Chelsea Haley, age 24 at the time, met fourth-grade student Jerome Robinson while working for Teach for America in Louisiana.
The pair didn’t get off to the best start, with Jerome, the “problem child”, almost driving Chelsea from teaching.
But when Chelsea put her foot down and became determined to work more closely with Jerome, she learned the cause of his unruly behavior: a bad home situation.
Chelsea was now desperate to help Jerome, and realized that he needed more than just academic support.
And then, one night, God came to Chelsea in her dreams and told her to adopt Jerome and his baby brother, Jace.
By 2016, a year after meeting them, Chelsea had been granted full custody of Jerome and Jace. At 24 years of age, she gave up her freedom and her savings to become a single mom to two boys.
Adopting a child doesn’t come cheap, and Chelsea spent all the money in her bank to see the process through.
In her first few years of raising the boys, she lived off credit cards and deferred her student loan.
As Chelsea bonded with her two adopted sons, she worked hard to repay her debts. She took on extra tutoring jobs outside of school hours, moved in with her parents, and even delivered groceries for cash.
Along the way, she was learning how to be the best mom to Jerome and Jace, cooking for them and cheering them on at football matches.
And now, just five years later, Chelsea can proudly say that she has paid off nearly $50,000 of debt.
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