Summer 2008
All Photos courtesy of Angela Boquin, owner of Bella Photography, in conjunction with”Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” (www. nilmdts.org)
Kansas Monks
John Paul, John, Jennifer and Jacob Schmidt admire baby Gianna, dressed in a baptismal gown made just for her by John’s mother. “We were in awe of how beautiful she was,” said Jennifer.
Love me true
Pregnancy becomes a celebration of family, an act of faith By Kara Hansen Courtesy of The Leaven Archdiocese of Kansas CIty in Kansas
T
wenty weeks into their third pregnancy, John and Jennifer Schmidt were on top of the world. They’d just told their two young sons—Jacob, 5, and John Paul, 2—that there was a new baby on the way. Now, all four of them were crowded into the examining room, waiting for the sonogram to show whether the baby was a boy or a girl. Suddenly, it didn’t matter. 20
The perinatologist first grew very quiet, then looked almost frantic. “All he told us was that something was very wrong,” said Jennifer. The Schmidts’ baby had a condition called bilateral renal agenesis. She would not develop a kidney. If she survived labor and delivery, the obstetrician said, she would die within a few hours. “I remember thinking this was just a nightmare and I’m going to wake up from this,” said Jennifer. “It just can’t be real.” But the news was grimmer still. John and Jennifer
were warned that babies with this condition often go full term because they have all they need while in utero. Could Jennifer face carrying the child to full term, knowing her birth meant certain death? More than half of couples in their situation choose to have an abortion, the Schmidts were told. Or they could choose to induce delivery early. Neither, the Schmidts decided, was an option they could consider.
The power of prayer Numb and confused, the
couple called on Benedictine Father Brendan Rolling of St. Benedict’s Abbey for advice. A family friend from Jennifer’s time as a residence hall director at Benedictine College in Atchison, Father Brendan couldn’t help but hurt for the couple. “I was shocked when they told me,” he said. “It was very painful to hear there was not much the doctors could do.” But the parents made it clear that the options they had been given were not options for them. With the help of Father Brendan, they decided what they would do instead: pray.
