Raised in a strict home, Natalie felt that she could finally make her parents proud with her scholarship to Lamar University for an engineering degree.
During her second semester of senior year in high school, she registered a positive pregnancy test. For a time, she was in denial. Not wanting to let her parents down, she believed that her best option would be abortion, and she visited a local abortion facility in Houston.
As she sat in the waiting room, she looked at the women who were coming out after their abortion. She was not surprised that they were sad, yet they didn't look relieved. She began to wonder if she would feel relieved and if she could ever forget the abortion. She was told she had to make up her mind in two weeks or they would not do the procedure.
As she and the father of the baby left the abortion facility, she saw Christine. Natalie described that Christine looked at her with such compassion and such concern that she was drawn to her. Even while the abortion facility's security was actively discouraging her from talking with Christine, Natalie wanted to listen.
Very soon, Natalie entered Baby Blue, and she saw her baby on the ultrasound screen. She followed up with Houston Coalition for Life at the Big Blue Bus. When she finally told her parents, they were upset at first, but they have been a support for her through the pregnancy.
At this point, her baby boy, Adriel, is 5 months old, and Natalie is married to the baby's father. Natalie is a wife, a mother and a full-time engineering student, with an hour commute between home and school. She says that she has a better relationship with her father now than she experienced during her life before this crisis pregnancy. Natalie says at that even though life is challenging at this time, she firmly believes people can rise above their circumstances.
"I will rise above my circumstances!" she said triumphantly.
