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Jenny’s Story

CollageCenter • Apr 10, 2014

Last spring I feared I was pregnant with my second child and I found out about Collage from searching online. I made an appointment, and with the help of a girlfriend, I walked in the doors… completely overwhelmed and not knowing what to do next.


I felt so helpless. My husband and I had moved to Nebraska and we had no money. I couldn’t manage with the one child I already had, how were we going to get along with two? I felt like abortion was the only way. I couldn’t even bring myself to tell him I was pregnant yet.


The women at Collage sat and listened to me pour out my heart. I couldn’t help it, I just kept crying…when the pregnancy test came back positive I sobbed even more. But the peer counselor was calm and listened to everything I had to say.


Once I got it all out, she gave me some helpful information and gave me other places in the community that would help me financially. I was starting to have hope. Maybe I didn’t need an abortion after all. Maybe I just needed someone who cared. I felt like when I was talking things over with her that day that maybe I wasn’t alone.


The peer counselor at Collage provided information about my pregnancy. She also offered an opportunity for me to come back for an ultrasound to confirm the viability of my pregnancy and learn how far along I was.


When I left Collage that afternoon I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back for the ultrasound, but I thought a lot about what they had shared over the next few weeks. I did eventually end up scheduling the ultrasound, which confirmed that I was 12 weeks along. I left that second appointment still scared and not sure what I would do.


Then this winter I went in to see the staff for the third time. Only this time I had my daughter with me as well as her new baby brother. I wanted to show the staff at Collage how much they had changed my life with those two appointments. I wanted them to meet my son, to look in his eyes and see him as I see him now, a gift.



It isn’t easy. We’re struggling as a family, but I will continue to check in with the staff at Collage about what’s going on in my life because I know they really want to know. They care.

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