A Story of Hope
Mari was pregnant, completely alone, and enduring one of the absolute darkest seasons of her life. Growing up in Africa, she had survived severe physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, carrying a mountain of trauma that no child should ever have to bear. She had not seen her mother since she was 12 years old. Now, at 27, she was homeless and hopeless.
“When I found out I was pregnant, I was living with my baby’s father,” Mari shared. “When he told me to either terminate the pregnancy or get out, that broke me. I was overwhelmed. I felt worthless. I felt like nobody loved me.”
She chose to keep her baby. Now she was bouncing from one hotel to the next, sometimes without food to eat. Searching for resources on her phone, she found The Elizabeth House, applied to live at the maternity and parenting home and waited for the help she needed.
The day she ran out of money, the hotel told her she had to be out by noon. But at 9am, the phone rang and it was Karen, the director at The Elizabeth House.
“She said ‘Mari, you got accepted!’” she remembers with a huge smile. “And I sat there and I cried and I prayed to God and I’m like, ‘Thank you.’”
Walking through the doors of the house, the heavy armor of survival she had worn for so long finally began to melt away. She was filled with an immediate sense of peace and safety. For the first time in her life, she felt welcomed instead of judged, and wrapped in the reassurance she so desperately needed.
“They see something in you,” Mari reflects on the staff at The Elizabeth House. “Things you don’t see in yourself.”
Mari found herself deeply drawn to the house’s morning devotions, even though she worked nights and got home at 2am. Nearly ready to deliver her baby, she was exhausted. But that’s not the only reason staff were surprised to see her. Mari would not miss morning devotions despite the fact she was raised Muslim.
“And I learned so much about God!” she remembers. “So now everything I do I say, ‘Put God first, God first.’”
On a beautiful day in late June, Mari gave birth to a boy she named Elijah. Her doula took numerous photos Mari proudly shares as she beams with joy.
“I love my baby, and I’m obsessed with that little boy. Everything with Elijah is amazing.”
She stayed at The Elizabeth House for 14 months. The structured environment, gentle guidance, and constant encouragement there helped Mari heal from her past and choose a stable future. She learned how to manage money through the program’s finance classes, achieving the incredible milestone of building a twenty-five hundred dollar savings account balance after arriving with absolutely nothing.
Today, she is finally independent, living in her very own apartment, and wrapped in the pure joy of motherhood. She looks at the woman she is today and hardly recognizes the terrified girl in the hotel room. She’s now in college and working toward a big goal.
“I want to be an immigration attorney to help people from where I come from.”
Because she knows what it means to be lost and broken, she wants to spend her life helping others navigate their darkest moments, offering them the same hand that was extended to her. Her heart overflows with gratitude for the staff, volunteers, and supporters of The Elizabeth House who believed in her when she couldn’t believe in herself. She wants every single donor to know that even if they never see the faces of the women walking through the doors, their compassion is actively changing lives.
“I’m very grateful to the people who donate to the program. You’re changing lives. You’ve changed mine. My story is a story of hope.”