Monica Rafie is a Contributing Writer of HLI America. She earned a B.A. in Philosophy and Medieval Studies at Loyola University in Chicago. Monica has extensive experience in crisis pregnancy counseling, and now works primarily in the area of providing support to parents after a poor or difficult prenatal diagnosis through the online outreach she founded, Be Not Afraid Ministry (www.benotafraid.net), which operates across the country. She worked her way through school in some of the roughest Chicago neighborhoods as a Research Assistant for a Harvard University School of Public Health major longitudinal study. Upon graduation, Monica converted to the Catholic Church and soon after married. Monica resides in the NW Chicago suburbs with her husband Darian and their two sons and three lovely daughters.