Kira & Jeff Andrea
Looking back, it has been a very long journey for my husband and I, returning to our faith. We are both cradle Catholics. We met in grade school and attended 12 years of Catholic school. Over the years we have played in three different bands together. Our music has been featured in television shows like “Pretty Little Liars”, “The Vampire Diaries”, and “The Secret Life Of The American Teenager”. We even competed on America’s Got Talent.
We lived in Los Angeles for five years with music as our only career. In 2009 we got married. From the outside, we looked like the perfect, happy married couple, but quickly our marriage began to suffer. To make sure we wouldn’t have children during such a crucial time in our career, we decided to reject the church’s teachings on contraception, and I began taking the birth control pill. This resulted in me having severe migraines with frightening auras. The first time it happened, I thought I was dying.
One night I woke up feeling like there was 1000 pound weight on my chest. I could barely shake my husband awake to tell him something was wrong. Numbness was spreading down my left side and I began to panic. Pretty soon I wasn’t able to speak. My mind was jumbled and I physically couldn’t form words. He raced me to the emergency room. I was hooked up to several machines, tests were run, some of the details are blurry. But there’s one thing I remember as clear as day. I was in the bathroom alone, and I was so afraid of dying. I remember begging God not to let me die. I promised I’d do anything. And the first thought that came into my mind was “Please God, I can’t die, I have to be a mom!”
Feeling my mortality for the first time, I began experiencing severe anxiety. I had never had anything like this happen to me before. I was always a happy sort of person with no history of depression, or anxiety of any kind. Doctors assured me there was no connection to the birth control pill. And they each handed me another prescription including anti-anxiety medication.
In our hearts, my husband and I knew that using birth-control was wrong. After months of dealing with my anxiety and depression, I finally decided to stop taking the pill, and I threw the poison in the trash.
I remember thinking, “Now what?” I’d never felt so lost in my life. We began digging deep into the church’s teachings. Our Lady of Fatima came up in conversation one day, and I was struck by the three shepherd children and their vision of hell. The message of Our Lady, asking us to pray the rosary to save souls hit hard. We decided to start praying the rosary every day. We also started reading about The Theology of the Body. It was the month of May when we brought our long list of sins to confession. It had been over a year since we had received the sacrament of mercy. Afterward, we felt brand new!
Not long after this, we decided to move home. While packing, I came across a small pamphlet. Attached, I discovered a Miraculous Medal. I had never heard of it before. I read that there are special graces received by wearing the medal. I started wearing it that day, and I’ve never gone a day without wearing it since.
Shortly after moving home, we began attending daily mass. During the consecration one day, I was praying and just felt the strong need to pray for my husband’s sister. I didn’t think much of it, but then later that day, my husband got a call saying there was a problem with his sister’s pregnancy. The baby had a tumor that was rapidly growing. It was a whirlwind, but soon we were in Philadelphia at the Children’s Hospital praying like we had never prayed before for the baby to survive. There was an emergency surgery in utero to remove the tumor. But a short time later due to severe complications, the baby had to be delivered at only 22 weeks.
Ava Gianna (after Saint Gianna) was so tiny and beautiful. We were blessed to be there to pray many rosaries and cry with my husband’s sister and her husband. But all the holy hours, prayers, novenas- all of it seemed to be of no avail. We drove home and were soon informed Ava had passed away. But, before this happened, she was baptized, and I realize now, that that was a miracle in itself. This tiny, precious life and the courage her parents had in fighting for her broke our hearts wide open. We realized that, even though we were no longer using contraception, we were still using NFP to avoid becoming pregnant. Secular culture had made us fear becoming parents. But, now we could see there could be no greater gift than to be blessed with a baby!
A couple months later, I found out I was pregnant with our first child, Rayne Marie.
I had complications after she was born, and a surgery to remove retained placenta caused an infection in the form of a large abscess. One day I was taking care of my new baby, and the next I was in the ICU fighting for my life. I know my husband has never prayed harder. I received last rites and was told I was in danger of dying if they couldn’t find the right antibiotic. I remember having a statue of Our Lady of Fatima and a rosary with me the whole time. When I was too weak to pray, I would just look at Our Lady. My husband remembers praying the rosary desperately clutching the beads begging for the help of our Blessed Mother.
Finally the doctors found the right medicine, and I began to heal, praise God!
With all the damage from the infection, we didn’t think we would ever conceive another child. But 2 years later, when I gave birth to our son, River Augustine, the doctors said it was like a miracle! There were no adhesions, no damage to repair. They were prepared to give me multiple blood transfusions, but it was like the infection had never happened. River was born on December 8th, 2015 the feast of the Immaculate Conception and on the first day of the Jubilee Year of Mercy! We were also blessed with another daughter, Skye Faustina three years later.
Early on in our music career, we were focused only on success and trying to “make it” in the industry. Slowly, our music became more about doing something good with the gifts God gave us. We can see how He stripped away our pride bit by bit. We never thought we’d end up making music for God, but slowly, He worked on our hearts, softening them. Through suffering, we turned to Mary - or rather - she reached out to us. Mary was our life line. She brought us to Jesus. That’s why we’ve consecrated our music as Mercy Divine to her Immaculate Heart, and through her heart to Jesus’ Most Sacred Heart. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!