May the solemnity of Good Friday remind us of the immense love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 

As we enter into the final days of the Lenten season I wanted to share something that I saw recently. It was on a television program called “1923”. The show has its good and bad I suppose like any but there was one episode, the last one in fact of the season, that really struck me. I’m hoping none of this spoils the ending for anyone – it aired last weekend! If you have not seen it and plan to – do not read on!!

Anyway, The main focus for the episode was the culmination of two journeys. To the same place in fact. One character, Alex, was traveling from England to Montana. As you can imagine, in 1923, this was not as easy or swift as it is now. This young woman was traveling to Montana to meet up with her husband, Spencer, on his ranch. She was also carrying his child. 

The journey was harrowing to say the least. From a long journey by boat to Ellis Island in New York with its perils for a young woman traveling alone to then a long train ride from New York to Montana with various obstacles in the way. At one point the train could go no further due to winter snows stranding her near Winnetka Illinois pregnant, penniless, and alone. By a stroke of kindness a young English couple who she meets on the train offer to drive her to her destination. Wow. Ok. But alas, due to the brutal winter snows and the fact that in 1923 there were a lot more miles of empty fields and forest than there were 7-11’s and Chevrons, the car ran low on gas and eventually was stopped by the huge snowdrifts. Sadly the couple both perished from the cold. And Alex, alone in the car in the middle of nowhere awaits her fate while building small fires with whatever she can find. 

Lo and behold the very train her husband Spencer is on flies by where the car is stopped and Spencer happens to see her by the tracks next to a car in flames.

Ok, now I know a fast moving train and him happening to see her outside as it flies by is a leap but wait for it.

Like the romantic hero he is, he leaps from the train to get to his wife Alex. The reunion is bittersweet and definitely swoonworthy. 

They make it back to the train where a fellow passenger who happens to be a physician declares Alex in dire need of amputation due to severe hypothermia. Unfortunately, Alex’s body was weakened from the hours of frostbite she had endured, requiring amputations and surgery that would have rendered her unable to care for her as yet unborn child in the crucial hours that would determine his fate. 

Where am I going with this? Stay with me.

Alex’s legs and one hand had gone completely necrotic. The limbs needed to be amputated to save her life. The doctors argued that the preemie baby was too underdeveloped to survive outside the womb. They advised to abort and get Alex to surgery. As they begin to warm her up, Alex asks about her baby’s health. “The female form is a miracle. They can withstand physical hardship well beyond that of men, especially when with child. If there is a  way to protect the child your body will find it.” says the good doctor. 

Alex makes it to the hospital in Bozeman where it is quickly determined that she is in active labor. The little boy is born of his mother’s womb 3 months early, so roughly 30 weeks. And the emergency doctor says “It’s best not to become attached. Its lungs are not developed enough to survive the hour…” his voice trails off as the cries of her son are heard. Alex says, “So be it, give me the hour.”

Alex refuses the instruction to be prepped for surgery while offering her breast to her son. Stating, “A mother that would choose herself over her child is no mother at all.”

She and Spencer are reunited again very briefly before she succumbs to her injuries and passes away in his arms. Their child survives.Now I know this can be framed as “Hollywood” dramatics and I admit I’m a sucker for a doomed love story but it was a powerful statement of love and sacrifice just the same. Much like Christ in His final hours on the cross – for us.

Throughout history there have been many stories of mothers sacrificing themselves for their children. A beautiful, more recent, example is Saint Gianna Beretta Molla. This pediatrician and mother died on Easter morning 1962 after declining cancer treatment that could have harmed her unborn daughter. “With great faith and courage, Gianna Molla made the choice that enabled her daughter to be born. We can often wish that we were in different circumstances, but holiness frequently comes from making difficult choices in bad situations.” (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-gianna-beretta-molla/)

As we reflect on the Paschal Triduum I know I’ll be thinking of the women who come to Next Step, pregnant, and anxious for their future, and the many sacrifices that will most certainly come with choosing life. 

Have a blessed Easter.

~Heather Vasquez

Thank you to the wonderful volunteers from the Frassati Newman Group and the Young Adults from St. John and Holy Family for beautifying the Next Step flower beds for Spring. Also thank you to Board members Marilyn, Byron, and Julianna and kids Scarlett and Chloe!

Recently I saw a comment and discussion making the rounds on social media that caught my eye. I try very hard not to get sucked into “conversations” with strangers on the internet or to allow myself to react to foolish people. And I did not engage here either but I did read the post and the subsequent comments. I wanted to share with you what I concluded. 

The gist of the post (which originated from Lila Rose, President and Founder of LiveAction, a pro-life organization) was on the morality of offering someone congratulations on a pregnancy which occurred out of wedlock. I paused here because it landed very close to home. Not only in my work at Next Step but in my own personal story. 

My first child was born out of wedlock. I was not married to her father nor was I necessarily planning to marry him any time soon.  At the time he was unfortunately trapped by addiction (and still is to my knowledge). You might ask, well why be with someone who is clearly not capable of being in a committed relationship let alone being a father? Good question. Well, I have no answer other than I was young, naive, and wholly without a realistic view on love, marriage, or responsibility. 

When I found out I was pregnant I was understandably terrified. I was raised in a good Catholic home and my parents were good people (still are!). How could I face them with this? I had been completely and utterly irresponsible. The first person I told however was not my parents, nor my on again off again boyfriend but a priest whom I knew from the church we attended. He also ran the young adult Catholic group I’d been circling. It was as the group was walking out of a local dive in Renton following a rousing conversation that I dropped my huge news on his lap. He smiled, nodded, and said – “Oh. What a blessing.” And that was that. 

I talked to my mother next and then my father. They expressed their joy at the prospect of a child. They gently chided me and “wished it were under different circumstances”. But then they leaned into it. And I leaned into them. 

A baby is always a blessing no matter how he or she came into our world. Every person was placed here on earth on purpose for a purpose. 

Back to the original post. At Next Step every day young women come in that have a child or are pregnant. And sometimes they come alone though many times the father of the baby is with her though they are unmarried. As a professed Christian sex outside of marriage is not the path God shaped for any of us. And that road is not what Next Step promotes or hopes for. But we meet every woman no matter what. No matter why. No matter her past or current circumstances because we are called to love. 

My baby is turning 25 this year. She was a surprise and a delight. Things were not easy and not smooth. The road ahead was often obscured. But I’ve never forgotten the gentle acknowledgement and encouragement I was surrounded by at my news. It shaped such a large part of what came after, not just as a mother, but as a person. Had I been shunned, or rebuked by my parents and loved ones, I’m 100% sure I would not be here today. Or here in happiness and commitment anyway. And that is what we work hard to offer at Next Step. Acknowledgment, Encouragement. Education. Rest. Truth. 

Thank you for continuing to help Next Step thrive. 

~ Heather Vasquez

It has been just over 40 years since our 40th President,
Ronald Wilson Reagan, issued the proclamation (found a little further in this post.) It deserves another read!

Reagan’s decree is as true now as it was then. Other than, sadly, the number of abortions is wholly more vast now than it was in 1984. However, we still count among the many positive strides our nation has made towards protecting human life, this proclamation as significant and it continues to be celebrated and exemplified
in our families and churches each year. 

Before Reagan’s proclamation please see the link to the story of Emily and her mother from Catholic All Year (catholicallyear.com) from June of 2022. I encourage you to read the brief story titled “A Story of Teen Pregnancy, Grandparents’ Prayers, and Me.” It really touched on the way pregnancy, abortion, and motherhood affect so many lives in so many ways and remain a part of a family’s history. 

Declaration for Life-
“The values and freedoms we cherish as Americans rest on our fundamental commitment to the sanctity of human life……The first of the “unalienable rights” affirmed by our Declaration of Independence is the right to life itself, a right the Declaration states has been endowed by our Creator on all human beings — whether young or old, weak or strong, healthy or handicapped.

Since 1973, however, more than 15 million unborn children have died in legalized abortions — a tragedy of stunning dimensions that stands in sad contrast to our belief that each life is sacred. These children, over tenfold the number of Americans lost in all our Nation’s wars, will never laugh, never sing, never experience the joy of human love; nor will they strive to heal the sick, or feed the poor, or make peace among nations. Abortion has denied them the first and most basic of human rights, and we are infinitely poorer for their loss.

We are poorer not simply for lives not led and for contributions not made, but also for the erosion of our sense of the worth and dignity of every individual. To diminish the value of one category of human life is to diminish us all. Slavery, which treated Blacks as something less than human, to be bought and sold if convenient, cheapened human life and mocked our dedication to the freedom and equality of all men and women. Can we say that abortion — which treats the unborn as something less than human, to be destroyed if convenient — will be less corrosive to the values we hold dear?

We have been given the precious gift of human life, made more precious still by our births in our pilgrimages to a land of freedom. It is fitting, then, on the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that struck down State anti-abortion laws, that we reflect anew on these blessings, and on our corresponding responsibility to guard with care the lives and freedoms of even the weakest of our fellow human beings.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Sunday, January 22, 1984, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon the citizens of this blessed land to gather on that day in homes and places of worship to give thanks for the gift of life, and to reaffirm our commitment to the dignity of every human being and the sanctity of each human life.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 13th day of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America
the two hundred and eighth.”

~ Ronald Reagan

As we edge ever closer to celebrating with family and friends around the  dinner table and give thanks for our health, our family, our homes, our delicious meal, and our country (as I will be) I pray that each of us, in some small way, keeps in the back of our hearts, those that are perhaps not celebrating. Those who may be or feel alone and question what there is to be thankful for. 

Late last year Next Step Pregnancy Services began offering Abortion Pill  Reversal (APR) services. This is a process sought out when a woman takes the first of two pills to end her pregnancy and realizes she has made a terrible mistake. Can she go back? In some cases, many in fact, yes, she can. That’s where Next Step comes in.

These services include tangible support, a prescription medication of progesterone (a natural hormone produced during pregnancy that nourishes baby), and ultrasounds to check on pregnancy progress. It is a bright beacon of hope. The brightest. While we are so very blessed to have this service to offer like any medical process there are no guarantees. And while there have been successes, 68% success rate in fact, not every story ends that way. I would like to share one of those.

This past year a woman found us and was en route driving to us (~ 2 hour drive) even before confirming we could help her. She was in the military and felt pressure to take the abortion pill from not only the father of the baby but her coworkers as well. Her one friend helped her find us to see if there was a chance to save her baby.
She had gotten the pill online and never had an ultrasound done. We didn’t know the exact age of baby – possibly 7 or 8 weeks? She was in her late 30s and had never been pregnant. She was horrified she may have ruined her only chance at having a baby.

Sadly, it was a long drive home for this woman. We could not tell her she had a viable pregnancy. But we could tell her she was no longer pregnant – she had likely miscarried earlier in her pregnancy – about 2 weeks prior. We provided as much tangible and emotional support as we could.
“At least I don’t have to live knowing I killed my baby.”
While this story still ends on a sad note – I am very thankful we could give this little bit of comfort. 

Because please know, the very real emotional trauma and heartbrokenness of knowing you caused the death of your unborn child can never be undone. Forgiven yes! But not forgotten, Although in her case her baby was still lost. She was not. Not to the trauma of abortion.
Being able to be with her during this time, to hold her, to listen to her, to know her and let her know we saw her was Christ’s work and Will expressed and shared.  Thank you for your continual support. We are so very thankful for each and every one of you. Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

“If you’re going to pray for potatoes, you should have a hoe in your hand.”
In that way we must be like those in Nehemiah’s time who “did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other” (Nehemiah 4:17).

As we enter into the last few days before what folks are calling the “most important election of our lifetime,” (Christianity Today, 07/26/2024, K. Schiess) I happen to come across what is considered one of the most important speeches given in the last century, spoken on October 27th, 1964 just ahead of the Presidential campaign of Goldwater and Johnson. It was given by actor turned public speaker and later our 40th President, Ronald Reagan. It is a very lengthy but highly effective speech now and when it was given 60 years ago. But it was the last bit that stood out to me as not only profound but extremely relevant in 2024. 

The address touches on many things but the most important was about our freedoms. And our responsibilities in upholding those freedoms. When Reagan delivered this keynote there was a lot of fear and uncertainty surrounding the current US relations with the Soviet Union. But we can easily replace certain words and ideas to fit wholly into our current moral ideologies.

Thank you for your continued support for Next Step Pregnancy Services and its many clients, client families, and stories. Informed consent is freedom. Advocacy for the unborn is empowerment. Protecting those who are most vulnerable is our charge as Christians.  

Here is an excerpt. 

“Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy “accommodation.” And they say if we’ll only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he’ll forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer – not an easy answer but simple: If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right.
We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the [bomb] (or imprisonment for daring to pray for and defend our fellow brothers and sisters in the womb)  by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion human beings now enslaved behind the Iron Curtain,(or in the womb)  “Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skins, we’re willing to make a deal with your slave masters.” 

Alexander Hamilton said, “A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.” 

Now let’s set the record straight. There’s no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there’s only one guaranteed way you can have peace – and you can have it in the next second – surrender.

Admittedly, there’s a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face, that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand, the ultimatum. And what then?

Someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. [He] believes this because from our side [he’s] heard voices pleading for “peace at any price” or as one commentator put it, he’d rather “live on his knees than die on his feet.” And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don’t speak for the rest of us.

You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin – just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard ’round the world?
The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn’t die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it’s a simple answer after all.

You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, “There is a price we will not pay.” “There is a point beyond which they must not advance.

” Winston Churchill said, “The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we’re spirits – not animals.” And he said, “There’s something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.”

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.
He (our Lord) has faith that you and I have the ability and the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny. Thank you very much.”

Dear friend in Christ, October is Respect Life Month!

“So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.’ ~ J.R.R Tolkien

And so we enter into the season of rest. A time of stillness, thanksgiving, and peace. The heat and eagerness of Summer burns off, hearts and minds turn toward home. Here at Next Step Pregnancy Services we turn inwardly in prayer for the many clients and families served, and the many new lives welcomed into loving yet uncertain arms.

One of the services we offer that I am most proud of is APR, abortion pill reversal. This simple offering, which has filled those who oppose protections for the unborn with such vitriol, is in fact the one that most embodies the hope that is the “stone the builders rejected” (Matt 21:42)

The very act when a woman realizes that she does not want to abort her child and reaches out with a desire to reverse the process is faith personified. And by the Grace of God and with your support Next Step Pregnancy can answer. Answer with hope. with a prescription for Progesterone. With an ultrasound, without judgment or sentence, with compassion and alliance. Faith answered by faith. That’s what we bring.

The month of October is Respect Life Month. A month to recognize, celebrate, and renew our commitment to those women, men, and children affected by the past or present sin of abortion.

I am reaching out to you, my fellow soldiers, this month to ask you to renew your commitment to your local pregnancy care clinic, be it Next Step Pregnancy Services or otherwise, and continue to strengthen our ability to say yes to every person who comes to us seeking care.

Next Step Pregnancy Services is the only Accredited 501(c)3 Pro-Life clinic straddling the multiple communities, neighborhoods, and families between Everett and downtown Seattle. We are 100% donor reliant not receiving nor requesting state or federal funding. Our medical staff offer pregnancy testing, early diagnostic ultrasounds, STI testing and treatment, Reproductive Loss Grief care, maternity, newborn, and toddler supplies, and Abortion Pill Reversal care and sonograms.

With your continued support and prayers we plan to add Cycle Charting education, and possibly more services for young women and teens.

We want to impart this to them; “I am the Daughter of the King, who is not moved by the world, for my God is with me, and goes before me. I do not fear because I am His.” ~

Heather Vasquez, Executive Director

heather@nextstepnw.com / nssupport.org

What a day! Neither wind nor rain nor cold! Nothing stood in the way of beautifying Next Step! Thank you to the awesome people who came out to volunteer hours of their time getting dirty, sore, and tirelessly planting, shoveling, digging, and more! Many hands made light work for sure! What a blessing. The goal was to ensure a warm, bright, and welcoming place for all our clients – mission accomplished. See below the great photos for all the angels who came to help.

Kim and Josh Cummins, Marilyn Thornton, Jake and Nicole Forman – from the NS Board

From St. Mark – Nicholas, Robbie, and Helena Yen, Abby Pinard, Alyssa and Francie House

Dennis Halpin, Eoin, Vander, and Ryan Ritter from Boy Scouts Troop 309

Anne Lombard and Eleanor Dusch from American Heritage Girls Troop 821

Isabella Couarrubias from St. Thomas More

Linda Charcas from Holy Rosary’s Respect Life Group

Thank you Donna Vago, and Grace and Stephen Heinrichs!

And finally thank you to my big brother Ricky from the Buyce clan and my darling daughter Scarlett!!

At the dawn of salvation, it is the Birth of a Child
which is proclaimed as joyful news.

Today, March 25, marks the anniversary of the papal encyclical Evangelium vitae (The Gospel of Life). Written by Pope St. John Paul II in 1995. 

The source of this “great joy” is the Birth of the Savior; but Christmas also reveals the full meaning of every human birth, and the joy which accompanies the Birth of the Messiah is thus seen to be the foundation and fulfilment of joy at every child born into the world (cf. Jn 16:21).

I cannot begin to write anything nearly as beautiful and profound as the encyclical referred to here but I can share its proclamations and connect them to what is and has always been the heart of our mission here at Next Step Pregnancy Services. 

“Man is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God. The loftiness of this supernatural vocation reveals the greatness and the inestimable value of human life even in its temporal phase.” (Evangelium Vitae, 1995).

Next Step’s vocation is to recognize and name those children, the unborn, those human lives that we are privileged to welcome each and every time a woman comes through our doors whether she’s happy, or tentative, uncertain, angry, overjoyed, alone, or with family. Whatever her circumstance she is cherished, planned, and chosen. Chosen to carry new life. 

For the full encyclical click here –
https://tinyurl.com/evangeliumvitae25

Thank you to all those whose prayers and gifts to Next Step continue to strengthen this thriving organization. Please check out more ways to help, pray, and donate by going to nssupport.org

P.S. Save the Date – the Next Step Pregnancy Services Gala will be on Saturday September 14th! More to come. 

~ Saint Charles Borromeo

As I examine that statement about charity I’m reminded of God’s ultimate charge of us, His people. To love God above all else and to love thy neighbor as ourselves because we love Him. “Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God.” (CCC1822). That’s powerful. And direct. 

In Washington state alone there are over 50 pregnancy resource clinics, centers, and programs dedicated to the well-being and care of the men, women and children (born and unborn) that seek out assistance each and every day.  Some centers focus on material goods (diapers, formula, clothes) while others are more medically geared offering evidence based ultrasounds, pregnancy testing, STI testing and treatment and still others offer well women health care on top of pregnancy and family ministry and still others are focused on maternity housing and better maternal outcomes as well as walking beside women and children up and beyond those first few years. Each ministry is essential and can’t work alone. 

And that’s just Washington state! The latest numbers say there are well over 2000 pregnancy resource clinics and centers in the US. If you take a look at the monetary value of even a fraction of the work these organizations accomplish you’ll be blown away – and I hope – proud to know where your treasure lies. 

• Nearly $151 million in ultrasound-related care  (Year-to-Date Next Step Pregnancy performed over 300 ultrasound scans for expectant moms!)
• Over $75 million in parenting education programs  
• An over $3 million investment into our nation’s youth, teaching sexual risk avoidance  

These centers, like Next Step Pregnancy Services, also provided practical support of: 

• Over $40 million in diapers  (Next Step Pregnancy Services welcomed almost 5000 clients and client families in 2023 and the first month of the new year!)
• $6 million worth of baby formula 
• Well over $7 million in new car seats, cribs, and strollers  

Other services include: 

• Abortion pill reversal (Next Step Pregnancy Services just started this service in September of last year!)
• STD testing and treatment (Next Step Pregnancy offers a full service STI clinic with trained and certified nurses)
• Abortion trauma recovery (Next Step Pregnancy Services partners with the likes of Healing Hearts, Project Rachel, and The Life Perspectives Institute to offer post-abortive support.)

These essential services totaled over $358 million in one twelve-month period! Think about that for a moment. That is the power of pro-life pregnancy center. The power of what you’ve helped create at Next Step Pregnancy Services here in Lynnwood, Washington. 

And yet on October 13th, 2023 sixteen Attorney Generals joined together to produce and endorse an open letter denouncing Pregnancy Resource Clinics like Next Step. You can read the letter here if you are so inclined. http://tinyurl.com/October23Letter

“The hard truth is pro-life pregnancy centers impact the bottom line of the abortion industry. They are a competition that must be eliminated.”  (Bradley Mattes is president of the Life Issues Institute.)

Meet the newest Next Step babies! Lola and her mother and Musa and his big sister!