At just 14 years old, Indiana teen Shariya Small found herself in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), mother of premature triplets, and all alone in a hospital in August 2020. “I was 14, I was like, ‘I don’t want to be a mom right now,” she told People. A nurse on the NICU floor, Katrina Mullen, noticed the teen mom and felt an instant connection. A single mother as well, Mullen’s journey into motherhood began when she was just 16 years old. “She’d be there alone for days at a time sitting at her babies’ bedside,” recalled Mullen. Shariya’s babies had been born at just 26 weeks and she felt all alone. “I felt like I couldn’t relate to all the other moms on the floor,” she said. She kept tight-lipped about her own personal life until Mullen shared that she had been a teen mom too. “That’s when we really developed trust,” said Mullen.

A friendship developed, and Small would spend time with Mullen even when she wasn’t working the NICU floor. “It felt really good to finally have somebody to talk to that wasn’t on my phone,” said Small. Her babies, Sarayah, Serenitee, and son Samari, were released in January 2021 one at a time. The pair stayed in touch afterwards, with Small reaching out to Mullen whenever she felt overwhelmed. After Mullen made the drive to Kokomo, IN, to check in on Small, she quickly realized that all was not well. Small was staying with a relative, sleeping on a couch, while the three babies slept in a playpen. Samari had developed a bad case of eczema and had lost a lot of weight, requiring a trip to the hospital. The stint resulted in a diagnosis of “failure to thrive.” This prompted a referral to Child Protective Services. Soon, mom and all three babies were finding themselves in foster care.

Small then asked Mullen if she would consider taking the four of them in. It was a big decision for Mullen, a mother of five, with SeQuayvion, 16, ShaKovon, 14, and JJ, 7 still at home at the time. Yet she knew it would be nearly impossible to find someone to take in all four of them. “I just kept thinking, ‘I have to do this.’ I knew Shariya was intelligent and resilient and she just needed a safe place to put her roots. I knew it would be hard, but we’d figure it out,” said Mullen. She took the four into her home, got licensed as a foster parent, and after 668 days, she adopted Small. During that time, Small learned the ropes of motherhood from Mullen. “In the beginning, it was me pretty much doing everything for the babies and her observing and participating when she felt confident. And now she’s in charge. I’ll watch them if she wants to go hang out with her friends and stuff that teenagers do.” There were the usual challenges of raising a teenager, but Mullen loves her daughter. “I’m so proud to be Shariya’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.” Small has since graduated from an alternative high school and plans to become a social worker. “I want to help other teen moms, because I wanted somebody like that in my corner,” Small said. “I think I would be a big help.”