ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Katie Coleman and Micaela Thomas were both teenagers when they found at they were pregnant, and for both, the situation was a scary one.
“I felt like my world had stopped,” Coleman, who was 16 at the time, said.
“I was supposed to be going into my senior year of high school, ready to celebrate the closing chapter of a story,” Thomas, who was 17 at the time, said. “Instead, I opened a new one, a scary one.”
For Coleman, the news came with no celebration, nor did it bring any excited calls, but rather simple silence.
“I wasn’t thinking about how I was going to hide it, fix it, if I could make it all go away,” she said. “In the doctor’s office, I remember crying, begging for them not to tell my mom. I remember the look of utter disappointment on her face.”
Coleman and Thomas spoke at last week’s annual banquet for Grace Place Pregnancy Care Center, and for Coleman, the positive test for her pregnancy was just step one. She said she had not thought ahead to the diapers, wipes, clothes, food and daycare needed to raise an infant.
“I was overwhelmed before I even knew what I needed,” Coleman said. “I had no idea where to start.”
At 16 and still in high school, Coleman said she had no room to cry in and no one to help her find a way to finish high school or offer emotional support.
“I had no clue if I would be able to even finish school, let alone raise a child,” she said.
For Thomas, there were a lot of questions and uncertainty about going back to school, how she would afford diapers and clothes and take care of a baby and a toddler and what people would say. The one thing she knew, though, is she would be a mom.
“I went to a doctor’s appointment where a nurse recommended the local family resource center,” she said. “I felt defeated, scared and anxious.”
Coleman said her mother wanted her to have an abortion, but she could not do it. Instead, she opted to drop out of high school during her sophomore year, remembering the shame she felt when the principal asked if she was sure about her decision and her mother hesitating over the dotted line.
“There were days I wanted to give up – when exhaustion felt louder than my dreams – but I kept pushing,” she said. “I got through my GED, then college. I worked full time at the hospital as a CNA. I did online classes, night classes, and I juggled my classes around work and my daughter.”
Coleman would earn her nursing degree in 2008 from Seward County Community College, and she said when she walked across the stage and knelt to have her nursing cap on, she was not just doing it for her.
“I was doing it for that 16-year-old girl who didn’t have a Grace Place to lean on,” she said.
Unlike Coleman, Thomas did have Grace Place, and she said her first appointment was a shocking one.
“I had walked into the building fully expecting judging eyes and criticism I had been accustomed to at that point, but that was the opposite of what happened,” she said.
For Thomas, the appointment became the beginning of her new story.
“I was greeted with kind smiles and opened hearts,” she said. “For the first time, I wasn’t seen as another teen pregnancy case, but as a mom who wanted help and someone to listen.”
Likewise, Thomas was given baby bucks for every appointment I used to get diapers in Grace Place’s resource store.
“I never paid out of pocket for diapers for my daughter once until she was a year old,” she said.
Thomas said she was encouraged to finish school and given incentive to do so, and she did.
“I managed to finish my classes in two months with the love and support of these individuals behind me and got my high school diploma,” she said. “The people at the center became my family, mentors and friends.”
Thomas said Grace Place officials not only cheered her on throughout the process, but they also cried with her in her down times, gave her personal advice and offered their own stories.
“When my daughter was born, they loved on her as well,” she said. “These people helped shape me to be the person I am today.”
Today, Coleman is working on her doctorate as in nurse practitioning, and if all goes well, she will graduate in 2029. She said while she still juggles a full plate with being a mom, a nurse and a student, she does so with pride.
“I know how far I’ve come,” she said. “I remind myself often this is only part of the story, not the end of it.”
Coleman’s daughter is now 23, working a full-time and a part-time job while going to school.
“She got married in October,” she said. “I sometimes think what my life would be like if God hadn’t put this wonderful blessing in my life.”
As for Thomas, she is now a mom, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a follower of Jesus Christ.
Though she did not have Grace Place during her pregnancy, for Coleman, the center is more than a building.
“I believe it is a community that provides hope, stability and support to those mothers who don’t just want to survive but thrive,” she said. “I didn’t have Grace Place when I needed it, but I am beyond grateful that girls do now.”
For Thomas, she said Grace Place gave her a next step and a new page in which to move forward in her life.
“Even today, 11 years later, I think back on the center, and the people with gratitude and know I wouldn’t have been able to do it all without them,” she said. “I’m proud to say I wasn’t just another teen pregnancy. I thank that center and ones like this for what they do for people and what they’ve done for me.”
