My wife and I were married in July 2024. We hoped and prayed we would be able to have children. We knew it would be a challenge given our age and certain health conditions each of us have.

As the months went by with no signs of pregnancy we began to feel a bit discouraged. We understood having a child was a gift God could grant us but not a right. As much as we wanted to get pregnant we agreed we would not compromise our Catholic faith and beliefs to try and achieve this. This understanding helped us shape our approach and establish limits to the types of methods and assistance we were willing to accept from our fertility doctor.

After a year of assistance from the fertility clinic with negative results we were feeling even more discouraged. We were always open to adoption and decided to explore the options while still holding onto the desire for a natural pregnancy. As December approached we decided to take a break from the fertility clinic and reassess whether to continue - in part because it was taking a physical and emotional toll on us - but also because we were going to be out of town for Christmas and could not effectively receive treatment from the clinic while we were away.

Flashback to earlier during the year while scrolling through news headlines I came across an article about Pedro Ballester. The headline stated that the next stage of his process of canonization was moving ahead. I did not know much about Pedro other than he was a young man whose selfless generosity in offering up his suffering for others during his illness helped many people. Over the years I have entrusted personal intentions to several heroic saints (or those in the process of sainthood) but for some reason did not immediately find myself drawn to seeking Pedro’s help; I think because there were other intercessors within my usual roster, I was more familiar with whom I could choose from.

But for some reason, though, the headline about Pedro’s canonization moving forward stuck with me. I said his prayer card and admitted to Pedro that I didn’t really know why I was asking for him to intercede for us since I didn’t have a strong devotion to him … at least not yet! I even streamed a brief documentary to learn more about Pedro’s life and then forgot about him for several more months. Despite having forgotten, it appears the “seed” was planted only to sprout at the precise moment it was meant to appear.

Fast forward to January 2026 after returning from Christmas family celebrations, my wife and I decided to revisit the fertility clinic once again. This time I started saying Pedro’s prayer card almost daily asking that my wife and I would get pregnant. Towards the end of January 2026 my wife called me at work, her voice quivering with shock and excitement, “Guess what … I’m pregnant!”. She proceeded to tell me that our fertility doctor called her personally to tell her the good news following a routine pregnancy test.

Our doctor could not believe it either! Given we had completely taken a break from fertility treatment in December and January the pregnancy turned out to be natural. We had a 1% chance of this happening naturally but we believe that through Pedro Ballester’s intercession the 1% chance turned into 100% and our favour was granted. My wife and I continued to pray his prayer card together daily asking for the pregnancy to continue to be viable and advance every step of the way - day to day, week to week, month to month - until our baby was born. The pregnancy and delivery itself came with a few unexpected twists but we continued our daily prayer card to Pedro and exactly 38 weeks later on September 30, 2026 our beautiful baby daughter came into the world!! We are so grateful to Pedro! Thank you Pedro!! We usually tend to choose our intercessors, but occasionally a soul on the path to sainthood may gently ask us to pray to them - and we are thankful to Pedro for coming into our lives and asking Our Lord to grant this miracle!

TP (Toronto, Canada)

22 October 2026

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