I want to tell my story about the sign of love that the Mother of God gave us. We have been married to my husband for nine years, we have a happy marriage, there are never any big fights, there is support and mutual respect. You could call us lucky, but it so happened that God did not give us children .We bypassed all possible doctors, passed all possible tests, in some offices we heard simply terrible diagnoses, after which we cried bitter tears and simply gave up. All these years I asked Jesus for mercy for us. My husband and I prayed the Pompeian Novena together, traveled to the holy places that were available to us. And one day, in such a prayer, I realized that I wanted to go to the Mother of God – I heard about Medjugorje and decided that I should be there. It took us a long time to make this trip: we didn’t have the right car to go on such a long trip, then the covid got in the way and we weren’t allowed to go abroad, the next year the war started and my husband couldn’t leave. I realized that we simply haven’t been able to go for three years, and I decided that since my husband can’t leave the country and I don’t know how long it will last, I will go myself. My husband supported me and said that he would be with me mentally. My mother and I both had birthdays on the date of the trip, and I decided to give her such a gift and asked her to go with me. My mother was happy to support me right away, and we went together, which made me very happy, because she was not alone.My mother was happy to support me right away, and we went together, which made me very happy, because she was not alone. Having arrived there, I prayed and asked the Mother of God for the gift of motherhood for me, so that she would beg Jesus for mercy for us, so that we would feel what it is like to be parents, so that we would be given a healthy child. Walking up the mountain, I thought only of this.Sitting by the grave of Slavko Barbarych, I sobbed with great tears and asked him to help us. Standing at the feet of the statue of the Risen Jesus and wiping his feet, I asked for mercy for our family. I know that my mother was also in prayer about this, and I believe that the power of my mother’s prayer for our family was even stronger than mine. I met the girls on the trip, and the three of us decided to once again go to the mountain at night to the Mother of God.On the way, we shared our experiences and problems, talked about ourselves. When we started to climb the mountain, it started raining and the road turned out to be quite difficult. About halfway up, it got stronger and stronger, and when we got up, the wind was just blowing us away. However, we only thought about our intentions. I know that we met not just like that: each of us had to bring something to the other – some experience, some good word, some stories in this joint trip to the Mother of God. Probably, that’s why we couldn’t go together with my husband, because I had to meet all these people on the pilgrimage. And when we returned home, I arrived completely different: my doubts disappeared, my thoughts became clear, and my soul somehow felt lighter. We plunged into our everyday life, into work and lived on. I was grateful to God for this trip, for the people I met there, for my peace now. And two months after the trip, I found out that I was pregnant! Pregnant!.. I am writing this and crying again. I will find out that I am carrying a baby under my heart! We sat with my husband and simply did not believe, and cried. God heard our prayers! Now my daughter is lying next to me, sleeping on her side and snoring, and I can’t believe it. She is simply unreal, the kind that I wanted, the kind that I could not even imagine: long hair that twists on the sides, big eyes, even lips, chubby cheeks, she looks like an angel from pictures to me. Every time I look at her, when I kiss her, when she smiles at me, I thank God for her, thank you for hearing us and having mercy. I am writing this story for couples like us, for those who go to doctors for many years, who are given terrible diagnoses, for those who have lost faith… Ask, believe, do not doubt, remember that God has everything is possible. Also, I tried my best to describe my trip and my feelings from it. And if you have a thought that you want to go, go! Believe me, you will not return from there as you were. Now we will definitely go to the Mother of God to thank her, all together, in a new composition, with our little girl. I believe that we will succeed.

Khrystyna Babirad, Ukraine