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POCATELLO, Idaho (TheBlaze/AP) — This is not the storyline you may expect in the case of teen pregnancy. Jenni Lake gave birth to a baby boy the month before her 18th birthday, though she was not destined to become just another teenage mother.

While being admitted to the hospital, she pulled her nurse down to her at bed level and whispered into her ear. The nurse would later repeat the girl’s words to comfort her family, as their worst fears were realized a day after Jenni’s baby was born.

“She told the nurse, ‘I’m done, I did what I was supposed to. My baby is going to get here safe,’” said Diana Phillips, Jenni’s mother.

We called the deacon who married us and asked him to come to our home. Shortly after he arrived and heard what was going on, we began to discuss what we would do. While we referred to ending the pregnancy as termination, he called it abortion. I was so mad. I would never have an abortion. But this was different. (Or was it?). That word, “abortion,” offended all of us so much that my dad asked him to stop using it when talking about our little girl. (As Brad and I are writing this now, it seems so ridiculous that we even felt that way.)  We became so angry with the deacon and the church for not even considering our feelings in this unimaginable situation. (We now realize how selfish that was!)  Before he left he asked if he could pray over both of us. As it turns out, he had never done this before. I can’t remember his exact words, but I do remember that both Brad and I began to shake and cry even more. When the prayer was over almost immediately, a sense of peace came over both of us. I looked at Brad and he looked at me and we then knew that it was God’s will, not ours. We knew what we were going to do. Nothing. Let it be. Give our baby girl a life, whatever that looked like.

Something changed in us during that prayer. This did not by any means indicate a smooth road ahead, it was anything but. Over the next four months we had so many highs and lows (honestly more lows than highs), but we tried to keep up a positive outlook by giving our baby girl a life through experiencing everything we could with her. I ate everything that little kids love, mostly sweets and desserts — and she seemed to love cheesecake and Dairy Queen the most! We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas and tried to focus on the fact that she was alive and healthy while protected in my womb. Brad bonded by talking to her and feeling her move.

Baby Joseph’s story began in February of this year when the  Ontario Superior Court rejected an appeal by his parents to bring him home where  he could die under their care. He had been previously diagnosed with severe  neurological issues, for which doctors said there was no hope of recovery.

The family contested claims that their son was in a “permanent  vegetative state,” offering footage showing him flailing and reacting to  tickling. Their request was that their son be given a simple tracheostomy, which  would enable him to breathe on his own, and be sent home where he could die.

After the decision of the Ontario court, doctors immediately  scheduled the removal of Baby Joseph’s life support, meaning almost certain  death for the young child.

“Monday at 10 am. they will kill my baby,” Moe Maraachli had  told LifeSiteNews shortly after the ruling.  “There’s no more  humanity.  There’s no more chance.  I’ve tried everything for  him.  No more appeals, nothing.”

However, anti-euthanasia and pro-life advocates rallied around  the Maraachli family, and effected a dramatic 11th-hour rescue.

Schadenberg and his organization were able to secure  professional legal help, with the result that the removal of Baby Joseph’s life  support was postponed at the last minute.

Almost every doctor the Illions saw pressured them to abort. Doctors said their son would be a vegetable, disfigured, never talk or walk, on a respirator. Doctors even called the Illions selfish for refusing to abort or, as they put it, "explore other options." 

  The Illions spotted a glimmer of hope when a neurosurgeon told them that there was no reason why Cole wouldn't lead a normal life. In the end, Kim Illion says, "He was born, and he was perfect." Cole went through brain surgery at 1 day old and has had 12 surgeries since. 

  Today, Cole is a healthy and happy 5-year-old. "Even when he's in the hospital getting surgery he smiles when he wakes up.

The cardinal, when asked by reporters about abortion in the case of rape, said that rather than helping the victim of rape, an abortion actually adds a second victim – the unborn child. “The child is not responsible for how he was conceived, it is the aggressor who is responsible. We can see him (the child) as another victim.”

Morlani has responded to the backlash against the cardinal, relating how she was conceived when her mother was 16 years old and was sexually assaulted while on a date, and how grateful she is that her mother chose life.

"When she found out she was pregnant there was no doubt in her mind that I was her little baby and she was going to keep me and ensure that no one hurt me like she was hurt. She always felt very protective of my life while I was growing in her womb and throughout my childhood," Deborah explained.

"My Mom made a doll named Suzie for me shortly after I was born and I still have her to this day. This little 12" handmade cotton doll has meant a lot to me over the years; she reminds me that I was a baby worth loving no matter how I was conceived. She reminds me that all babies are worth loving, no exceptions."

I too, was told to get an abortion. I was date raped. I was only 23. I had my dream job (flight attendant). I chose life. My son is now 20 and in a few weeks will become a father to a baby girl. My 1st grandchild.

“They” said that every day I would look into my baby’s eyes and see the man who raped me. Every day I DID look into the eyes of my baby boy and I saw…my little boy. Mine. My love. My joy.

I can honestly say that I never had trouble bonding with him. I can honestly say that I never once thought about that man while looking at my son. I received healing everytime I looked into his eyes.

I can not imagine my life without him. I went on to have 6 more children (3 of whom I hope to meet in heaven someday — those pregnancies ended in miscarriages) 3 who are with me today. There is no difference in the love I feel for my “planned” children and my “unplanned” child.

Alison has lived and thrived well beyond the expectations of the doctors that have treated her. Juana and the family hold onto a cautious hope that their days with her — however difficult at times —– will continue.

The medical advances in the field withstanding, Alison’s future is still uncertain and her condition is tenuous.

“She’s just so sensitive in a sense that if she gets a bad case of bronchitis, it might go wrong,” the physician assistant, Guerra, says. “But so far, so good. She always responds well when she gets treatments and surprises everybody. She’s just a fighter.”

From Alison’s bedside in the ICU unit, Juana says her one wish for Christmas is that her daughter not be in pain, that she continues to progress and advance and, most of all, that she can be with her “princess.”

“Spending the day with her is beautiful. Her smile and everything,” Juana says. “She is the most amazing gift God has given me.”

T.K. parked their SUV and they stepped into the late-afternoon heat. Staring down at a stone angel, he realized he was standing over a tiny grave.

"You see that?" he said, reading dates. "Three days. Three days."

"'She was not here long,' " he recited from the epitaph, " 'but will be loved forever.' "

The cemetery official explained available plots and rules: A bench was fine if it fit on their plot. Crape myrtles and rose bushes were OK, but no deep-rooted trees.

"I never imagined this," Deidrea said as T.K. kept pointing out children's graves. "My husband said we went from college to caskets."

The official agreed to hold several plots until after Thomas' birth.

"I don't want to give up," Deidrea said. "What if there's a miracle? We may have an 18-year-old son mad at us for picking out his grave right now."

Deidrea asked T.K. to stop at her family plot on the way out. She stood longest over the graves of a great-uncle who died at 8 months after eating lye soap and a great-aunt who drowned in a farm pond at 12.

Until this cemetery visit, she and T.K. hadn't grasped how many families faced losses like theirs. Now they understood why family elders lingered over these tiny graves with a sadness that never softened. Big gravestones marked full memories and lives. Small ones bounded unfinished futures and dreams.

T.K. patted her arm. "You OK?"

She curled into his side. "This was a big day."

He nodded. "Sonogram, funeral plans."