The Scholarship Helps Those

“I got pregnant with my first child while attending college. I was very scared and sought help from a crisis pregnancy center. I dropped out of college and moved to live in a maternity home. While there, I received some counseling and support to help me try and make a decision whether to parent or place for adoption. I decided that adoption would be best for my daughter because I did not have the financial or emotional support to raise her. I met wonderful adoptive parents who could offer her a better life than I could.

My biggest challenge as a birth mother has been dealing with the grief after placing my daughter for adoption. Instead of getting counseling and help, I made some unhealthy and irresponsible choices. I gave up on my goals of finishing school, and I found myself pregnant again. My family came together, and we decided to raise my son instead of placing him for adoption. I still had a lot of internal feelings and issues surrounding my daughter’s placement, and again I found myself pregnant for the third time.

My third child was adopted by wonderful people who I became very close with during the pregnancy. The adoption is open, and I see her a lot. I received a lot of counseling and became involved with other birth moms and adoption support groups as well as the agency. I was finally able to express to others my concerns and feelings of loss. It has really helped me realize that I want to continue my education and pursue a career where I could help other people involved in pregnancy and adoption.

As a single parent and birth mom to two children, I feel a strong need to set an example for them as well as prove to myself that I can overcome difficult life obstacles and still complete my goals. During my pregnancies and the adoption process, I have become very interested in helping other women who find themselves in a similar situation as I did. I have been taking a class or two at a time. I have made A’s and B’s since I have started taking classes again and I am much more focused on my school work than I was before. I absolutely love learning new things and for the first time in my life can say that I have put 100% into my school work and am pleased with the results. I would love to be able to finish my program, become financially independent and work in a career that I enjoy.

This scholarship would help not only my son, but my family, and me. My mother, son and I live paycheck to paycheck and rely a lot on help from other family members for diapers, bills, and even food sometimes. I could not afford to go to school during the past semester because I needed to save every penny for daily living expenses. I really feel like the scholarship program for birth mothers is a great way to help out those who have sacrificed a lot to make others happy. I feel very passionate about becoming more involved in the adoption community and giving back to those who help me. I would be very blessed and appreciative of any financial help that I may receive to make this possible.”