{"id":41717,"date":"2013-10-11T09:57:13","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T13:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=41717"},"modified":"2013-10-11T01:09:20","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T05:09:20","slug":"embrace-grace-groups-offer-loving-support-moms-unplanned-pregnancies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/embrace-grace-groups-offer-loving-support-moms-unplanned-pregnancies\/","title":{"rendered":"Embrace Grace groups offer loving support to moms with unplanned pregnancies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In 2008, Amy Ford<\/a> received a vision that changed her life. Amy was enjoying a women’s conference at her church, Gateway, in Texas. During the last session of the conference Amy asked God to show her what she was called to do. During worship she closed her eyes and began to see pictures before her.\u00a0Amy writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“The vision began like snapshots flashing: pictures of me, single and pregnant. I saw the loneliness, shame, guilt and sadness that I felt in that difficult season of my life. Then the snapshots started changing to my life now\u2014happy and fulfilled with my God and my family. Then the snapshots changed again to me throwing baby showers for women.”<\/p>\n

After the conference ended Amy shared her vision with her friend Salina. Salina told her during the event she heard God say, \u201cHelp the mommies and the babies.\u201d<\/p>\n

What began as a vision has become a unique ministry called, \u201cEmbrace Grace\u201d.\u00a0Embrace Grace is a 501c3 non-profit organization that provides emotional, practical and spiritual support for single young girls that find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy.<\/p>\n

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The Embrace Grace website poses this question: \u201cWhat if every church in the world reached out and welcomed girls with crisis pregnancies into their church for support and love? This is the vision of this organization. They want every woman with an unplanned pregnancy to have a safe, non-judgmental church to go to for support and for the church at large to extend love to single and pregnant girls.<\/p>\n

Having an unplanned or crisis pregnancy can be a scary thing for many women. Amy Ford knows that all too well. At 19 she was pregnant and conflicted about what choice to make. She thought that abortion could be the answer to all of her problems. That choice would allow her to keep the pregnancy a secret from her parents and her boyfriend wouldn’t have to fear his father cutting him off financially.<\/p>\n

As Amy sat in a cold, sterile abortion clinic the nurse told her she was over 6 weeks pregnant. The tears came, she tried to take deep breaths but before she knew it the room was spinning and everything went black. \u00a0Seconds later she heard voices calling her name. She fainted and the nurses were trying to help her. The nurse told her she was too emotionally distraught to have an abortion. She told her she could back and reschedule another time.<\/p>\n

Amy never returned. She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy with blond hair, blue eyes and a cleft in his chin.<\/p>\n

Embrace Grace recently released a powerful video that encompasses many of the emotions Amy dealt with. The woman in this video is struggling to find hope after finding out she\u2019s pregnant.<\/p>\n