Despite All She’s Been Through, SHE CHOSE LIFE! 🪴

As I was searching through our patient stories, I thought I would share this story of transformation. It’s not every day that we see these stories, but this captures the very heart of what we aim to do.

Recently, one of the nurses was telling me that one of our patients moved here to the United States, fleeing from a really unsafe situation. Because she spoke a different language, she struggled to find support for her new life in Oregon.

Shortly after moving here, she became pregnant. When she told the father, he said he didn’t care, at all. He didn’t want anything to do with the pregnancy or with her. She felt like the answer to her situation was clear— she would have no choice but to abort. Thankfully, by the Lord’s provision, she was referred to us at Ava Health. We were able to use a translator during her appointment to understand her, but she was still very withdrawn and subdued. She told our advocate that she felt alone, had no support, no vehicle, and no resources. She let us know that she had a place to live and was grateful for that, but she just couldn’t figure out how she was supposed to work, take care of her family, and take care of a newborn all at the same time.

During her appointment with us, she accepted our brochures with information on all her pregnancy options: adoption, abortion, and parenting. She even let us pray for her.

When the time came to do her ultrasound, everyone in the room could see that she was farther along in her pregnancy than anticipated: even to an untrained eye, her baby was easily spotted on the screen. This was difficult, as we knew that she originally had intentions to abort.

She left this appointment aware of her options, but still very undecided. However, she did agree to come back a week later to do another ultrasound. When she came back for her second visit, she told us that her situation was the same, and she still thought an abortion was her only answer. But, by the time the appointment ended, she changed her mind! Now, adoption or parenting were her primary intentions. She didn’t know specifically which one she would move towards, but she knew that she was going to carry the pregnancy! There was immediately a noticeable change in her demeanor— she seemed at ease, more open and smiled often. Thanking God for this change, we gave her all the community referrals we could to help her find her way forward in this new decision of life.

This is a perfect example of the kind of woman that we so desperately want to reach: those that have no connections, no help, and no hope. Through our clinics, they can discover their pregnancy options and a plethora of community connections to enable her to live a fuller and more fulfilling life than they had before.  

This transformation doesn’t always happen in the first visit, as we see from this story. Often times, it doesn’t even happen in the second visit. But, as we’ve been praying, we have been so blessed to see this start to happen more often in our clinics: the work of the Lord changing hearts.

I want to thank for all you do to support the function of our clinics. We could not do this without you!