Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long, one of the most decorated female athletes in American history, is competing for a fifth time this fall. Adopted from Russia, Long is a pro-adoption advocate who has spoken movingly against abortion.

In her athletic career, Long has earned 29 medals, including 16 gold, in swimming. As her website explains, despite congenital defects that required her to have a double amputation when she was just 18 months old, “her adopted family would not let her physical differences limit her potential.”

Now, the athlete uses her platform to promote adoption, according to her website.

In a 2014 article, Celebrate Life magazine explained how Jessica’s birth mother, Natalia Valtysheva, was 17 years old when she was pregnant with Jessica. At the time, Valtysheva was living far from her parents, and doctors said she would not be able to take care of the baby. So the teen mother brought Jessica to a nearby orphanage.

“In my heart, I did want to take her home,” she said. She and Jessica’s father, Oleg Valtyshev, married soon after, hoping they could bring Jessica back home in a few years, according to Celebrate Life. 

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Jessica’s adoptive parents, Steve and Beth Long, had two children and wanted to have more, but were struggling with fertility, according to Celebrate Life. 

After praying and discerning, they adopted Jessica when she was 13 months old, along with Joshua, a 3-year-old boy with a cleft palate, who was also from Russia. The Longs were from Baltimore, Maryland.

Steve said that he and Beth had been concerned about Jessica’s medical needs, thinking it would be difficult for her to be mobile.

“Very quickly—it didn’t take but a year or two—we were wondering why we were so concerned, because she can do everything everybody else did and, to some extent, a lot better,” Steve said.

After Jessica’s adoption, Steve and Beth had two more biological children.

“Every baby is a blessing and precious and special,” Steve said. He added that he advises people who don’t feel ready to be parents to “choose life as opposed to the alternative, because there are a lot of people who can raise their children and love their children.”

Long met her birth parents 20 years after her adoption in a moment caught on camera by NBC, according to Celebrate Life. Afterward, Long reflected that she didn’t know what it was like to be in her mother’s situation. “I hope that for some people, it helped them to forgive and to learn from it,” she said.

Long also expressed gratitude for adoption. “If my mom had not given me up,” she said, “I wouldn’t be where I am now. I wouldn’t be here. And so, I really hope that people see my story and realize that adoption can be a wonderful thing.”

LifeNews Note: Grace Porto writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.