In the past week I've had two friends suffer miscarriage. It inevitably brings up the pain from my own loss last May. But it also brought to mind something that happened as I was losing my baby that I haven't shared yet.

Just days before I started having abdominal pain, an online friend who was around 6 weeks pregnant shared that because of issues with emotional abuse from the baby's father, she had scheduled an abortion. I tried to reach out to her with love and compassion and although she was receptive, she was pretty firm that she was going to go through with the abortion. I knew she had previously had a late abortion (20 weeks) that had left her emotionally scarred, so besides the life of the baby, I was concerned what another abortion would do to her mental health. I prayed often for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and enlisted some of my Catholic mom friends to pray as well. There wasn't much else I could do.

Her abortion was scheduled for that Thursday morning; I went into the ER Wednesday night. When I came home late Thursday, I discovered that she had canceled her appointment with the abortionist. While I was losing my baby, she was choosing life for hers.

I have faith that Our Lady heard my pleas for intercession. And in some strange way, it softened the blow of losing my baby. My baby had implanted outside my womb; she never had a chance, her loss was inevitable. Her baby DID have a chance, and she gave it to her.