“I’m ready to give up having another baby, if you grant my husband’s wish…”

a story about PACKING UP and GETTING PREGNANT

Our prayers and novenas to OLGH over the years have been answered time and time again. Our devotion to this apparition started with the petitions recounted below. Not to give away the ending, but within three months we had both our intentions answered!

On the flat horizon, I spotted the corner store I’d passed three times already. I drove until the shore of Lake Superior stopped me and then turned around. Now, I passed that tumble-down store again. Each plank of white wood on its sides was lined with brown rot. In the rearview mirror, the sun was setting. It would be a shame to leave when I was so close. My home was over 5 hours away from the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, but my weekend retreat was local. 

I’d been to the shrine only weeks ago with my husband and two-year-old. There I had prayed for another baby. I had a hormonal imbalance, and we’d been trying for a while. I also prayed that my husband would be accepted into grad school. We had walked away from a new home just days before the final signing when my husband realized a new house would trap him and keep him from going. We were trading the house on a lake path with a yard and a deck and a sunny kitchen nook for...we had no idea yet. 

Driving now, it didn’t seem to matter anyway. My husband Anthony had been waitlisted. The chances of him going to any of his chosen schools were slim. And, maybe I couldn’t conceive because I wasn’t supposed to. They’re just prayers in a basement, right? A crypt, they call it. When we had visited a few weeks ago, it didn’t look like the sacred spot of a Marian apparition. It looked like an unfinished industrial closet. 

Yet, it had felt holy down there. Its humility had surprised me. In fact, the spot where Mary had appeared was so serene, I wasn’t bitter at all when I prayed against my heart’s desire. I would give up that house in the quaint town near the state park and the rail line to the city. That house was almost as quaint as the little houses with fences and gardens I passed now, in the middle of nowhere and not knowing where to go. 

The phone rang. It was Anthony. “You’re going to have to give up. It’s going to be dark soon and you’ll never find it then.”  

I turned on my headlights. “I know it’s here though. I’m so close.” 

“Look, you‘ve been gone all weekend. Come home. We have a surprise for you.” Daddy and Rose had baked a cake and hung a “welcome home” banner. A whole weekend was a long time to be away. 

“Just going to turn around and try this road one more time.” I whipped a U-turn in front of a mechanic shop. 

The road now ran straight into the sinking pink and orange sun. Barns, houses, and autumn’s empty crop fields flew past. There! The shrine’s sign rose into view. I turned down the drive toward the two-story dormitory and the steepled brick church. The lot was nearly empty and, hoping it was still open, I dashed downstairs to the crypt. 

Alone inside, I knelt. In front of Mary’s statue, in the glow of a dozen flickering candles, a sense of triumph washed over me. I’d made it. Theologically, maybe it didn’t matter. God heard my prayers. His saints heard my prayer, no matter where I prayed. Yet, maybe there was some teaching I hadn’t learned yet that made this spot mean more. Two years ago, I’d never heard of a Marian apparition.  

Sitting before Mary, at the spot where she’d supposedly appeared over 150 years ago, nothing had ever felt more real. In the silent, otherworldly aura of that crypt, I assented to believe that this new heavenly mother was able to lead me to Jesus. This new mother was powerful even.  

I bowed my head. “I know I asked for both last time I was here, but … I’m ready to give up having another baby if you’d grant Anthony’s wish to go to grad school. I can wait, but please just make him happy.” 

TO BE CONTINUED....