Miracle Adoption Facilitated Through TPUSA’s Conservative Women’s Facebook Group
‘Every woman facing an unplanned pregnancy deserves exactly what the left so proudly proclaims but doesn’t consistently provide . . . choices.’
At 28 years old, Sarah was unmarried, living alone in California, separated from her family, and enduring economic hardship when she saw something that could change her life forever: a positive pregnancy test.
Sarah was brought up in a culturally-conservative household. She left her home and mother in Pennsylvania to stay with family in California but was kicked out of their home over a personal dispute. She lived alone on the west coast for over a year before experiencing an unplanned pregnancy.
As a Christian and pro-life proponent from the time she was 15 years old, Sarah immediately ruled out having an abortion. “Life begins at conception,” she told TPUSA. She believes that babies in the womb deserve the same right to life that all other humans are afforded.
But that firm foundation didn’t make these subsequent choices any easier. Several of her close friends were single mothers, and according to Sarah, “They were honest about how hard it could be at times,” which made her seriously question whether or not she was prepared to face the same fate. At this point, Sarah felt there was a “fork in the road,” and she had to decide if she too would become a single mother, or if she would sincerely consider putting her child up for adoption.
After reflecting on the situation, Sarah posted a prayer request to Turning Point USA’s “Cuteservatives” Facebook group, which was created to facilitate conservative female connections. Since the page became operational four years ago, it has facilitated friendships, enabled women to meet their bridesmaids, and even acted as a matchmaker, introducing women to their future husbands.
“I got all kinds of comments,” Sarah said. “Most very supportive and kind.“ Sarah explained that she felt comfortable sharing her personal experiences and struggles on the page because almost every woman in the group shares a similar view on morality, religion, and family.
“I also got plenty of [direct messages] that I was so blessed with,” Sarah said. One of the women who reached out was Lane, a teacher living in Georgia with her husband Watson.
“Lane said that she was praying for me, she told me that I would be an amazing mom [whichever] decision I made,” Sarah recalled. “She briefly mentioned that she and her husband were recently approved to adopt and linked the agency they were with in case I wanted to look into it. There was absolutely no pressure from her, and I could tell she was genuine.”
“As I read her post, my heart began beating quickly,” Lane told TPUSA. “I immediately began praying for her and her heart in this difficult situation she was facing. I went back and forth for a few minutes about whether or not I should reach out to her personally, but the Holy Spirit compelled me . . . before I knew it a private Facebook message was typed and sent! I remember thinking, ‘What did I even write?'” Lane explained.
In her message, Lane told Sarah that she and her husband felt called to adopt their first child and were recently approved to do so, but insisted that Sarah was not under any pressure to make a decision.
“The Lord had already been working on my heart,” regarding placing her child up for adoption, Sarah said during her interview with TPUSA. She explained that she took some time to pray about Lane’s message, and to speak with her child’s father to get his approval to place their baby up for adoption. “After a very hard conversation, he told me he was fine with whatever I wanted to do.”
Lane explained, “About a week later, I received a reply from her. I could tell immediately that she was really special. She told me that she had read my message earlier and had been praying about her decision – she wanted to pursue adoption and get to know me and my husband better to potentially adopt her baby.” Reading Sarah’s message with “tears in [her] eyes,” Lane told TPUSA that she had to wake her husband Watson up to share the heartwarming news with him.
“Watson and I trusted God,” Lane explained. “We also wanted Sarah to have the time she needed to process, choose, and feel 100 percent confident in her decision with no pressure from us or anyone else in her life.”
During her conversation with TPUSA, Sarah explained that a hope she had in her heart for her child, “but never spoke a word about to anyone,” was that her child would be raised in a bilingual, Spanish and English-speaking home. After connecting with Lane and Watson over Facetime several times, she learned that Lane was a high school Spanish teacher, who would be overjoyed to share the language with her adopted baby. “The fingerprints of God were all over this,” Sarah said.
Shortly after, Sarah matched on the adoption agency’s website (lifetimeadoption.com) with Lane and Watson, and they agreed on entering into an open adoption.
Sarah contacted her mom, who still lived in her hometown in Pennsylvania, who helped move her back home for the final months of her pregnancy. She explained that a family member of hers is “very pro-abortion” and harshly criticized her decision to place her baby up for adoption. “[They] told me I would ruin the child’s life.” But Sarah trusted the couple she had found to adopt, and trusted in God’s vision for her baby’s future.
The road ahead proved difficult, however. A few weeks before their child’s due date, Sarah went into labor and remained in labor for the following three days. She had developed eclampsia and was concerned for her baby’s health throughout delivery. After getting the call telling them that it was time, Lane and Watson immediately packed the car and drove from Georgia to Pennsylvania to meet Sarah for the first time in person at the hospital to witness the delivery of their newborn son.
“We all hit it off right away as if we had known each other our whole lives. We laughed and told stories and joked. They prayed when I was in transition and when it was time, they were allowed to help me deliver my son,” Sarah reminisced. “I was happy to see the joy on their faces and knew my son is going to have everything he needs.”
“I treasured these moments and hours together leading up to and following his birth,” Lane said in a statement to TPUSA. “It’s hard to express in words just how special it is to now have our precious adopted son. I look at him and I see Sarah every day. I hear his giggle and I think of her and her self-sacrificing love for him. Sarah is and always will be our baby’s mom too.”
The three parents agreed to an open adoption, and are still in communication every week. The friendship and bond they formed throughout this process is a beautiful picture of God’s redemptive mercy in seemingly hopeless situations.
Activists Claim that without Abortion, More Children would be in Foster Care. Here’s Why That’s False.
Both Lane and Sarah said that their goal in sharing this story is to encourage other women facing a similar situation, an unplanned pregnancy combined with financial or familial difficulties. They want women to know that there are more options than just abortion or parenthood.
“Every woman facing an unplanned pregnancy deserves exactly what the left so proudly proclaims but doesn’t actually consistently provide to these struggling women – choices.”
Lane
Sarah explained that she felt there was a lack of resources for birth moms who may want to consider adoption. Many are often coerced into “choosing” abortion instead. “I’ve become passionate about showing the positive side of adoption because there’s too much negativity surrounding it,” she said. “It’s time to change the narrative about adoption so there can be more positive stories like mine.”
A common lie used to fearmonger vulnerable women and rally the pro-abortion base is the belief that hundreds of thousands of children will suddenly flood, and overwhelm, adoption and foster care systems in the U.S. if abortion were made illegal entirely.
“The end of Roe will mean more children living in poverty,” Vox stated. “The number of children entering foster care will increase as a direct result of [Roe’s overturn] . . . adding to the stress on an already underfunded and under-resourced system,” FosterClub claimed.
But neither assessment of the situation is true.
The Turnaway study, conducted by a group in favor of lenient abortion laws, recently found that 91 percent of women who were denied abortions due to the late gestational age of their baby, chose parenthood over adoption. Instead of celebrating this outcome, the study authors lament the potential these women have to experience a “worse financial outcome” than women who received an abortion. The abbreviated fact sheet created by researchers doesn’t even mention the rate at which women denied abortions chose a life of parenthood rather than adoption.
Newly adoptive mother Lane also explained to TPUSA, “There are actually a lot more children that need families and are ‘waiting’ to be adopted than there are families willing and pursuing adoption.” In fact, there are nearly 36 families waiting to adopt for every single child placed for adoption, according to America Adoptions.
Additionally, this narrative is helped by a wide-scale misunderstanding surrounding foster care. Most children in foster care are ineligible for adoption. Considering Adoption explains, “The primary goal of the foster care system is to eventually reunite children with their biological families, and this goal is met for about 75 percent of the children who enter foster care.”
Other research shows that women are having fewer unintended pregnancies than they have in the past. Access to several forms of contraception has made it easier for women to choose when to become pregnant, and laws that restrict abortion procedures have also caused a shift in behavior. While adoption may not be the ideal outcome for every woman, Lane explained that the birth mother now has much more authority to choose exactly what kind of home and family will take in her child.
“Modern adoption is not what it used to be — the expecting mother is in full control of the life inside of her and the life she wants to create for her baby once he or she is outside of the womb.”
Lane
While speaking with TPUSA, Sarah explained that sometimes conception, birth, and adoption can genuinely be traumatic for some women, but “abortion also comes with trauma. You have to pick what you’re willing to live with.” She expressed incredible happiness and relief with her decision to participate in an open adoption after experiencing her own unplanned pregnancy. Her selfless act will give her son the ability to be raised in a loving and stable household, with three parents who care for him infinitely.
When asked what she would say to women who are facing the prospect of an unplanned pregnancy, Sarah said the following:
“Stay strong. Embrace what has been given to you and really think about your child. At the end of the day, it’s not about us, it’s about them and their future. As mothers, even if we aren’t the ones raising our children, we’re still respondible for their safety and security.”
Sarah
Editor’s Note: The last names of Lane, her husband Watson, and Sarah have been omitted from this article for their privacy. The two women featured in this article met through the Cuteservatives Facebook group, which was created to provide female fans of Turning Point USA’s shows, “POPlitics” and “The Spillover” a place to create friendships with like-minded women. Our entire team is thankful to know that this community of women was able to facilitate such an incredible story, and we are humbled to have played a small role in God’s larger picture.
Researched and edited by Marisa Svetlik.
