Laura was a violin teacher; Brian, that unlikely combination of D.C. police officer and theology student. They met when Brian was moving out of their Alexandria, Virginia apartment complex and Laura was moving in. He asked her out for coffee. Over the next several years, despite Brian’s having moved several towns away, they continued seeing each other. At some point in their courtship, Brian’s example resulted in Laura’s attending religious instruction classes and being received into full communion with the Catholic Church. They were wed in 2015 at Blessed Sacrament Church in Alexandria. Not long afterwards, Laura became a Tepeyac patient.
By 2016, the Bobicks were expecting a child. Laura’s pregnancy confirmation appointment with Tepeyac was a joyous occasion, to be followed at eight weeks’ gestation by another appointment for an ultrasound. It was at that appointment that everything changed. Tepeyac’s doctors determined that the Bobicks’ baby had stopped growing at six weeks.
After Tepeyac’s doctors having told her what to expect, Laura elected to deliver her baby in privacy, at home. Most fittingly, the Bobicks named the child “Innocent.” Even in the midst of her grief, Laura felt particularly moved and thankful that Dr. Anderson spoke always of her baby as a baby, not merely as “products of conception” or “tissue.” With the help of Tepeyac’s doctors, who put the Bobicks in contact with the local miscarriage ministry A Mom’s Peace, the heartbreaking problem of finding the tiniest of caskets and a burial site was solved. Innocent Bobick was buried in the cemetery at the Benedictine Monastery in Bristow, Virginia.
As soon as Laura’s body had healed from the loss of Innocent, the Bobicks were ready to try for their “Rainbow Baby”—the popular term for a baby born after a fetal demise, miscarriage, or stillbirth. By 2017, Laura was again an OB patient at Tepeyac. This time, despite a scare that required her referral to a high-risk obstetrician, the pregnancy continued essentially without hitches. Tepeyac doctors were happy to work with Laura’s plan for a natural birth.
Finally, in the very earliest days of 2018, Dr. Fisk delivered the exquisitely lovely Emery Bobick—a young lady graced with a full head of fine dark hair and a big, inquiring pair of shining eyes that, from the first, were engaged in exploring the entire world around her. When we met her and her parents for lunch recently to hear their story, she was an active, thriving seven-week old. All too clearly, the proud Bobick family had found their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
“Tepeyac was one of the many pieces that fell into place in our story,” Brian told us. “From our sacramental marriage, to Natural Family Planning, to the miscarriage of our first child, to the successful birth of our second child, Tepeyac was a blessing to carry us through.”
Laura was in agreement. “Thank you to the doctors, nurses, and administrators at Tepeyac for providing such a caring and pro-life environment for us as patients,” she said. “I can’t imagine going through the joys and trials of pregnancy and childbirth anywhere else, and I am deeply grateful.”