Did you read the story about Daniel that our Men’s Program Coordinator wrote for the fall newsletter? Thank you for making our life-saving work possible. We hope you will give to Assurance this Christmas to ensure we can be there for the next couple who walks through our doors. But we also have an exciting update to share! Daniel contacted Aaron with some great news. Sit back and enjoy both Aaron’s and Daniel’s perspectives on how God worked in this family.

“Tina knew for some time she was pregnant but did not want to tell me. After all she barely knew how to react herself. Tina did not know who to tell or where to go for help. She decided to go to Assurance to get advice and an ultrasound. Tina asked me to come with her to a doctor’s appointment. I was surprised to find out, by talking to another visitor, that Assurance is a place for pregnant women.”

Yes, you just read that right. Daniel figured out they were expecting a baby through his conversations with others in our waiting room! As you can imagine, when he came back to talk with Aaron, he was still processing this surprising news.

As Aaron recalls, “He talked about his faith as a Catholic and his future in the military. He was sharing with me his vision of being a husband and a father, and with the next breath (as if reality instantaneously set in) stated, “I’m not sure we can have this baby; this will be a real hardship on both of us right now.” He did not like the idea of abortion but was not sure he knew how to or even wanted to convince her to have the baby. He revealed to me that his girlfriend was completely undecided about the pregnancy. I grabbed on to some of the content he had shared earlier and helped him verbalize his true feelings about abortion. And then I equipped him with some language to communicate with his girlfriend about how he really felt. The ultrasound was impactful, but they were still undecided when they left Assurance.”

We continued to pray for and check in with them after their visit. Daniel and Tina are grateful for the help they received from Assurance. “Assurance helped us see our baby for the first time and for that we will be eternally grateful. However, that is not all Assurance did for us. They were able to give us the confidence we needed to accept our roles as first-time parents. They also gave us contact information for organizations in our area that could help us through this pregnancy and beyond. The staff at Assurance were so welcoming and treated us like family. They continued to follow up with us throughout the pregnancy.”

Earlier, I promised you exciting updates. I am thrilled to share the rest of the story. Daniel and Tina are parents to a precious baby boy, Daniel Jr., born in August. They report he is growing fast. And that’s not all. They are planning a June wedding! Daniel ended his telling of their Assurance story with this:

But what if they had not come to Assurance? Thankfully we will never know. We hear from post-abortive women all the time with deep regret from having made a decision in panic not knowing what else to do, where to get help, or even fully understanding what having an abortion could mean for them. And we hear from men who didn’t know how or didn’t think they should tell their girlfriend that they did not want her to abort their baby.

Thanks to your support, we are able to provide a caring place for women and men to take a deep breath and learn the truth about their situation and options. We show them compassion and offer real help. We share hope through the life of another baby born through an unplanned pregnancy, Jesus Christ. We praise God when He uses all of these things to lead our clients to choose life. We estimate 144 babies were saved from abortion through Assurance last year. We celebrate all the more when we see movement towards not only life, but abundant life, such as couples committing to each other in marriage and clients receiving faith in Jesus Christ, just as eleven did in our center last year.

This Christmas, we hope the life of baby Daniel and the impending marriage of his parents will bring you great joy. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10

With gratitude,

Ronda Webber, Executive Director

P.S. Keep Daniel and Tina in your prayers as they both work to finish school, be good parents, and prepare for the wedding.  And will you pray daily and invest in our ministry this Christmas for the next couple who walks in our clinic?