Giving birth to a baby is one of the biggest blessings a woman could ever have but for Shariya Small, a teen mom, it is not really. That might be because she had no one to turn to after she gave birth. Fortunately, life has other plans for her.
In April 2023, Katrina Mullen, a neonatal nurse from Indiana, shared a story about how she welcomed with open arms 14-year-old mom Shariya Small and her three kids into her life.
As per Mullen, she noticed that then-8th grader Shariya Small, who was a patient at the hospital where she was working, had been taking care of her child on her own after she gave birth. Noticing Small ate a packed lunch or snacks to fill her tummy, Mullen wondered whether the teen was getting support from her family at all.
“She’d be there alone for days at a time sitting at her babies’ bedside,” Mullen told TODAY in an interview.
But Mullen decided not to delve further into Small’s personal life when the latter told her that she didn’t want to open up about it.
Shariya Small gave birth to triplets Serenitee, Samari and Sarayah at just 26 weeks in 2020. Therefore, they had to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Indianapolis’s Community Hospital North.
Mullen then taught Small about how to take care of newborn children. However, Small started trusting Mullen after she told her that she placed a son for adoption when she was a teen, at the age of 16.
“Something shifted after I told her that I was a teen mom,” Mullen said. “That’s when we really developed trust.”
Mullen then gave Small her number and told her that she could always reach out to her if she ever needed anything before the triplets were discharged.
The two then started communicating with each other, texting and FaceTiming every now and then. Mullen slowly became Small’s support system.
But when she visited Small at her relative’s house in Kokomo, Indiana Mullen was stunned after seeing the babies were sleeping in a playpen.
“It was not a place for her to raise babies,” Mullen said.
Small’s son, Samari, was covered in eczema and looked “extremely skinny.” The little baby was immediately admitted to a hospital and he was then diagnosed with “failure to thrive.”
The Department of Social Services (DSS) was notified of Samari’s diagnosis. So, the DSS contacted Mullen and told her that Small wanted to stay at her home. The nurse didn’t hesitate although she already had three children at home.
“I knew it would be impossible to find a foster home that would take all four of them. No one was going to take a teen mom and her preemie triplets,” Mullen said.
Mullen fostered Small and the babies for 668 days. Small graduated from an alternative high school and said she is hoping to pursue a career in social work.
In February 2023, after receiving the adoption papers, Mullen officially became Small’s mom
“She just amazes me every day. When she’s frustrated with the babies, she never raises her voice. She’s just blossoming into this incredible woman.”
At the same time, she set up a GoFundMe to help Small and her babies so they could “build a financial cushion.”
“I’m her mom — and I’m never going anywhere,” Mullen said.
