She was 16, alone and scared.

Two years later, after making the same mistake, she was ashamed and terrified.

This is the story of Rebecca Sullivan, who not once but twice became pregnant long before she could even think of the responsibilities of motherhood.

With help from the kindness of others and from hope driven by her faith in God, she made life-giving decisions to have the family she always wanted.

Sound of a heartbeat

Sullivan grew up just outside of Allentown and attended Parkland High School. She enjoyed a normal childhood, making friends, taking music lessons and thinking of college after graduation.

That changed when Sullivan thought she had become pregnant.

“I told my boyfriend. He said he was surprised. Then he told me he had a child from another girl. I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to tell my parents.”

Her boyfriend told her to go to the Crisis Pregnancy Center in Allentown. A pregnancy test proved positive and a new fear came to Rebecca’s mind.

“I was going to be kicked out of my house.”

She and her boyfriend separated. He would later leave to join the Navy. Sullivan was left alone to tell her parents.

“Of course, they were upset,” she said. “My father was angry, but my mother eventually became supportive.”

Sullivan went to the crisis center every week. She was assigned a pregnancy decision coach who along with other members of the staff provided her with what she said was “an outlet for my tangled emotions.” The decision to have her baby was never in question.

“I grew up going to church and I never believed in abortion. The people at the center helped me with my decision and they set up a plan so I could juggle both high school and motherhood.”

On Feb. 2, 1986, Sullivan gave birth to a “beautiful healthy baby boy,” she named Andrue.

Another shame

Although Sullivan returned to her 11th-grade classes at Parkland while her mother minded Andrue, her life at school was stigmatized by her reputation.

“It got so bad I transferred to William Allen, where they actually had a wing in the school for pregnant girls and young mothers. They also provided a day care center.”

Sullivan graduated from Allen in 16 months. Her life was settling down and her mother reassured her that “nothing was out of the question” as far as her future plans were concerned.

Then she met Greg Sullivan at Skate Away, a roller rink in Whitehall, and soon thereafter, she realized she had not learned her lesson from crisis number one.

“I was pregnant again and more frightened than I was the first time,” she said. “I was embarrassed and suffocating with shame and fear.”

She made an appointment to go with Greg to a Planned Parenthood Center.

“I walked in crying and feeling petrified. They suggested I get an abortion for my emotional well-being. They said that at this early stage of pregnancy, all that had to be removed was a blob of tissue. When we heard that, Greg and I got up and walked out.”

Sullivan decided to return to the Crisis Pregnancy Center. They were nonjudgmental and supported her decision to have a second baby and even had someone speak with her about giving up the baby for adoption.

“Greg and I decided we would raise this baby together,” she said.

But Sullivan was about to double her troubles. With a toddler whose father wanted nothing to do with her and a boyfriend who had dropped out of school, she faced an uncertain and frightening future.

On July 30, Ashley Sullivan was born.

“My mother said she could no longer help us, so Greg and I were about to become homeless.”

Through HUD, a housing urban development program, they got a small apartment in the Center City section of Allentown. Two teens with a 19-month-old and a newborn living in a high crime area was certainly not the best way to begin a family. Greg, who would get his GED in six months, worked as a cook in a local restaurant and Rebecca stayed home with her children.

“We had no money,” Sullivan said. “We had food stamps, too. I wanted to help by getting a job so I took a four-month training program to be a secretary. Mom watched the kids sometimes or we put them in day care.

“I was incredibly sad,” she added. “I felt terrible for the poor choices I had made.”

Surprising faith and redemption

Her best friend and her husband visited a few days a week, and little did Sullivan know that her life would take a turn for the better. They came to play board games, but they brought a Bible along with them.

“I wasn’t ready for God,” said Sullivan, who listened politely to her friends read a few Scriptures.

She soon discovered that God was ready for her. She became curious as passage after passage began to open up her heart.

“This was about my salvation. Everyone sins, and Jesus died on the cross for our sins.”

Upon her attendance at the Northampton Assembly of God Church, Sullivan received the grace of forgiveness.

“I prayed for Greg, too. I loved him so much and I certainly didn’t want a third guy,” she said with a laugh.

In 1991, Rebecca and Greg were married, and soon after, he legally adopted her son, Andrue. She home-schooled her children and felt “overwhelmed” all the time. She was frustrated by having no money. Despite the many hardships, child number three, their daughter Jael, was about to be born.

A voice from faith

“I had started taking nursing classes at LCCC, but I had to stop when Jael became very sick.”

Andrue was 6 and Ashley was 4 when Jael arrived home, but the Sullivans continued to remain open to life, and at the age of 23, she gave birth to Nathaniel.

“I was told in my third trimester that this baby would be born severely disabled, both physically and mentally.”

“We never considered Nathaniel for his name until I heard a voice speak inside me to give him this name.”

The name in Hebrew means “a gift from God.” Nathaniel, now 26, is nonverbal and requires continuous care.

In 1996, she gave birth to Nasya, her fifth child in 10 years, and one year later, Josiah was born.

As a stay-at-home mom with six children, she and her husband wanted to move away from the center of Allentown. Her grandfather died, leaving them a bit of money to help them buy a house in Tamaqua in 2009.

Degrees of determination

Sullivan found the time to take jobs working as a school van driver and a kitchen worker at Tamaqua Area High School. She prayed over her desire to return to nursing classes at LCCC and “a new voice” told her to go back to school. With nearly 300 applicants, she passed an entrance test and was one of 62 selected in 2012. She applied for grants to help pay her tuition, and in 2014 she received her associate degree.

With scholarships awarded to her, Sullivan then went on to graduate from Clarion University with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. A registered nurse for the past five years, she currently works at St. Luke’s Miner Campus in Coaldale.

Pay it forward

“I was told about an opening for a volunteer nurse at the Crisis Pregnancy Center that is now Care Net in Nesquehoning. I got excited because I wanted to give back for all the help that I was given.”

Currently, Care Net is in need of a volunteer physician and an ultrasound technician. Once the two positions are secured, she will become their nurse.

Sullivan tells her story of struggle, survival and success so that if there’s a frightened pregnant girl who doesn’t know where to turn, she can know she’s not alone and can come to Care Net for help.

Faith and fortitude can overcome despair, and in Sullivan’s case, she and her husband have been blessed with a large and loving family.

Asked if there was anything else she’d like to do with her life at this point, Rebecca laughed and replied, “I would love to know what it feels like to be bored.”

Care Net can be contacted at 610-379-0411.