'Decade of Dreams'

Ambria Hammel/CATHOLIC SUN

More than 400 gathered July 24 to celebrate the 1oth anniversary of Maggie's Place.

Bobby, the third baby born at Maggie’s Place, recently repainted the room he and his mom once shared at The Magdalene House.

The 1920s-era bungalow suffered water damage and was gutted after a fire New Year’s Day in 2009. Maggie’s Place moms have been living at a nearby parish ever since, a testament to the love the Catholic community has for the 10-year-old nonprofit.

That love led to the rededication of the transformed Magdalene House today. And that love has transformed the lives of mothers facing crisis pregnancies for the last decade.

There’s three homes in the Valley, another in Idaho and a fifth in Cleveland. These homes provide a dignified space and the support many mothers need to carry their baby to term.

Now most of the moms — many who considered abortion — are happily raising their children some now married with larger families. Others placed their baby with an adoptive family.

Either way, the thriving, energetic children became the focal point of every family who filled the 6,000-square-foot VFW Hall in east Phoenix July 24. The three-hour celebration catered to the kids — complete with a playroom, prizes and menu.

The children gathered with their moms, community volunteers and staff — all told, some 400 people whose paths once crossed at Maggie’s Place — to celebrate the midpoint of a two-day “Decade of Dreams.”

The tribute also included a morning play date at the Children’s Museum of Phoenix. The day concluded with an anniversary Mass July 25 celebrated by Auxiliary Bisho Eduardo A. Nevares at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish.

Bishop Nevares, just six days into his ministry in the Phoenix Diocese, offered the invocation at the family reunion. On the way out, after personally visiting with nearly every person seated at 30-some tables, he told The Catholic Sun how happy he was to know that Maggie’s Place has helped save so many lives, a thought he repeated at Mass.

“This is what the family of God is all about,” Bishop Nevares said, noting the great ethnic variety in the hall united under one cause and one faith. “You can really feel the love of Christ and the love of the Holy Spirit in that room.”

It’s a love born in each Maggie’s Place home. That’s the biggest lesson moms mentioned in their brief testimonies after dinner.

They overwhelmingly said they learned how to love and be loved at Maggie’s Place.

“It’s God’s calling that they’re here to help us,” Monica shared with the crowd. She was the second mom to ever live in a Maggie’s Place home and the first of six to suffer the loss of a child.

She reminded other former-resident moms and community volunteers gathered for the reunion that the staff -- largely recent college graduates -- had plenty of other career and educational options.

Monica said the live-in staff helped her to not be so closed off. Like other alumni moms, she thinks of the staff as family. Mary Peterson, executive director of Maggie’s Place and the only founding member still on staff, is even a godmother for one of Monica’s children.

The ongoing relationships are vital, she said. It shows that their work still has fruit.

She told The Catholic Sun of one mom who lived in a Maggie’s Place home seven years ago. The woman, having conceived another child, had an abortion scheduled.

But Peterson reminded her that she could give birth and even raise this child. The woman, who was a no show at her appointment, brought her three-week old daughter to the reunion.

Love is messy and is hard work, Peterson said after the anniversary Mass. But that love is revealed in hospitality.

“Sometimes love requires action. Sometimes love requires inaction. It involves drawing tough boundaries,” Peterson said, adding that, among other things, love is also an adventure.

It’s a journey that’s now into its next trimester as Maggie’s Place embraces the next 10 years.