Babies Angels: Gabriel Project Cluster of Montgomery County

 Today is one of my favorite Catholic holidays: the feast of Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. 

They are the leaders of angels in heaven, protectors, message carriers and musicians and also our friends! Angels, aren't they just like big fairies, but not real? Well, not really, if you have faith. Angels are mentioned so many times in the Bible and we each have our own personal guardian angel. Look to your left or right, he is there watching you scroll as we speak! They see you when you are sleeping, they know when you're awake, they know if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake. But honestly, your guardian angel appeared when you arrived on terra ferma. He was there by your mom's side chatting with he guardian angel even before she even knew she was carrying you within her womb. It's true, every pregnant woman has two angels with her: Her own guardian angel and the baby's guardian angel. 

Baby's angels are what I would love to write about today. 

There is great group of people I volunteer with named after the Angel Gabriel, who is the messenger. The group is called the Gabriel Project Cluster of Montgomery County. The Angel Gabriel was the messenger for life for two moms in the Bible: St. Elizabeth and Mother Mary. He scared the daylights out of people in the Bible. He appeared to Zachariah in the Bible. Zachariah couldn't believe his elderly wife Elizabeth could bear a child in her old age. 

He was struck dumb for the duration of her pregnancy and could speak once St. John the Baptist was born. (Sidenote: isn't this a great teaching for silence being golden especially during hormonal turbulence?) The second time Angel Gabriel appeared was to to Mother Mary to tell her God chose her to be the mother of Jesus. 

She was totally shocked then answered with faith for us all: fiat (let it be done to me according to Thy word). Then she gave birth in poverty in a stall among animals knowing and experiencing the pain of each and every mother to keep her child safe, even in a barn.

Fiat, let it be done. It is a scary phrase for so many mothers that find themselves in a crisis pregnancy. There they are, feeling alone with a little one in their womb who needs the energy, nourishment and love from their mother. Yet, so many mothers the Gabriel Project encounters don't know they have angels surrounding them, that they are not alone. They faced voices of discouragement and violence against the life of the child they carried saying:

• Having a baby will dramatically change your life.
• You can't afford a baby right now.
• I have problems with my relationship.
• My partner wants me to abort my baby.

All of those voices cornered many of the mothers into a corner, cowering with fear, confusion, depression yet their guardian angels supernaturally led them to the Gabriel Project. We do our best to lift the heavy burden that mothers in crisis pregnancies bear. My volunteer group is a team of intensely caring, compassionate, hard-working and sacrificial men and women who use their personal time, faith, home and resources to save the lives of babies and mothers. The dream team consists of a few board members who recruit donations for diapers, formula, cribs, clothing and carseat vouchers and store them in their own homes for coordinated "angel-friends" to pick-up.  Each client mom is assigned an "angel friend" who meets with them, texts with them, and gets her and the baby all set up for birth with clothes, diapers, formula and medical visits. She becomes a sister and a friend to the expecting mother. After the baby is born the angel friend keeps supporting her mom and baby client with resources for several months. 

My experience as an angel friend has been powerful. I have pulled my back hauling bags of groceries to a pregnant mother who lived on the 3rd floor of an apartment. I have spent hours in the hospital with moms who didn't have anyone to help them open their juicebox or brush their hair after giving birth. No, you can't open your own juicebox or brush your hair after giving birth because everything hurts. I have looked in the eyes of a freshly fed fat little baby smelling of milk and diaper cream who hours before was in a womb, and months before was sitting in her mothers womb in an abortion clinic with her mom in an unending pool of tears not knowing what to do with her child in her womb and no job. I've lost sleep for my client moms, I've sat in a chapel alone begging for mercy for them, I've cried for them, and I have been thrilled with them seeing their face glow when they laugh at the first hic-ups of their newborn and they rest in knowing they have a team of angel friends holding them up, securing them and their precious little one from any forces against them.

Our priest friends are also a big part of our team, blessing the moms and their bellies, holding their hand while they sob as their wounds begin to heal, and counseling them on future choices to keep healing. One priest I witnessed opened his wallet and gave all his personal money, then went in his kitchen and came back with his own hot dinner in a Tupperware and most of his pantry in bags, then went upstairs and came back with his bathroom stock of extra soaps, toothpaste and shampoo. He gave everything he had to this mom who had literally nothing and didn't know where her dinner would come from. He was the father she needed, the priest-Father we all need to live sacrificially like Jesus did giving us His all down to His life. That sweet mom is now set up with a stable job and has a fat gurgling little baby.

The Angel Gabriel is definitely the angel for babies. No doubt each of the Gabriel Project moms has whispered a prayer of help in their time of suffering that has brought our team of baby loving volunteers charging in their direction with all the love we have in our bodies. And this is why I love the Angel Gabriel, my friend. I know he is strong and a protector of us when we need him. Thank you, Angel Gabriel for protecting our moms, our babies and reminding us of the divine help we can receive when we ask with love.

If you would like to donate to the Gabriel Project Cluster of Montgomery County click here.

If you are in the mood for buying baby stuff for the little babies, check out their Amazon page here and enjoy buying some clothes for the tiniest of humans. 

If you want to read about stories of hope from our moms click here.