In February 2007 I found myself in an unexpected pregnancy.

I was alone in this country trying to make it on my own. I was not married and I was not sure how the baby’s father was going to handle the news.

I went to a doctor and he told me that I was at a 90% risk of having a Down Syndrome baby because I was 35 years old. He recommended that I have an abortion. I felt all alone, desperate and all I could do was cry.

As I was driving home, I turned the radio on and there was a gentle voice answering questions at a Christian talk show. She was saying how this organization could help women with an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy. She said that Heartbeat of Miami Pregnancy Help Medical Clinics could help. I was not sure how they could help but I was desperate.

When I called the number, I spoke to Martha who told me that they could offer alternatives to women that did not want or could not have their baby. She asked to meet with me just to talk and share with me the options that I had.

I had already made an appointment with an abortion clinic but I decided to meet with Martha first. She arranged for me to have an ultrasound. That is when I saw my baby for the first time and heard her heartbeat. The ladies in the clinic treated me with much love, dignity and respect, never judging me and giving me the opportunity to see my baby. They offered to help me with different resources and also a plan of adoption. They spoke about faith, about life. Even if my baby was indeed Down Syndrome, there were people willing to adopt her. At that very moment I knew I did not want an abortion. How could I end the life of my baby?

We prayed at the Clinic and I felt strong even though I knew there were very difficult times ahead of me. However, I didn’t feel alone anymore. I felt there were people that cared about me and the baby with no hidden agenda, with no other interest than my well being.

Martha kept her word to be there for me. She followed up on me. I was a total stranger, yet she treated me as family. I felt more encouraged that I wanted my child more than anything.

The girls at the clinic continued to follow up with me making sure I had the resources I needed it. The joy came back to me and I had hope to face tomorrow. I no longer felt alone, I felt I had a new family that truly cared.

When the time came to have my baby girl, Martha and Jeanne (the Clinic Director) where in the hospital with me. When my baby Marella was born, she became the first baby born to this wonderful ministry.

Five years have passed and my daughter Marella is everything for me. She fills my life with joy and she is the most beautiful gift I have ever received. I work as a Realtor and I am able to raise my daughter with everything she needs and her father is a very important part of her life. He loves her and helps support her. She takes dancing and music lessons. She also takes art lessons and paints beautiful pictures that I proudly frame. She is intelligent and well behaved doing wonderful in school.

I thank God for Heartbeat of Miami Pregnancy Help Medical Clinics. If it hadn’t been for them, Marella wouldn’t be here today and I might have never had the opportunity to experience the blessing of being a mother.

As one of our core financial partners, I  recommend a service that you may not have access to – and one that may be especially relevant in the next few weeks.

As you are no doubt aware, it appears inevitable that certain “tax cuts” (such as the capital gains tax) will expire at the end of this year. There may be great benefits that you and your family – and the charities you support – could experience if you make certain financial decisions BEFORE the end of this year.

If you are interested in learning even more, you need to make a phone call by December 15 (see my final paragraph) to complete your decision making by December 31.

Some of those decisions may involve charitable gifts that not only bless the charities of your choice, but also help you lower your taxes (and some may even supply you with an on-going income stream)!

Until now, Heartbeat has not had a way to help our donors with such decision making. Just this year we have developed a relationship with The Stewardship Foundation, headed by two gentlemen that I have known for several years – men who are strong Christian husbands and fathers who are 100% pro-life. (One of them formerly even worked for a state-wide pro-life organization.)

This Foundation has already helped one of Heartbeat’s donors who wanted to make a gift of a ring to a pro-life organization. Charities, like Heartbeat, are familiar with donations by cash, check, or credit card, but often do not know how to help a donor who wants to give personal property or give in a more “creative way”! Thanks to The Stewardship Foundation, I have learned about MANY ways of giving that I had no idea about!

If you work with The Stewardship Foundation, you could benefit ANY charity you love – your parish or church, your local pregnancy center, a school, a community organization, including Heartbeat! But what charities you decide to benefit is totally up to you!

  The Foundation can help with a variety of ways of giving (and can work with your present attorney or financial advisor if you want), such as:

• • Bequest — a gift of property or cash to an organization under a will
  • Donor Advised Fund — An easy-to-establish, low cost vehicle for charitable giving; you set up the fund with your gift, then advise how that money will be distributed to charities
  • Charitable Remainder Trust — an irrevocable transfer of assets to a trust that pays you income during your lifetime or pays to your beneficiaries at the time of your death
  • Gift Annuity Trust — a charitable donation that reduces taxation and provides you a lifetime income stream
  • Charitable Lead Trust — a trust set up to provide yearly payments to your designated charity
  • Endowments — your gift creates an invested fund owned by a charity, and earnings are used to support general or specific needs of the charity’s mission

Here is one amazing story, included on the Foundation’s website, of a donor who was helped by the Foundation. This donor chose to create a “charitable gift annuity” which is a simple contractual arrangement between the donor and The Stewardship Foundation. The gift annuity pays a guaranteed fixed sum each year for the life of one or more beneficiaries.

Mary Lou Fisher is an 82-year-old widow who over the years turned $150,000 into over $1.5 million in the stock market.

During the economic downturn of 2008, Mary Lou suffered along with other investors and saw her portfolio lose over 30% of its value.

Now concerned about her health, and knowing that she will soon have heavy cash outlays for health care and assisted living, she would like to sell the stock and put the proceeds in cash and debt instruments.

Her accountant told Mary Lou that if she sold the stock and paid $127,500 in capital gains, her net worth would be about $872,500 and earn only about 4% per year. She would likely pay $12,215 in incomes taxes on an income of $34,900, leaving just $22,685 for spendable income. This worries her.

If, however, Mary Lou chose to gift a charity $1,000,000, she could earn over 7%, or about $74,000 per year from a charitable gift annuity. This news brings the peace of mind she needs to counterbalance her health worries, and the opportunity to make a significant charitable gift lifts her spirits.

Mary Lou now feels that her life has taken on a new sense of purpose. She sees her wealth as more than personal security — she sees it as meaningful.

The Stewardship Foundation, a 501(c)(3) investment ministry, describes itself this way: “an ecumenical, Christian-based foundation that works with all faiths that promote respect for human life from conception to natural death, honors traditional families that encourage the full development of men, women, and children who are created in God’s image; and that safeguard religious freedom as a means to embrace our Creator God, our Savior Jesus Christ, and the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit as we understand them.”

We invite you to view their website, www.stewardshipworks.org , to learn more.

If you are interested in discussing how the Stewardship Foundation can be of benefit to your long-term planning and offer ways that you can reduce your personal taxes while benefitting Heartbeat or other charities you love, please call Jim Kebe at (614) 800-7985.

Good stewardship is what Heartbeat is about – and we know that YOU also strive to be good stewards of the gifts the Lord has provide you. THANK YOU for saving and changing lives through your gifts to Heartbeat!

A Family Legacy For LIFE                         

Hi, our names are Ken and Cathy Clark and we serve on the Heartbeat Board of Directors. We attended our first Heartbeat Conference in 2000 after co-founding a Birth Choice pregnancy center in Orange County, California.

Anyone who has attended a Heartbeat Conference (as a Heartbeat donor/partner or through an affiliate's board, staff or volunteer) has witnessed firsthand God's Spirit and His movement within the pro-life community. It was this Spirit of God in Heartbeat that touched our hearts to make a difference, not only at our local level but with Heartbeat on a world-wide level. We urge you to attend the next conference in Dallas, April 2-5, 2013. You will be awed and blessed by what God is doing there through Heartbeat.

We are the parents of two daughters and we're happy to say that our family of four has become a family of 11 (including our two sons-in-law and our five amazing grandsons!). We give thanks to God for these gifts entrusted to us. We consider our faith, our family, and our passion for life (born and preborn) as our most precious gifts. And, a great joy for us is that our daughter now works for Birth Choice, so building this legacy for the next generation continues in our family!

We have answered Heartbeat International's challenge to change the culture of our country and our world. Our goal is to replace death with LIFE, a culture of life. Our hope – and the hope of all future generations – depends on what we are willing to invest (our time, our talent, and our treasure).   We thank you for your partnership with Heartbeat International and for being part of the solution to this tragedy of abortion.

Stop Abortion from Defacing America

Every vote from the entire pro-life community is needed to stop the federal government from advancing taxpayer-sponsored abortion and pouring a million dollars a day into Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. The current administration has the most pro-abortion agenda in U.S. history.

Forcing pro-life citizens to pay for abortions and abortion-causing drugs goes against our American tradition of religious liberty and destroys our nation’s moral compass.

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction,
is the first and only object of good government.” – Thomas Jefferson

It's frightening to know that if we fail to vote our pro-life values on Election Day on Nov. 6, the federal government may soon make providing alternatives to abortion unlawful. Pregnancy help organizations may be forced to provide abortion-causing drugs and abortion referrals.

We know that abortion is defacing America. We recognize that aborting a child is not healthcare. America needs elected officials willing to advance a culture of life.

You are a vital part of Heartbeat International’s pregnancy help network. Please educate other voters so they understand that compassionate help and unconditional love empower mothers to welcome the next generation.  

America needs people with a passion for life to inspire others to vote. Voting your pro-life values and motivating others to do the same can make abortion unthinkable for future generations.  

Voting is the only way to stop the abortion agenda of NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and their political cohorts.

The Abortion Agenda Exposed:

The Obama Administration Threatens Unborn Life (Family Research Council)
http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF12G07.pdf

The Presidential Record on Life (National Right to Life)
http://nrlc.org/Records/obamarecord.pdf

Why You Should Be Concerned About Obamacare (Life Issues Institute) http://www.lifeissues.org/pdf/Obamacare_Fact_Sheet.pdf

Statement by the President on Roe v. Wade Anniversary 2012 (White House)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/01/22/statement-president-roe-v-wade-anniversary

Pro-Life Voter Check List

10 things you can do to stop the abortion agenda!

1. Make sure that you and everyone you know is registered to vote on Nov. 6.

2. Organize a voter registration drive at your church to get others registered. Click here to download and print the registration form.
   

3. Encourage young people turning 18 to register to vote. Click here to download and print the registration form.

4. If you know someone who has moved in the last four years, encourage them to update their voter registration so they will be eligible to vote.

5. Encourage U.S. voters traveling this November to obtain absentee ballots.

6. Look into early voting rules in your state.

7. Print and distribute Voter Guides. Click here to download guides.

8. Educate yourself on candidates who are seeking elected office at local, state, and federal levels. Prepare yourself by studying the congressional scorecards to let folks know how our public servants have voted on the issue of funding and promoting aborting a child as THE choice. Click here to download scorecards.
   

9. Organize childcare for moms to make it easier for them to go to the polls.

10. Plan to drive senior citizens and those without transportation to the polls. Also, encourage people with vans to provide transportation to the polls.