FREDERICKSBURG, VA (Arlington Catholic Herald) - Sitting around a humble kitchen table, four women chat and laugh among themselves in a modest home in the downtown district of Fredericksburg. A three-week-old baby in a deep slumber lay peaceful in a pastel blue basinet on the floor next to his mom, who glances over at him and smiles.

Windows dressed with curtains, floors covered with rugs, walls adorned with framed art all lend themselves to making it a cozy home, but the house is a temporary shelter for women experiencing crisis pregnancies.

Mary’s Shelter is unique, explained Kathleen Wilson, one of three initiators of the apostolate that allows parishes around the diocese to sponsor women and their unborn babies.

Wilson, a parishioner of St. Matthew in Spotsylvania, and fellow home-schooling moms Theresa Rosseau and Christine Taraschke started the program, which has already hosted 10 women in the last year, four in the last two months.

Apartments and houses are rented and furnished and pantries are filled with groceries, all for women to live in while they prepare to become independent. Parishes that sponsor the women are given bimonthly updates and opportunities to write letters and visit the women, who are given saint names for parishes to protect their privacy.

After the babies are born, the mom and the infants are presented in front of the parish.

“It’s a beautiful moment. It’s a witness to the dignity of life. It’s a ripple effect. People will see even just a prayer for the baby is effective,” said Rosseau. She hopes that hearing the stories of the women and seeing the babies that were in danger of abortion will inspire the parishioners to continue supporting the program.

Stories with happy endings

Each woman has her own story to tell about how she stumbled upon Mary’s Shelter.

Pregnant and alone with no where to go, “Bridget” of the Bronx, N.Y., had been sleeping on a chair in an apartment crammed with extended family. “I felt hopeless,” said the 22-year-old, who did not know how she was going to raise her child.

Knowing she needed to get out, she called a long list of shelters only to learn each time that there was no space for her.

She searched online and found the Sisters of Life in New York, who helped her contact Mary’s Shelter, a safe haven away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Although she was apprehensive about leaving New York and temporarily relocating to Fredericksburg, “Bridget” knew she needed a change, and at seven months pregnant she took refuge at Mary’s Shelter. Three weeks ago she gave birth to a baby boy and is planning to go back to school soon.

“We become their mentors. We have a real relationship with them,” said Wilson, who stood in the kitchen with the women.

While various events inspired the three Catholic moms to start the home, Wilson spoke about her experience while praying outside an abortion clinic on a Saturday morning with her children, friends and fellow parishioners. She walked up to a woman sitting in her parked car near the clinic.

“What can I do for you?” Wilson, desperate to help, asked the woman.

“What can you do for me?” the distressed woman said, looking for a solution.

Wilson felt paralyzed. She knew she needed to do something to offer some sort of physical support to women in crisis pregnancies.

Together with Rosseau and Taraschke, they sought to do something.

“Many of the women who think about abortion are at the poverty level … They are in the situation because they had no other alternatives,” said Rosseau.

Inspiration to act

The three friends learned about a man from China who lost his job and was determined to return to China to work, but he knew his wife, pregnant with their fourth child, would be in danger of a forced abortion if she returned to their homeland.

They asked people in their parishes for donations, rented out an apartment for the woman, and provided financial and medical support with the help of pro-life groups and agencies.

It was the inspiration they needed to start Mary’s Shelter. “There was little going on in the area within the pro-life moment and we wanted to rejuvenate it in our churches,” said Rousseau about getting the involvement of parishes. She said St. Matthew in Spotsylvania and St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Fredericksburg have adopted women.

More than 2,000 years ago, the innkeepers in Bethlehem “missed an opportunity to see the beauty of the Divine,” said Rosseau. It was God Himself who the people turned away.

Like the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph some of the women have called many shelters and “found no room at the inn,” said Rousseau.

The birth of a baby is a “divine moment,” she said and she did not want to let those moments escape her.

“We’re stepping out in faith. That’s the way we’ve done it so far,” said Rosseau, noting that pro-life groups and organizations such as Gabriel Project, Tepeyac Family Center in Fairfax, Sisters of Life in New York, Catholic Charities and the St. Vincent de Paul Society have rallied together to support the program.

“The Holy ...