HEALING OUR HEARTS
ONE MORE SOUL WHO HAS BEEN HEALED - The story of July and Matthew
Feelings before the ligation
- Julianne always wanted to have children.
- She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis caused by stress.
- Julianne delivered two difficult births, and as a consequence of it, she started on swelling about tubal ligation.
- She was immediately against it, and she knew in her heart that it was not the right choice.
- She did not have a deep understanding of the true teachings of the Church.
- She requested tubal ligation in a non-calculated response to pain produced by her second delivery.
- She felt under tremendous pressure, isolated, and apprehensive while deciding for the ligation.
- She experienced some family peer pressure for getting her tubes ligated.
Feelings after ligation
- She started crying to her husband and trying to explain the complete and utter loss that she felt.
- She felt that something very sacred had been taken from her, as indeed it had. Also, it bothered her -the thought that she could have no more children.
- She felt that she had taken things out of God's hands when she had that surgery, and it left a mark on her soul so deep that only God's love could erase that mark.
- Immediately she started wanting to reverse her surgery, but she found out that to reverse a tubal ligation was much more of an intricate job than the initial surgery.
- In frustration she would then break down and cry to her husband. This would happen about three times a year, and in between episodes she would try to go into denial.
- The sterilization caused a resentment that she kept bottled up most of the time, and she somewhat held it against her husband.
- She began to feel that she needed to talk to a priest to ask for God's forgiveness.
- She started to offer up her pain to prevent those who contemplate sterilization from going through with it.
- For just like women who have had abortions, she had been through a traumatic situation that she could not change, and she did not know how to handle that loss.
- She contacted the doctor’s office to begin the ligation reversal process.
Feelings after ligation reversal
- Providentially, the ligation reversal was performed on her second son’s birthday.
- She had a tremendous amount of support from other family members and her Catholic friends, who were extremely encouraging and behind her 100 percent.
- After the surgery, she immediately started crying out of spiritual relief.
- She experienced such a wave of relief and joy that she could not put it into words. She also felt a special bond with my husband that strengthened their relationship.
- She felt that the emotional scar left from her tubal ligation had been "erased" by the actions of those people that supported her and the forgiveness of Our Lord.
- After a year of trying for another child, they were finally able to conceive. Through a friend, they were given a rosary novena, and in August 2000, they began 54 days of petition and thanksgiving. Every night they prayed the novena as a family. It is a very powerful prayer, and about the twentieth day they found out she was pregnant.
Reference: Long, John. Sterilization Reversal: A Generous Act of Love. One More Soul. Kindle Edition, Location 2681
