The last thing Mary Elizabeth needed was another baby. She already had five children, ranging in age from two to nine, and she and her husband, Elroy, were just barely getting by.

Her religious beliefs would not permit her to have an abortion, so she knew she was going be delivering her sixth child before the end of the year, a child Mary Elizabeth didn’t want and that they couldn’t afford.

But Mary Elizabeth had a plan. A plan directly from the pages of the Bible.

In December, Mary Elizabeth gave birth to a baby boy. She named him Moses, and just like Jochebed in the Bible, who put her son, Moses, in a basket and had him float down the Nile River to protect him and pray for a better life for him, so, too, did Mary Elizabeth put her son, Moses, in a basket and had him float down the Mississippi River to protect him and prayed that he, like his namesake from the Bible, would be found and saved to live a better life than she and Elroy could provide.

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Written for Christine Bialczak’s Simply 6 Minutes Challenge.