Serving the Homeless of Jacksonville from Home with a Newborn

Meet Lindsay Miller, our Director of Women and Children’s Programs and new mom of a beautiful little girl, Scarlette Leigh. Lindsay wears a lot of hats here at our Women and Children’s Center including (but not limited to): case management/mentoring; designing and developing program structure; managing supervisors; story capturing; along with some administrative responsibilities and networking with other community agencies.

Lindsay’s baby was born right before the United States began closing due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Here is Lindsay’s story in her own words about managing a new baby while working for our homeless shelter during a pandemic.

”There was talk about the virus in China during my maternity leave and right at my 6th week the US began to shut down. For the first time, I felt this huge tug between doing what I thought was what I wanted to do and what I thought was best for my child. My whole life I’ve really pushed through things to get my work done. I would go to school sick, didn’t really skip out of classes and work, and just really had this need to be busy most of the time. I even went back to work the 2nd week of maternity leave for a couple days a week (Not sure if I should say that lol). That work ethic and need to be productive and helpful didn’t go away just because I had a baby.

As the country started to shut down and more and more scary stories of sickness and death were popping up in the media and the news, Ryan and I made the decision to ask if I could work from home. This was hard for me to do because I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to do as much as I was doing from the office, but I was faced with ‘What if I brought something home to my newborn?’. That scared me more.

Well the Lord knew my heart. I’ve been able to do a lot from home. As my mom watches my baby, I’ve been able to meet with my coworkers and staff everyday over the phone and I’ve been able to do many projects that help the mission from a “big picture” standpoint. I’ve been able to text, email and FB message the residents that I have made deep relationships with. I had feared that I would lose connections with many of them.

The biggest blessing that has come from this is that I have been able to spend way more time with my newborn than I ever thought I would after my maternity leave. After having some difficult postpartum struggles in my mental health, this pandemic has lead me to have more time to create a stronger bond with my baby that I’ll always be grateful for.

God continues to comfort me and shows me that I am valuable in his eyes. I just need to use wisdom in all that I do because it’s not just about me anymore.”

Congratulations to Lindsay and Ryan and thank you Lindsay for all that you do for Trinity Rescue Ministries.