I was 18 when I got pregnant. I remember multiple people telling me what I “needed” to do. I needed to keep her, I needed an abortion. But I knew in my heart what I needed to do for her.
And that was to place her into a family that could give her all the things I wouldn’t be able to. People were mean, I was ridiculed by family and friends. When I delivered that beautiful baby girl, a part of my heart wanted her. I’ve never said this out loud until now.
But when I saw her parents look at her, and reach out to hold her, I knew that’s where she belonged. I completed their family.
Still to this day I remember so vividly her adoptive dad looking at me and saying “thank you” with so much happiness in his eyes.
She’s 11 now, with her mom, dad and older brother. And now I’m able to be married with my own three children. We live just a couple hours away and see her often. We call, text and FaceTime. The siblings all know each other and everyone is loved so much and cared for. And looking back, this is EXACTLY how I hoped our lives would turn out.
I wish I could go back and tell my young self that everything would work out how it is supposed to, because it was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.
Because here we are, and it is everything I prayed that it would be.
