STORIES OF HOPE
Cindy's Story
A Real Love Story
Cindy Agebanlong was one of the women that found RealOptions when she was at a crossroad in her life. After moving to America from Guam at age 19, hoping to achieve the American Dream, Cindy found herself in a tough economy, lonely, suffering financially and emotionally. She found hope and comfort in a relationship but that ended and she found herself alone once again. Cindy worked two jobs to support her son. She finally felt able to manage her new parenting role and her finances.
A few weeks after another relationship ended, Cindy discovered she was pregnant. She didn’t know how she could possibly manage alone with two children. She intensely feared homelessness and didn’t want to put her children in a place of struggle or for them to experience extreme hardship.
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This young mother felt caught between her financial constraints and her personal convictions. She said it was a scary place to be. Cindy sought the help of RealOptions. At RealOptions, Cindy was able to receive an ultrasound to confirm her pregnancy along with a consultation on her options. According to Marissa Flores, one of our patient advocates, “Cindy needed someone to come alongside her to love on her… She was willing to pray with me and seemed really happy that prayer was an option to bring her problems to a powerful and loving God.”
The prayer was powerful! It led Cindy to the realization that she had other options, including adoption. Our RealOptions team was able to explain the different types of adoption: closed, semi-open, and open adoption. Open adoption appealed to Cindy when she learned she would be in the driver's seat by choosing her child’s adoptive parents, deciding if she wanted to have them involved in the birthing process, and that she could remain a part of her baby’s life.
RealOptions referred Cindy to an adoption agency. Their team of adoption professionals remained by her side through the adoption process. Cindy invited her daughter’s parents to cut the umbilical cord. “It was a time of intense heartache and of indescribable joy! …The baby that I was carrying for nine months was not going to be taken away but given a better life.”
Marissa really respects Cindy for choosing to place her daughter for adoption and called her a true hero. “Cindy was able to look past the heartache and pain of adoption to make a decision for her child.”
Cindy has told us that “I gave her a life. I gave her a choice... I gave her to a couple who really wanted children but, unfortunately, could not have kids of their own. That’s the best part. …There is a void but the Lord has filled it. I gave life to my daughter and through the adoption experience, my daughter has given life to me.”