My Story

I know that many people have things against teenage moms, and I don't want anyone to have the wrong idea about Mason and I.  Therefore, I'm going to tell you about us, and how we plan on raising our child. 

First, Mason and I started dating on September 14, 2009.  That would make us together for almost three years.  Unofficially, we were engaged about a year and a half into our relationship, but we are officially engaged since Christmas, 2011.  Our relationship is not perfect, and we do have our fights, but we love each other more than anything.  We are going to be a family and raise this child together. 

About two weeks before Christmas, 2011, my parents and I got in a huge fight.  To keep the story short, my parents are about half of what parents are supposed to be.  I will not get into this because I appreciate everything they have done for us, and although I still get pretty frustrated with them, they are my family.  After this fight, I told my parents I was moving out.  I had turned 18 in November, so this wasn't too much of an issue.  I packed up the same night and left the next morning to live with Mason at his grandmother's. 

It would be an understatement to say that my mom was upset.  She did not want me to leave, but I needed to get away.  There was a lot of things said that everyone needed to think on, and it wouldn't have happened unless I proved my point. 

On Christmas, my dad dropped off my presents at Mason's grandmothers.  My parents and I were still not on good terms.  Of course I gave them a call and thanked them for everything, but it wasn't like it used to be.  That turned out to be when we stopped talking for a while. 

We figured out that it was about January when we concieved our little boy.  I will admit that we were not smart, and didn't use any realistic protection, but I still do not regret the fact that I am pregnant, and neither does Mason. 

A while later I came down with the flu, and I couldn't seem to get over it.  At first, I couldn't keep anything down at all, and I was getting sick over and over again.  Then, it started slowing down, but I was still very sick.  I would probably estimate that I ate pretty much only cheerios for at least a week because of how sick I was. 

It was around that time that we decided we should take a pregnancy test.  I had been sick for about three weeks, and we thought it might be morning sickness.  That was when two out of two of the tests came back positive. 

This was completely terrifying.  We were not ready to have a baby.  It wasn't that we didn't plan to be together for the rest of our lives because we did, but we didn't plan on having a family until everything was more stable. 

Mason was delivering papers for 20 odd dollars every two weeks, and this was not cutting it.  We honestly had no idea what we would do.  We knew that babies were expensive, and that we couldn't afford one.  That is when the questioning thoughts came into our minds.  Unfortunately, the main one was abortion.  There was reasons for this though. 

Mason's grandmother was still kind of iffy with me.  She couldn't decide whether she liked me or not, but it was a definite that if she found out I was pregnant, she would kick us out.  Keep in mind, I still was not talking to my parents, so I didn't feel that I would have a place to go, and I knew that they would not want to take Mason in too.  We had already decided that we would not live seperate because of this.  We wanted to stick together if at all possible.  Also, Mason was just beginning to start to get a relationship with his dad back.  It was not a sure thing, and he also did not like me because of my parents, so he wouldn't have taken us both in. 

That was where abortion came in.  We couldn't afford to feed ourselves, and we were constantly losing weight.  Mason and I were being given food from a family friend just so we could at least have something to eat. 

The truth is, neither of us wanted an abortion.  We cried over it, and we had some pretty heated arguments over it too.  This baby had already become a part of us, and we desperately wanted him, but it just didn't seem at all possible.  Therefore, we did our research.  It turned out that like all procedures, abortion has it's risks.  It was also very scary for me to think of having it done. 

We were not anywhere close to a decision because we were looking at every way that there was for us to keep our baby.  What pretty much forced us into keeping the baby was the fact that abortion is expensive.  We could not afford to pay for the procedure.  I want you to know that this isn't the only reason, but I will admit that it was the deciding factor.  That may sound bad to you, but we felt that we had no other options. 

So as we were researching abortion and all of our options, we started looking into government help.  What we really wanted was cash assistance, food stamps, and a medical card.  It turned out that cash assistance was pretty much on the brink, and that we were elligible for food stamps, but since we were living with his grandmother, who was already getting goverment help, the food stamps would have to go to her. 

We did do this, but the food stamps took a while to be processed.  By the time we would have started recieving them, we had been kicked out.  (We never did recieve food stamps because once we moved in with my parents, we were not elligible.)

Before I get into that though, I would like to talk about my first appointment.  Mason and I went to my first appointment not knowing how far along I was.  They ordered an ultrasound, and we got to see him for the first time.  During that ultrasound, they determined that I was 9 weeks and 2 days along, and that my due date would be October, 2nd.

Seeing our baby brought smiles to our faces, and just being at the doctor's appointment helped a lot.  My nurse was very supportive even though she knew that this was not planned, and that we were obviously very young.  Along with many others, she told us that everything would work out.  She also gave us a list of places that we could find help. 

With that list, everything started to turn around.  That is, until the day we got kicked out.  Since this is very personal, I will not go into the details. 

When I was ten weeks pregnant, we were forced to leave in a hurry.  We had to pack up as much as we could carry on our backs, including two rabbits, and leave.  At that time we had no idea where we would stay, but we went to a family friend that lived close.  There, we figured out that Mason's dad would take him in for a few days while our family friend let me stay with her. 

We hated being apart!  It was very difficult for us, but we did deal with it.  After a few days though, Mason and I met up to get more of our belongings.  (Note: We gathered our belongings on several different days, but on this day we got everything that was most important to us that we hadn't grabbed already.) 

That was when we were left with a tough decision that we had to decide in less than an hour.  It turned out that Mason's dad would have taken Mason in, but that they did not have enough room for me to stay there also.  That left us with the task of asking our family friend if I could stay there until we could get on our feet.  She said no because she couldn't afford it.  I will NEVER be mad at her for this because she helped us tremendously. 

Our last resort was to call my parents.  This was around the time of March.  I believe I was 11 weeks pregnant at the time. 

This was not a very pretty phone call.  I was crying and begging for them to give both of us a place to stay, and I just blurted out that I was pregnant.  The first thing my mom asked was if I had seen a doctor yet.  She was worried for the health of the baby and me.  It didn't take her long to lay down a line of rules and tell us that we could stay. 

Soon after, Mason's dad lent him his truck, and he found a job.  It's a pretty good job, but it still keeps us struggling each pay.  We are practically broke every time we get paid, but we know that this is better than nothing and with the help that we have, we can make it. 

Later, Mason's dad decided that he would sell his good truck to him.  We are currently still making payments for it, but we are very happy to have our own vehicle.  We are also paying rent to my parents for living with them.

Well, that's how it all happened.  Today, I'm 23 weeks pregnant and we are still living with my parents.  So far my parents and I are a lot closer than we were, and they don't have problems with Mason anymore. 

We can't wait to see our baby boy, Jason Ezekiel, and hold him in our arms.  Thank you for reading our story, and I hope that you have a better understanding now.  Mason and I plan on raising our baby with everything we have.  We will teach him all the lessons we know, and we will raise him to be a respectful little boy. 

In the end, even though we are young, we were forced to mature quickly.  We were faced with life-changing decisions, and very tough circumstances, but we held on.  We did not let go of the rope that tied us to our little one, and we never will.  I believe that this alone proves how much we care for our child, and that we will be great parents.