I came to Bridgeway like many of the other girls do--lost, terrified, feeling abandoned--and with nowhere else to go. I was pregnant at seventeen. A high school dropout; my rebellion caused me to become estranged from my family, with the exception of my brother Jim. I was a binge drinker and on drugs. I made $4.75 an hour working at an Arby’s in Grand Junction. My life was on a fast track to alcoholism, lifelong drug addiction, and probably jail or prison.
I can’t ever recall feeling as sick to my stomach and terrified as I did the day I found out I was pregnant. My mind reeled for days; the only thing clear to me was that I had to remove myself from the situation I was in. I knew that I had to clean myself up and establish some direction in my life. People use the term "scared straight", but I never understood it until then.
I packed a duffel bag with some clothes, left everything else behind, and boarded a Greyhound Bus to Denver to be near my brother Jim. I knew I couldn’t stay with him very long--his situation was no different in terms of lifestyle than the place I had left--so I searched through the phonebook and made phone calls. That is how I found Bridgeway.
To be honest, I wasn’t too excited to put myself back in a situation where I had to take direction from others. I had made a career of rebelling against any type of authority, but obviously rebellion wasn’t working. It had only driven me farther away from any goals I ever had and everyone who I loved.
Bridgeway was the best possible thing that could have happened to both me AND my son. They became my lifeline, my family, my friends, and my support group. They helped me to understand that being pregnant wasn’t the end of the world. It was the beginning of a new life that would prove to be more fun, exciting, and fulfilling than my old life had ever been. Bridgeway was the only place I could go where my pregnancy wasn’t met with negativity and pity and where I wasn’t seen as a hopeless statistic.
I finally allowed myself to accept my situation as one with a positive outcome and got excited about it. I started to see a counselor that Bridgeway provided, which among everything they did for me was probably the most important. My counselor helped me to identify my self-destructive patterns, and the source of my rebellion, which led to the repair of the relationship between me and my parents.
I got my GED while I was 7 months pregnant and, through a former resident, was hired for my first "real" job as a receptionist. Through donations, Bridgeway provided me with my first car--a 1988 Ford Bronco II. And last, but no where near least, I welcomed my beautiful 9 lb. 3 oz. baby boy "Nathan" into this world. When Nathan was two weeks old, I moved out of Bridgeway and into my first apartment. Even after I left the house, Bridgeway’s help didn’t end. Nathan was one of the first babies to use the daycare, which was a huge blessing.
Bridgeway to this day never ceases to amaze me. It exists simply because there are people like you in this room who choose to give of your hearts, your time, and your money to a cause that you may not even fully understand. But this cause is me, and it is my son, and it is all the girls who came before me, and the girls who will come after me, and this cause is for our babies and our futures. You may not ever receive a personal thank you, or get to meet the people whose lives you have so greatly impacted, but please know that we are forever grateful. I am so proud to stand up here and talk to all of you tonight because there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about Bridgeway and I will never stop being appreciative of all the ways they have helped me.
