God honored my self-centered request.

In the almost-two years since, y’all have donated 562 books to pregnancy centers around the world. Holy cow.

Aside from the occasional note or e-mail I get from one of the centers, I have no idea how God is using those 562 books to bless some mamas who find themselves in a world of hurt, confusion, and just plain hard knocks.

But I’m going to keep planting seeds and trusting him to grow whatever he likes however he sees fit.

The director of this pregnancy center in Chicago e-mailed me a couple months ago. A kind and generous donor gave them 40 copies of Expecting, and they were so grateful, but they help over 400 women each year at their 3 centers. “I would love to be able to give one to each precious woman who walks through our doors.”

And I also have an ongoing list of other centers around the country who would love some books.

Will you help me get these books in the hands of pregnant, hurting women? Would you think about donating a book ($10) or co-donating one with someone ($5–I’ll pair you with someone else who gives $5)? You can paypal me the money instantly or e-mail me about writing a check.

The dedication page inside the book will read, “To: a special mama-to-be, with love from Nancy.” (or Nancy and Sharon, if you co-donate) And then I’ll sign it and write a verse.

I would love to ramp up our total to 1000 books. And then keep going.

If you’re not in a position to give (or feel God tugging your giving in a different direction), here’s something tangible you can do instead:

Read Heather’s post about the maternity center Heartline wants to build for the precious women of Haiti. And vote for Heartline to receive a really big grant that will help make it a reality.

I’m hoping to start up our Prayer Doulas ministry again in the fall. Last time we had 60-70 women praying for pregnant mamas in Haiti. So powerful. And such an honor to pray for them and their babies.

Thank you so much, friends. I can’t tell you what a blessing it is to be surrounded by a community of givers. I love you like nuts.

We got the call a little after 5pm (he was born at 4:39), ate a quick supper and drove 90 minutes to the hospital. Stayed for 40 minutes, stopped at McDonald’s for five caramel frappes in Jack’s honor, drove 90 minutes home. He was worth every minute of the drive. I’m totally in love!

Beautiful Expectant Mamas from Heartline Haiti UPDATE:

I don’t have a brilliant plan for organizing this amazing, wonderful prayer team, so I’m just going to give it my best shot and humbly welcome your helpful suggestions. Here we go!

1. If I haven’t assigned you a mama-to-be yet (and you’d like me to), please comment on this post, and I’ll reply to you here. Click here for pics/names/due dates of the women.

2. WEDNESDAYS will be our official “Prayer Meeting” day. You can remember this by thinking of Wednesday as (Baby) Bump Day instead of Hump Day. Of course you can pray any/every day if you’d like, and I will do updates on other days too, but Wednesdays will be dedicated to the Heartline gals.

3. PLEASE do not e-mail Heather or any of the other Heartline staff with questions about the women, etc. They love, love, love that we’re praying, but they have a very small staff with many, many women who need served, and they just don’t have the time to answer e-mails. We want to be a blessing, not a burden in any way! Please direct any questions to me, and I’ll act as the go-between.

4. Heather and the rest of the staff post regular updates on Facebook but are hesitant to add a bunch of new people as “friends.” I’ll share their updates on my Facebook page whenever I get the chance, so feel free to add me as a friend (even if we don’t know each other). I’ll also post updates on Twitter if you’re into that.

5. Many of you have asked about sending care packages to the women. Unfortunately, it’s not really a possibility. Nothing gets to Haiti safely through the mail, so you’d have to know someone who was traveling to Haiti and could hand deliver it. If you really want to help beyond praying, you can donate directly to Heartline here.

6. If you haven’t read Heather’s post about the Heartline Home for Teen Moms, do! It’s so exciting! And this post shares more info about these beautiful teen mamas who will live there with their little ones. They could so use our prayers if you want to “adopt” one of them too!

7. Our Team “Name.” Mandy commented yesterday, “I don’t have any cool ideas for a name, but I was thinking of us almost like prayer midwives or doulas.” I’m thinking Prayer Doulas is a super-cool name for our team. What do you think?

8. You all BLOW ME AWAY with your excitement and commitment to pray for these women! THANK YOU for blessing me–and them!!

9. I just now read this post from Tara at Heartline. This week has been ROUGH for them (but good too). Please pray!

I’m tired, so I think that’s it for now! Feel free to tell me what I missed! Have a great weekend, friends!

]]> http://www.marlataviano.com/expecting-campaign/we-have-a-new-baby/feed/ 29 http://www.marlataviano.com/expecting-campaign/what-works-for-you/ http://www.marlataviano.com/expecting-campaign/what-works-for-you/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 05:01:25 +0000 Marla Taviano http://www.marlataviano.com/?p=8236 Girls! I am sooooo excited that so many of you are soooooo excited to pray for the Beautiful Expectant Mamas of Heartline Haiti! God is already answering your prayers.We prayed sweet 15-year-old Enisse through her labor today, and Heather said, “Thanks for praying for our ladies. We felt it today with Enisse. It was miraculous how different the second half of her birth was compared to the first half. Totally the Lord.” Praise you, Jesus!!

My friend Rachelle commented today that, “I love having a seat in the front row of God’s amazing grace!” Isn’t that the truth? And how cool that he squeezes ALL of us into the front row!

I’m going to spend some concentrated time in prayer tonight and tomorrow about a plan of action for our Prayer Team. These are the women who’ve officially said, “I’m in!” (okay, there’s nothing really “official” about it; you just left a comment or sent me an e-mail): Kathi, Erin, Wendy, Mandy, Ruth, Jen, Renee, Addie, Megan, Rhonda, Alina, Debi, Becca, Grace, Beth, Jennifer, Becky, Kerry, Jen, Kim, Dorian, Shelly, Laura, and Ursula, Tana, Claudia, Shannon, Alicia, Nichole, Kandi, Whimzie, Gini, Cheryl, Kathy, and Rachelle.

If you want to join “The Team,” give me a shout in the comments! I’d love for them to know the names of the women who are praying for them.

Here’s what I’d love to hear from you gals:

Do you want to pray for one woman at a time (until she has her baby–or maybe even beyond)? If so, do you want to pick her yourself, or do you want me to “assign” a woman to you?

Do you want to pray on a certain day here on the blog as a group (and then on your own as God leads you)? Which day works best?

Do you want this Prayer Team to be structured or more free?

Do you feel comfortable writing out your prayer in the comments on Prayer Day?

What suggestions do you have for making this streamlined and effective (but also allowing God’s Spirit to move)?

And do you have any cute/brilliant ideas for a name/abbreviation for our “Team?” A team cheer? Mascot? (kidding)

Thank you sooo much, friends! It is the most AMAZING privilege to serve Christ (and these beautiful women) with you!

Oh, I’m excited! Heather in Haiti has made us a list of expectant mamas and their due dates–with pictures! She’s hoping to post it tonight or tomorrow–I’ll let you know as soon as she does.

EDIT: Heather has the names/pics up! Thank you soooo much, friend! Oh, I love these stunning women already!

Enisse is 15 and in labor RIGHT NOW (10:16am). Please pray!

If you haven’t heard about our Big Plans to pray for some beautiful pregnant women and girls in Haiti, read this. Basically, we’re just going to come alongside Heather and the amazing folks at Heartline and lift up these precious women in prayer as much as we can. If you want to pray week-by-week using a copy of Expecting, you can get one here.

I’d like to set aside a day a week to actually kind of pray together here on the blog, but I know we all have such different schedules. Any thoughts?

Africa

I mentioned a couple days ago that my friend Megan is making the most adorable Africa ornaments as an adoption fundraiser (they’ll be going back to Ethiopia super soon to bring home little Emelia). They’re just $5 (+$1 shipping) and worth way more than that.

I tried to steal one of her pics to post here, but I couldn’t make it look right, so go check them out on her blog! (we bought the blue star-pattern)

I would LOVE it if you would support Megan and Sean (and Ethan and Eli) as they work hard to get ready for Emelia. And we go to church with these guys now, so we’re gonna get lots of chances to love on this little girl.

Cambodia

And while you’re at it, why don’t you just go ahead and place an order for a CAMBODIA ORNAMENT too? Again, no picture (Meg might be putting one up on her blog if she gets a chance), but they’re great! EDIT: Meg has a Cambodia Ornament Post up on her blog! Check it out!

You can order any of the colors/patterns (or request one you’d like) you see for the Africa ornaments and just specify that you’d like it in the shape of Cambodia.

What a great way to pray for Cambodia (and our trip if you’re so inclined)! And sweet Meg, despite my protests, is giving us 50% of the Cambodia Ornament profits for our Cambodia Fund (which is now up to $4170.00)!

Joanne

Bonus material! Guess what! Joanne wrote us a note! I don’t know if you’ve been following her story on her blog (her husband Toben updates it regularly) or her sister Kristen’s, but GOD IS WORKING MIRACLES. She can read and write–and she doesn’t seem to have missed a beat. This is a girl whose brain was completely shut down just a couple weeks ago. Incredible.

Please pray for her and her family in the long days, weeks, and months ahead. It’s going to be hard work to get her body caught up with her mind. We love you, girl!

]]> http://www.marlataviano.com/expecting-campaign/haiti-africa-cambodia/feed/ 4 http://www.marlataviano.com/expecting-campaign/shes-having-a-baby/ http://www.marlataviano.com/expecting-campaign/shes-having-a-baby/#comments Fri, 04 Feb 2011 05:01:17 +0000 Marla Taviano http://www.marlataviano.com/?p=8119 No, not me. No, not my 38-weeks-pregnant sister. But some beautiful young (and not-so-young) girls I’ve never even met but have fallen madly in love with.

Some of you may know of Heather Hendrick. She and her husband and their four boys moved from Texas to Haiti last Spring (I think) as missionaries. Heather is this gorgeous person inside and out, and when it comes to writing, this girl flat-out has a GIFT. I can’t remember how I first found her blog, but it took about 1.5 sentences to get me hooked.

So, one of the things Heather does is work with a ministry called Heartline. This crazy-amazing ministry helps girls and women who are pregnant, alone, and scared by educating them about their bodies and pregnancy and breastfeeding and taking care of babies. They feed them meals packed with protein and give them water to keep them hydrated. They do exams and ultrasounds and give them a place to stay and share the love of Jesus. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Amazing. And these young mamas (some of them barely older than Livi) have grabbed my heart and won’t let go. I can’t get them out of my head. I see their faces, I ache for the dismal situations they come from and live in, I rejoice that God has brought them to a place where they and their babies can thrive.

A couple months ago, God gave me an idea. I think I shared it briefly here on the blog. You know how y’all have donated about 500 copies of Expecting to pregnancy centers around the country (and world!)? Well, I know these women in Haiti can’t read (especially not in English), so a book (full of drawings of white babies) wouldn’t do a whole lot of good.

But what if…?

What if WE women here in this online space, we women who CAN read and have the luxury of time and money and safety and access to health care and know Jesus, what if WE could do something for these women and their unborn babies?

What if WE could hold a copy of Expecting in our hands and pray the prayers for a God-breathed womb-baby down in Haiti as he or she develops inside of Mama? What if we could pray for a Haitian girl BY NAME, pray for her THROUGH HER PREGNANCY, and then get to rejoice with her when her baby is born?

I get chills just thinking about it.

I e-mailed Heather with my idea, and she was so gracious, so thankful that there might be some women who would care enough about these women in Haiti to pray for them once a week, or a couple times a week, or every day.

She’s going to get me a list of names of mamas-to-be along with their estimated due dates. Some will be early on in their pregnancies. Most will probably be later on. And you can do however much or little God lays on your heart.

You can choose one name to pray for. You can pray for the whole list. You can pray for a handful. You can pray once a week or more than that.

If you have your own copy of Expecting, just use that. If you want one, I have plenty. If you want to pray and can’t afford one, let me know.

Here’s a God-thing. Awhile back, the book was discounted to $6 on Amazon, so I bought 6. When I got them, there was a black mark on the bottom of each one (hence the discount). I didn’t want to send a marked-up book to a pregnancy center, so they’ve been sitting on a shelf.

If you’d like one for $6 + $3 shipping, let me know.

(And just so you know, Expecting is no magic book with super-power prayers (obviously). In no way do you need a copy of it to pray for these women. It’s just a guide if you’d like to know what’s going on developmentally with baby each week.)

Please go check out Heather’s blog, look at the pictures of these women, read the stories, marvel at God’s tenderness toward them, and ask him if he wants you to play a part in this incredible story he’s writing in Haiti.

I’m so excited about this I could bust. Who’s with me?

I just wanted to share a cool idea with y’all. Many of you have heard me talk about my friend Miss Margaret (and some of you knew her too). She was 84 when she went to be with Jesus last month and is one of my all-time favorite people. She was darling and petite with the hugest heart you can imagine. She loved Jesus with everything in her and loved people like nobody’s business. Margaret was one of my biggest cheerleaders. If I wrote something or was selling something or donating something or hoping to spread the word about something, she was all over it.

Last year she donated some Expecting books and then delivered a box to her local pregnancy center for me.

Yesterday, her son Scott sent me a tweet about his mama that made me cry. Expecting Campaign Take Two just isn’t the same without her.

But then Scott and his sister Gail did something that made my heart sing. They’re each donating 10 Expecting books to pregnancy centers in memory of their mom. I’m going to write a little note in the books, and 20 precious women somewhere are going to be blessed by Miss Margaret even after she’s gone to live with Jesus.

I’ll tell you right now she’s beaming so big that her eyes are all crinkly. You should have seen her smile.

And then my sweet friend Christina (she and Margaret were super-tight) donated a book and is going to make up a beautiful care package in Margaret’s memory and deliver it to the pregnancy center that meant so much to her.

I just feel so blessed I could burst.

I don’t think I mentioned that there’s a To/From page in the book. I usually write “To: A special mama-to-be” and then the donor’s name on the From line. Then I sign my own name at the bottom with a Scripture reference.

If you’d like to donate the book in honor/memory of someone special, I can absolutely write that in the book for you. Last year my friends Amy and Billy donated books in memory of their sweet baby girl Abigail who went to be with Jesus before she was born. Another friend donated books in honor of her little (now big) boy who could’ve very easily been aborted, but she chose life. Another friend donated books in memory of the baby she did abort, and is sooooo thankful for God’s forgiveness and grace in her life.

And I just have to share an excerpt from a message Christina sent me tonight after she donated a book via paypal. “Ok, so I paid $10 on paypal but it sure looked like I was buying Gabe and naming my own price. I sure hope I did it right.”

Yes, it will look like you’re purchasing my husband. But I promise the moolah will go toward an Expecting book.

And I wrote this post last night and never posted it (did I mention my hot 27-hour birthday date with my husband? thanks, Mom and Dad!). I know now why I waited until this morning, because I just saw this comment from Christina that makes me want to jump up and down praising Jesus:

I’m going to put together a whole basket of goodies that a pregnant mommy would want and donate it in memory of Margaret. This is a wonderful idea. You know, my mom was 14 when she got pregnant for me, my grandma scheduled an appointment to “take care of it” and my mom refused. Praise the Lord for that! Now, at 50 years old she has 3 daughters and 11 grandchildren, 14 gifts from above that may never had happened had she been abortion minded! God is amazing, thank you for being so willing to do His work!

Praise the Lord indeed. Wowzers.

Let’s help some other young and/or hurting mamas make the hard choice to give their babies life. Click here to donate $10 for a book. Or contact me if you’d rather write a check. THANK YOU, friends!!

Sometimes I wish he would just log into WordPress and write important blog posts himself. I don’t want to get in the way.

My heart is aching tonight for some women (and girls) right here where I live. They’re carrying tiny little babies in their wombs, but they aren’t celebrating with their husbands and friends about it.

They’re scared out of their ever-loving minds. And with good reason.

I get prayer requests (via e-mail) every week or so from the Pregnancy Decision Health Center here in Columbus. Girls and women who have called or come in to their office seeking help. No names or specifics but enough details to give shape to my prayers.

A single mom of 3 who is 9 weeks pregnant and not sure of the father of the baby.

A 14-year-old girl who is 18 weeks pregnant. Her mother has scheduled an abortion, but the girl doesn’t want to go through with it.

A 12-year-old girl whose 17-year-old boyfriend called in “to get this situation taken care of.”

I could cry. And sometimes I do. And I pray. And I wish I could do more. And I know that “Hey, sorry you’re pregnant, but here’s a book” is not going to make everything better for these girls and women. But I’ve got to believe that God is going to use my loaves and fishes to make a bigger impact than I know.

And with all of you chipping in, I just feel buoyed and encouraged, like maybe, just maybe, we can make a difference.

The president of PDHC is running in a Marathon for Life this Saturday. He’s asking people to donate $1 per mile toward PDHC, and I did that tonight. Maybe you’d rather not donate a book, but you’d like to donate some money straight to your local pregnancy center.

That would be awesome.

He also shared that every Tuesday at noon, he quietly prays outside an abortion clinic here in town for about an hour. He said that sometimes people join him, sometimes they don’t, but he’s never alone. He can physically feel God’s hand on him while he paces back and forth on the sidewalk praying. This abortion clinic is so close to my house. I think I might try to gather enough courage to join him sometime.

I know how “offensive” some pro-lifers can be/seem. I know the line about “why are we so fired up about abortion yet don’t care about the thousands of kiddos starving to death every day?”

I personally don’t think we have to choose between the two. Whether we want to admit it or not, most of us honestly have enough resources to help quite a variety of people. And ALL of them matter to God. And if you can absolutely, positively not afford to give a cent, you can pray. And pray and pray and pray.

So, here’s what I’m asking you to do:

1. Give $10 toward a copy of Expecting for a pregnant woman in need of HOPE. (Donate via paypal or contact me about writing a check.) OR

2. Give $5, and I will pair you up with another $5 donor to give a book. (Again, paypal or check.) OR

3. Buy several copies of Expecting from Amazon (for $10.19) and deliver them to your local pregnancy center yourself. (and please tell me about it!) OR

4. Buy a copy of Expecting for yourself and pray each week for a pregnant woman in poverty in a 3rd world country (I’m working on getting names of women in Haiti and possibly Kenya. This makes me so happy.)

5. Give some $ (any amount) to a person or organization that God has laid on your heart. And do it TODAY.

and 2 more things:

Leave a comment and share what you did so we can be encouraged AND tell one or two (or 500) people to pop on over here and get involved too.

Thank you, friends, for making my 35th birthday the best one ever! (no, it’s not until Sunday–I’m just making it strrrrrrrrretch this year!) Love you much!

A little background (here we go…) if you’re new here. Last year on my birthday, I asked my sweet friends, family and blog readers to pretty please, if they felt so inclined, to donate a copy of my book Expecting to a crisis pregnancy center to be given to a mama-to-be that could use some hope and encouragement.

As of my last count, you crazy givers have donated 405 books to 31 pregnancy centers in 11 states and 4 foreign countries.

Wowzers, people.

Things will be a little different this year. I hate to do this, but instead of $5 a book, it’s going to be $10 (there, Amy, I did it–are you happy?). I set the cost at $5 last time, thinking it would encourage more people to give. I didn’t realize what an amazing response we’d get, and since the books cost me about $8.50 each + paypal fees + shipping, I ended up spending waaaay more out of my pocket than we could afford.

But God is faithful, and we got caught up (and several of you helped out–bless you!), and we’re ready to roll again.

A couple weeks ago, I asked for contact information for pregnancy centers in your hometown (or that you have some sort of personal connection to). Praise the Lord, I now have names and addresses for centers in Tennessee, Arizona, Florida, South Carolina, New Mexico, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky–all new states we haven’t sent any books to yet!

I’d love to collect more centers and then just pray for book donations to fill up a box to send to each of them!

And several of you have e-mailed me with some really cool ideas. One gal wants to get her Sunday School class on board and see if they can donate some books to a pregnancy center they already support. One gal wants to get her MOPS group to donate books as part of their Valentine’s Day project in February. One church already bought a box of 40 books to share with two pregnancy centers near them. One friend suggested sharing some with the pregnant women at the YWCA Homeless Shelter where she and her Life Group serve breakfast once a month.

I can’t tell you how exciting this brainstorming is to me!

And I thought of something else for those of you who are interested. Expecting is only $10.19 on Amazon right now, so let’s say you bought three. You’d qualify for free shipping, and you could take them to your local pregnancy center yourself and cut out the middle woman (me). That would save all kinds of time and hassle of getting them shipped from the publisher to me to the pregnancy center.

Just make sure you let me know if you decide to do that, so I can add the books (and your center) to our Look-What-God-Did total.

Speaking of Look What God Did, THANK YOU a million bazillions for praying for my Sexual Purity Talk at a local Christian high school chapel today. Oh. My. Word. I prayed my eyeballs out over this one (and apparently, so did a bunch of you), and GOD did something REALLY, REALLY cool. I do want to blog about it, but honestly, it wiped me out and I need some recovery time.

It was just really, really special, and the kids (young adults) were great–all 350 of them + a bunch of teachers/staff. I didn’t tell them this, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never spoken to that many people before in my life.

So, thank you.

And please, any ideas you have for next week’s Expecting Campaign Take Two would be greatly appreciated! Have a great weekend!

I leave you with this:

I’m growing my hair out for the first time in forever, and I’m thinking of revisiting this look. What say you? (I apologize for the photo quality, but more clarity would just mean more embarrassment.)

My sister Bethany and her hubby Stew are expecting Baby #2!! Woooooohoooooo!! If you know Bethy, you know that 18-month-old Isabelle Kate was a long time coming. We prayed for over 2 years for that little doll, and I’m so glad God chose to bring her little brother or sister along more quickly. Now we just pray for His protection for this little one in the womb.

Because of the nature of what I do (talk/write about sex & pregnancy), I get the honor of praying for lots of women who desperately want a baby. And it is such a thrill to hear from one of them that she’s finally pregnant!! (Sometimes I even get to keep secrets for a bit which is super fun.) And I love to share in their joy when they tell the world their amazing news.

If you and your hubby are trying to have a baby, I’d love to pray for you (you can e-mail me here). I don’t have some secret line to God, but I do have a real heart for women who want to be mamas.

And for women who are going to be mamas and aren’t equipped/prepared/excited to be. So many of you have given so generously to bless women in need at pregnancy centers around the world with a copy of this book. You can read more about The Expecting Campaign here. After Cambodia, I hope to get back in the swing of blessing some more mamas-to-be in that way.

Have a beautiful day, friends!

If you’re here for the first time because you heard me chatting with 100.7 WEEC’s Ruth Book this afternoon, welcome!

For those of you who don’t live near my hometown Midwest cornfields (bless your hearts!), WEEC is a Christian radio station in Springfield, OH (about an hour NW of us here in Columbus). It was almost always playing on our radio at home growing up, and Mom and Dad were constantly listening to some Bible teaching program or another. Sad that I took that so much for granted as a kid.

My uncle Tracy (mom’s youngest brother) is the General Manager of the station, and Gabe has helped them out with their website for years. WEEC is listener-supported, and this week is their annual Sharathon.

If it’s not 1:00pm EST time yet as you read this, and you want to Listen Live to my interview with Ruth, you’re most welcome. I’ll be giving a shout-out to my sweet Grandma Joan who faithfully listens to WEEC in her room at the nursing home every waking minute (and probably many of her sleeping ones).

Ruth and I are chatting about Expecting, and I talk about all of you darling folks who have donated books to hurting unwed mamas at crisis pregnancy centers around the world. I haven’t taken an exact count lately, but I know we’re inching close to 400 books donated.

Just this month, the women I spoke to at a retreat in New Jersey donated 23 books. There’s a church in Ohio donating an entire box of 40 to 2-3 pregnancy centers in their area. An old friend from high school just donated 10. It blows me away.

And I’m not really sure how this came to be, but I was interviewed on Moody’s Midday Connection a few weeks ago, and the interview airs tomorrow (Friday) at 1:00 pm EST (12:00pm CST). I’m part of the Friday 4, so I’m not sure what time my segment will be up.

If you’re interested in donating one or more Expecting books ($8.00 per book) to an unwed expectant mother, click here. If you’d like to specify which clinic the book goes to, please let me know in the comments or e-mail me. If you prefer to pay by check, let me know, and I’ll give you my address. If you have questions or want more information, let me know.

Again, friends, THANK YOU. It’s such an honor to be a part of this cool thing God is doing. Praying you have an amazing day!