By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A single young woman who recently converted to Catholicism is making headlines for publicly celebrating the life of her unborn conjoined twins who doctors advised her to abort.
LifeNews.com is reporting that the woman, Amanda Schulten of Marengo, Illinois, learned on April 1 that she was pregnant with twins. A few days later, doctors discovered that the babies were conjoined with both sharing the same heart and most of their internal organs. One of the babies has no lower body so the twins will have one pair of legs between them.
Doctors immediately advised her to abort the babies, but she refused.
Instead, she named the babies Faith and Hope and launched a blog to celebrate their life. She also uses the site to celebrate her newfound faith which she claims has blossomed since she entered the Catholic Church on Easter of this year.”I had no faith before this and now look I have God in my life. I can see my life changing for the better with having the babies because it has brought me so close to God. ”
The site contains a poignant poem that she wrote to her babies, who are not expected to live long after birth. Entitled, “I Love You,” it reads in part:
“No matter what happens, my soul will never leave you; If difficulties come here, I will never disappear . . . I’m sure you would be proud to call me momma for you are a special gift to me. . . .”
Not everyone shares her joy, however. “Some people were really supportive and thought I was doing the right thing … while others, not so much,” she told the Chicago Sun Times. “They would say things like, ‘the kids would suffer’ … ‘I’m selfish if I keep the babies because of how short their life span is’ … ‘they’re just going to die anyway’.”
None of this seems to have dampened her determination to give the babies life, no matter what.
“I will do anything for them,” she writes on the blog. “And that means giving them a chance to live.”
Schulten, who plans to marry the father of the babies, was admitted into the hospital last week to await the birth of the babies who will be delivered by Cesarean section sometime between 34 and 36 weeks. She has a photographer standing by, ready to take pictures of the babies to record what doctors expect will be a very short life.
“You know you’re really a mom when you’re willing to give up your whole life for them,” she said. “I will love my kids always and forever, no matter what.”
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