A Young Mother's Agonizing Decision

By Kelly

Last winter I was a pregnant teenager, but I am not a single mother. My boyfriend and I decided to be unselfish and give our child the chance at the best life he could have: A family by adoption.

When our home pregnancy test came back positive, we rushed panic-stricken to Planned Parenthood, hoping that this next test would come back negative. We were not so lucky. Speaking through tears, we asked the nurse what to do. She gave us one option - abortion. For many reasons, I did not believe in abortion. That was the end of her help for us.

At first we thought of ourselves: how this baby was ruining our future dreams for college and careers. We finally realized that the solution couldn't be about us. The best thing for our baby was to be raised by two mature and loving adults - in other words, adoption.

While our parents offered us their support, our friends and acquaintances wondered why we did not choose to keep the child. At 20 and 18, my boyfriend and I knew we did not have the maturity or education to give this baby what he deserved. Keeping the baby would be putting his future at too great a risk.

We went to Wide Horizons and with their help started searching for our child's family. We found a couple just like us, but older. They even had an adopted daughter with my sister's name and same hair color. As soon as we met them, we knew we had found our son's mom and dad. Together the four of us decided upon a name. My boyfriend and I discussed with the new parents if our son would ever know about his biological parents. They told us that he would know everything we wanted him to know about us, and would have our picture by his bedside. He would know we acted out of love.

After he was born it was agony leaving the hospital without him; our hearts broke. But when pain threatened to overwhelm us, we remembered why we were doing this: We were being the best parents we could by giving our child the gift of a family through adoption.

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