Nine months ago, Fabiola learned that beneath her own heart beat the tiny heart of her unborn child. And though he was with her, she felt incredibly alone.
Thankfully, she didn’t feel that way for long. Throughout her pregnancy, an “angel” or peer companion from the Gabriel Project of St. Leo the Great Church in Fairfax supported her. The parish-based ministry offers prenatal care assistance, financial assistance, emotional and spiritual support, and referrals to parish ministries and diocesan Catholic Charities. Twenty-one parishes in the Arlington diocese have Gabriel Project; the most recent chapter started at Good Shepherd Church in Alexandria this year.
Days after the birth of her son, Fabiola waited on a bench outside her Fairfax apartment complex for her daughter to come home from school. Her angel, Zola Ellington, and Pamela Pons, the Gabriel Project coordinator, sat with her, cooing over the infant in blue and handing off a bag stuffed with child-sized clothing hangers, a diaper changing pad and more. The school bus pulled up, and 6-year-old Valentina ran to her mom, presenting her with a paper flower and a heart-shaped Cheerio.
Fabiola, her boyfriend and her daughter came to the United States from their native Bolivia 10 months ago, leaving the politically unstable and economically depressed country in hopes of a better life in Virginia close to one of Fabiola’s friends. But after Fabiola learned she was pregnant, her boyfriend left. She was in a country where she didn’t speak the language, with no health insurance and no partner. Though she worked in a bank in Bolivia, here she cleaned houses until she couldn’t. She felt worried and sad.
Almost a decade ago, Ellington experienced the same range of emotions when she learned she was pregnant. “I got pregnant young, (and) was lost. My now husband and I — we didn’t really know what to do. The first option is not to move forward with the pregnancy,” said Ellington. Then she spoke with a friend of hers who was helped by the Gabriel Project. “(She told me,) ‘You don’t have anything? Call (my angel) Dolores. I have her number, take it.’ That’s how I found out. So they helped me, they supported me, they gave me options. It sticks with you forever.”
Now, Ellington has three children and is a volunteer with the Gabriel Project. She and others from St. Leo helped Fabiola, connecting her with Tepeyac OB/GYN in Fairfax for prenatal care, as well as providing financial and emotional support.
“I was feeling very lonely but once (I was placed with an angel), I felt like, ‘OK, I am going to give everything to God — God has my baby and my life in his hands,’ ” said Fabiola through a translator. “I felt like there really was an angel helping me at this time of my life.”
Flor Sophia Trillo learned about the Gabriel Project after a friend asked her to translate so that the ministry could serve her friend. Trillo, who came to the U.S. from Peru when she was 15, placed her first child for adoption before she and her boyfriend started a family. Problems arose when she became pregnant with their fourth son. Doctors said that she and the baby had serious medical problems, that he likely had Down syndrome and that she should abort. The baby’s father did not want to raise a child with disabilities, but Trillo was determined to have the baby.
“He said, ‘I will leave you if he comes with Down syndrome.’ I said, ‘(Baby) Kevin is so precious — God is sending him to be with us,’ ” said Trillo.
Marianne Mazzatenta, coordinator for the Gabriel Project at St. Theresa Church in Ashburn, connected Trillo with the Catholic Charities food pantry, a pregnancy resource center and county resources. But as importantly, she talked with Trillo as she dealt with the pressure and emotional trauma she faced from her difficult pregnancy and the loss of her young nephew in a car accident.
Trillo’s baby, Kevin, is now 4 years old. He does not have Down syndrome and though he has kidney problems, he is otherwise healthy. “He was my miracle baby,” she said. “Now he’s a big boy, he’s running around. He’s a really sweet little boy.”
Trillo and Mazzatenta have developed a friendship over the past several years as Trillo continues to find ways to provide for her boys. She and her boyfriend are no longer together, and she’s had several health issues, including a heart attack this year. Mazzatenta has connected her with charities that provided Christmas gifts and school supplies for the boys and is helping her apply for government services as she navigates single motherhood.
“I thought I would be by myself, that nobody would help me, no one would say, ‘You can do it,’ ” said Trillo. But Gabriel Project has lifted the weight off her shoulders, she said. “You just need God and somebody next to you.”
