want to have another child, especially with me.
Her partner became a completely different person, she said, and he was pushing for abortion.
He wanted the child to be terminated immediately, and Valencia wasn't moving fast enough for him. She was in a dark place because of the pressure, not knowing what to do.
The baby’s father researched abortion, planning to schedule an appointment for her. He produced two numbers, telling her that he had already spoken to the people at the abortion facility. There was some confusion because the number she called was actually the hotline Confidential Care Mobile Ministry Millington, Tenn.
“I always say that the call that was meant to end or terminate life actually was the call that I needed to help make a decision to choose life,” Valencia said.
Confidential Care became “her diary,” she said, and also helped her with resources.
“I really appreciate Confidential Care for being the family that I never knew I needed, the encouragement that I needed,” she said.
“It's like I found a new woman in myself, and I was determined to help somebody else,” said Valencia.
Valencia wanted to be an influence for other women who experienced unexpected pregnancy.
“And now I also work for a Confidential Care Mobile ministry,” she said. “So, I have a big part in replacing, I guess, the love and support that was given to me.”
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When Samantha found out she was pregnant, she had just moved back home coming out of a very difficult relationship.
She took multiple pregnancy tests in her bathroom, in denial that she could be pregnant.
Her mother saw one of the tests and told Samantha they had to tell her dad.
“I called him, he was on his way home from work, and I said, ‘Hey, I'm pregnant,’” Samantha said. “And he went, ‘Okay, well we're doing this.’ So, who was ‘we,’ and what are we doing? What do you mean?”
Her mother drove her the following week to Hand of Hope Pregnancy Center in Fuquay-Varina, N.C.
Samantha was terrified in that moment.
“Everything in me was not prepared to admit or be aware that there was a living being inside of me,” she said.
She experienced grace and understanding at the pregnancy center, she said, but still, after taking another pregnancy test there and asked how she was feeling, she told the staff, “I don't believe this is happening.”
They asked her if she believed that God created her. She said ‘yes.’ They then asked if she believed that God created this baby.
“And I knew deep down the answer was ‘Yes,’” Samantha said.
Seeing her daughter on the ultrasound screen brought home the reality that she was a mom, she said.
“They never promised me that things were really easy,” said Samantha.
“What they did promise me is God loved me and God was going to be there,” she said. “And as long as I was willing to show up and be a mom, they would hold my hand through the whole way, and I would have a village.”
“They never broke that promise,” Samantha said.
And on April 4 she welcomed what she called her “biggest blessing,” Zoe Grace.
Now into her new life with her daughter, Samantha has been sober for a year, living at home and closer to the Lord than she’s ever been.
“And that is purely because of the physical hand of hope that Hand of Hope gave me,” Samantha said.
Katee was a sophomore in high school when she became pregnant.
She hid her pregnancy from her parents for months. Two weeks after she finally told them she delivered her son Greyson at just 25 weeks in her pregnancy.
Her mom had taken her to Bella Vita Pregnancy Center in Knox, Ind.
The first phone call that Katee's mom made was to Bella, President and co-founder Becky Bailey said.
“And so, there were so many young girls out there that need that voice out there to say, ‘You can do this. You're going to be okay. And we're right there alongside you,’” Bailey said. “But you know what? We needed to be there for her mom too, because with a teenage girl and trying to navigate it all too, Mom came to me before she even brought her daughter in. And so, we walked alongside the mom and the pregnant mom too.”
Katee was unable to take part in Babies Go to Congress because Greyson had a medical issue at the last minute. Bailey told Katee’s story in her place.
“Katee's doing amazing,” Bailey said. “Now she's a senior this year in high school. She is on the state wrestling team, and she's going back again this year.”
“One of my favorite things that she said was that when she came into Bella, that because she was so young, we didn't make her feel like any less of a mom,” Bailey said. “She was still a mom, even as young as she was. And that we made her feel special.”
Katee was going to school part-time and coming to Bella Vida part-time and getting credit for the classes that she was taking with the center. And at the end Bailey asked her one day if her goals had changed because she is now a mom.
“And she said, “They haven't. I just have Greyson,” Bailey said. “And so, it just makes you feel that you can be a mom, and you can still succeed. You can still do all the things that you wanted to do. It's just that you’ve got your baby with you too.”
After their meetings in Congressional offices the moms and their children attended a briefing arranged by the White House Office of Public Liaison with Heartbeat International and Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the Office of Domestic Policy Council Dr. Heidi Overton, and Special Assistant to the President and White House Director of Media Affairs Sonny Joy Nelson, sharing their stories of pregnancy help. Each of the Administration personnel affirmed pro-life policies and encouraged those working in and served by pregnancy help.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
