Alexa PenaVega Says She Had an Encounter With God After Daughter’s ‘Painful’ Stillbirth

Alexa PenaVega is opening up about experiencing a stillbirth while expecting a daughter with husband Carlos PenaVega.

“Indy was a surprise loss. Nobody was expecting it,” Alexa, 36, said in an interview with Streams Studio published on Tuesday, January 28. “We had a heartbeat two minutes up until delivery.”

When Alexa found out they were “struggling with the heartbeat,” she said she couldn’t “really grasp in that moment right away what was going on.”

“I was just like, ‘Well, no Lord. Surely, you’re going to get a heartbeat back.’ So I was just like, ‘Come on, baby girl. Come on,’” Alexa said.

Alexa and Carlos, who wed in 2014, shared in April 2024 that their fourth child was stillborn. (The pair are also the parents of sons Ocean, 8, and Kingston, 4, and daughter Rio, 2.)

After losing Indy, Alexa shared that the “peace” they felt “really doesn’t make sense” since the experience was “so painful.”

“It’s still painful. And what I’m about to say is going to sound crazy, but we felt so blessed through it. Her life has had so much fruit in just moments of being with her,” Alexa continued. “After we lost her, I was concerned that in time I wouldn’t be OK. That even though I’m OK right now — and Lord you’re sustaining me, everything is good — but what’s going to happen a couple weeks from now? What’s going to happen a month from now?”

Alexa shared that she went through a “really deep” and “intense” therapy. “I was like, ‘I just don’t want to be stuck in this place of deep loss. And I already feel his peace, but I just want to make sure that that maintains,’” she said.

Alexa explained that she had to relive the experience “over and over and over again,” which she called “painful,” but she claimed she had an encounter with God as she healed.

“Through one of those experiences, you’re supposed to explain what you see. And I closed my eyes and the Lord gave me this insane vision,” she said. “I was laying in the bed and Indy was next to me and they were trying to resuscitate her. The room was filled with angels around every single person in the room.”

She continued, “But Indy was in God’s arms. But she was alive in his arms. Even though she was no longer living next to me, she was alive in his arms. But God was weeping. All the angels were weeping. They weren’t like, ‘It’s OK, we have her, she’s safe.’ They were weeping for us.”

Alexa shared that the experience gave her a “whole new perspective of God.” She added, “When we weep, he weeps because he’s heartbroken for his children. Even though he knew that she was fully alive with him and great and happy. He wept for us.”

Alexa said she “felt so seen” in that moment. “I felt this relief of like, just thank you for crying for me, God,” she said. “It sounds silly, but in our heaviest moments, in our darkest moments, where we truly just feel gutted, know he is weeping for you.”

Carlos, for his part, reflected on the loss in a separate interview with Streams Studio on Tuesday.

“We lost our fourth kid at birth, little Indy. She was a stillbirth,” Carlos said. “It was a really just … obviously emotional, but a very confusing time, for me and my wife. And we were sitting in bed Saturday night, the kids were sleeping, and we were just kind of just like, ‘What happened? And how do we move forward?’”

Carlos, who explained that he and Alexa joined a church in Tennessee the week before the stillbirth, said that the couple were “holding each other” and “bawling” at church the next day.

“I mean, because what happened the day before is like … we’re just wrecked. We’re bawling. All of a sudden, I just felt this, like, bubble of warmth around me. And the whole church, everyone starts coming up,” he said. “We don’t even know these people. They start laying hands on us. Everyone’s praying for us.”

He continued, “I mean, I can’t even explain it. It just felt as if someone just, like, picked us up in the air and we could finally go, ‘Ah.’ I remember bawling with her, eyes are closed. I finally open my eyes and this entire congregation, like, every single person, is just around us.”