Marnita’s Story

Marnita’s visit to the hospital after a car accident yielded much more than a pain diagnosis—she discovered she was pregnant. Conscious of her Christian witness, Marnita was torn between doing what was right and living up to everyone’s expectations. Find out how God met her at her lowest point and has not just walked with her since but has given her abundantly more than she could imagine.

Marnita was active in church growing up—Wednesday night Bible studies, mission trips, youth group, and choir. Her parents were founding members of their fellowship, and Marnita found that she loved church and loved the Lord. Living up to the expectations of her family and community was important to her.

“I think that expectation is also what tore me to pieces once I found out I was pregnant,” Marnita remembers. She and her boyfriend had been dating for seven years, and, although he was also a churchgoer, she knew that their relationship was not in accordance with Christ’s standards.

One evening in 2006, 20-year-old Marnita was in a car accident. She experienced back pain and went to the emergency room. While there, the nurse asked if it was possible she was pregnant. Offended, Marnita denied the possibility.

“When she walked back in the room and told me, it was almost a surreal moment,” she says. “A million thoughts went through my head.” Her parents would be disappointed. She would lose her track scholarship and never finish college. And then came thoughts of suicide.

“[It was like] Satan [was] sitting on my shoulder and having the time of his life,” she says. “I don’t think I ever necessarily feared the pregnancy outside of marriage as much as I did not being the example for Christ that I was supposed to be.”

At first, her boyfriend said they’d figure it out, but his attitude quickly changed, and he told her he wanted her to have an abortion. Lies from the enemy continued to trouble Marnita, but she was also convicted to do what was right.

“I’m grateful for that because the conviction kept me considering [that] I got here because of sin, and I can’t fix one sin with another sin, which would be aborting my child. And so even though it seemed like that would be the easiest way out, and that was what my boyfriend at the time was rooting for, it was never something that I desired.”

At the time, her church was running CPC’s LIFEchange Baby Bottle Campaign for the first time ever, and Marnita remembers sitting in the service thinking how ironic and scary it all was. But it prompted her to make an appointment with CPC’s pregnancy medical clinic, where she saw her baby on an ultrasound for the first time.

“The ultrasound was amazing,” she remembers. “I understand firsthand how important it is…. Although I was saying I wanted to carry to term, I was still considering everyone else and how things would turn out.” For Marnita, the decision to have her baby was settled the moment she saw her nine-week-old on the screen: “Christ alone gives life. And the question is, who am I to take life that I didn’t give?”

Marnita felt Christ’s love and compassion at the clinic that day and afterward, through the parenting classes and the baby supplies she received. “It was the love that was shown time and time again—and it’s what Christ wants. Christ does life with us; He walks it out with us; He doesn’t leave us; He doesn’t forsake us; He doesn’t keep reminding us of our sin; He forgives us, and He’s faithful.

“And that’s what [CPC does]. They’re faithful in the ministry; they’re faithful in the work; they’re faithful in their walk; and they faithfully give Christ and show Christ.”

Marnita’s son is now 17 years old and walking with the Lord. And she and her husband of nine years have added four more children to their family. “I look at my oldest son, and … it’s just a testament of what Christ can do for you and what Christ is through you…. And then I look at my family, and it’s like, man, we make decisions, but Christ definitely orders our steps.”

Marnita now serves as a missions volunteer with CPC’s Great Expectations Parenting Classes to shine Christ’s love to women who find themselves in a similar position.