From Shattered Dreams to Love Redeemed: Why I chose life after rape

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this guest post are solely those of the guest author.

One afternoon, I stumbled across a Facebook reel titled, “From Date Rape Drug to Extraordinary Love Story.” The narrator’s voice carried that familiar, ominous true-crime vibe, like Keith Morrison from Dateline, asking:

“What happens when you’ve been saving yourself for the right guy most of your life, and suddenly someone slips you a date rape drug and you find yourself pregnant? What do you do?”

I froze. Because this wasn’t just some stranger’s story being broadcast to thousands. It was my story.

Little Girl Dreams Ensnared by Early Lies

As a little girl, I listened endlessly to a vinyl recording of Sleeping Beauty. I loved the idea of a destined love—a prince who would fight dragons to claim me. My bathrobe hanging on the back of my door became a dance partner as I twirled and dreamed of the day true love would awaken in my life.

But woven into those childhood dreams was another narrative. My father, though a good provider, often reminded me of my “plump frame” and how unlikely it was that any man would truly love me. He didn’t mean harm, but the words sank deep. By the time I was a teenager, I believed that being loved by a man would require a miracle—much like a fairy tale.

That quiet voice of unworthiness grew into self-hate, timidity, and a non-existent romantic life. As a young adult, I continued to cling to my convictions about saving myself for true love while resisting the pressure of a culture shouting, “It’s just sex.”

Memphis: Where Romantic Dreams Shattered

In the spring of 1991, my best friend and I set out on a “Thelma and Louise” road trip to Memphis, Tennessee. We soaked in the sights and sounds of Beale Street, Sun Studio, and Graceland. On our last night, back on Beale Street, we settled into a blues club. Feeling a little sophisticated, we ordered some wine.

That’s where I met him—a waiter who kept showering me with attention. I hadn’t noticed at first. It was my friend who pointed it out. I rolled my eyes to scoff at the notion. I was flattered, but not interested.

As the evening wore on, his persistence turned into pressure. I resisted, said no, drew boundaries. Until suddenly I couldn’t. My body grew heavy, my strength vanished, and saying no stopped mattering.

The next few hours are recounted in detail in my book, Choosing Life After Rape. I never knew such a violating and vacating experience was possible until I became its victim.

The Crushing Discovery

The weeks that followed were suffocating. The violation had not only stolen my virginity—it felt like it had stolen my romantic dreams altogether. Then came the news that darkened my horizon further: I was pregnant.

Growing up Catholic, I had always believed abortion was wrong. But once I was caught in that trap, fear narrowed my vision and silenced my long-held convictions. Suddenly abortion felt like a right—and the only way out of the nightmare. I scheduled an abortion.

Before going through with it, I finally broke down and told my parents the truth. Their response changed everything. My father, who had once unknowingly fueled my feelings of unworthiness, spoke words that pierced through the despair:

“Kim, abortion is murder. And we don’t do that.”

That “we” cracked open a door of hope. For the first time, I knew I was no longer pregnant and alone. My father was stepping into the fire with me. His words gave me the courage to see the truth: my unborn child was not someone I needed to protect my life from. My child was as innocent of the crime as I was. This child was someone I needed to turn toward—and give my life to.

From Fear to Life

I reached out to a local pregnancy care center. There, I found the same compassion I was experiencing at home. Together, we made a plan: I would carry my baby and place her in the arms of adoptive parents.

The placement, however, was not the triumph I expected. It was heavy and hollow, absent of peace.

That first night home, as I lay awake wondering out loud to God how I could ever get my life back, my mother was praying in her own room—telling God how she wished she could get that baby back. Before her grief was settled, she heard God’s whisper: “She’s still yours.”

The following morning, she shared her prayer experience with me and offered to sacrifice her own life plans to help me raise my daughter if I changed my mind. And I did. We reversed the adoption before it was finalized.

I learned a new truth: I was never going to get my life back. It was instead going to be redeemed.

The Redeemer Who Came for Me

Choosing life after rape healed me. It caused me to lean into a Man who I learned had been waiting to love me all along. He became the first Man to love us unconditionally, to provide for us, and to make us believe we were worth His love. He turned out to be so much more than I could imagine a true love being. His name? Jesus the Christ.

He healed my self-hatred and helped me raise my daughter in the light of His love, not in the shadows of an ugly crime. John 1:3 tells us the truth: life begins in Christ; therefore, conception is holy — even when the sex is not.

My daughter Andee grew into a radiant woman of God. Today, she’s married to the boy next door and has given me three grandsons. Her own sense of worth is so full, she calls herself my “trophy daughter.”

Full Circle: A Love Redeemed

It was not long into my single mom experience that God remembered my shattered romantic dreams and made me a promise: “There will be a man who hears My voice.” I believed Him.

Over two decades later, I watched my daughter walk down the aisle at her own wedding—still single, still saving myself for love, and still waiting on the promise of my romantic dreams coming true. One year to the day of her wedding, I finally got to say yes to a wedding of my own!

In those years of waiting with God, He wrote one of the most prophetically enchanting love stories of all time. And fittingly, it was on Beale Street that we experienced one of the most mind-blowing redemptions, proving that healing can be fully complete this side of Heaven.

Why My Story Matters

For decades, I’ve heard the argument that abortion must remain legal for “the hard cases.” But I am the hard case — and my daughter is not a tragedy. She is a triumph.

God took my little girl dreams of a destined love, the malicious attempt to destroy them, and my daring choice for life, and wove them into a story that only He could write.

In His timing, He gave me a man who had never loved another, and made us passionate to tell this generation: no matter what is left of your romantic dreams — even in the case of rape — God is eager to redeem them into extraordinary love stories too. 

Choose life. It’s the only choice that promises to take you into an abundant life!

Bio: Kim Elliot is an Amazon best-selling author and co-founder of God of the Romantic Presentations alongside her promised husband, Gary Elliot. Together, they have authored and published four books to date. Kim was recently signed on as a pro-life speaker with Ambassador Speakers.