"I'd had no qualms about abortion up until that time, and always figured that was what I would do if I got pregnant, but just seeing that ad gave me a sense that God was telling me what to do," Marendt says.

She came to believe "something was happening I wasn't in control of," especially when her baby daughter was born on the same day as the adoptive mother's birthday, she says.

Marendt says she remembers her baptism, at age 5, in St. Mary Magdalen Church in Hazel Park, but her father was not a Catholic, and her mother "had kind of fallen out of her faith over the years, so she didn't take us to church."

While she was in high school, her mother started going to Mass again, but Marendt says her own life went "in a totally different direction – running around, a lot of craziness, a lot of drinking and drugs." Because of the alcohol and drugs, her ex-husband had been granted custody of their son.

She says she had already managed to kick those habits, when the unwanted pregnancy set her on the road to reconnecting with the faith into which she had been baptized.

Then, last year, after experiencing the loss of a well-loved aunt who had been for her a model of a faithful Catholic, she drove by St. Martin de Porres Church and she saw its sign about faith formation classes starting. That got her thinking, and she eventually signed up.

Now, she says she enjoys the classes and looks forward to them every week. "I get a sense of belonging, and that it's a place I know I fit in – where everybody fits in," she says.

Her son, Cameron, now 5, who spends alternate weekends with her, accompanies her to Mass on those Sundays and to her class.

The instruction may not be at his age level, but he "picks stuff up – I'm letting him know that God loves him as much as I love him," Marendt says.

"I feel honestly happy, and it's been a while since I could say that," she adds.