When Candace came to Care Net, she was homeless and living in her car. In her words, “When I found out I was pregnant I felt scared, alone, and unsure. I was battling with the idea of abortion. I wanted to be able to provide the best life possible for my baby. I went to Care Net because I needed advice. When I came to Care Net they gave me a pregnancy test, an ultrasound, and counseled me about my options other than abortion.”
Candace’s counselor spoke with her frequently in the early weeks of her pregnancy when the challenges of homelessness seemed insurmountable and abortion often felt like the easy answer. The first decision Candace made was to deliver her child, even if she wasn’t sure if she would make an adoption plan. “After coming to Care Net I felt good about my decision to carry my baby. Even then, I wasn’t sure if I would have been able to keep her, but I felt in my heart that God wanted me to have her even if it meant allowing someone else to raise her.”
“After coming to Care Net I felt good about my decision to carry my baby. Even then, I wasn’t sure if I would have been able to keep her, but I felt in my heart that God wanted me to have her even if it meant allowing someone else to raise her.”
Care Net provided medical and community referrals to Candace, including working alongside organizations to help her apply for emergency housing and directing her to food banks. We provided her maternity clothes and, when the baby girl arrived, infant clothing and diapers. Ten months after the birth of her child, she told us, “I don’t regret my choice. Now I have a place to live for me and my daughter. My daughter is a blessing. She is an angel and I can’t imagine if I had chosen abortion.”
*Name changed for confidentiality
Read More Client Stories
Occasionally after a client comes in for an appointment, we ask if she’d consider filling out a testimony survey. Often these are the “mind-changed” clients. Women who came to see us who were planning on having an abortion, but after talking with an advocate, chose life for their baby.
As a staff, we are so grateful for the provision of time that our donors give us to make space and sit down and talk with women. For this woman, this literally allowed us to meet with the woman again before she went to the abortion clinic.
… a follow-up call with a client can be filled with joyous news or laden with the sadness that comes with the knowledge that a life will never be lived on earth.
The couple was quiet, but not upset. There were some tears, but not of despair, more of awe. Later, as I thought about it, it seemed to be a sacred awe. One that feels like fear, but weighs like a privilege.
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Care Net Peninsula is a 501(c)3 non-profit. We provide the help and hope local women need to choose life for their baby.
