My story. =)

1. Hi! My name is Samantha. I’m 23 years old and I have a story to tell…

2. When I was 17 years old I found out I was pregnant.

3. I was a senior in high school. The baby’s father and I had just broken up a few weeks before. Needless to say, I was scared to death. 1,000 questions were running through my mind…

4. What will my parents say?

5. What will the people at school think?

6. How can I raise a baby when I’m not even an adult myself?

7. At first, the easiest thing seemed to be to get an abortion. Nobody would find out. Everything would go back to normal and I could enjoy being a senior. The “problem” would just go away.

8. I went to the local Crisis Pregnancy Center in hopes of getting some direction on what to do next… While I was there I watched a video about unplanned pregnancy.

9. I learned what my baby looked like…

10. How big my baby was…

11. That my baby’s tiny heart was already beating…

12. But the most important thing I learned that day was that I could have my baby if I wanted to. There were people who were willing to help me.

13. A few weeks later, I went for my first ultrasound. Seeing my baby for the first time was all it took for me to know I had made the right choice.

14. On August 3rd, 2005, three months after I graduated high school, I gave birth to a beautiful 9 pound, 4 ounce little boy named Ethan Kade.

15. But that’s not the end of my story…

16. I had been a single mother for 3 years when I started college in January of 2008. I was so excited to be back in school.

17. One week after classes started, I found out I was pregnant again.

18. What started out as one night out with an old friend turned into way more than I ever expected… This time I was alone, in school, AND I had another kid to think about.

19. I talked to my friends about abortion. I was ashamed, but I felt like it was my only option…

20. I told my Mom, hoping she could give me some advice. We decided that I should go to the doctor to make sure everything was okay, and then do some research on adoption.

21. I cried for weeks while I scrolled through websites looking at couples wanting to adopt. Adoption is a beautiful thing, but deep down I knew it just wasn’t for me.

22. On June 23, 2008, I gave birth to an 11 pound, 4 ounce perfect little boy named Evan Carter.

23. Evan was born during my summer break from college. I returned to school when he was 2 months old, right where I had left off.

24. I was a single Mom for 4 years until I got married to an amazing man in June of 2009. He is a wonderful step-father to Ethan and father to Evan (the adoption was final this past March).

25. The point of my story is that even though babies can come about at the most inopportune times, it doesn’t mean that they will ruin your life. Things will work out if you give them a chance to.

26. You may feel alone. Or too young. Or too busy. Maybe you’re just scared. Maybe you feel like I did: You just want to have the abortion because it’ll make the “problem” go away and you won’t have to think about it anymore.

27. But if you go through with it, the “problem” won’t go away. It will stay with you for the rest of your life. You’ll think about the baby you could have had. What that baby would look like now, what it would be doing, how old it would be…

28. I considered abortion two times. If I had gone through with it, I would be missing out on a beautiful gift.

29. Being a Mom isn’t easy, but little kisses on the face, crayon doodles made just for you, and being told, “I love you Mommy,” every day makes it all worth it.

30. Please don’t think that abortion is your only choice. There are so many people who want to help you and your baby. American Pregnancy Helpline – 1-866-942-6466 www. thehelpline.org Adoptionhelp.org Abort73.com 4exhale.org – After Abortion Help