Roberta Bell, a correctional officer at a women’s prison in Louisiana, lost her job after she made a promise to one of the inmates to care for her baby.
Bell met a pregnant inmate named Katie at the Louisiana Transitional Center for Women.
“Situations in her family led her to where she didn’t have anyone to really get her baby. And she wanted someone that would just keep the baby until it was her time to get out,” Roberta told CBS News.
Katie only had two months to serve.
But, after informing her supervisor of her plan to care for Katie’s baby until her release, Roberta Bell was warned that it was a conflict of interest.
The supervisor later asked Roberta if she was going to “still go through with it.”
“I said if the hospital calls me to come get that baby – I’m going to get that baby,” she replied.
It was at that moment, that Roberta Bell was terminated.
A week later, Robert got the call from the hospital – the baby had been born.
“I started taking pictures,” she gushed. “He was so precious.”
“I put his clothes and stuff on him and I held him for a little while. They bucked him down in the seatbelt, we left and came home,” she shared.
Katie named her baby boy Kason, which is the name of one of Roberta’s grandsons.
I said, “Lord, this must be you!”
Roberta Bell became emotional as she recalled the outpouring of love and support she received from the community who supplied with her everything the baby could have possibly needed.
“It was just overwhelming. Really…because I couldn’t do it by myself. I couldn’t,” she confessed.
Roberta raised baby Kason for two months until his mother was released from prison.
This experience has prompted Roberta Bell to continue her mission of helping women in need with the Serenity House.
It’s a double-wide trailer in the middle of rural Mississippi and once the renovations are completed it will serve as a transitional home for women coming out of prison.
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“I’m hoping it will be ready before the first of the year because them ladies calling me,” she said with a laugh.
Roberta Bell said she loved her job as a correctional officer because it gave her the opportunity to pour into the women and encourage them to turn their lives around.
When asked about the lesson in her experience, Roberta shared, “Don’t be afraid to step out and believe what’s in your heart and know that God is going to take care of you. Even if it’s breaking a rule.”
She admitted, “If I had to do it all over again – I would do it.”
Watch Robert Bell’s beautiful story below.
I pray God continues to bless Roberta for continuing to do his work here on earth.
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