Some months back, we featured the heartbreaking but inspiring story of a couple whose faith remained unchanged despite losing their baby in a car crash.
“10 months ago, last year, my wife got into a car accident that took the life of our first baby, a son we named Winter Gabriel. It looked like an accident, but I will stand by my principle that in life, nothing ever is an accident,” JC Espiritu, a 28-year-old UAE-based OFW, wrote in a Facebook post, adding how there was a reason behind the tragedy. “All these things are beyond our control, but these collision of events led to the demise of my son.”
His wife Bing was 8 months pregnant at the time and had been offered a ride home by a well-meaning co-worker. According to JC, his wife usually takes the shuttle to and from work.
“To add bitterness to a tragic story, the accident happened on October 21, 2016, just a day after my birthday,” wrote JC. “On October 22, 2016, my wife gave birth to our dead son.”
This inspiration board reminds them of their purpose every day. (photo courtesy of: JC Espiritu)
“You will only know how strong you are in the time you have to face your toughest challenge and endure the hardest pain,” he continued. “My wife Bing is the strongest person I’ve ever encountered in my entire life.”
“There are many orphanages around the world, but this is an orphanage that calls itself a home. Few orphans get to experience what it means to be part of a family, to have a home. Home is where your family is!”
photo: JC Espiritu facebook page
JC Espiritu and his wife Bing have since tried their best to heal, finding strength in their faith. Now, the deeply spiritual couple hope to shed light on a cause that’s become near and dear to their heart: STEPS Home, a home for orphaned, abandoned, and abused young girls that they visited on a mission trip to Chennai, India.
“There are many orphanages around the world, but this is an orphanage that calls itself a home. Few orphans get to experience what it means to be part of a family, to have a home. Home is where your family is!” he writes, crediting the home’s founders Isaac and Tara Manogarom.
A few days before the first anniversary of their son Winter’s death, JC and Bing hope to bring the girls to the UAE for a benefit concert. This plan started as a promise to one of the young residents of the home, Theresa. They plan to stage the concert soon, in the hopes that all sixteen girls will be able to share their talents, as JC shares they are amazing singers.
Both JC and Bing have resigned from their jobs to focus solely on this heartfelt cause, inspiring others that there is still goodness in the world despite the pain.
“We both left our jobs to concentrate on this endeavor,” JC tells this writer via Facebook, “to look out for the abandoned and abused.”
To know more about STEPS Home, visit their official Facebook page.