By Hope House Colorado’s Founder & Executive Director, Lisa Steven
Do you remember when you were a little girl and your mom or Grandma hung the picture you drew on the refrigerator? It might have been a picture of you and your mom, or you and your dog. The big, round head, maybe with the arms sticking straight out of it, and the curly hair all wild on top of the head. The dog probably had four stick legs and a big round body, but even with the misshapen figures only a five-year-old can draw, your mama saw beauty and worth, and she proudly hung your drawing up for all the family to see.
Or maybe, like many teen moms, you grew up in a home where you didn’t feel celebrated. No one put your drawings on the fridge, or asked you questions about the stick figures and praised your budding artistic abilities. Maybe you never really felt celebrated at all as a child. Maybe your memories are filled with all the times you got in trouble, and they overshadow the few moments when you felt like someone really saw you – the real you, the one who loved to dance, or sing, or draw, or play teacher, who loved animals, or always wanted to figure out how things worked and loved to play Legos.
At Hope House, we LOVE to celebrate our teen moms! We want you to feel seen and valued! We absolutely love to celebrate your wins – big or little.
This is where the GONG comes in! One of my favorite things at Hope House is when we do a gong-ringing! One of our beautiful teen mamas has just earned her GED, or gotten her driving permit or completed a parenting class – or even just passed a test she was nervous about. That means it’s time to ring the gong in celebration!
Every single staff member and volunteer comes flooding into the dining room, where the great big orchestra-sized gong hangs from its wooden stand. Mama is usually a little shy, being surrounded by all of these people just waiting to hoot and holler for her. We often have to remind her as we hand her the padded mallet, that we want her to hit that gong with feeling – make it ring loud and strong!
And as the great sound vibrates through the room, the staff bursts into applause and cheers, and I get to watch our mama’s eyes light up. She grins from ear to ear, hugs her little one a little tighter on her hip, stands a little taller and blushes just a bit. Maybe for the first time, she feels truly seen, celebrated and valued.
Teen mama, let me tell you – you are a hero! You are determined, persistent, strong, smart and beautiful. Most of all, you are chosen! You are chosen by God to parent your beautiful child and you are chosen by us to be loved, valued and celebrated!
We know that you want your own child to feel celebrated too – so just let us know if you need some magnets for your fridge so you can hang up that straggly dog picture your preschooler drew!
