For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.
- Isaiah 41:13
Christina* came into the clinic hoping to receive a pregnancy test. I saw her out in the waiting area as she was filling out her paperwork and her brow was furrowed, an uneasiness in her spirit. She was brought back into our consultation room by a staff member. While she waited, I ran the pregnancy test. There it was, a double line…Positive.
I walked down the hallway to begin the consultation with Christina. As I approached the door, I heard her crying. I opened the door, and there she sat, that worried brow had turned to tears as she waited. I sat down across from her and had the prompting to touch her hands gently, letting her sit in the moment and cry…uncertain of why the tears were coming.... “takes hold of your right hand”
After a few minutes of just sitting with her, she asked if I had run the test and what the results were. I told her the test had come back positive. She looked up and I saw the fear in her eyes. She told me that she was newly married, less than a year together. He was a kind man, someone she loved very much. She told me how she knew he would be a wonderful father just by the way he treated her and provided for her. As she spoke about him I saw her brow soften and the tears begin to slow….. “do not fear”
She then went on to tell me about herself. Telling me about her upbringing with a mother who struggled with addictions, and a father who was absent and had left the family when she was young. I quickly saw where that fear was coming from. She worried about being a mother. She worried about not having a good role model in her life to raise her child well. She worried about not being enough for this little life growing inside her.
We began to talk about the instinctual love of a mother and a father. We spoke about the opportunity she now had with ending a cycle of neglect and abuse in past generations. We talked about a good friend who she had met through a women’s group at her church who was older than she, was a mother to three older children herself and had become like a close family member to her over the last few years. We talked about her faith, as a believer in Jesus, and His comfort and guidance and loving support that He so freely gives to her and her husband as new parents…. “I will help you”
As we spoke, the brow softened further, her shoulders relaxed, the tears stopped. She told me how she was starting to feel better, more hopeful, more confident in herself as a mother.
We talked about the support and care she will have here at Informed Choices. An Ultrasound to see her baby with her husband. Education and classes on pregnancy and parenting. Support via our Material Goods program for maternity clothes, baby clothes and baby supplies.
She then reached for my hands and held them as we continued to sit across from each other and said how grateful she is for a place like ours in the community. She felt a “peace in her heart”.
*Name changed to protect our client's privacy.
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