We are excited to share our stories of hope. These stories are all anonymous but true. We want you to be encouraged, as well as participate; if you have a story, let us know!
Posted July 6, 2021
In January we started Chilliwack Compassionate Care. This is geared towards seniors in the community. Every week I deliver a loaf of bread to the homes of each of our senior clients. You would not believe how one loaf of bread can make a senior’s day! Especially when you throw a couple of extra sweets! I have enjoyed getting to know each one of our senior clients. When we started this bread delivery program it was meant to help seniors in a very practical way. Over these past couple months, I have realized how much a familiar face each week brightens these seniors’ day. With social restrictions in place, it has isolated many seniors whose only source of interaction was when people came to visit them. One of my clients is almost 90 years old. She is very sharp and lives on her own. She is always sitting by the door, looking out the window around the time I arrive to deliver her loaf of bread. She is always cheerful and fun to talk to. She has many stories to share, and I love listening to them. As I got to know her over the past couple of months, she mentioned that she was married, and her husband had dementia and was in a care home facility. She loves to talk about him and share stories. One delivery day I walked up to her house and she told me that her husband had passed away. I went and purchased a flower arrangement on behalf of Chilliwack Compassionate Care to show her how deeply sorry we were for her loss. She had tears in her eyes, and she explained how hard of a week it had been. She told me how thankful she was for Chilliwack Compassionate Care. The following week I came by and there she was, waiting by the window in her chair. After I gave her a loaf of bread, she had a folded up piece of paper with her husband’s obituary. She wanted to share something with me that was so precious to her. You could tell how proud she was of her husband and how much she loved him. As I read this newspaper clipping it reminded me of how precious life is and how we have a short amount of time with our loved ones. Sometimes the friendly visits are worth more than a loaf of bread to these seniors.
Posted October 12, 2018
I was feeling both nervous and expectant as I walked into the Chilliwack Pro-Life office for the first time. My husband and I were on the waiting list at an adoption agency in the Fraser Valley, anxiously waiting for “THE phone call” that would make us parents. When days turned to months turned to years, we felt there had to be another way of reaching a pregnant mom who was thinking of making an adoption plan for her baby. Our social worker agreed, encouraging us to reach out to a wider network of people. She explained that “direct placements”, where the birth mom and adoptive parents meet before even going to the adoption agency (such as through a friend of a friend of a friend) was a quicker route to adopting a baby. (Handing out “business cards” to random strangers, another idea, went a bit beyond our comfort zone!) Her final suggestion was to get in touch with a local pregnancy centre.
With our adoption profile book in hand, I approached what was then called the Chilliwack Crisis Pregnancy Centre, an arm of Chilliwack Pro-Life. In my conversation with the sympathetic counsellor I found out she wasn’t able to show our photo book to clients, as we’d hoped, as that could be seen as influencing a client in her decision. Instead, she assured me that clients would be connected with a local adoption agency if that was the route they were leaning towards. Although I left there disappointed that nothing concrete was happening towards our personal adoption goal, I felt encouraged now knowing what the pregnancy centre was all about. Here was a safe place pregnant women could come to, offering tangible support if they decided to keep their baby, knowledge and advice if they needed to find another solution.Fast forward 10 years…we now have two boys! Both times we were chosen by a birth mom going through the profiles at our adoption agency and feeling in her heart that “we were the one”. We have been incredibly blessed and have so much respect for our children’s birth families, who each surrounded their daughter/sister with love and support instead of pressuring her to take ‘the easy way out’.We are once again on the waiting list, this time as a family of four. Our two boys pray every night for a baby brother or sister (“or a boy AND a girl” our three-year-old says with a grin). With hopeful hearts, we pray all the birth moms out there are receiving the support they need, and that our profile will end up in the hands of someone looking for an adoptive family like ours.
Posted August 29, 2018
Earlier this year, someone came to our office with a great idea to create better connections with seniors in our community by visiting seniors’ living facilities in the area. While we have made great connections by serving moms and babies, we also want to show love to elders in our community who are sometimes neglected. We decided to bring gifts of flowers to seniors this past Easter with cards from the Chilliwack Pro-Life Society letting them know we care and are thinking of them. On Canada Day, we gave away gift cards for a free breakfast and some goodies. For many, the gesture of care was the first time they had heard of us and the work we are doing at Chilliwack Pro-Life. We encountered warmth and generosity in return, as some residents even expressed interest in volunteering at our Pregnancy Care Centre! Valuing life means valuing all members of society, young and old. It’s something all of us can do, even if in small ways, by spending time with someone lonely, or offering practical help. What steps can you take to make our culture and our city a more caring place? #storiesofhope
Posted August 9, 2018
Ten years ago, my aunt was diagnosed with a rare colon cancer. She was only 62 and a vibrant business owner who was active and healthy otherwise. She had worked hard all her life being a single mom of three kids, who were now grown and having children of their own. “Grandma” was never a word she wanted to hear, but let me tell you, she loved her six grandchildren with all her heart. Chemo and radiation were not an option as the cancer was very aggressive and too far gone. Her choice was to live life to the fullest she could. About two months into her diagnosis she went downhill very quickly. She wanted to be surrounded by family and friends in her last days. We moved her into my parents’ home and all her kids, sisters, grandkids, nieces and great nieces were by her side. We all took turns caring for her. My job was to monitor all her medication.
The doctor would come daily to check on her and would brief me on the new pain routine. Near the end of my aunt’s life I became very aware of the responsibility I had to administer the meds. I told the doctor of my concern and she shrugged her shoulders and said it was fine to give her too much. At my puzzled look, the doctor said that the end could be now or later; it was up to me. She said to not worry about it. She was suggesting that I end my aunt’s life before natural death - euthanize her. This was out of the question for me and my family. My aunt lived for 6 more days after that. She was completely pain free the entire time and it was a healing time in our family. It was an opportunity to come together and restore broken relationships. We sang together, prayed together, cried together, and laughed together. It was beautiful! I think about her everyday but with joy, love and laughter. You get to see a person’s true self in their last days. Natural death can be a beautiful thing! I believe in LIFE, from the moment of conception to natural death!
#chwkprolife #prolife #life #storiesofhope
Posted July 13, 2018
Growing up, my family was very pro-life and involved with the local Chilliwack Pro-Life Society. Little did I know that along my travels, the knowledge that I collected would come in great use, time after time. After being married and having 3 kids who were all in school and independent, a troubled family friend came for a visit with his girlfriend. She left again soon after they arrived, but I thought I noticed something familiar. After chatting with him and catching up, I asked him how many months pregnant his girlfriend was. He looked at me with surprise and told me she was 6 weeks pregnant and they had an appointment for an abortion in 2 days. I asked him to cancel the appointment and wait. After talking with his girlfriend, they made an appointment for a later date. This allowed time for me to educate them on what an abortion was and the ramifications it would have. With all the information and a lot of prayer, they chose to parent their baby, and I promised that my family would come alongside and support them, not knowing what that would mean at the time. I was relieved. I kept in touch with them over the next months, encouraging them and helping to prepare for the baby. When the day came to deliver, they were as prepared as they could possibly be, thanks to the Chilliwack Pro-Life Office assisting them with diapers, stroller, crib, formula and clothing.
A beautiful baby was born on a sunny day. Healthy and strong and perfect! The story did not end there. As an avid pro-lifer, my job was not done. The day after the baby was born, the mom and dad were overwhelmed, exhausted, young and not sure what to do, and they showed up at my door. That little one spent the first night and many more nights with us. I was not prepared but knew that I needed to help! Over the next three years that baby was with me often. I taught the mom how to feed, change diapers, bathe and love that little one. This was truly one of the most rewarding jobs I have ever done. God was so faithful. That baby changed lives and changed my perspective on what being pro-life really was: that we always have room to do more for moms/families that made the hard choice to keep baby, and that life is important from conception to natural death.That beautiful baby is now 14 years old and flourishing! I just get to see glimpses into the family’s life. At the baby's 3-year mark, the parents and baby were doing awesome and moved out of town. People asked if I was broken-hearted when they left. While I did miss that little one, I knew it was time - time to sit back and reflect back to that day I stuck my foot in my month and asked, “How many months pregnant is your girlfriend?”
Posted June 30, 2018
When Anika (not her real name) made her first visit to the Pregnancy Care Centre, she was overwhelmed with shame, fear, and anger. She had been sexually assaulted and was afraid she might be pregnant. At that point, the only solution in her mind was to have an abortion. After taking a pregnancy test in our office, her fears were confirmed. She was floundering as she talked with the CPC counsellor. By the time she left, however, she had the strength, support, and hope she needed to make the choice to parent her baby. Anika told our counsellor, “I’ve done ‘hard’ before, and I can do it again.”
