A young woman discovers that she is pregnant at seventeen and her religious adoptive parents put her from home, but she ends up finding help in the most unexpected way.
“Long!” her adoptive mother shouted, while Karina cried and covered her face with her hands. “Disgusting sinner! I will not accept you in this house with your innocent brothers and sisters!”
Karina gave her adoptive father a pleading look, but he shrugged and walked away. He would never go against his wife, never! The woman led Karina to the door and said: “The sins of the parents! I should have known that you would be a libertine woman like your mother!”
Image for illustrative purposes. | Photo: Pexels
Image for illustrative purposes. | Photo: Pexels
Karina sat crying on the sidewalk in front of the house until her adoptive father came out with a backpack. “Your sister packed some things for you,” he said and handed her a small roll of bills. “I’m sorry, but you know your mom.”
Karina dried her eyes and looked at him. “She’s not my mom!” And he continued crying. “And you’re not my dad! You promised to love me no matter what, that’s what REAL parents do!”
The young woman’s adoptive
father walked away, looking embarrassed, and she took her few belongings and walked away.
She had been adopted as a child and raised in the López’s house along with four other children. The Lópezes were a good and beautiful family. However, they were religious fanatics who did not celebrate birthdays or Christmas because it was sinful.
The life of Karina and her brothers had been limited to going to school during the week and going to church on Sundays. And, like any other teenager, she had begun to rebel. I wanted to go to the movies, wear nice clothes and lipstick.
I wanted to go to parties, kiss a boy and fall in love. But due to his family’s way of thinking, all that was denied to him, so he lost all sense of true limits. She ended up getting involved with the bad boy at school and in a few months she was pregnant.
Also read: Grandparents throw pregnant teenager into the cold: years later they ask for help – Story of the day
“There are no miracles now!” he said bitterly to himself. “No guardian angel to take care of you!” That was Karina’s most precious fantasy. She imagined that she had a guardian angel who took care of her and, sometimes, magically dropped gifts in her life.
Image for illustrative purposes. | Photo: Pexels
Image for illustrative purposes. | Photo: Pexels
On his birthday, he always received gifts that took him to school. He hid them in his locker and never took them home. At Christmas, he found candy canes hanging from the tree outside his window and a bright Christmas sock full of forbidden treats.
Karina had looked for her guardian angel, but she never glimpsed the mysterious presence. Now that I was alone in the world with a baby in my belly was when I needed it the most.
He walked to the nearby park and sat down with his backpack on his lap. He told the money his adoptive father had given him. A little over $56. It wasn’t even enough for one night in a cheap motel.
Karina began to sob again and then heard a friendly voice. “Hey, girl, what can be so bad? Maybe mom Mila can help you!” a man told him.
Karina looked up and saw two people: one was a tall woman with a friendly smile. She wore an apron of colorful flowers. While the man who had some pruning shears in one hand and a bouquet of roses in the other.
“I’m… fine…” Karina snorted.
The woman shook her head and sat next to the young woman. “No, honey, you’re not,” he said. “But you know you can tell me. I won’t judge you.”
Karina told them all her miserable story and said: “So I have no money, no work, nowhere to go, and an unborn baby that I have to take care of.”
“I’ll give you a job,” Mila said calmly. “And I have a small place where you can stay, but you’ll have to take care of the baby yourself!”
Image for illustrative purposes. | Photo: Unsplash
Image for illustrative purposes. | Photo: Unsplash
“Will you give me a job?” Karina asked. “Really?”
“Yes,” Mila said. “I have a flower stand at this end of the park, but I wanted to open another one near the shopping district. I’ll teach you how to make flower arrangements and we’ll see how it goes.”
Karina was smiling despite her tears. “I can do that! I love flowers!”
“Well, then,” Mila said. Come and see the small apartment in which I can settle you.
The apartment was not far away. It was a place with little space, but very clean and cozy. Karina couldn’t believe her luck. Maybe her guardian angel was taking care of her after all!
During the following months, things only improved for Karina. The flower stand in the commercial district was a great success and Mila was very pleased with the young woman’s work. The kind woman took Karina to the doctor and both the girl and the baby were healthy.
Five months later, Karina gave birth to a beautiful baby whom she called Miguel. Mila gave Karina three months of leave before she had to go back to work. Adapting to a newborn was very difficult.
Miguel cried all the time and Karina constantly changed her diapers. It seemed that she never slept more than ten minutes in a row and the young mother was completely exhausted. Then, one morning, he woke up with the sun entering his bedroom.
“Miguel!” he exclaimed almost crying and ran to his baby’s tiny room. Miguel was fast asleep. She had her tiny fists under her chin and looked like a little angel.
Image for illustrative purposes. | Photo: Unsplash
Image for illustrative purposes. | Photo: Unsplash
Karina couldn’t believe that her son had slept all night without eating or wetting his diaper!
Then he realized that the bottle he had prepared for his night feeding was empty and that his diaper was clean and dry. “That’s so weird!” she said to herself. “I fed him and changed him while he was sleeping?”
That night, Miguel didn’t cry again and when Karina woke up in the morning, he was fed, dry and sleeping in peace. “This is getting really creepy!” he thought. “Maybe I’m sleepwalking or something. I’m not going to sleep tonight!”
Karina lay awake waiting for the slightest sound from Miguel’s room and, at three in the morning, she heard a soft cry followed by silent sounds. There was someone with their baby!
Karina looked into the room. There was a woman leaning over Miguel’s crib talking softly to him and changing his diaper. Karina turned on the light and shouted: “Who are you? Stay away from my baby!”
Image for illustrative purposes. | Photo: Unsplash
Image for illustrative purposes. | Photo: Unsplash
The woman held her breath and Miguel began to cry. Then the stranger lifted the baby and began to calm him down. “Hello, Karina,” he said calmly. “I’m Marta Duarte and I’m your mother.”
Marta told Karina her story. Like her, Marta had become pregnant at a very young age, at sixteen. “My mother wanted me to abort, but I refused,” the woman explained. “So she kicked me out and I had to give up on you.”
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and it broke my heart. I was determined to stay in your life, so I saw you as much as I could and sent you birthday and Christmas gifts.
“After I finished high school and started my own business. I have a series of flower shops in the city, more than thirty, so it was easy to get one of my employees, Mila, to offer you a job. This apartment was my late mother’s.”
“But why didn’t you say something? Why were you hiding?” Karina asked.
Marta shrugged her shoulders. “I was embarrassed,” she whispered. “I know what you must think of me, especially because you are going to stay with your baby… I didn’t mean you to find out, I just wanted you to have a good night’s sleep.”
Read also: Parents throw their pregnant daughter into the cold: years later they ask her for help – Story of the day
“I’m lucky,” Karina said hugging Marta. “I have you and Mila helping me, otherwise I would have to give up Miguel too! How could I think badly of you?”
Marta recovered her daughter and also her grandson, and the two moved into their beautiful house. Finally, Karina had a loving and understanding mother who loved and supported her unconditionally.
Image for illustrative purposes. | Photo: Unsplash
Image for illustrative purposes. | Photo: Unsplash
What can we learn from this story?
No matter how dark and desperate things seem, remember that there is always a guardian angel who protects us: Karina was homeless, she was broke and pregnant. But Mila and Marta gave him a job and a place to live.
Good parents love and support their children unconditionally: Karina’s adoptive mother kicked her out because she was a “sinner”, but her real mother intervened to protect her.
