Holston Home for Children
Raising Jazmyne:
Fresh start for teen mother

By Homer Marcum

Kristianna will be the first to tell you that being a teenage mother is not easy. "It's hard being a mother when you're 15," she said, while a baby shower was going on around her at Holston Home for Children's Brumit Center. "Having a baby when you're so young is not what I would recommend for other girls."

As she talked, Kristianna entertained Jazmyne, now age 3, who demanded her mother's attention amid all the excitement.

Almost from the time Kristianna knew she became pregnant, the baby's father has been absent, refusing to accept any responsibility. "That's okay. I got the cute one out of the deal," she said. Her forced smile couldn't mask the pain of rejection and heartbreak that inevitably come with being an abandoned, single parent.

But thanks to Holston United Methodist Home for Children, Kristianna and Jazmyne are together, made possible by this ministry's Preparation for Adult Living (PAL) program. That's why a shower was held for Kristianna and Jazmyne: They were moving into a PAL-provided apartment in the Brumit Center. That arrangement allows the mother and daughter to live together, a first for them.

From the time Jazmyne was an infant, she had been living with her grandmother in Tennessee. Kristianna was living in California, hundreds of miles from her daughter.

"We thought that would be best, but it didn't work out," she said. With the help of Holston Home, a home was provided in an apartment at the Brumit Center. Shower gifts provided apartment-living necessities like towels, sheets, dishes, and toys for the baby.

The arrangement will allow Kristianna the opportunity to put her life back together in some seeming order. She will finish high school while her daughter is enrolled at a Holston Home day-care facility. She will find a job and attend parenting classes taught by Holston Home staff. In short, she and her daughter will be given a chance to make something of their lives.

Kristianna said she wants to be an English teacher and to provide a good home for her daughter. With Holston Home's help, she's on her way.

Homer Marcum is director of communications at Holston Home for Children in Greeneville, Tenn.

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