For ladies in waiting

Pregnant women in need find a home, coach and support network at Madison House

By Eric Bartels

The Portland Tribune, Jun 13, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Christine Jensen is driven to selfless acts by the teachings of her Christian religion. She’s also tough as hell. She has to be.

For 18 years, the past two in Southeast Portland, Jensen has kept her home and her heart open to women and girls with what care providers like her term crisis pregnancies. At Madison House, one of several maternity residences in the area, Jensen plays surrogate mom, cheerleader and drill sergeant to women who arrive with the dimmest of prospects.

Pregnancy is often the least of the worries facing the women Jensen and her husband, Dan, take in. Some are mentally ill. Some are drug addicts with criminal records. And many are homeless but safer on the streets than in the abusive situations they’ve left behind.

“My youngest has been 12; my oldest has been 45,” Jensen says. “We will take the drug addict and the mentally ill, and nobody else will. It’s whoever God brings to our door.”

If the whole idea seems a bit Dickensian, Jensen says she and other providers are merely applying a simple, old-fashioned formula.

“Good boundaries and lots of love,” she says. “These girls are feeling trapped and they have no choices. We look at breaking the victim cycle. They’re loved for the first time.”

The program is designed to move the women into stable living situations after they give birth.

Dan Jensen, who runs the couple’s real estate brokerage, plays a key role.

“He’s kind of that father that goes to work, comes home,” his wife says. “So many of these young girls have never had a healthy relationship with a man. Understanding how a man thinks is crucial. They get to see the relationship he has with other girls in the program.”

Together, Christine Jensen says, “we tend to look at ‘What does this lady need?’ and we go for it.”

And if need be, the 52-year-old is more than willing to take off the kid gloves. She has no patience with the idea that her subjects are delicate, damaged flowers to be coddled.

“That’s a crock of crap,” she says. “Pregnancy is not a disability. You’re not sick; you’re pregnant. Women are strong. That’s why we have the babies. If we would empower these women to be all that God has created them to be, the world could be changed.”

If only she had the means.

Madison House pays no rent to Good Samaritan Ministries, which owns the property just off Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard. But Jensen’s small salary and all other costs are paid by private donations. On the wall of her office is a chart measuring the organization’s progress toward its goal of raising $100,000.

“We’re hoping to enlarge this home and open a second one,” she says. “We need it to be able to house moms and babies.”

Hard case

April Lidfors, 32, is a resident at Madison House. She has a curious, bright-eyed, 15-month-old daughter named Mira, which is short for miracle because Lidfors smoked methamphetamine months into the pregnancy.

Lidfors, who grew up in Forest Grove, is not shy about discussing her past.

“My life has been kind of crazy,” she says. “I suffered abuse at the hands of a stepparent. I was very promiscuous Ñ all three of my children have different fathers. I’m a recovering meth addict.”

She is also clear about what turned her around in the past year.

“The groundwork was in treatment Ñ I got my GED in jail Ñ I’ve done the rest of it here,” she says. “A lot of it is Chris, because she doesn’t let my bullcrap slide. I’m a runner. When the going gets tough, I run. When the first person in the house relapsed (into drug use), I wanted to take off. I didn’t want to be here.”

Lidfors is now enrolled at Portland Community College, studying to become a drug and alcohol counselor. There is an air of calm self-possession about her that suggests the goal is well within reach.

“Chris always held a higher standard for me,” she says. “At first I hated her for it. I realize now it made me the person I am. I have never felt so safe in an environment I lived in. Ever.”

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