Archives for July 2026

I can vividly remember the long nights as a new mother, awake and caring for my newborn, whispering in the dark. Sleep was such a fleeting thing and, as I’m sure other mothers will agree, its almost as if you are not ever really asleep. Just ‘resting your eyes’ really. So in tune you are with your baby. Their heart and yours – truly beat in simultaneous rhythm. 

I recently learned something so beautifully profound I was eager to share it with you. There is a cloistered community of nuns in the hills of Tehachapi, California who, among the many things they do such as making cheese, breeding dogs, and selling sheep, goats, and cows, they also rise each and every night, at midnight, to pray.
Not just any prayer that comes to mind or for just any person but specifically to pray together for an hour for new mothers who are also awake, caring for their babies. 

What a beautiful act of love. 

This is the statement from the Sisters on this practice;
“By waking in the middle of the night, we are expressing our readiness to meet [Jesus] when He comes. But, for so many, midnight can also be a time of darkness, loneliness, and fear. Like the selfless mothers whom we hear from, who wake up at this hour because their children are in need, we also wake up to attend to the spiritual needs of souls all over the world, and especially to those most in need of a mother’s caringlove.”

As Catholic Review writer Rita Buettner says,
“Next time you wake up during the night, maybe you can send your own heartfelt prayer into the darkness. God is listening, and he knows who needs it most.” (https://catholicreview.org/praying-through-the-night/)

You can learn more about this community of Sisters here : 
Norbertine Canonesses of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph

Every time a woman chooses life we rejoice. For her, for her baby, and for life itself. And every time there is new life there are new possibilities, new challenges, new everything.
And that’s where Next Step comes in. At least, for some of it. 

I came across this animated video that had been posted on X by, frankly, a group I tend to not always agree with. But I’m always one for respectful discourse and learning new things. 

https://youtu.be/9Orm24xknIc?si=jA_dX_xUFmqGcIql

The video struck me and successfully hit upon what so many young women go through when faced with an unexpected pregnancy. And those are many of the young women who find our clinic.
In fact, to date this year we’ve had 23 women find our clinic with the intention of aborting their child. Not necessarily uncertain and seeking answers but women who were very aware of what is growing inside and set on their intention to terminate.
Women who are being convinced they are not ready, not experienced, not capable enough. Being convinced abortion is ‘your best option’, that ‘you deserve a future’. Every reason under the sun to simply make it go away. Those are the conversations our nurses are up against. 

These are women and girls who have been surrounded by the devaluation of life long before motherhood was part of their story.

We need to change the story.
That is our vocation. That is the sacred calling of
Next Step Pregnancy Services.