Our Team

Hi! I’m Whitney. I have been married to my husband for 13 years and together we’ve had four boys. My third son, had a chromosome deletion, which resulted in a prenatal “life-limiting” diagnosis.

My journey through a difficult pregnancy and subsequent baby loss at 34 weeks gestation, taught me a lot about “Uniformity with God’s Will”.  I leaned on Mary and began to understand what it truly meant to give your “fiat” or “yes” to God which, ultimately led to my conversion to Catholicism.  A few months later, through prayer and divine intervention, I met Lizzy and we began to unwrap our shared desire to pray for and support others in their faith when they are given this heavy cross as a parent of a prenatal diagnosis and/or child loss.  Together we founded this ministry to prayerfully support other families walking through similar circumstances.

In addition to my vocations as wife and mother, I work part-time as an occupational therapist and have worked 10+ years in trauma rehab treating patients from the ages of 2 to 104.  I have additional training as a perinatal health specialist and as a bereavement doula.  I am grateful to be able use my gifts of hospitality and compassion to serve in my role as Director of Mission for Lily of the Valley.

 

 

Hi! I’m Lizzy. My husband and I have three amazing children and have been married for 13 years. When our oldest two kids were 4 and 2, we received the amazing news that we were going to have our third baby. All was going well with the pregnancy until the prenatal screening came back that our daughter tested positive for Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome. Our faith was shaken, and we were worried that our daughter would face health challenges.

Around the 20 week mark of the pregnancy, we learned that our daughter had a congenital heart defect and would need open heart surgery in her first few months of life. This compounded our fears and worries reached to new heights. While we stuck firm in our faith, and knew that our daughter would be cherished and loved no matter what, we struggled a lot. We asked “why us?, why our baby?” We both gravitated towards the merciful love of the Lord with the prayer “Jesus, I trust in You.” We were also buoyed by the prayers of countless friends and family, from near and far. I believe these prayers, along with the grace of the Lord, made a huge difference in the relatively peaceful birth of our daughter, and the success of her heart surgery when she was 4.5 months old in 2018.

Now that our daughter is a bustling 6 year old, going to kindergarten, and running after her siblings, I feel called to help others going through these types of challenges. It is through the intercession of St. Gianna and the Holy Family that I hope we can make a difference in the lives of the families we serve.