IT’S LOVE FLASH MOB DAY!!!!
Since Together Rising began, we’ve raised over a million dollars to lift up our community. Today—we overflow beyond our borders. Today, we flood the world with our love.
There has never been a Love Flash Mob closer to my heart than this one. We need more of you and more passion and more follow through than we’ve ever needed before. There are hurting/AMAZING women watching us this minute— hoping that you will care enough to help get them the care they deserve. I’ll be here sweating and praying and suffocating from hope and fear in my house. You—please—read and let your heart guide you.
Let us begin:
You know my precious friend, Tara. Tara is a midwife at a maternity center called Heartline in Port au Prince, Haiti. She helps Haitian women—who have no clean, safe, loving place to welcome their infant sons and daughters—give birth with dignity. Tara saves lives and loves mamas and gives her whole heart and her whole life to her calling. This one: Joy. Service. I know love when I see it. Tara and her family are love.
Months ago Tara wrote this about a teenager who had visited Heartline:
I couldn’t stop thinking about Asline. An hour later I sent Tara this message:
Me: Please Tara, tell me what Asline needs that I have to offer.
Tara: Asline burst into tears when she found out she was pregnant. We just hugged while she cried. I just said, “You are not the first young mom. I was a young mom – we have other young moms in the program” I asked her to come meet with me Thanksgiving morning at 10:30. Once I meet with her Thursday I will write you again. Pray that she just shows up. Off to program — today all the moms with babies born already come — super fun because these are all moms that were offered a chance to give birth and keep their kids out of an orphanage and they are all kicking ass at loving their babies.
Me: Okay- you go be with the mamas. I’ll wait to hear what’s next for Asline. I’ll pray she just shows up. Love you.
But that next Thursday, Thanksgiving, Asline did not show up. She didn’t come the next week, or the week after that. We wondered if it might be time to give up hoping. Then, the day after Christmas, this message popped into my inbox from Tara:
Tara: Friend!!!! Asline showed up today!!!! I’m giddy. Her sister gave her medicine against her will to try to get the baby out — but she was upset by it — she came today and is 11 weeks pregnant. She cried when she heard the heartbeat. And she is saying she will come back weekly and deliver here. Thanks for praying for her!!
I don’t really understand prayer. I usually forget to do it altogether. But something made me keep praying for Asline. And a few weeks later, I found myself messaging Tara again.
Me: Does Heartline need anything?
Tara: Yes, we do. We need more room. We are having to turn away too many women.
Me: What if we raised money for you to add on to the Maternity Center and add nurses?
Tara: That would be amazing, but you need to come and see if this work is right for you. Come and see.
Me: To Haiti? No thank you, I mostly want to (forget to) pray for Haiti from my couch in Naples.
But Tara kept saying that she really thought I should come. And I kept saying no. She said please and I said no. Finally, she said: Glennon. Just show up.
Tricky smart Tara, using those words against me.
That’s how Amy and I ended up in Haiti.***
When we arrived last month, Heartline’s midwife team picked us up at the airport and took us to the government-run hospital where many mothers deliver their babies. We needed to see firsthand why Heartline’s work is so desperately needed. As we drove, I kept thinking: it looks like the earthquake happened yesterday. But there was so much LIFE. So much beautiful life, so much brutal poverty. And/Both. Haiti is Brutiful.
We entered a gate flanked by armed guards, parked our ambulance, and entered a hospital that felt like a prison. We walked over slippery concrete floors and through suffocating heat, but no warmth. We went into the maternity rooms to see lines of sheet-less mattresses on metal frames. Women were laid on the beds in various stages of labor. One was in active labor, two had babies laid out next to them on the dirty mattresses, one was silently crying because she had just lost her baby. I saw no doctors while we were there, no nurses. There was no one to explain to these women what was happening to their bodies or to their babies. And there was no one to serve them. If a patient needs food, the family has to bring it. If a woman needs water, her family has to bring it. If an IV or medication of any kind is needed—the families already living in unimaginable poverty must find a pharmacy, buy an IV or medicine, and bring it to the hospital. So the women just go without. They go without food, water, and medicine. So many hurting women, so many new babies—and it was so quiet. We heard no moaning, no crying from the mamas or even from the babies. It turns out there is no reason to cry if there is no hope of help.
But then there were the midwives. Beth and KJ and Tara. They walked from bed to bed, holding women’s hands, hearing their stories, speaking to them softly in their native creole. Talking to them about breast-feeding and telling them, each and every woman they met, about Heartline’s free family planning classes and free birth control. Praying with them when they asked. Holding them if they cried. Laughing with the ones who could laugh.
Amy and I were silent as we climbed back into the car. As we pulled away from the hospital, Tara looked us and said, “And that’s why Beth started the Maternity Center.”
Beth and her husband moved to Haiti 26 years ago and right away – Beth used her degree in child development to open an orphanage. Beth cried as she told us about fathers and grandmothers who showed up at her orphanage’s gate with children hanging on their legs and newborn babies in their arms. The fathers would hold out their babies and say: “Please, take her. Give her food and get her to someone who can give her a life.” Beth would learn—over and over again—that the child’s mother had just died in childbirth. So many times this was the story—the baby’s mother is dead.
Beth listened closely. With a broken heart, she took the babies in and worked to complete their adoptions.
Running is one of Beth’s spiritual practices- she runs through the streets of Haiti, talking to God and listening hard. This running time is when she began to understand that she needed to back up a step. She needed to help mothers in childbirth and before childbirth and after childbirth so that they could live. So that they could keep and love and raise their babies. These babies didn’t need an orphanage, they needed their mamas. After a long season of listening, Beth decided to act. At 50, she started midwifery school. Then she came back and opened Heartline Maternity Center. At first she walked from Haitian door to Haitian door and asking—Are you pregnant? Is anyone pregnant here? If so, please come. I can help. Just show up.
We sat and took in Beth’s story, and then turned to KJ. KJ is 26 years old and was raised as the oldest of twelve kids in a very traditional family. But at an early age KJ felt a stirring, a knowing that her life would follow an non-traditional path. During high school, she went to Africa and fell in love with loving underserved people. She knew she wanted to serve. She came home and searched the internet until she found a website for a midwifery school in the Philippines. She looked at it and decided: I need to go there. So she graduated early and when she was seventeen years old she left her home and her parents and everything she knew and went to the Philippines.
What are you going to do there? Her mom said.
I guess I’m just going to show up, KJ said.
Beth was fifty when she followed her knowing. KJ was seventeen. Let us never say it is too late or too early to start showing up. 
After dinner, Amy and I went to our hotel room which was lovely except for a cockroach the size of a quarter pounder on the coffee table. Amy threw a tissue box on top of it and we walked around it for two days. I still can’t talk about it. Relief work is scary.
The next morning, Tara picked us up early to take us to Heartline. On the way, she explained that since Heartline has limited space, most of the mamas they serve are teenage, first-time mothers, or older mothers who have already delivered many babies. These are the women most likely to have complications that could lead to death during delivery, leaving their children orphaned. Tara also told us that in addition to pre- and post- natal care, family planning is a core part of Heartline’s work. Poverty can be defined as a lack of choices, and in a society marked by high levels of infidelity, violence against women and spousal rape, giving woman access to birth control gives them the choice to determine their future and to live a healthy life for the children they already have. To quote the wise words of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: “Every woman and girl deserves the chance to determine her own future.”
After a short drive, we pulled up to Heartline and the guarded gate opened. We left the rubble and traffic of Haiti behind and entered the oasis of the Heartline campus. Trees surrounding the building offer shade and pick up the breeze and the walls are painted bright with beautiful murals of Haitian mamas and babies. There is beauty there. Beauty is something that is harder to find outside the gate. Not impossible, but harder because there is so much pain that jumps out at you first.
The first thing that Tara did when we walked in was introduce us to the Haitian staff. Heartline believes in Haitian serving Haitians, so this is a priority for them.
The Maternity Center team (left to right): Nirva, Beth, KJ, Sherly, Tara & Winifred.
Next we greeted a large of group of women with shy smiles and big, beautiful bellies, and then we walked down to Tara and KJ’s exam room. Signs and paintings covered the walls. This one stopped me in my tracks.
Ascribe Unsurpassable Worth. This is Heartline’s motto, their mantra, their reason for being. Beth told us, “If you are a poor woman here, it is easy to be overlooked, taken advantage of and unknown. It’s different at Heartline. We know each woman by name, we know her story and we love her. That’s the difference. The women are loved here.”
Unsurpassable worth.
Then we went into Beth’s room. You see that picture on the wall, the painting on the left? It’s one of the mamas who gave birth last year to her eighth child. Her first seven babies died. But she came to the maternity center, and because of Heartline’s careful care and attention, her eighth baby lived. She lived. This mama now has a baby to hold, because of Heartline.
We spent the rest of the day quietly watching—smiling and nodding and oohing and ahhing with the moms, observing the careful care provided to all the women by the midwives and the staff. How they measured their patients’ progress, delighted with them over strong heartbeats, answered questions, provided meals.
(This is MarieCianne. She is a blind, Haitian pregnant mama. She teaches braille for a living. She did not stop smiling the whole live long day. Just thought you should know.)
During our last few hours at the clinic, we were joined by another Heartline visitor, an ob-gyn from Vanderbilt University named Dr. Chris Sizemore. Chris first came to Haiti after the earthquake and met the Heartline staff at the field hospital they erected inside the rubble to care for the earthquake victims. Dr. Sizemore told us, “Heartline does some of the best work I’ve ever seen. The care they give, the expertise, the respect for these women—they are doing it right.”
For the very last appointment of the day, Tara ushered a quiet, scared woman into the exam room. We greeted her and she nodded without meeting our eyes. Tara explained to us quietly that weeks before, when she was ten weeks pregnant, she’d been severely beaten by her husband. She moved in with her mother but since that day, she’d been terrified that her baby was hurt, or worse. When she heard that Dr. Chris was in the office doing ultrasounds, she came to Tara and said: “Please ask him to look at my baby. I am afraid. Please tell me if my baby is okay.”
Chris started the exam while Tara held the woman’s hand and followed along. We all held our breath. I prayed: please please please please please.
Chris spent careful time looking over every aspect of the ultrasound. It felt like one million hours. Then he smiled, looked right at the woman and said, “Your baby is perfect. Perfectly healthy. And you’re having a boy.”
And the woman’s face lit up like the sun. And we all breathed.
Afterwards I just stared at Tara. She said Every day. This is what it’s like here every day.
Every day (and throughout the long nights), the women of Heartline pour out their lives for moments like this. So that mamas can hear they have healthy babies, and babies can grow up in their mothers’ arms. Haiti has the highest rate of maternal and infant mortality in the Western Hemisphere. Two out of 3 childbirths in Haiti occur without a skilled birth attendant. One in 83 Haitian women will die as a result of childbirth. Yet, Heartline has never lost a mother. But due to too-little capacity and resources, Heartline is forced to turn away more women than they can serve. Each year Heartline is forced to say no to hundreds of women desperate for a safe place to start their child’s life and their motherhood.
I decided to visit Heartline because I wanted to see the work with my own eyes, and also because I was a little bit worried about the religious aspect. I am a self proclaimed Jesus freak- but I am wholly uninterested in any organization that is trading love for Jesus. I only want to work with people who love without agenda or ulterior motive. I am more skeptical about this than any atheist I’ve ever met- my team will tell you that. I am the leader of this beautiful, diverse community made of all faiths and those who understand the world in ways unrelated to faith. So my job is to look at Love Work with ALL of our eyes. And I can tell you that if you believe in Love, you’d believe Heartline’s work. This work of fiercely and tenderly serving women and children. The work of loving the vulnerable and the marginalized and the forgotten like they are the most beloved creatures on Earth—cherished, adored, valued—because that is the truth. There is no trading service for religion here. Love with no strings attached is the agenda.
Here’s where we come in.
The midwives of Heartline desperately want to add another wing to their beautiful maternity center. They want more exam rooms, more postpartum rooms, more teaching rooms. They want to stop turning so many women away who are desperate to bring their babies into the world in safety and dignity.
So we are going to build it for them.
The architects have drawn up the plans. The contractors are standing by. The midwives are watching. The mamas are waiting.
For US. For YOU.
Here’s the spot. Here is where the haven for our sisters will be. This is the spot upon which LOVE WILL BUILD.
If we raise the funds needed today- LOVE WILL START BUILDING IN TWO WEEKS.
Our sisters at Heartline have been brave and mighty and vulnerable enough to be open to our service. They have said: Will you help? Please, let us answer them: YES. YES because you deserve to deliver your precious baby safely and watch her grow. YES because
you are a woman of unsurpassable worth.
Here’s a picture of a birthing room at Heartline. See that line in Creole? It says, “She believed she could, so she did.”
And finally, meet baby Sarah. Sarah’s mommy and daddy suffered two mid-pregnancy losses before she was born. Sarah’s mom and dad let us borrow her for a minute, and while we were taking these pictures, Amy started crying. That doesn’t happen often—she’s pretty steady-eddy. “What’s up?” I asked. Amy told me that she was thinking about all those years I’d spent heartbroken about the dead ends of my adoption dream. She said watching me hold Sarah, she wondered if maybe God put that dream in my heart so it would lead us here—to help these mamas keep their babies. Because the only thing more beautiful than adoption is having no need for it.
God showed up.
Beth showed up.
Tara showed up.
KJ showed up.
Amy and I showed up.
And these women—they show up everyday.
Everybody’s just waiting to see if you will show up.
You guys. Let’s get the women of Heartline Rising—TOGETHER.
READY? HERE’S HOW LOVE WILL WIN:
- DONATE. You can make your tax-deductible donation by clicking here or on the Love Flash Mob button at the bottom of this post. Give what you can—small gifts of $5, $15, or $25 max. We can’t do great things, but today we’re making miracles happen through small gifts given with great love. REMEMBER THAT EVERY DONATION MATTERS. Click here to see the miracles you have made through prior Love Flash Mobs. Because Together Rising is an official 501(c)3, every penny of your donation is tax deductible. And, you can be assured that if the funds raised exceed what Heartine needs for this project, all of your money will go toward serving women and families in crisis.
- SHARE, SHARE, SHARE. PLEASE SHARE THIS POST. Use the links at the bottom of this post to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the other ones I don’t know about. Mass e-mail your friends, call your parents, stand in your yard and read the essay loudly – whatever it takes. We need all the whos in whoville – the tall and the small. We need our entire village today.
- TWEET THIS: Come to @momastery now for the most fun & greatest love you’ll ever see on the web! #LoveFlashMob #TogetherRising http://ctt.ec/P1j_n+
- DEDICATE. Every single one of us knows a warrior woman or baby. If you’d like to donate in honor of someone you love, please leave her name in the comments here or on Facebook.
Okay. It’s time for me to let you go and trust. Your board will be busy trying to breathe and calling each other and refreshing our screens one million times, sacred scared to death. In a few hours, we will give you an update. CMMMMMON LOVE: WIN!!!!
***Of course, Amy and I paid our own way to Haiti. None of your donations to Together Rising were used for this trip or any other trip. As has always been the case, your Board covers Together Rising’s overhead costs so that every penny you give goes to families in need.
!!!!!!!!!!!!! UPDATE !!!!!!!!!!!!!
LISTEN TO ME. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS. YOU ARE NOT NOT NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS.
On our last night in Haiti, Amy and I were eating dinner at Tara’s house and KJ mentioned her friend, Ann — a midwife in Berlin on the front lines every day, helping to serve women and children Syrian refugees. Amy’s eyes got big and she looked over at me and with my eyes I said to her: Sister. No. Focus. We are in HAITI. For Heartline.
Later that night, we lay in our hotel room and before I could fall asleep Amy said into the darkness: We should help them, too. And I said: I know. But not now. Next time. Next Love Flash Mob. We have to do the next right thing, one thing at a time. Heartline is the next right thing, and the numbers we need for these sisters are BIG. They have unsurpassable worth. We have to wait.
Amy said, Yes, you’re right. Then as soon as we got home from Haiti — she reached out to Ann behind my back, of course. Love will sometimes cheat a little to win, it turns out. A week later Amy forwarded this letter to me from Ann:
“Every day Berlin sees an unprecedented number of refugees coming to our city. Many that finally reach Berlin have been in dire conditions for weeks and in Berlin they find another great struggle. The government registration office has waiting times of up to a week just to receive a waiting number. From then it may be weeks to register as an official asylum seeker. Until then, no one is eligible for medical help.
In a once idyllic park you see the dire situation. People are sitting on the cold ground and trying to keep their few things that they have managed to keep together. Pregnant women, small children, sick people, everyone on the cold pavement. Our work as midwives is in great need. The specific needs of pregnant ladies or women that have just given birth are hard to be met under these circumstances, but we try. Women are homeless with their newborn baby or a few days before giving birth, and it is now very cold in Berlin. The situation at the registration office has become more and more unstable over the last few days — because of the cold weather and unrelenting rain — and the fact that people have had to wait for weeks now. Today, it has become very clear, that the idea we really need funds for is winter clothing and gear for the mothers and babies. We see so many without adequate clothing and a huge increase in colds/bronchitis/flu.”
GOOD GOD, I said. Listen, I know it’s calling us. BUT WE HAVE TO WAIT.
********
This afternoon, your Together Rising Board huddled together and said: OUR TRIBE IS TRYING TO TELL US THAT WE DON’T HAVE TO WAIT.
YOU GUYS. YOU GAVE $300,222 IN 10 HOURS.
Because of what you did today, Heartline is getting its Love Wing. I just talked to Tara and she was on the phone with the Haitian contractors saying: IT’S ON! GET READY! YOU HAVE JOBS AND WE WILL HAVE OUR LOVE WING! (Did you think about that? You gave WORK to people today. Ripples, ripples.)
Our Love Flash Mobs are 24 hours long. WE HAVE THIRTEEN AND A HALF HOURS TO GO.
We want to raise money to help Ann and the midwives in Berlin buy warm clothes and blankets for the refugees—and even more. We are, right now, furiously working those details out. You can trust us with that. We will go slow and well and true. We are more careful than CAN BE IMAGINED. Your Board has an entire Stewardship Team with amazing and selfless volunteers and led by our very own Katherine, ensuring that your money is spent in a smart way, in the RIGHT way.
FOR NOW:
KEEP GIVING, friends. No penny will be wasted. Keep giving and we will get to work tomorrow creating the very best plan to get your love to those shivering, hoping, beautiful refugees desperate for a safer, peaceful existence for themselves and their children. When the details of our Love Project are finalized—we will tell you the entire story in detail.
And let us never forget — there is no such thing as other people’s children.
Author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller LOVE WARRIOR — ORDER HERE
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812 Comments
I am privileged to have three beautiful and healthy and thriving adult children. The children are our hope and it begins with the mama – and, it seems here, with the midwives and helpers. Thank you for the honor to be a part of this.
I am donating as an aspiring doula, and an overall enthusiast for women and childbirth. Thanks for a lovely story. I can’t wait to hear more about this in the future!
I am donating in honor of my sweet brave courageous mom who is the most generous and compassionate woman i know! xo
For Erin’s mom.
Amen.
G
For my mother, Marjorie Claire Widell.
For Marjorie Claire Widell.
Amen.
G
For my sweet baby girl, Emma Lynne, whose heart stopped beating during full term labor just 7 weeks ago. Because babies & mothers shouldn’t die when we can do something.
Oh sweet Caroline. For precious Emma Lynne.
Amen.
G
Sending lots of love to you and sweet angel Emma Lynne. She will not be forgotten. <3
For my sweet Kenna, who was lucky enough to be born to a mama with access to prenatal care, and in a place where an amazing NICU staff spent 18 days giving her the love and care she needed to come home to her family healthy and happy, and for all mamas and babies, because they ALL deserve the same.
For Sweet Kenna. And for Kenna’s NICU staff.
Amen.
G
I’m donating in honor of my three precious kids who we’ve adopted through foster care. I’m so thankful for their birth moms and those who supported them despite really difficult circumstances to give life to these three precious gifts I adore and hear call me “mommy.”
For Mackenzie’s three precious kids.
Amen,
G.
In honor of all the women longing to be mothers.
Oh yes. Yes yes. For all the women longing to be mothers.
Amen.
G
Amen!!!!!
I love this! My donation is dedicated to my two beautiful sons, Isaac and Noah, who both were born healthy in hospitals where we all had more than enough care. I am so thankful for what I have and it breaks my heart that there are so many mama’s that don’t have the healthcare they need. Praying they have all they need and more.
For Isaac and Noah.
Amen.
G
In honor of me on my 51st birthday. I was fortunate to have three healthy pregnancies that led to two sons and a daughter. I wish every woman could have the same pre-natal and birthing experience. I’m hopeful that my donation will provide some bit of happiness and care to another mama in Haiti who so deserves the same treatment. Thank you, Glennon, for allowing me to give on my special day.
For Elizabeth, on her 51st birthday.
Amen.
G
I’m donating in honor of my amazing midwife, Nancy. She took care of me and delivered my first baby. I was young, clueless, and afraid. She believed in me and so I believed in myself. And now I am a happy and confident mama of 3!
I hope these beautiful, inspiring women receive more love money than they ever dreamed possible!!!
For Nancy.
Amen.
G
Thank you for what you are doing! Donating because I believe in what Heartline is doing and I’m forever grateful for their servants heart. I just cried reading your post about this and felt lead to share and donate. Thanks for sharing the love a million times over. Praying for the courage, strength, and love of God to shine so bright!
xx
Donating in honor of the Homestead Warriors!
For the Homestead Warriors!
Amen.
G
In honor of Sandra Navarro who is bravely emergency fostering 4 kids.
For Sandra Navarro.
Amen.
G
Donating for my Cale, who was stillborn, unexpectedly, at term. May these babies and these mamas get the life they deserve, the life Cale deserved.
For Cale.
Amen.
G
Lots of love to you and your sweet angel, Cale <3
Donated in honor of my best friend, Maggie, and my niece, Haylee, with a big shout-out to all single mamas (and dads too!) for all their love and sacrifice.
For Maggie and Haylee and ALL THE SINGLE MAMAS AND DADS!!!!
Amen.
G
For your wonderful work, and in honor and memory of my son PJ who I would give anything to be able to hold one more time. Blessings on you all for the work you do and the love you give!
Oh. For precious, beloved, unrepeatable PJ.
Amen.
G
For Melissa & Scott and their sweet baby Oskar, forever in our hearts.
For my sister and her sweet babies, forever in our memories.
For my darling, radiant Oliver, who made my heart bigger than the whole entire universe. And for his birthparents, wherever they may be. May they know that he is cherished beyond measure, safe and secure, beloved by his mama, daddy and little brother, whose lives would be utterly incomplete without him.
For Melissa and Scott.
For Oskar.
For Briana’s sister and her sweet babies.
For Oliver.
For Oliver’s birth parents..
For Briana, who is some sort of angel.
Amen.
G
Thank you so, so much for giving us all this opportunity to serve others, to take care of one another and to make such an incredible difference in the lives of our sisters. I am so blessed, that I had my children in a country with amazing healthcare and that both of my sons were born healthy. My heart goes out to all women who suffer the loss of a child. This effort of love reminds me of what really matters in life and of how incredibly fortunate I am. You are such an inspiration to me and “finding” you and your powerful message has come at a perfect time in my journey of personal recovery. Thank you for all you give and for demonstrating what a world this can be when we just turn around and do the same for others. I wish I had the means to give 1000x’s more but I am grateful that I am in a position to give. The ocean is made up of ALL the drops of water! Glad to be a part of that ocean of love!
Thanks for spotlighting such a great cause Glennon! I wish more people would share these types of stories 🙂 x
I’m giving for the woman who gave birth so we could have our very own Sarah. She’s the light of our lives and we wouldn’t be complete without her. She was born in the US where her care was a given–we are so very, very lucky.
For the woman who gave birth to Sarah.
Amen.
G
Thank you. She was so strong & brave to choose a couple she’d never met to parent the baby she held for only moments. She will stay in my heart forever.
I donated because all of those wonderful mamas and babies need to know that there are so many of us that they will never meet, that love them so and want to give them every opportunity at a healthy, happy life!! Thank you Glennon, for allowing us to be a part of something so incredibly awesome!! Together we CAN do hard things!!!
donation in honor of Fallon Jade Rilling
For Fallon Jade Rilling.
Amen.
G
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Glennon!! For showing up as the Grace that is bearing witness to the “wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles” that IS being birthed today in Love’s name! Love ALWAYS WINS!!!
“Auntiehood” has been my “calling” of choice…. Today the profundity of the “why” of it became clear…. it absolutely DOES take a “village” to raise a child, a Global one!! Blessed Be! Namaste`
In remembrance of Marika Joy Warden, with love.
For Marika Joy Warden.
Amen.
G
Thank you, Glennon, for using your voice for good. We all want to help, but without people like you lending their energy to lead the charge, it’s hard to make a lasting impact.
I donated in honor of my two beautiful children: Jonah Gray and Evey Claire, who both came into this world safely because of my luck to live in a part of the world where medical interventions are safe and affordable.
Blessings to each of you .. this is for my healthy 12 year old whose birth was pure joy without pain or worry. And for our seven that we’ll never meet through failed IVF. There is enough love for all! You are proof!
I donated in honor of the 3 babies that I miscarried and the 2 that I birthed. They’re 10 and 13 and thriving. And also to my own warrior mother who is 77,
and runs the daycare program at the the local health club and is raising her 2 great grandchildren while their mother gets her life together post-rehab. Otherwise, they would have gone into foster care. Thank you Glennon for sharing this amazing story of humanity and motherhood and sisterhood. You’re certainly guaranteed a place in heaven for all that you do for others. Gratefully, Lisa 🙂
I donated to remember my two babies who I never got to hold and my two babies I have the privilege of raising every day. May these gifts be multiplied so many mamas have the same chance!
Thank you for all the info Glennon. And for going to Haiti to see for yourself on our behalf. I am honored to give. Can we make an ongoing donation to this Heartline?
Dedicated to my Sydney Ann…my heart and soul!
For our sweet daughter who came into our lives exactly when we needed her, and for the baby we lost at 8 weeks, who would have been due to arrive in exactly one month.
Thank you for your amazing work, G. Love does indeed win!
Donated in honor of my two biological babies that didn’t make it and my sweet adopted one who did, despite his circumstances. xo
Remembering your sweet angels and sending hugs to you and sweet adopted son <3
Donating in honor of the two babies who I get to snuggle everyday…and in memory of the one with whom I never got the chance.
Today my daughter, Louisa, turns 12. I donated in honor of her sweet spirit and I donate with the prayer that she will continue to be as tender-hearted as all those who are giving today and as strong as the women and babies to whom we are giving. THANK YOU, GLENNON!
In honor of my two kids I hug everyday, the three who I will hug when I get to heaven, and the one who kicks from within that I get to hug in March.
<3
Donating in the name of my own warrior baby girl Lara who was born and thrived thanks to exceptional maternity care here in Germany. Let’s help give the same chance to all these lovely mamas and babies in Haiti!
In honor of my mom, Tina. Her birthday is today.
Dedicated to my third tiny, beautiful baby in my belly. Without the help of medical professionals, I’m not sure I’d make it through this or my other high risk pregnancies.
Have just donated, what an amazing story and loads of amazing stories within the amazing story … have donated in memory of my Auntie Liz, I loved her and she was a very brave, lovely, adventurous, inspirational, willing daughter of God x
For Auntie Liz.
Amen.
G
Donating with tears in my eyes in honor of my first baby who would have been due June 2003, and my daughter who was breech and had to be delivered via c-section in November 2007. So much love for all the mamas and babies. So much love for you, G, and all the good you are helping us do in this brutiful world. <3
For Shenne’s baby.
Amen.
G
Carol, who is going through her own hell and I dedicate this to her as well as my love, T, who introduced me to you and your wonderful LOVE WINS. We all went to your session in Manassas and loved it. We were the only chocolate chips in the cookie and felt it but you addressed that issue later and it was very much appreciated.
For my sweet niece adopted from Russia and nephew adopted from Haiti. Bless the people who aided in their birth to give them not only life on this earth but the chance to be with a family and know of their eternal home.
In honor of my 3 beautiful boys and in hope of all of the beautiful babies and mamas who will be served!
In honor of the amazing midwifery team at BackCove Midwives and to Birth Roots (both of Portland, Maine) who empowered me to believe in my body and all that it could do.
Donated this morning. One day I would love to adopt-I pray on the regular for the man and woman whose child will one day call me mama. The irony isn’t lost on me that the very things I pray for them are the things that would prevent them from needing me to partner with them in raising their child. So, I donate in honor of them. That somehow our world will become so healed and restored that there will be no children that aren’t receiving the care they need from their family of origin.
Having a healthy pregnancy, crisis free birth and healthy baby are no small thing but it is easy to take them for granted in the US. Heartline is amazing. Thank you for sharing them with us.
I dontate in honor of my mom, long time L&D nurse, who has held so many hands and given so much encouragement to many moms as they welcome their best blessings.
Donating on behalf of my amazing midwives in Guelph Ont who have safely and lovingly cared for me through 4 pregnancies
In honor of my daughter Ellie and her sibling. Don’t know where that sibling is coming from or when but I know he/she is coming! Thank you Glennon for doing this. Sending you lots of love from Reedville!
I’m donating in honor of my daughter Sydney and son Colton both of which had to be delivered by C-section in a clean & safe hospital.
I can’t imagine having your first experience of giving birth to be in the environment you toured. Bless all those mamas!
Donating firstly out of love which needs no reason and secondly out of personal experience of needing professional care while pregnant/giving birth. Also, I felt a strong urge to go help in Haiti after the earthquake but chickened out because of all the dangerous diseases breaking out – so donating is the least I can do. Sending so much love to everyone at Heartline.
Donation made in honor of Kinley Rogers and her mama, daddy and brother.
Donated to honor the amazing women of Heartline and Together Rising. Blessed to have three healthy daughters who all enjoy the privilege of excellent medical care. You all are doing amazing work. Thank you
I devoured every word of this post. I scanned the faces of every face in every photo more than once. I am so excited to see how quickly this community raises the funds for this unbelievable cause. Love wins!
I’m donating in honor of my dear friend who passed away today from breast cancer. She worked relentlessly as an adoption lawyer helping Haitian children to find homes in the U.S. She adopted five Haitian children, including one with sever special needs. Additionally, she worked for free as our family’s lawyer to adopt our Haitian son that had been abandoned due to blindness. She was a mother, a mentor, a gifted, educated woman that shared with other women.
For your warrior friend, Melissa. What an incredible person she must have been. Thank you for sharing her life with us.
We love you, Melissa. And our warrior who WON her battle with cancer today. You don’t ever lose a battle to cancer. You just fight like hell and win no matter what. Love, love.
Dedicated to my angel baby Jessie and and to all the angel babies looking down today and smiling.
My donation goes to honor the amazing women that give of themselves for such a worthwhile cause – and to my 2 daughters who I hope embrace that same love of their fellow human beings.
Paying it forward…thank God for the loving people helped me when I had my preemie, Meg.
In honor of my two daughters.
Thank you so much for doing this work.
Glennon, I had the pleasure of sitting between you and Sister at a recent retreat in Starkville, Mississippi. Your message encouraging us to share our stories gave me the courage to finally face MY story that I had been denying most of my life. I am now on a journey of understanding and healing and know that I will come out of this better and stronger than ever. Your message also gave me the courage to share my story with some of my family and friends, helping to take away some of the shame I didn’t realize I had been living under for so many years. I have been wanting to find a way to thank you for the message you shared with us and am thrilled to support this cause in honor of you, Sister, and everyone that helps make Momastery happen. Thank you for all you do.
Thank you for sharing this with the community, Glennon. Tara and all the others who make Heartline possible, thank you for your work and tireless efforts in promoting a safe and supported birth experience.
I am donating on behalf of my own three babies, who were born safely, without a fear for their survival and as a birth doula on behalf of the babies, mothers, and fathers I have been fortunate enough to support. Because birth matters.
For the nurses and doctors who helped me deliver Lydia and Maggie. They both overcame difficult deliveries to bless my life in ways I never imagined. May the same attentive, compassionate care flow through Heartline to the mommas and babies of Haiti. Go, LOVE, go!
For Lydia and Maggie.
Amen.
G
For Kate and Lucy, my first babies, who were born at 19 weeks, too early to survive. And for Toni Cunningham, the nurse who took their pictures and their footprints, and who found hats in their size.
For Kate and Lucy.
Amen.
G
And for Nurse Toni.
Amen.
Bless all who show up.
In memory of angel baby boy.
For Erin’s angel baby boy.
Amen.
G
My little contribution, in gratitude to the midwives at Bay Area (Annapolis, MD)… who were the beginning of my family’s whole health and healing journey. They delivered 2 of my children, and unknowingly delivered us from a life of chronic illness by teaching us how to hear and heal ourselves.
For my babies Easton (c-section) and Zola (VBAC). Because without an OBGYN and medical staff that I love and trust they would not be here. Every woman deserves that basic beauty of life.
For Easton and Zola.
Amen.
G
This post is amazing. The work of these women is amazing. These unsurpassably worthwhile moms are amazing. I’m just… amazed. And happy to help.
Donated in honor of my Warrior Baby Harper!
For Warrior Harper!
Amen.
G
Donated for the sweet boy we have had the great blessing of adopting, because “the only thing more beautiful than adoption” is keeping babies with their mamas.
Amy, bless you and your little boy.
G
Donated in memory of my angel.
Dedicated to LOVE! All day, everyday LOVE. Love that covers the earth. Love that seeps into our bones and lets the tears flow and the warm hugs reach those darkest, scariest spaces inside us all. Thank you Glennon, Amy, Sister, Tara, Beth and KJ and the entire loving team at Heartline. My LOVE will reach you today, and I’m praying much, much, much more love reaches you too!! God bless you and these fantastic and MIGHTY endeavors!! We can do hard things, together.
HERE’S TO LOVE!
In honor of Kayla, who gave life to Abby, and a daughter to Noelle.
For Kayla, Abby, and Noelle.
Amen.
G
Donated in honor of an amazingly strong momma friend of mine, who’s beautiful baby boy was given his heavenly wings at 38 weeks old. All mommas and all babies should be given the love, prayer and support that these women are providing. Such amazing women doing such amazing things in the name of love. Best Christian testimony there is! Keep showing up ladies!
I donate in honor of my sweet angel baby Max. Hopeful that one less women has to lose a child. Healthy babies and healthy mothers, what could be more important in this world?!
For Max.
Amen.
G
So grateful for my three healthy babies and three safe deliveries. Hoping to help other mamas to experience the same.
In honor of the two greatest gifts God has ever given me, may all mommas be blessed with the opportunity to deliver with dignity and tender care.
I love that this is who you’re serving. My sister had premature twins. You could hold them with one hand and they fit in your palm. They would’ve died anywhere but a first world nation. I had a (small) hemorrhage after my second childbirth. I don’t know how big of a deal a small hemorrhage is versus a big one, but I’m guessing any hemorrhage in Haiti is a bad one. For as many women as have had children, there are devastating childbirth stories in the absence of proper help. May these women deliver safely, with all the support they need before and after.
My small bit is in memory of Angel Baby Lucy.
For Angel Baby Lucy.
Amen.
G
In honor of my Mom. Happy Birthday in heaven, Mom!
BEAUTIFUL story. Made my donation. Thank you all so much for doing this. Thank you for showing up there in person, Glennon. Wonderful story. Blessings to all the babies and mamas and the center. We Can Do Hard Things.
We have supported the Livesays and Heartline for years! The work they do is just the best! Thank you for sharing their story and supporting them!
Donating in honor of Caroline, my sweet tiny warrior. She’ll have the first of three surgeries on her skull in January. It’s terrifying, but were it not for the incredible medical care we’ve been lucky to receive, her future wouldn’t be nearly as bright as we’re hoping. Here’s to the promise of a bright beginning for ALL mamas and their babies.
For Caroline.
Amen.
G
Thank you for the opportunity to help.
I donate in honor of the babies I never
got to hold and the two beautiful children
I am blessed to have.
For all of Josie’s babies.
Amen.
G
I gave $7.01, everything that was left in my budget that was for me (i.e. not kids, food, etc). Because babies need their mamas. Because last night in the middle of the night I cuddled my baby girl who has a stuffy nose and when she has a stuffy nose NO ONE ELSE WILL DO, so will only calm for her mama. Because I had a plethora of safe, caring places to deliver my girls. Because these women are unsurpassebly worthy of their babies.
For my daughter, Sierra, who turned 4 yesterday. She was delivered by C-section (because she refused to flip over from her transverse position) and that would NOT have been possible without exceptional medical care. Thank you, Glennon, for writing such a moving piece with such a compelling call to action. Now I’m trying to not cry at work! God is love, and love wins!
Thank you G and to the amazing women of Heartline. I am so grateful that it is “ok” that I can only give a bit as that is all I can do right now…but I did it! And my joyful tears are still falling…I hope the new wing gets built!
Lets build that sucker! I just had two great-nieces deliver their babies in a nice clean hospital. One was a month early. I cry tears just thinking of these mamas in the conditions they must try to have their babies. All of us mamas need to unite in our quest to deliver a healthy baby.
A cause very close to my heart. Donated in gratitude for myself and my eldest daughter. Neither of us would be here today were it not for the maternity care we received. Sending love from Germany to the Mamas in Haiti. x
Donating today in honor of my sweet nephew Donovan who is four months old and his spent his whole life thus far in a hospital bed, fighting for his life, waiting for his doctors to find a way to treat his rare combination of serious congenital heart defects; and for his mommy, Monica, who has given up everything else in her life to be with him every day, away from her home and family, and to tirelessly and lovingly oversee his care. May this gift go forth and do exponential good for the mothers and babies of Haiti.
For all the AMAZING Midwives here and in Haiti especially Leigh and Aubrey who delivered my two babies.
Donating for my precious Emma, whose time with me would have ended after her first 10 hours on earth if not for access to amazing medical care.
Amy and I were having similar thoughts about your adoption dreams and alllllllll the babies you are helping on your journey. What a blessing you are to the world, Glennon!
Thankful for my beloved daughter (10) and son (6) and for being able to see them grow after conquering breast cancer challenge two years ago.
Also thankful for the wonderful doulas who supported me when giving birth to my daughter and for the marvelous midwife who helped me when I gave birth to my son.
Thank you for all you do.
Donated in memory of Sterling, who never got to see the world.
Donated in honor of my amazing daughter, Elizabeth-Ann and daughter-in-law, Kathy.
This is my first love flash mob and I’m excited to be participating. I donated in honor of my sweet baby who I lost one month ago. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to help these mamas and babies.
I am so very sorry that you lost your sweet baby, Kaitlyn. There is nothing that makes that pain go away except maybe time, but please know that you’re in my thoughts and prayers. <3
For the two babies I didn’t get to meet and the four who make my every day worthwhile.
This morning I wrote in my journal that I was grateful for my beautiful daughter, that I was blessed to have been able to become a mother and blessed that we are both healthy and thriving, despite having lost my husband and her father two years ago. Thank you for helping the women of Haiti become mothers to their beautiful babies.
Donating to honor the work of my best friend, a doula in Austin, TX, who welcomes babies earth side with her grace, and strength, and smile. I am doing my small part to support her work, and your work, and to acknowledge the amazing cycle that brought us all here; as we are all here “because some lady had a baby.” It is the most beautiful sisterhood I will ever know and signifies the ties that bind us to all the souls before and after us. Thank you for raising awareness and making it possible for women to birth safely and with support. <3
Donated for the sweet baby we lost earlier this year, the one growing in my belly today, and the thousands of other moms and babies across the world that need our love, prayer and support. So proud of the amazing work you and Heartline are doing, Glennon!