This is one of a series of stories about the nonprofit agencies that receive money from The Gazette/El Pomar Foundation Empty Stocking Fund campaign that runs through the holidays.

Tomarra Carey, who was expecting a baby, had to quit her job at a big box store when she developed high blood pressure and swollen feet. The serious side effects of preeclampsia, including a severe headache, put her in the hospital for nine days.

During that stay her baby was born premature at only 24 weeks.

“It was terrifying,” Carey said. She had saved some money, but it ran out as she stayed by her critically ill daughter, who was hospitalized for 132 days.

Carey did babysitting and lawn work to try and stay afloat, but she got behind in her rent. She turned to Partners in Housing, a nonprofit agency that provides transitional housing, life and job skill training and other services.

When the agency provided her with a studio apartment for 17 months, she cried in relief.

“It was somewhere warm to lay my head and eventually bring Lily home from the hospital,” Carey said.

Medicaid paid the astronomical medical bills.

Carey took the life skills classes provided by Partners in Housing. One guest speaker inspired her to go back to school.

Now 36, Carey is in an accelerated degree program in health care administration at Colorado Technical University and working full-time as a receptionist at health care agency. She has her own place after 17 months in Partners housing.

Her daughter, now 3, is doing well. “It’s all about her. Everything I do is for her.”

Carey said she is able to juggle those responsibilities with motherhood because of the lessons learned at Partners.

When the agency asked her to speak at a fundraising dinner, she was very nervous.

“I had never done anything like that before,” she said. “But they helped me so much I wanted to give back and help others.