It’s a tough world out there for a young person who is past high school and has no family, home, health insurance, or job skills. It’s even harder for a young woman with the same set of circumstances who has a young child or children . . . a baby on the way, or both, and no husband/father in her life. What should be an exciting and promising time in her life can quickly become filled with fear and hopelessness.

We are excited that, through our Young Mothers Program at Enhanced Horizons, we are able to offer hope and a new beginning for young mothers and their children. The purpose of this program is to keep families together, whenever possible, by providing them with the basic necessities of life including housing, utilities, food, health care, etc., until the mother can obtain emotional stability, pursue educational and career goals, and prepare for financial independence.

Crystal came to live at Hill Country Youth Ranch as a 14-year-old in 1998, having been raised by a brutally abusive mother who was also an addict. She was very defensive and confused when she arrived, but had a good heart and responded well in her new setting. She graduated from the program, full of hopes and dreams, in 2001.

Crystal, now in her early 20’s, has two children, a five-year-old son, Ivan, and a ten-month-old daughter, Delilah. Her children are clearly the center of her universe, and Crystal will do anything to provide them with a good home.

Several months ago, Crystal decided to ask for her CPS (Child Protective Services) files so she could find her biological father. After locating the father she had never known, Crystal gave up a good paying job working with the disabled to move in with him in an attempt to establish a relationship with the one parent she thought might be a grandparent to her children.

Crystal lost her entire savings trying to help her father, whom she found in dire financial trouble and failing health. Although it didn’t turn out to be the reunion Crystal had dreamed of, she is a person of deep faith, and does not regret her decision, since she knows, had she not contacted her father, she would always be haunted by the "mystery". She will keep her father in her prayers, but knows that her children have to come first.

Knowing she had to move out on her own somehow, she contacted a former therapist, Cindy, from the days when she was living at HCYR, for advice. And it was Cindy who led Crystal back to us. Cindy and Crystal had been in touch with each other off and on through the years after Crystal left CPS care, and it is Cindy’s disabled son, Matthew, who inspired Crystal to seek work with the disabled. Cindy’s parenting of Matthew, with all the challenges it has brought, has been a constant inspiration for Crystal.

Our reunion with Crystal, through her moving into the Young Mothers Program at Enhanced Horizons, has been an inspiration to all around her, including the other young people there. When you look at Crystal, her faith shines through her eyes . . . despite her difficult life, they are still full of hope.

"God has changed my life," she says. " He was with me through all this. It’s because of Him that I am strong. I wouldn’t change a thing in my past because everything I’ve been through has made me stronger, and my children need me to be strong. When I was little and hurting, I felt God wasn’t there, but I know now that He really was. I asked Him to take away the pain but He didn’t at first. It took awhile, but that just made me more grateful for what I have now. I can now talk about my past without hurting."

Crystal has also forgiven her mother for the years of abuse, lies and neglect, because she knows that holding on to resentments can be damaging to her own spirit. "I just don’t see how anyone could ever hurt a child. I look at my own children and think ‘they are so wonderful, forgiving and amazing. They depend on me, and trust me with such innocence.’ Just recently, my baby girl, Delilah, was sick with a fever and I was reminded of how her precious little life is in my hands. I take that very seriously. I just do not understand child abuse."

Crystal may still be picking up the pieces of a broken life, but she is mostly looking ahead to a better life with her two children. "The best thing about this program," Crystal states, "is when you are feeling overwhelmed, you aren’t alone . . . there is always someone here to talk to or to offer guidance."

And with the promise of a new beginning in her life and the lives of her children, Crystal has three major goals: "to have a home for my children and myself, to have a full time job, and to go back to college to be an occupational therapist." We have no doubt that, with the assistance and time we are blessed to be able to offer Crystal and her children, these goals will become reality.