By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — She absent-mindedly put the phone in the refrigerator when she meant to put the milk away.
She felt she couldn’t confront one more care-providing issue but she managed to do so, and at the end of the day felt her own weakness was being replaced by a strength not her own.
She concluded it’s possible to learn to love being spit up on.
This could sound like the diary of many people’s family lives, but in this case it’s about serving others who don’t have their own family, or are struggling with family issues.
These are experiences by three young women blogging about their work as “MissionCorps” members with the Maggie’s Place network of homes for needy pregnant women (maggiesplace.org).
They’re serving at least a year by living in community with the expectant women, their newborns, and other MissionCorps members at individual homes in the network.
It’s the kind of creativity and sacrifice that mark the pro-life movement around the United States, and the world, even while the Culture of Death sneers that these self-giving efforts only amount to “fetus worship.”
The Maggie’s Place enterprise has grown to four residential homes and an administrative center in the Phoenix metropolitan area and one residence in the Cleveland suburb of Parma, Ohio.
The first home opened near downtown Phoenix on Mother’s Day, 2000, with the title of The Magdalene House, in honor of the biblical woman suffering from seven demons that Jesus cast out.
But maybe that title sounded too formal, especially to women down on their luck, so it became Maggie’s Place.
It was an abandoned old home from 1926 that had to be gutted then thoroughly renovated over nine months so it could house a few needy women, along with the Maggie’s Place live-in staff.
The dream of five young college graduates was simply to get started on a mission of compassion and justice, even though some people told them, “You girls don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Well, that was true” about their lack of experience, one of these founders, Christy Raslavsky DeMuro, told nearly 300 people who gathered on November 14 for Maggie’s Place 15th anniversary Mass and dinner.
The founders were struggling just to open one house to accommodate five women, she said. “Even more crazy, some people actually believed in our idea.”
They wanted to help the women successfully complete their pregnancies while learning to be independent once they were on their own again. Since then, more than 900 women and their babies have been assisted.
The anniversary Mass and dinner were held in the outdoor courtyard of the Fiat House, the administrative office and Moms’ Outreach Center for the Maggie’s network. The dinner included salad, meat and vegetable shish kabobs, beans, and rice.
The outreach center provides services to those who have transitioned out of living at one of the homes, including job clinics, resume workshops, financial and parenting classes, computer access and counseling.
Phoenix Catholic diocesan Bishop Thomas Olmsted celebrated the Mass and told his courtyard congregation that it didn’t take long for him to recognize the work Maggie’s Place was doing after he arrived as the new bishop here in late 2003.
Maggie’s Place isn’t an agency of the Diocese of Phoenix but receives some financial support from the diocese, as well as from many other donors.
In his homily, Olmsted recalled that Christ came to free Mary Magdalene from the seven demons in her great spiritual battle. The bishop added, “Christ is not far from us whenever we face a crisis, even if it’s of our own doing. . . . At times of suffering, He’s especially near to us,” and “continues to free us when we get ourselves back into bondage. . . .
“We can always find the Lord Jesus in pain,” Olmsted said.
Olmsted told The Wanderer: “I’m just very grateful to have Maggie’s Place and having it continue to grow, with all the needs we have.”
A Maggie’s Place background information sheet says: “Often in difficult and complicated situations, the backgrounds of the mothers that come to Maggie’s Place typically include homelessness, previous drug use, rape, abusive relationships, little understanding of self-worth, no employment experience, limited education, bad relationships with family members, poor support networks or mental illness.
“With a focus on the present, not the past, Maggie’s Place helps each woman on her individual journey through the process of healing and towards creating a future of stability and hope for herself and for her child,” the background information says.
In addition to Maggie’s Place in central Phoenix, the area’s suburban homes are The Elizabeth House in Tempe, The Michael House in Glendale, and The Hannah House in Mesa. The Zechariah House is in Parma, Ohio.
Not every undertaking has succeeded. Café Fiat opened in a remodeled residence not far from the original Maggie’s Place to offer food and fellowship, but it wasn’t a financial success. In 2011 the building reopened as a thrift store, Maggie’s Thrift, providing its proceeds to benefit Maggie’s Place as well as serving as a job-training location for Maggie’s moms.
In 2008 Maggie’s first out-of-state residence, The Mary House, opened in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, but closed in 2010 for reasons including finances and lower than expected usage.
As of 2013, the average age of a Maggie’s mom was 26. Seventy-four percent of the mothers were single, 43 percent were non-Hispanic Caucasian, 26 percent were African-American, and 11 percent were Hispanic.
Christi Boujikian, 25, directs marketing and events from a Fiat House office on whose wall is a verse from Romans: “Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer.”
When women didn’t have any kind of support system and perhaps were living out of their cars, Boujikian said, they may be “overwhelmed with gratitude for simple things you wouldn’t think of,” like having fresh towels.
Boujikian’s work is “just what I was looking for in a job,” she told The Wanderer. “Now that I’ve been here for a year, all that I’ve been able to do . . . has just been great. Being able to talk to the moms and hear their stories is a good reminder of why I’ve been called here.”
People usually don’t plan their outdoor events here while having to keep an eye to the sky, because Phoenix’s average annual rainfall is about eight inches. The Maggie’s Place 15th anniversary celebration was under a beautiful blue sky in the open courtyard. The next day it rained.
Family time has surprises, but you don’t have to look far for blue skies again.
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