Travis Heying/DN
hter, Jennifer,with school work. Both mother and daughter
n^ry school.
tricky balancing act
nd woman’s attention
rv _ _ f ^ • a -
i 'uugiaa said.
Merry is divorced from her
husband and receives ho child
support 6r alimony. She has no
idea where he might be, and he
has had no contact with her or
their child.
Merrv decided to go to col
lege eight years after sne gradu
ated from high school to im
prove her life for her and
Jennifer’s well-being.
“Jennifer was 8 when I started
going to school, I pretty much
tried to get my classes during the
day while she was in school,"
Douglas said.
“During the summer I had to
pay for a sitter."
Douglas also said that her
daughter was enrolled in a sum-,
mer program.
Although Douglas admits that
it is physically ana mentally bur
dening to raise a child alone, she
said she enjoyed and continued
to enjoy motherhood.
“It is stressful, you have to do
all the cooking and cleaning and
makesure that (Jennifer's) home
work is done, and then do your
homework," she said.
“Before I started attending the
university, I was a stay-home
mom," Douglas said. “Now I’m
gone all the time because of
school and it’s very hard not
being home with Jennifer.
But,
■ Marty
of th£
for her
Merry met Chamberlain six
months ago through a dating
service.
"I read this ad one time and I
thought that his ad was really
nice — he wasn’t asking for
physical features, he was asking
for inner beauty," Douglas said.
Douglas said the relationship
between Marty and Jennifer is
great.
“They play around like father
and daugnter," she said.
Douglas said that with her
being gone most of the day,
Marty is a great help with the
housekeeping and with Jennifer.
Now that Merry will soon be
graduating, she will no longer
be a single mom and wil* have
the ooportunity to spend more
quality time with her daughter
and her soon-to-be husband.
Jennifer has become more
understanding of why she can’t
yet see her mother as much
while Merry’s in school. i
“(But) she still wants mommy
to take her swimming."
A purpose
Two lives begin
with birth of boy
I was 17 and pregnant! As a high
school sophomore I didn’t have the
slightest idea of what I wanted out
of life, and at thatpoint in my life I
couldn’t seem to find a purpose or
direction. Now I was being forced
to make decisions about my life as
I never had before.
At first I tried to ignore the fact
that 1 had a human being growing
inside my body. I pretended that
this problem would go away. Time,
nevertheless, made the physical
changes increasingly more appar
ent. Who would be able to comfort
me and give me advice about my
condition? I felt so scared and all
alone.
At the time of this occurrence in
my life, I was living in a very small
town—a town in which the people
seemed to know things about ev
eryone else.
Feeling scared and alone, I went
to my closest friend and explained
what was happening to me. She
became vety withdrawn. At that
point others were being informed
of my situation. I began to feel
more alone and kept to myself.
It became harder and harder for
me to get up in the morning and
face the world. My world seemed to
be coming to an end. Life was
becoming unbearable. What would
I do? I couldn’t continue pretend
ing that my body was not changing
and that there was not a tiny, pre
cious life growing inside of me.
The staring eyes of the students,
the pressure of the townspeople
closing in around me was just too
much to take. I had to make a
decision and make it soon.
Upon first realizing that I was
pregnant my first thoughts were:
What would people think about
me? I’m not ready to be a parent! I
didn’t want to interrupt my life as a
teen-ager with a somewnat blos
soming potential. I didn’t want to
face the embarrassment that would
surely come. What would my par
ents say and what would they think
[of me? And what would people
think about my parents?
Ail oi inese tnougnts came 10 me
over and over again. I had known
many girls who had become pr«g
nant, bul it was always a hush-nush
thing and most of them got abor
tions or were old enough to marry.
Still, I couldn’t have imagined that
this would have happened to me.
And marriage was certainly not a
consideration for me.
I was now fi ve-and-a-half months
pregnant. I had accepted the fact
that 1 was pregnant and decided to
have an abortion. All that I thought
about from then on was getting rid
of the problem of being pregnant.
The Lord helped me to realize
that 1 didn’t really think about all
the options available to me in rela
tion to my pregnancy. All I had
i* * aboutwasgettingridofmy
On Dec. 31, 1983, people all
over the world seemed to be cel
ebrating the festivities of the New
Year. However, it wasn’t a happy
time for me. I was so stressed put
from the pressure of not having
See JOY on 10
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