“I may have to end this pregnancy,” Sandra said shakily, unsure how The LIGHT House staff would respond. With a life on the line, our pregnancy care support workers knew that love was the only way through.
Sandra was terrified of passing on the medical condition baked into her own DNA to a child. She had seen the condition’s devastating effects on several relatives, and she knew this was no way to live. Mercy, she concluded, meant sparing her baby from a lifetime of suffering before the pain could ever begin.
Instead of judging Sandra for thinking about terminating the pregnancy, The LIGHT House staff members came alongside her with empathy and kindness. They understood that her family’s medical history put her at risk of unusually great challenges and pain. Rather than make her feel isolated with cold lectures, the team pressed into relationship while speaking about her baby’s inherent value, regardless of his or her health.
Meanwhile, Sandra moved forward with testing to assess the risk of her baby being born with the condition. She had hoped for a girl so that her baby would have a much lower chance of inheriting the disease, but to her disappointment, the first test revealed that she was having a boy. Sandra nearly sank into despair at the unwelcome news, but the maternity home staff did their best to buoy her up with encouragement and prayer.
Sandra’s next test would reveal whether her son had the genetic anomaly. At the beginning of this appointment, a genetic counselor gave Sandra encouraging updates about new enzyme replacement treatments that could greatly improve an affected baby’s quality of life. Next, a technician ran a standardized ultrasound before it was finally time for Sandra to take the test that would determine whether her baby had inherited the condition—and whether her baby would live or die.
The LIGHT House care workers were praying in the waiting room when the door burst open and Sandra came out crying. Fearing the worst, one worker asked what had happened. Sandra surprised everyone by explaining that she hadn’t gone through with testing, after all. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I can’t end my pregnancy. I love my son, and I can’t lose him, no matter what.” Sandra slipped the ultrasound photo out of her pocket and pointed to her baby’s face, hands, and feet. “I love him,” she repeated. “This is my son.”
It was a different Sandra who returned to The LIGHT House maternity home for continued pregnancy care. She now knew the infinite value contained within every life, and she knew how much she loved her baby, no matter what challenges they’d face together. Sandra finally had hope for her and her baby’s future, as she knew that a diagnosis couldn’t contain all the plans that God had set for her son’s life.
When Sandra looked at her baby’s ultrasound, she didn’t see a possible disease—just her own heart expressed in a baby’s face, her love finally given a form and a name.
