Kara's Story

"Here, I'm lifted up."

After a long, brutal winter, spring in Wisconsin is always a time for hope, renewal and joy. Nothing embodies that better than a newborn baby, and Hope Gospel Mission is blessed to be housing one right now.

Kara came to the Mission last November when she was seven months pregnant. A single mom, she already had two older children living in Kansas and had recently given her two-year old daughter up for an open adoption. “I see her almost every weekend.” The child she was carrying when she arrived, she told us, was her chance to be “the best mom I need to be.”

In coming to the Mission, Kara hoped for “a fresh start in a good place.” She also wanted to make sure her baby had a chance to grow up with more stability than she had experienced. Shuttled between her parents when they divorced, Kara began acting out and was thrust into the foster care system at 14. “I felt abandoned, like I didn’t fit in anywhere,” she says. At 18, Kara aged out of foster care and found herself adrift: nowhere to go, and no faith or hope to hold onto. She ended up on the streets and fell prey to addiction.

“Coming to Hope Gospel Mission really opened my eyes,” Kara says. “If I were still on the street, doing what I was doing, I would have continued being dragged down. Here, I’m lifted up. I’m not judged or treated badly. And my faith is starting to come back.”

Kara admits that it takes “a lot of determination and willpower” to get through the program, but she is determined to make it work for her and her little boy. “I’m here for the long haul. If it takes two years, it takes two years. I don’t want to be in the same mess I was in before. I couldn’t deal with the heartbreak of losing another kid.”

With your help, the future looks bright for Kara and her son, Austin.

“I’VE BEEN CLEAN AND SOBER SINCE I CAME TO THE MISSION. I’M GLAD I GOT A SECOND CHANCE AT LIFE, TO BE ABLE TO GIVE MY BABY A GOOD LIFE WITH ME.”