Texas Baptist Children’s Home
Renewed Confidence By Ginger Swann
M AY 2 0 2 1 / T E X A S B A P T I S T S L I F E
In the background is the sound of two happy boys playing together and occasionally interrupting with a question. Danielle laughs playfully and helps her sons with their toys, while continuing the conversation – just like a well-balanced single mom. To hear how hopeful she is for her future and the future of her family, you’d never know that just a couple of years ago, Danielle was in one of the darkest places of her life.
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After her relationship with the father of her boys ended, Danielle’s life came to an abrupt halt. “I didn’t know what was next for me or my boys. It was like hitting a dead end – both legally and financially,” she remembers. “I didn’t feel like I could go to my family, but we desperately needed a safe place to stay.” As the stress of her new situation began to grow, she started having breakdowns and panicking about the future. “I lost all confidence in myself and became so fearful of everything. It’s like you could smell the fear on me.”
Thankfully, Danielle and her boys, Dorian (8) and Judiah (2), were able to join the Family Care program at Texas Baptist Children’s Home (TBCH) in the fall of 2018, where they found the safe home and stable family environment they needed. They moved into a cottage on the Round Rock campus, where they had their own private bedroom and bathroom, but shared living spaces with other families that had come from similar situations. Danielle quickly bonded with the other mothers and the boys were thrilled to have new friends to play with. In this supportive community, she was able to let down her guard and take a deep breath for the first time in a long while. As she settled in and started her journey toward healing, Danielle began to reorient herself from the trauma of her past to the promise of her future. She met with her counselor regularly and, as she regained the confidence that was once lost, she began making plans for the future of her family and getting
excited about what it might hold. Along with her Family Life Coordinator (FLC), Jaymie, she set educational and financial goals for herself and began to work toward them. As Danielle healed, her go-getter personality and attitude began to reemerge. She enrolled in classes at Austin Community College and began taking a full course load, while also maintaining a part-time job. She knew that her dream of becoming a nurse was a lofty goal, but she also was confident that she could achieve great things through hard work and determination. Learning how to juggle her job, school, and single parenting was a challenge, but Danielle knew it would be worth it. She often found herself doing school work during her sons’ naps and various breaks in the day because she wanted to make the most of every moment. “When we were sheltered in place due to COVID-19, Danielle was amazing,” says Jaymie, her FLC. “She just went with the
