25 Mar An Impossible Dream

Nikki* walked through the doors of Axia with her mother to find out if her suspicion that she was pregnant was correct. She was in fact pregnant and an ultrasound revealed she was 3 months along. The father of the baby was not involved in Nikki’s life but she decided to choose life for her baby and single parent as she had a good support system of family and friends.  

Nikki became a part of our Building Blocks program and received a mommy mentor that taught her about her pregnancy and parenting skills.  She came every 2 weeks during her pregnancy and met with her.

When she was in her 3rd trimester she attended our 6-week childbirth classes where she learned all about labor and delivery, ways to manage pain, newborns and breastfeeding. 

She was always eager to learn and wanted to have an unmedicated birth at a birthing center in Tyler.  Our program Better2gether Birth Services provides women with a doula if they attend our 6-week classes. A doula is a professional who is trained to provide information, emotional and physical support to a woman in labor. On March 18th, her beautiful baby boy Micah came into the world and her doula was right by her side through the whole process.

Nikki continued to come to her Building Blocks visits. She worked hard as a manager at Whataburger making $15 dollars an hour but had to live with her mom with her baby to make ends meet as a single mom. She always had a dream of being a physical therapist because she loved helping people and especially working with the elderly.  She thought that once she had a baby this was an impossible dream.

Little did she know her life was about to change for the better.  Heartbeat International, a network of pro-life pregnancy centers was having an event in Dallas where they would give away some scholarships to single moms who had chosen life for their babies and needed a hand up. They asked Living Alternatives if we knew of some young women we could nominate.

We knew immediately that Nikki was a great candidate with a dream to go to school for physical therapy. We nominated her and quickly heard back that she had won $15,000 towards her schooling. She is now enrolled in UT Tyler and will begin classes this summer to start working toward her goal.

Aimee Krol

Better2gether Program Director