Three Times a Baby

When 22-year-old Mieisha learned she was pregnant, she was shocked. But discovering she was pregnant with triplets was more than she could handle - especially since she was teetering on the brink of homelessness. Life had not been easy for Mieisha. Growing up around crime-ridden Compton in inner-city Los Angeles, she already had a 3-year-old son. Two years ago she had an abortion which was an experience that shook her.

"I was sleeping on the floor with rats," she says, describing her life when she had her abortion. "My son and I were sitting outside at 3AM at the bus stop in the rain. I couldn't bring a baby into that." So before the abortion, she made a deal with God. "I got down on my knees and prayed," she says. "I told God that if he gave me another baby, I wouldn't do abortion again, no matter how hard it was."

That was a deal she knew she had to keep. But triplets? How could she manage?

Her situation seemed impossible. Although she currently lives with a cousin, the threat of homelessness is very real. Because of her difficult pregnancy, she cannot hold down a steady job. Despite her promise to God, she didn't know how she could support three more babies.

Then she went to the Grace Elliot Center.

An outreach of Trinity Chapel in Compton, the Grace Elliot Center is a CareNet affiliate. This program seeks to provide compassion, support, and the love of Jesus Christ to women in underserved urban communities where abortion clinics vastly outnumber pregnancy centers. Center Director Tera Hilliard's heart went out to Mieisha on the first day of their Life Skills class. "When she announced she was having triplets, the whole room just turned to look at her," Tera recalls. "And I saw the 'but' on her face. The 'I'm keeping them, but...' that meant there was still that window where she could possibly abort. "So I told her we wanted to help her in any way that we could," Tera says, "We serve a big God, and if He can handle one baby, He can handle three."

Things began to change for Mieisha. With the support she received from Tera and her new friends at the Grace Elliot Center, she decided not to abort her babies. She's keeping them - and to do that, she's learning how to get her priorities in order.

"My kids come first. I'm getting my foundation right," Mieisha says. She wants to start her own business as a way to support her family. And, most importantly - for the first time ever - she has hope. Mieisha wishes she had heard of the Grace Elliot Center before she had her first abortion. If she had, she probably would have kept that baby, too. That's something Tera hears often. According to Tera, L.A. County is broken into roughly a dozen Service Planning Areas, and Compton's area "has a high rate of everything: crime, abortion, infant mortality, diabetes...all the horrible things that go on in L.A. County." The young mothers there are not often aware that they have options - or hope. As for Mieisha, she's looking forward to the future that the Grace Elliot Center has given her and her babies.

The above true story is excerpted from the Fall/Winter 2008 edition of "Care Net Report" and was written up by Lisa Schmitt.

See if there is a pregnancy help center near you, by visiting OptionLine.org or calling 800-395-HELP.