NORTH SALT LAKE—Tucked away in a residential neighborhood is the Lamb of God Maternity Home, a place where women facing crisis pregnancies find hope and healing while considering their options for the future. One such option is adoption, the ultimate gift to a family who is ready to raise a child. 

“I was a birth mom myself,” said Grace Dulaney, Founder/CEO. “I was a single mom with two young kids.”

It was an open adoption which was unusual at the time, she said. “Now 99% are open adoptions. There’s not the secrecy, shame and the unknown.” 

Women look at profiles of potential families and choose the match that is right for her and her baby, said Dulaney. “They can envision how they want their baby to be raised. There are six to 10 profiles. The women seem to hone in on a couple. Almost like a first date, it’s love at first sight.”

Dulaney said they help the mother make an adoption plan. “It’s up to the birth mom. They decide if they want to see him or her, receive updates or pictures. It’s not co parenting, the adoptive couple are the parents.”

In 2013, Dulaney opened the first Lamb of God Maternity Home in San Diego, California. “I realized this is not a personal crisis, this is a societal crisis,” she said. “Research has shown that for girls who choose to try parenting on their own 56% of their children end up in foster care before their fifth birthday. You can do it. I was single for 14 years, but the kids have the cards stacked against them.”

There were 104 women who came through the program in California, said Dulaney. “When I moved to Utah everybody was asking if I was going to open another home. The board wanted to wait until we paid off the first home. At the 10 year anniversary we tore up the loan.”

There were no maternity homes in Utah, she said. “I started bargaining with God. ‘Do I really want to start another one from scratch?’”

An anonymous donor gave them $400,000. “I felt like it was a sign from God,” Dulaney said. “We couldn’t not do it. It was a nice amount of money but about half of what we needed.”

Then last fall Nathan Ricks who has been a dear friend of 32 years said he wanted to get a home here in Utah, she said. “He’d made it clear to his family that he wanted to help Grace close the gap. On Jan. 2 he was killed in a plane crash in Provo. It was a devastating blow to his family and all of us.”

Each room has a name and meaning behind it. Photos by Becky Ginos

It was two days later that Dulaney got a call from his wife. “She said, ‘We know where we want people to donate instead of flowers.’ In three weeks they had raised $540,000. Along with other donations we were able to buy the house with cash.”

Each room in the house has a name and meaning behind it, said Dulaney. “We get women who have been in domestic violence situations and who have come from homeless shelters. It’s not a shelter program. We want them to leave with more than they came with.”

Counselors help the women make a placing plan, she said. “We never use ‘give away,’ we say ‘they’re entrusting them.’”

The program provides 24/7 wraparound care, Dulaney said. “A lot of the women come to us very broken, financially and physically. We give them a safe space where they can have quiet, shut out all the noise and sit with their pregnancy to make the right plan for their baby.”

Dulaney said one girl who came to them in California had been trafficked since she was 13. “They forced her to have six abortions. She needed a lot of healing while she was with us.”

Another woman came to them homeless and devastated by a rape in college, said Dulaney. “She was living on the streets and got pregnant. She came to us and we helped her place her son with a couple. She went on to get her master’s in social work and now she works at an adoption center. It’s a turning point in people’s lives.”

None of the money to run the home has come from government grants, she said. “It all comes privately. We consider it sacred money and we treat it with respect.”

Dulaney said she wants her son to be proud of her. “He is proud of me. Both moms walked down the aisle at his wedding. Life is very beautiful. It’s not DNA that makes a parent love a baby, it's the heart and soul of a birth mother.”

For more information or to donate go to agnusdeifoundationutah.org.