{"id":93830,"date":"2016-05-04T12:27:08","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T16:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=93830"},"modified":"2022-07-18T14:59:09","modified_gmt":"2022-07-18T19:59:09","slug":"my-wife-became-pregnant-from-rape-but-our-son-is-a-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/my-wife-became-pregnant-from-rape-but-our-son-is-a-blessing\/","title":{"rendered":"My wife became pregnant from rape, but we chose life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Editor’s Note:\u00a0Live Action works to maintain the highest standards of journalistic integrity. Live Action has looked into key elements of Ms. Christie\u2019s testimony and personal story and has found them to be credible.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I really don’t like thinking about this time.\u00a0 Just saying the words are hard: My wife was raped.<\/p>\n

There’s grief and anger — rage really, like I’ve never felt before toward anyone, wanting to find this man . . . .\u00a0 Above all, there was frustration.\u00a0Jennifer had just been through something so horrible and scary and I couldn’t make it better.\u00a0 I couldn’t fix it for her.<\/p>\n

I had so many regrets running through my head. How would things have been different IF?:\u00a0 If I’d driven to the hotel where she’d been staying the week to surprise her (I almost did.) \u00a0If I’d asked her not to take that out of town job.\u00a0 If this, if that. . . .<\/p>\n

We had just set Jennifer up with a therapist to help her work through some of the early signs of PTSD \u2013 nightmares and panic attacks, when we found out she was pregnant.\u00a0 From somewhere near Aruba where she was working on a cruise ship she calls me:\u00a0 \u201cI’m pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n

People always seem surprised by my reaction, and I never understand it.\u00a0 I didn’t think, \u201cWhat do we do now?\u201d \u00a0I knew what was right already.\u00a0 She just told me the news.\u00a0 I thought, \u201cOkay. This is what we’re doing\u00a0now<\/i>.\u201d\"via<\/p>\n

A baby is the beginning of something — not a \u201cproblem\u201d to fix.<\/p>\n

The words \u201cI’m pregnant\u201d should never be followed by, \u201cWhat should we do about it?\u201d The thing is, it wasn’t ever \u201cHer rapist got her pregnant,\u201d or \u201cBecause she was assaulted, now she’s having a baby.\u201d\u00a0 It was:\u00a0 My wife is pregnant. We’re having a kid.\u00a0 A new baby.\u00a0 There’s a blank canvas.<\/p>\n

This child on the way didn’t make any decisions about his conception.\u00a0 How could anyone place blame on him?<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer<\/p>\n

We knew that the pregnancy would be physically difficult for Jen — we had no idea just how bad — but emotionally, we both saw this baby as something beautiful coming from such evil.\u00a0 It may sound strange to others, but we really did, and do, see our son as a\u00a0blessing.<\/p>\n

I’ve never considered my son to be “somebody else’s.” \u00a0As we were working through the most horrible thing my wife had ever been through in her life, we were also having a baby.\u00a0 These things never seemed connected.\u00a0I don’t look at any of my other kids and think, \u201cOh, that one — he was from our New York trip. . . .\u00a0 And her over there?\u00a0 She was the night in ’97 when the power went out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer and I are so spiritually and emotionally connected.\u00a0 She’s been my soul mate since I met her at fifteen.\u00a0 In both of our minds, there really was no discussion to be had.\u00a0 My bride was having a\u00a0baby. Therefore, we were having a baby.\u00a0 That’s all.<\/p>\n