Happy Endings
Here you can read stories by women who found themselves in crisis due to an unplanned pregnancy. With help and guidance they were able to choose life for their baby and avoid the life shattering consequences of abortion. In some cases they may have walked out of an abortion clinic or the abortion was botched and the baby survived the abortion.
Read: Jean's Story, Gianna's Story, Melissas's Story, Jason's Story, Michael's Story, Angela's Story, Coach Clyde Christensen's Story, Monica's Story, and Anonymous from Niagara.
Anonymous from Niagara
The winter of 2010 was a dark, cold winter for me, one which I look back on and remember with hot tears and aches of loneliness and isolation. At that time, my daughter, just barely old enough to walk, and I were locked out of my home by my partner. At the time, I was also about three to four months pregnant and had no family nearby. I was out of work for months raising our daughter and depending on him financially until I was to begin work the following few weeks. He wanted to teach me a lesson: he was the boss, not me. Though I had no family, barely any savings, I did have a supportive church family who took us in until I was able to find a place to live. It was a smelly, dingy, tiny one bedroom but it was ours. I started working as soon as I could, desperate to earn enough employable hours to attain unemployment insurance when my child arrived. I was bent on not going on welfare. I'm sure a lot of women in their thirties have a blast celebrating their pregnancies. Mine with my second child, a son, was lonely. I had no one to celebrate with. I was scared to reveal my pregnancy to my employer even though my rights were legally protected. When they found out---a huge basketball belly will do that---most were empathetic but some looked at me with disgust. One woman seemed to make a point in making me uncomfortable with her passive aggressive comments and stares. I saw happy couples at my midwife appointments, snuggling parents at ultrasound visits. Me, I went alone, always guilty about missed time at work or paying extra for my daughter's care. I don't have many pictures of this pregnancy. I had some periodic bleeding in my pregnancy but was otherwise healthy. My son arrived : healthy, sweet, chubby and snugly. I got maternity leave as I'd hoped. But I still struggled to pay my basic bills for us. I felt like such a loser: I was in my thirties, raising two small children alone, no house, no real savings, endlessly asking for financial help from others. A bit later, I moved to be with family. Once he was a year old, I looked for work. At first nothing but then, to my surprise I was offered a job that paid over $30,000 more than my previous one and had much better health and insurance coverage.
I think of my extreme loneliness during my pregnancy with my son. I worried that my sadness would change him--it didn't. He's so adorable and sweet and completely innocent of the circumstances of his birth. He hit all his milestones early or on time. Babies have no sense of "unplanned" or "unwanted"; it is us who impose those excuses and make rationales for selfish decisions.
I now make enough that I'm saving for their educations and a house. Though my darkest part of my life was almost two years ago, it seems just like yesterday. I'm sort of glad it happened as I was taught so much. I think of people who looked down on me for keeping my son. His own father was angry about the pregnancy, accusing me of getting pregnant to sponge child support out of him. This was not true. I've not received a dime from him. The love we share when my son and I gaze into each other's eyes has no greater value. It was a dark season, a cold winter, but it was only a season. Now my little family and I are living in the hope of springtime. I know the loneliness some pregnancies can bring. But it's only temporal. In less than two short years, I went from relying on friends, family, churches and food banks for food and now I give to them! What's important to remember if you are scared and alone, there are many out there like that too. God hears your prayers and counts your tears. He answers them, in His time, above all you could ever ask imagine or dream. Loneliness is just a season; abortion last forever.
"Anonymous"
Niagara