By TESSA REDMOND, Kentucky Today
PIKEVILLE, Ky. (KT) – Pregnant with her second child, mourning the passing of her mom, working a full-time job instead of resting to heal a tear in her uterus—all at 19 years old—Virginia Bowling was overwhelmed. She felt like she was backtracking.
Bowling had given birth to her first daughter, Breanna, one month after turning 15. Without a solid support system or the involvement of her baby’s father, Bowling spent the next few years passing from group homes to foster homes with Breanna until being emancipated at 17.
When she moved into her first home, Bowling dedicated herself to being the best mom she could be, determined to prove doubters wrong. And a few years later Bowling’s mom, diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, moved in so Bowling could take care of her.
Before she had even turned 20, Bowling had lost her mother and was expecting her second daughter, Cora.
“I just thought no one’s ever going to love me; no one’s ever going to want me,” said Bowling. “I’m never going to have time for school. I’m always going to be on welfare. What am I going to do?”
That’s when Bowling met Kay Hammond, executive director of Appalachian Pregnancy Care Center. The new ministry had opened up in downtown Pikeville, right around the corner from where Bowling worked.
“When I felt like no one was there and nobody cared and everyone was just judging me, Kay was the one (that said), ‘You can do this; you did it with Breanna and you can do it again,’” said Bowling. “That’s all I needed: to hear one person believe in me, and that was Kay.”
Bowling was the pregnancy center’s first client.
“I have never seen a more determined girl than Virginia,” said Hammond. “She was on her own totally and we were the soft place she landed. She has endured many struggles but has always managed to provide for her children and herself. I will always hold a special place in my heart for her and love her dearly.”
“Kay told me that being a good mother was one of the most important things that I could every do in my life, but that I also needed an education and to set good examples for my children,” said Bowling. “And from that day forward, my mind was set on diplomas, degrees, my career and the kind of life I knew my kids deserved—and I was determined to give them that.”
Fourteen years later, Bowling now works as a State Registered Nurse Aide for Compassion Pediatrics. She’s also in nursing school.
“I have three great children, an amazing fiancée, a job that I look forward to being at every day,” Bowling said. “I wouldn’t change that for anything. I don’t have to be rich to be happy.”
Bowling believes that her true success will be raising Breanna, Cora, and her youngest daughter, Johanna, to pursue their dreams and achieve great things.
“Even if I was to never graduate nursing school, even if I was to only work here for the rest of my life and never made it any farther than where I am now, I would be completely fine with it as long as my kids went on to do great things, because I would feel like that’s when I made it,” said Bowling. “It isn’t about how far I go; it’s about how far they go.”
Breanna, now 16, just graduated from the Appalachian Challenge Academy at the top of her class and earned a certification in first AID and CPR. She is planning to go to nursing school and then join the military.
Cora, now 12, “has a really big heart” and wants to be a nurse, according to Bowling. Ten year-old Johanna wants to grow up and become an attorney so she can help young moms and their babies stay together, all because of the example Bowling set as a young mom.
Bowling said that she wouldn’t be where she is today without the support she received from Hammond and others.
“There’s been times in the past where we didn’t have much and people had to help us, whether it be with food or fuel,” Bowling added. “I want the people that helped us to know how much that help impacted our lives, and how much it has impacted our futures, and how much that it has led me and my children to want to do the same for other people.”
Hammond, a supporter who walked alongside Bowling and now a lifelong friend, said she is so proud of who Bowling has become.
“Many would not have been able to overcome as she did,” Hammond added.
“I couldn’t count the nights I’ve laid in bed and accepted the fact that a statistic is all I would ever be…a teenage mom on welfare, who everyone felt sorry for and who would struggle for the rest of my life,” Bowling said. “Today, I am embarrassed to have ever allowed myself to believe such things.”
"center" - Google News
October 03, 2021 at 05:50AM
https://ift.tt/3oBqVF8
Pregnancy center gives woman chance to blossom - Kentucky Today
"center" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bUHym8
https://ift.tt/2zR6ugj
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Pregnancy center gives woman chance to blossom - Kentucky Today"
Post a Comment