The Dobbs Supreme Court decision (June 24, 2022) two years ago saved my son Jacob’s life. My family is a testament to the reality that pro-life protections save lives, build families, and ultimately protect moms.
In the year leading up to the Dobbs decision, my husband and I were beginning to wonder if we should explore adoption avenues because we’d been unable to have children. One day as we prayed for discernment, we visited a local boutique to look at baby clothes. When we told the cashier we were considering adoption, she exclaimed with joy that she herself was adopted. Later, while checking out, I glanced over a bookshelf and a book immediately caught my attention: an adoption journal. I still have it to this day. These was the first of many signs that inspired us to pursue this path.
Adopting is no easy task. I constantly had to ask myself if I could love a child I’d never conceived just as much as a birth mom. Yet as God nudged my heart towards this route, I knew that I would feel immense joy at loving and welcoming any child as my own.
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On Father’s Day in 2022, my husband and I were put in touch with a local adoption agency that only accepted six couples at a time. Our expectations of getting matched for a child were fairly low. However, we were committed to moving forward with the adoption process.
Unfortunately, the financial costs associated with adoption were astronomical for a young couple like us. Yet once again, through prayer my husband and I both felt our hearts pushed to empty our bank account in faith for this noble purpose. I knew that in these little ways, God was preparing our hearts for the ultimate sacrifice of parenthood, and it brought me peace.
Though we were still waiting for an important check to cover the costs, we texted the adoption agency we were in touch with that we would transfer the initial payment the next day.
The very next day, we heard the news of the Dobbs decision.
We had no idea the impact this decision would have on our lives.
Unbeknownst to us, nearby a young woman was 22 weeks pregnant and heading to Planned Parenthood for an abortion. Prior to Dobbs, Florida had been an abortion haven. Though she was from out of state, she thought Florida was her best bet. Yet because of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, Florida law now protected unborn life after 15 weeks, so she was referred by Planned Parenthood to a local Florida Care Net to learn more about non-abortive options. Through Care Net, our son’s birth mother decided to pursue adoption.
A few months later, my husband and I received a call: a baby boy had just been born, and he was ready for us to take him home.
We were elated. We’d already decided upon naming our adoptive son Jacob, and we couldn’t wait to finally meet him. Once again, a “God wink” affirmed that we’d made the right choice.
“What did you say you named your son?” I remember a nurse asking my husband and me. When we responded “Jacob,” she was amazed. She told us that the nurses had all agreed that our baby looked like a Jacob and had been calling him that since he was born.
Today, my husband and I are beyond grateful to Jacob’s biological mother for her courage in pursuing adoption. Without the Supreme Court’s decision, and without her willingness to choose life rather than pursuing abortion elsewhere, our family would not exist today.
Instead, this brave young woman opened her heart to life as we have opened ours to Jacob every single day of his life. Each time I hear his little feet scurrying around our kitchen, or his little voice saying Mama, I feel a surge of gratitude to God for allowing this miracle to happen for us.
This Dobbs anniversary marks two years of joy for a dream I once thought was impossible. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Ashley Steckman is a manager and small group personal trainer with FLXfit.
