The Hope Center: Equipping Pregnant Women to Choose Life Profile of Cindy O’Leary, Executive Director By Joel Berry Cindy said, “I saw her instill confidence in others. Somehow, just her presence, her demeanor, her confidence gave them confidence, and I wanted to be an influence like that in someone’s life.”
Cindy O’Leary never expected to serve as Executive Director of The Hope Center, a crisis pregnancy center located in Woodstock, Georgia. The Hope Center recognizes the difficulties a young woman faces with an unexpected pregnancy and equips her to choose life. Cindy’s education and skill as a labor and delivery nurse, combined with her corporate management experience, demonstrates God’s providence in placing Cindy as director of this ministry. A Providential Path Soon after Cindy enrolled as a pre-med student at Michigan State University, the prospect of spending many years in school lost its appeal. A self-described “people person,” she ruled out options that would confine her to a medical lab and decided to follow her older sister into nursing. While in nursing school, one nurse inspired Cindy to pursue a career in labor and delivery. “That,” Cindy said, “that’s what I want to be. I want to be that capable, I want to be that caring, I want to be that competent, and I want to be involved in these miracles in people’s lives.” Upon earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Registered Nursing, Cindy married Ken, whom she met during her senior year. Ken had accepted a teaching job in Marietta, Georgia, where they established their life together. A labor and delivery nurse, Cindy also trained as a childbirth instructor, again motivated by the nurse she remembered from school.
Cindy worked part-time as a nurse after the birth of her two children, then later entered the corporate world. “Initially,” she said, “I was a nurse in a case management program for high-risk pregnancy, then became team lead, and then manager. Corporations hired us to do a screening of all their pregnant women to see who might fall into a high-risk category, and through education and referral, minimize the risk of having those complications.” But this job eventually took Cindy out of maternity care and into disease management. With a desire to return to maternity care, and as the stress of the job increased, Cindy decided to search for a change. A Providential Crisis Earlier in their marriage, both Cindy and Ken came to faith in Jesus Christ. Cindy described church attendance during her youth as “a place you go, and you sing in the choir, and you do this and that. We loved Jesus, but we didn’t know Jesus.” Shortly after the birth of their second child, Ken employed as a professional financial planner, suffered the impact of “Black Monday,” the worst stock market crash since 1929. Cindy described that experience as “a really, really dark financial time for us.” But God used that dark time to bring Cindy to Christ. With a toddler and a newborn, and working only part-time, Cindy supplemented their income through a marketing venture founded by a Christian couple. She recalled, “I was going to rallies and seeing people talk about a relationship with Christ. And it was actually during one of those rallies that I said, “Lord if you’ll have me, and if this is true, this is what I want.” A friend then invited her into a yearlong Bible study of the Gospel of John, which Cindy described as “God’s perfect placement. That really began my walk with Jesus.”
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