The uplifting words she received on the day before her abortion appointment encouraged her to choose life for her daughter. Through her platform, she has mentored young women as they navigate motherhood and unplanned pregnancies.

23-year-old Alexa was living the post-graduation life in Los Angeles — enjoying her carefree 20s, investing in her marketing career, and immersing herself in a city full of energy and opportunity. Everything seemed to be going smoothly in her life until February 2017.

Alexa had been dating a guy on and off for a year when she found out she was unexpectedly pregnant. She was shocked at the news and terrified for her future, which at that time felt like it was coming to an end.  

Only a few people knew about Alexa’s pregnancy, and even though a couple of friends provided great support regardless of her decision, Alexa didn’t receive overwhelming encouragement to choose life.

“There was a kind of push around me like, ‘You can take care of this.’ You can continue your life. You have so much ahead of you. You can have an abortion, and after experiencing other outside pressure to do so, I ended up scheduling an abortion appointment for the following week,” Alexa says.

Alexa gave herself a week before the appointment. She wanted to make sure abortion was truly the option she wanted to choose for herself.

“I felt like there was no way out,” Alexa recalls. “I didn’t have anyone at that time who was out right encouraging me, ‘You can do this. You’re capable of this. This is good news.’”

As the week trudged on, Alexa started to feel numb and hopeless. She thought she had no other choice than to go through with the abortion. She thought she could get it over with, forget and move on, but even that thought sent her into a deep despair.

“I felt like I grieved the loss of my baby through abortion before I even had the abortion. I felt an unbelievable depression. I didn’t feel like I had the strength to make a different decision,” Alexa says.

LAST-MINUTE CHANGE

On the day before her abortion was scheduled, Alexa ran into a friend who gave her the encouragement she needed.

“He’s said, ‘You can do this. And if you don’t want to do this, I’ll adopt your baby. But I know you can do this, Alexa.’ It was like a door cracked open in my mind like, wow, maybe I really can do this. In the week prior, I’d never really let myself consider the possibility,” Alexa recalls.

Alexa left that conversation with a glimmer of hope, which only grew after talking with another friend a few hours later. Her friend mentioned a pregnancy scare he had with a former girlfriend and asked if she was facing a similar situation. Alexa shrugged her shoulders and tried to look away as her eyes welled up with tears.

Kneeling in front of Alexa, her friend said, “Alexa, there’s a baby inside of you!” He had so much genuine joy and excitement for Alexa, and she felt celebrated for being a mom.

“This was the first time that I experienced the joy that I think every woman deserves when she finds out she’s pregnant … It taught me a really crucial lesson that day of the importance of being congratulatory. It’s needed, and a woman needs to feel that little inkling of joy,” Alexa recalls.

Despite what her original plans were, those last-minute conversations changed Alexa’s course of action regarding her pregnancy. She called and canceled her abortion appointment, then went to a chapel with her friend and prayed with him. 

“I have to take responsibility for my actions. I’ve always been that type of person. If I’ve made a mistake, I am accountable for that. It feels wrong to run away from that. That is something that I felt that whole time, and it’s partly why it felt like the right thing to do,” Alexa says.

SINGLE MOM

By the fall of 2017, Alexa moved back to Illinois to be closer to family. She worked remotely until her due date but didn’t feel prepared to be a mom. But all of her fears disappeared the moment she gave birth.

“My daughter was born in October, and that was one of the best days of my life. It was truly one of the most magical experiences I’ve ever had,” Alexa says.

It felt like a huge exhale meeting her daughter, Renley, for the first time. A newfound courage and strength welled up in Alexa the moment she held her daughter.

“I remember just over and over again looking at her and kissing her and saying over and over, ‘You’re so perfect. You’re so perfect.’ It was truly like a healing moment in my life. It was only her and I in the room. It was like God allowed that moment to be so special for her and I, and I just believe He did that on purpose,” Alexa recalls.

Alexa with her daughter, Renley.

Alexa and her child’s father ended their relationship a few months after Renley was born. Being a mom gave Alexa a new perspective, and she knew she needed to make different decisions now that she had a child to look after.

“I decided immediately and instinctually that I need to be happy in order for me to love her the best. I had to put my oxygen mask on first,” Alexa says.

For a while, Alexa felt like her life was going backward. She was living with her parents, unemployed, applying to jobs, while learning to be a mom. But by God’s grace, she was offered a marketing job at a financial advisory firm that enabled her to financially support herself and her daughter. 

By the time her daughter was eight months old, Alexa moved to her own apartment, hired a nanny, and built her life from the ground up. She worked at that financial advisory firm for almost six years, working her way up as vice president of marketing to chief marketing officer.

BACK IN FEBRUARY

Alexa’s story was featured on Rome Reports.

Navigating an unplanned pregnancy and experiencing life as a single mom led to the inspiration of Alexa’s platform, Back in February. She launched this community in 2019 to mentor young women who are facing unexpected pregnancies and give them hope.

“I think I really wanted to give other women a story of hope because I wanted them to know that they’re not alone in what they’re going through. I wanted them to know there was a way through. I really wanted to share the messy and the wading through unknowns,” Alexa says. “Renley is my best friend. For her, I would do it all over again. I want women to know that story, and I want to be on the journey with them.”

On her platform, Alexa shares her story and blog posts relating to motherhood. She also has a letter and action plan written for those who are facing unplanned pregnancies. Alexa has mentored over 40 women since 2019. 

“All 40 plus of those women have chosen life, and it’s just been an unbelievably amazing journey to see these women become mothers and to see them fall in love with motherhood the way I did,” Alexa says.

Alexa with her daughter, Renley.

It has been an honor and a joy for Alexa to walk alongside those women and support them during pregnancy and motherhood. She has had the opportunity to see some of them get married and have more children.

“I can’t wait to see all the ways that my daughter changes lives with her life because she was very much meant to be here, and I already see that,” Alexa says.

Alexa didn’t know she would fall in love with motherhood in the way she has. It has been a healing and transformative process for her to experience God’s love through the eyes of her daughter.

“I’ve always struggled with a ton of shame, feeling like I was never enough … It was just these lies that were planted in me at a very young age, so to experience my daughter looking up at me with these eyes of total adoration. Like I’m not doing anything. I’m just simply loving her. That taught me the way that God looks at me, and it completely changed my life,” Alexa says.

‘GOD HAS SO MUCH JOY IN STORE FOR YOU’

Alexa was a single mom for a few years until she started dating her husband, Todd, in November 2020. They connected through a mutual friend, whom Alexa met during a pro-life rally in 2015. Todd watched Alexa’s story unfold from afar for several years.

“I think my eyes were finally open to meeting the right man, and I think God was preparing me during those years to really be looking for somebody who was going to be good in my life,” Alexa says.

Alexa’s wedding day with her husband, Todd.

They got engaged the day before Easter of 2022 and got married that September. Alexa found out she was pregnant four weeks after their honeymoon and gave birth to their son, Micah James, in July 2023. Her daughter is now 6 years old.

Alexa is focused on being a good wife and stay-at-home mother and plans to expand Back in February during her spare time. She wants to continue encouraging and celebrating young women in their motherhood journey.

“I know that this doesn’t feel like the happiest moment of your life, but I can tell you that this is the beginning of one of the most incredible seasons that you’ll ever enter into. God has so much joy in store for you that you can’t even imagine. I’m not going to lie to you. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to have its challenges. There’s going to be a lot of sacrifice, but it will be so worth it. You will be willing to do it all over again when it’s all said and done, and you are going to give birth to a baby best friend that you’ll have for the rest of your life,” Alexa says.

Written by Loren Ward.