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Teacher adopts troubled student and his brother to give them a better life

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PHOTO: Facebook/Chelsea Haley
PHOTO: Facebook/Chelsea Haley

A selfless 26-year-old teacher decided to adopt a student and his younger brother to change their lives for good.

Back in 2013, Chelsea Haley, from Louisiana, US, began working for Teach For America, a non-profit organisation that strives for educational equality and excellence within low-income schools, reports Daily Mail.

Chelsea was then recruited as ‘corp member’, Independent News reports, in order to educate primary school kids in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

That’s when she met Jerome Robinson, who was 12 years old at the time.

Jerome and his little brother Jace (then just one) were shuttled between their birth mom and their grandparents. Their father and little sister had just died, CNN reports.

"It was really hard on her after she lost her husband," Chelsea said of the boy’s mother. "It was just a combination of tragedy coupled with the other social situations you face when you live in poverty."

The family struggled to make ends meet and Jerome’s behaviour reflected the stress at home. He had been suspended several times.

“At certain points, his behaviour got so bad, I thought, ‘I can't do this anymore. I can't be a teacher,'' says Chelsea.

But thanks to her devotion to helping Jerome, the two quickly developed a unique bond.

Eventually, the young teacher became the only person who could talk some sense into him.

“After exhausting all of my resources in the classroom, I realised the only way to reach Jerome was to get to know him and just build a relationship.

“I started spending a lot of time with him outside of school, going to his football games, his basketball games, just hanging out with him at home, buying school supplies and groceries, all those kinds of things,” she says.

According to ABC News, in 2015, Jerome asked Chelsea if he could live with her.

Incredibly, in the same month, the teacher dreamt that God had told her that she was destined to Jerome’s mom.

After going through the motions for two months, Chelsea was granted full custody of both Jerome and Jace, after their biological mom gave her permission to adopt the boys. She was just 24 at the time.

The newly formed family now happily lives in Georgia where Jerome is an A-student in grade 8.

“I don’t think there are many words to really describe just how awesome it is to celebrate all of Jerome’s achievements.

“I think it just goes to show that he’s always had the potential, all he needed was the support and the self-confidence to be successful.

“I’m just really, really proud of him,” says Chelsea.

The young single mom, who has now set up a GoFundMe page, has taken on two part-time jobs, along with her teaching, to create the best life possible for her two boys.

Sources: abcnews.com, independent.co.uk, dailymail.co.uk, CNN

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