Newspaper Article

This is an article about Brandy and Safe Haven featured in "The Facts," Brazoria County's newspaper.


Posted: Monday, November 8, 2010 2:00 am
Center offers women hope for future By SHANNON DAUGHTRY The Facts | 0 comments

LAKE JACKSON —

Looking at pictures of her two children on the walls and shelves of her room at the Pregnancy Help Center’s Safe Haven, Brandy Williams feels at peace with her decision eight weeks ago to give her newborn son up for adoption.
But she said she hasn’t always felt that way. It hasn’t always been easy.
Williams’ daughter Cadence, 4, still lives with her grandmother in Dallas. But because of the woman she has become in recent months and the goals she’s working toward, she hopes to one day share her life in Lake Jackson with Cadence.
The Pregnancy Help Center and Safe Haven are dedicated to helping women in Brazoria County and nationwide who find themselves homeless because of an unplanned pregnancy. Safe Haven is the Pregnancy Help Center’s Residential Maternity Care Home located in Angleton.
“It’s a place these girls come to when they’ve reached a point in their lives when they need a home,” said Jackie Fuller, executive director of the Pregnancy Help Center in Lake Jackson. “It’s a place they come to when they have nowhere else to go.”
The mission of Safe Haven is to provide a Christ-centered home to minister to the spiritual, physical, educational and emotional needs of single, pregnant women by supporting, training and equipping them with necessary life skills, Fuller said.
Reflecting on the person she was when she first entered the Pregnancy Help Center eight months ago, Williams laughs in disbelief.
“I was one of the meanest people you could have ever met,” she said. “I had burned so many bridges with friends and family members. I was alone. I had no one.”
But the Bible scripture Jeremiah 29:11 written on the mirror above her dresser reveals otherwise:
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord. ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
And a future is what Williams believes she’s gained.
Since coming to Safe Haven, Williams said she’s gained the support needed to make the best decision for her son and his future. And by learning to maintain a structured lifestyle she’s been able to begin planning her own future.
“It’s encouraging to know you’re not the only person going through a situation like this,” she said.
Williams said she knows the improvements in her own life not would have been possible without the help of the Pregnancy Help Center and her house parents at the center’s Safe Haven, Anthony and Jessica Kober.
The Kobers, a couple from New York who — along with their three children ages 5 to 11 —live at the Safe Haven home and minister to the young women who come to live there.
“This was a deeper way for us to minister to someone who is looking to change their lives,” Anthony Kober said.
Safe Haven assists women in coming to a workable, livable understanding of their own life and the Pregnancy Help Center gives these women options, Fuller said.
“Besides providing support and assistance, we’re here to also help them in developing a plan of action that she and her baby can successfully live with,” Fuller said. “They are met with on a one-on-one basis to discuss their individual decisions and options within their pregnancy.”
Like Safe Haven, the Pregnancy Center is devoted to reaching out to young women in crisis pregnancies, she said.
The Pregnancy Help Center began in 1990 when a small group of people with a common interest gathered to find a way to reach out to young women in unplanned pregnancies.
Today, the Pregnancy Help Center is celebrating 20 years of service. During that time, workers there have helped more than 33,000 people who have either needed information about unplanned pregnancies, sought out counseling, needed information about prenatal care, attended one of the Pregnancy Help Center’s Help Offered in Pregnancy Experience classes or needed referrals to adoption and maternity homes, Fuller said.
Mothers of unplanned pregnancies typically learn about the Pregnancy Help Center and the HOPE program through doctors, agencies and even through Brazosport ISD, she said.
“It’s really incredible to think how far this ministry has come,” Fuller said.
She can remember the number of young women who came for assistance in the first years of the center’s operation steadily increased, as did the number of churches that stepped up to help them. Today, the Pregnancy Help Center is supported by 52 churches across Brazoria County.
“We are an organization that runs on absolutely no government funding,” Fuller said. “The support we receive is strictly from churches and members of the community. It’s incredible all of the local support we receive.”
In order to accommodate the increasing need for the Pregnancy Help Center, the center recently has purchased the neighboring office space to the center’s location at 327 Garland Drive in Lake Jackson.
“This new space will provide more educational space for these mothers and fathers to learn about parenting,” Fuller said.
Today, the center’s education programs are offered to mothers and fathers. They are offered classes in finance, nutrition, cooking, childbirth, parenting skills, résumé writing, infant CPR, breastfeeding, newborn care and Bible studies, Fuller said.
HOPE classes are taught Tuesday nights.
“Getting both the mothers and the fathers involved has proven to be very beneficial,” Fuller said.
With tears in her eyes, Fuller listened to Williams share her story and smiled at how far she has come.
“To see someone who has grown as much as Brandy is truly incredible,” Fuller said. “These girls come in struggling, living with their wrong decisions and to see them blossom is truly a blessing.”