Several months ago, St. Elizabeth|Coleman received a call
from Julia. Young, pregnant, and two weeks from her due date, Julia contacted
us for help in making an adoption plan.
At just 23 years old, Julie was already a single mom of
three and had been staying in a local shelter. Her three children had been
removed from her care by CPS due to Julia’s many challenges, including poverty, homelessness, mental illness, lack of a strong social support system, the
inability to read or write, and a long history of abuse and abandonment by
family members. Though Julia had contacted us to make an adoption plan, she
also opened the door to a whole new support system to help her financially,
emotionally, and to connect her with local resources.
Julia chose adoption because she wanted to be able to select
a permanent family for her daughter. She was able to meet her daughter’s
adoptive parents, and the adoptive mom served as her support system by being at
the hospital – holding Julia’s hand during the delivery of her baby.
Since the placement of her child, a social worker has
visited Julia numerous times. Having no friends or family to share her grief,
she calls her social worker every day to share her thoughts and feelings and
get the support she needs. Julia is comfortable and happy about her adoption
decision, and shared a reunion with the adoptive family and her daughter less
than two weeks after placement.
Julia has also been able to move out of the shelter and into a small
house within walking distance of her health clinic and the grocery store.
Through St. Elizabeth|Coleman’s life-long services, Julie
has been provided with practical help and with the joy of renewed hope for a
better future…and she thought she was just calling to make an adoption plan.
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