If you have a story of praise we would love to hear it. Simply fill out the form below with the word PRAISE in the subject line.
My name is MC (edited for privacy). I am 30 years old. I am a wife and a mother. I would like to give you thanks in advance for taking the time to to read this letter, in which I will share about the graces I’ve received through the St. Gianna Molla relic card (which I’ve graciously received through The Sisterhood of the Traveling Relics.) and helped me most in my times of need. In December of 2020, I underwent a medical surgery procedure known as a D&C (dilation and curettage) after discovering I was carrying a molar pregnancy. This molar pregnancy resulted in pre-cancerous tumors being attached to my uterine wall and therefore had to be removed. My doctor warned at that time I must avoid becoming pregnant for a minimum of three months, post surgery, as there remained a risk of the tumors re-surging. I am being vulnerable in sharing this, but I know it is important for me to share that once I was told to hold off at least three months before trying to conceive, I felt that I could wait forever. Prior to this molar pregnancy, I had miscarried three babies and so I started to slowly drift into hopelessness.What really stoped me from despairing and losing complete hope that I could ever reconsider to conceive another chid, was leaning on friends and family who are of the faith. I shared with one friend in particular my fears, doubts, hurt about my entire situation as she had been through a similar situation as mine where she too, lost a baby before she could hold him/her. Her name is Marisol. Marisol had shared with me she had a special devotion to St. Gianna Molla. She also shared a bit about who she was but St. Gianna did not grab my full attention, that is until I received in the mail a letter from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Relics, along with St. Gianna’s relic card. I figured this was Marisol’s doing since I had not requested one myself, and of course the letter did mention it was through Marisol’s request I received the relic card. God bless her soul for that!I have a special love for the saints and upmost respect for them. Once I knew I had a relic card of St. Gianna, I showed her my respect by placing the relic card in a small frame, next to my three foot statue of St. Father Pio. Every day, I would see the relic card and I would feel in my heart that I should ask St. Gianna to help me pray to God that I may have the courage to ask Him for another baby, but I wasn’t ready. A couple of weeks after having the relic card in my home, I finally felt ready to ask St. Gianna to help me and my husband to bring another baby into our lives. I pressed the relic to my womb and then I kissed it and placed it back to its original place. Three months later, I was cleared by my doctor and I was given the OK to start conceiving again. I suffer from infertility issues so my doctor assisted me with monitoring my hormone levels and prescribing medications to aid with conception. In August of this year, 2021, my husband and I moved to Lincoln, Nebraska after much prayer and discernment as we are both born and raised in California and have the majority of our family and friends there. Toward the end of August, we get the beautiful surprise that we were expecting a baby! We were so happy! I was in disbelief because I thought it would take a miracle for me to get pregnant, given I had infertility issues and had recently undergone a D&C. This was definitely a miracle and I knew St. Gianna contributed to its fulfillment. As soon as I discovered I was pregnant with this baby, I immediately scheduled a doctors appointment. By the grace of God, I found a beautiful Catholic clinic named Holy Family Associates, here in Lincoln, who immediately took care of me. My doctor whom I will refer to as ‘Dr. G’, was the most kind and selfless person to me and most of all was not afraid to hide his faith while doing his profession. I truly felt safe and in good hands.However, given my history of having several spontaneous miscarriages and the recent molar pregnancy, I began to experience some anxiety. I am a firm believer in the power of prayer. I asked several close friends and family members to join me in prayer. I asked if they could join me in praying a novena to St. Gianna so that I may be able to have a safe pregnancy. Only one friend committed herself in joining me in praying the novena to St. Gianna . My friend Marisa has also been struggling with infertility and so my intentions for her were for St. Gianna to intercede for her so that she may have a baby soon. We started the novena on Wednesday, August 25, 2021, and ended the novena on September 02, 2021- a day before my first ultrasound for my 8 week old baby.On September 03, 2021, my husband and I left early in the morning for my first ultrasound appointment. I felt excited yet I was also very nervous. My nervousness stemmed from the fear of discovering that something may have gone wrong with the pregnancy or that something happened to the baby. All I could pray was, “Your will be done.”As we entered the ultrasound room, I noticed there was a screen in which my husband and I would be able to see our baby. After minutes of the nurse maneuvering the ultrasound device around my womb and us not being able to see the baby, my heart sunk. The nurse didn’t want to give me the sensitive news but as they say, this was not my first rodeo and I knew something was wrong. A doctor then finally told us that it appeared that our baby was stuck in my left Fallopian tube, resulting in an ectopic pregnancy. I had a billion and one questions as the doctor continued to explain that if the baby was not soon removed, there would be a high risk of my Fallopian tube rupturing and I could end up in a serious condition or even face death. What started as a joyous visit to see our baby quickly dissipated to us making one of the most difficult decisions of having our baby possibly removed from my body. As I was confronted with this horrible situation, it hit me like a ton of bricks that I had just finished a novena to St. Gianna. I remembered that she courageously laid her life down in order for her unborn child to have a shot at life. In that moment, I placed myself in St. Gianna’s shoes. I told myself that if my baby still had a heart beat, I would not go on with the procedure, even if it may cost me my life. I couldn’t fathom making a choice of stopping my own child’s heart beat in order that I may live so I prayed to the Lord to help me. I asked St. Gianna to help me.After learning we were facing the ectopic pregnancy, my husband suggested we speak to my doctor, Dr. G, prior to moving forward with anything else. Our biggest concern was that our baby would still have a heart beat and we wouldn’t be able to live with ourselves if we ended that heart beat. As busy as Dr. G was, he took his time to look into my situation which I contribute as a miracle from St. Gianna as she was a loving doctor who took care of not only the health of the body of her patients, but the health of their soul as well. Dr. G took a further dive into the results of my ultrasound and as painful as it was to hear, Dr. G told me that there was no sign of a heart beat and that moving on with surgery with a clear conscience was there for me. As I was preparing to enter the surgery room, there was another thing weighing hard in my heart: “What is going to happen to my baby’s body?” I cried at the thought of my baby’s body being disposed in some sort of biohazard waste. I shared these sentiments with my husband. I asked him, “ Do you think they (the doctors) will let us keep the baby?” Painfully, my husband told me it wouldn’t happen as he recalls one of his friends back in California requested to have the remains of her miscarried baby and she was denied the request. I cried more, feeling so defeated that I couldn’t find a way to uphold the dignity of my child.Moments later, the nurse who was assisting me in getting ready for surgery, walks in with some paperwork in hand. She shared with me she had too previously lost two babies through ectopic pregnancies and wanted to share some resources to help with this tough time. She asked if I would be interested in having my baby buried at a memorial garden cemetery for babies, at no cost to me. She also handed me a form in which I could request a non-viable birth certificate for my baby where I could list his/her name. Up to this date, I have no words to describe how much this means to to me- to have been given the opportunity to uphold my child’s dignity by placing his/her body in a place where I can go and pray for his/her soul. This is what St. Gianna lived and died for; this is what made her a saint; upholding the dignity of life even from the womb. I am eternally grateful for this miracle.By the grace of God my husband and I got to spend some minutes alone before the surgery. In those minutes, my husband and I performed an emergency baptism for our baby. I felt God’s presence so strongly, it brings me to tears just mentioning it right now. It’s one of the many miracles we experienced through the life of this child and St. Gianna’s intercession.It is no coincidence or accident that I became pregnant after asking St. Gianna for her intercession after receiving the relic card. It is no coincidence or accident that I found out about the ectopic pregnancy a day after finishing a novena to St. Gianna because the doctors were very shocked to know I was not in severe pain or that my tube did not rupture as there was lots of blood in my tube which should have caused the aforementioned. It is no coincidence or accident that I was at the hands of doctors and nurses that value human life, even inside the womb and uphold the dignity of the unborn. And now that I sit and contemplate the entirety of this journey , it is no coincidence or accident that Texas passed the Heart Beat Bill, saving the lives of thousands of unborn babies during the time frame that I was praying to St. Gianna. I close off with giving you my sincere and warm thanks for sharing St. Gianna’s devotion with me through her relic card. I don’t have sufficient words to express my gratitude. I will continue to help as well to spread her devotion and your ministry. With much love in Christ,