A new beginning

Maternity Support Services reaches out to Soap Lake family in crisis

SOAP LAKE — When Randi Regennitter and Richard Ashby's house burned down March 19, one of the first

people Regennitter thought to call was the Maternity Support Services Program in Moses Lake.

"I just needed moral support," she said, recalling as her 2-year-old daughter Kassidy watched with her as the house they called home for four years burned to the ground.

For the new mom, who had just given birth a week before to her second child, a daughter, Tana, life appeared to be nothing short of hopeless.

But that feeling was a fleeting moment in time, as Regennitter, standing in front of her burning house, thought of the staff at MSS who had provided prenatal care while she was pregnant with her first daughter Kassidy. As soon as she could get to a phone, she made a call.

"Kathy was the only person I knew to call," said Regennitter of one of the MSS staff members she had come to be close with.

And Kathy Gambriel, a social worker with MSS in Moses Lake, was just as shocked, but also moved that Regennitter would think to make a call to MSS in the midst of such a devastating event.

"She just needed someone to say 'it's OK,'" said Gambriel.

MSS, a component of the Maternity Care Access Act which the Washington State Legislature passed in 1989 and has been offered in Moses Lake for more than a decade, was created to reduce maternal and infant illness and death, and increase access to maternity care for low income families.

Among the services Regennitter received through MSS were medical coverage for pregnancy and postpartum care, transportation to medical appointments when needed, payment for childbirth education, infant medical coverage and family planning.

It would be that outreach of services which would later prompt Regennitter to call MSS, a relationship that would build bonds of trust between this new mom and a community organization of people she now calls some of her closest friends.

Knowing that someone cared enough to offer a little more than expected, pulled on the heartstrings of this family of six.

"To them it's not just a job," said Ashby of the help his family received from MSS. "They genuinely care about people."

Now in their new home in Soap Lake, bags of clothes line the wall of their living room, three figurines decorate the banister of the fireplace, the only possessions the family was able to salvage from the fire, and 2-year-old Kassidy plays with one of her newest toys, a hula hoop, and smiles at younger sister Tana, now 7 weeks old.

"It's kind of like Christmas," said Regennitter, overwhelmed with compassion for those who have given so much when she had so little as she looks around the room at new kitchen pots and pans, furniture and other donated items MSS and the community provided for the family.

"For us to finally be in a house," she said, pausing to take a moment as she takes hold of the emotions that sometimes take over, "it doesn't look like much, but it's ours; something we can call home."

For new moms who might be feeling unsure about who or where to go for questions about prenatal care or motherhood, Regennitter assures them MSS is a place they can count on and a place where Ashby too has come to feel comfortable as a new father.

"Don't be afraid to take the step and ask for a helping hand," he advised new moms.

With a new house, baby and a supportive group of friends, Ashby and Regennitter still make visits once or twice a month to MSS and hope to stay in contact in the future.

"They're more than people that are there, they're my friends now," said Regennitter.

But the experience has also touched the lives of those at MSS, who want to continue making their organization a place where families feel welcome.

"It's about connecting, helping through a crisis," said Sue Lamb, a social worker with MSS.

Lamb said in the future, MSS would like to consider expanding by looking at providing housing for low income moms and their families and developing a mother's support group.

But if there is one thing the Regennitter and Ashby family has learned from the experience, it is that material possessions are not what really matter in life.

Life has now taken on a different meaning for them; cherishing the things that really matter like family, love and good health.

"You just don't take life for granted once that's happened to you," said Ashby.

"It brought us as a family closer together," said Regennitter.

For more information on MSS call (509) 765-0674.