July 22, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A Florida teen shot in the face by her boyfriend last year after refusing to abort her unborn child has recovered, had her baby, and wants to make a difference for other young people facing abusive situations.

Naomi Rosado considers her son Landyn, now around eight months old, to be a miracle, and has plans to go into schools to talk to other teens about domestic violence.

“Landyn is such a perfect, happy baby,” she said. “I'm so thankful I’ve been given a second chance and I’m seizing it with both hands.”

Two years ago when she was 17 and in high school, Rosado had been fighting a lot with her mother Robin, and she moved out to live with her girlfriend Kaitlyn and Kaityn’s friend Charles Tenpenny.

Beginning a few months later, Tenpenny would coerce her into a violent relationship, according to her account given to The Sun.

He would later become increasingly more abusive, and one year ago, shoot her in the eye while she was pregnant with his child.

Baby Landyn SOURCE: GoFundMe

Rosado and her son miraculously survived, and after multiple surgeries, losing her eye, and giving birth to Landyn, she faced her attacker in court.

She continues to rebuild her life, grateful it and for her son.

In January 2018 Tenpenny declared himself Rosado’s boyfriend, she said, though she’d never consented to this.

“Deep down, I was terrified of the guy,” she said. “He would ply me with booze so he could have his way with me and, although he could be very kind, I knew what a nasty piece of work he really was.”

However, Rosado thought she couldn’t go back home and face her mother after they way she’d left, so she stayed.

“This was one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made in my life,” she stated.

Tenpenny became verbally abusive by the end of March of that year, she said, calling her nasty names and slapping her around.

She was too frightened to seek help.

After realizing in April of last year she’d missed a period and been sick a few times, she told Tenpenny she thought she might be pregnant.

She said, “He erupted in fury, saying, ‘If you are, you are going to get rid of it! You would be an awful mother!’”

“I cried,” Rosado recounted. “I knew it was no use, so I put the pregnancy to the back of my head as if it wasn’t real. It was easier that way.”

In the meantime, Tenpenny’s alcohol-abetted advances continued.

By the time July arrived, Rosado realized she could not ignore the pregnancy any longer. When she had bad stomach pains and difficulty standing, a friend rushed her to hospital.

“While I was there, the doctors did an ultrasound scan,” she recalled. “‘There’s definitely a baby in there,’ the doctor told me.”

“When she said I was expecting a boy, I burst out crying,” said Rosado. “I was thrilled, even though it was Charles’ baby.”

Tenpenny came to the hospital and Rosado confirmed she was pregnant, and she said he seemed excited to hear it was a boy.

She thought everything would be okay.

Her mother learned of the pregnancy and welcomed her back with open arms, said Rosado, wanting her to come home.

Afraid it was upset Tenpenny, Rosado declined and stayed with him.

“I looked after myself and my unborn child,” she recalled, “refusing to touch a drop of alcohol even when he insisted.”

Last July 17 the violence reached a new height.

Rosado heard that Tenpenny was telling people the baby wasn’t his, and she confronted him about it.

“Enraged, he hit me in the head with the barrel of a gun – knocking me out,” she said.

When she came-to the next morning, angry, she screamed at him, asking, “Why did you knock me out last night? Why would you want to hurt me like that?”

Tenpenny replied yelling that she’d cheated on him and that she wasn’t keeping the house clean.

Rosado said she began crying and realized she had to get out.

“I was sitting on the sofa as he walked towards me, holding the same gun he used to knock me out the night before,” she said. “Charles please don’t,” I cried. “Think about the baby!”

“As the words left my mouth, he shot me at point blank range in my left eye,” Rosado said. “I fell onto the floor and he left me to bleed for a while, before finally calling the police.”

Rosado said she heard Tenpenny lie to police, telling them that someone had broken into the house.

She was taken to the hospital and then airlifted to the nearest facility offering specialist care.

Tenpenny came to the hospital and stayed with her family, Rosado said, crying, and her mother comforting him.

Rosado was put into a medically induced coma with the bullet still lodged in her head, but miraculously having missed her brain.

She said she has memories from this time, and felt terrified whenever Tenpenny was in the room.

“Sitting with me, he would whisper in my ear:’“If you tell anyone what I did, I will hurt your mum worse than I’ve hurt you,’” she stated. “‘And I will make sure she stays alive so you can see the damage you have done.’”

Rosado said her mother noticed her heart rate monitor would go up markedly whenever Tenpenny spoke to her. Her mom told police she feared he was involved, and they agreed, but said they needed additional evidence.

A few days later, Tenpenny would tell Rosado’s grandmother he’d accidentally shot her. Her grandmother didn't believe him and immediately informed the police, who arrested Tenpenny.

As this was going on, Rosado remained in a coma, lasting three weeks.

She awoke in August, to have multiple surgeries and be given a prosthetic eye.

“I could have died and I lost my eye, but miraculously my baby was fine,” she said.

“While it was a shock to lose my eye,” she said, “my baby was safe and I was alive and that’s all that mattered to me. I’d been given a second chance.”

Her son Landyn was born via C-section in November 2018.

Rosado had to be put under general anesthesia to give birth due to pressure in her head from the injury.

She recalled that it was an emotional experience finally getting to hold her son.

“As I looked at him, I couldn't stop crying and my family were all crying with me,” she said. “My miracle baby who could have died just a few months earlier.”

“I felt so much love for my little boy,” she said. “It was overwhelming.”

Rosado faced Tenpenny in court later that month, when he took a plea deal and admitted to shooting her in the face. He was sentenced to 25 years in jail.

Looking back a year later, she said she wished she hadn’t accepted that plea deal, and pushed for a life sentence. But she wanted to move on.

It was empowering to face him, she said, the end of the nightmare relationship.

Rosado said she is going back to school and plans to reach out to other young people about domestic violence.

“I want them to recognize a bad relationship and know how to get out, because I really didn’t,” Rosado said.

“I’m so thankful that I’m here,” she said. “I feel like I was meant to survive to make a difference.”

A GoFundMe account has been established for Rosado and Landyn.