The one I deserved

The story that I am about to tell, is one of excitement, sorrow, and love. It was back in 2016 when I made the shocking discovery that my life was about to change forever. I was dating a guy that was younger than me by a couple of years and I knew him since middle school but, we did not talk to each other let alone look at each other. We hooked up because I was in a dating slump and my best friend at the time decided it was a good idea to set me up with him because she trusted him with her life. We hit it off pretty good and everything seemed to be working just fine. He bought me a necklace, we walked around town, and we talked to each other like we were old friends.

He ended up bunking with his aunt at her apartment and we went from texting each other, to complete silence and that worried me. I talked to my best friend and she walked with me to his aunt’s apartment and when I asked if he was there, she looked at me and said,

“No sweetie he is not here”.

That made my heart sink and got me panicking a little bit. He finally called me, and I was beyond mad at this point. I yelled at him and really let him have it. He apologized and me and my best friend ended up going back home. I was disappointed and she tried hard to cheer me up. A few days later me and my best friend were at my house and she found out that she was being kicked out. My mom bought a camera off her that she got from her father for Christmas and told me to stay with her for the night at a motel. Unbeknownst to my mom, my best friend had a plan to have the guy I was with meet us at the motel and hang out.

My best friend paid for him and I had to be the one to sneak in, and I should have realized at that point that my best friend would be by his side more than mine if anything happened. After we got inside our room, once it was dark, she invited her ex to come hang out with us. He showed up and brought Mike’s Hard Lemonade and me not being much of a drinker, I ended up drinking one bottle. That one bottle was all it took for me to make the worst decision of my life. My best friend and her ex left to get something, and they were supposed to come back needless to say, they never came back and she ended up falling asleep at his house.

It was just me and the guy I was dating in the motel room waiting for her to come back. We talked, drank, and ended up having sex. It was no more than a few seconds (at least that is what it seemed like). I got on top of him and just sat there because I did not know exactly what to do, as embarrassing as that sounds. After that night, we ended up breaking up and I am not sure why because I do not remember that part.

A few months go by and I ended up getting sick. I was living with my parents at the time and we were in the process of moving out of the apartment and into a trailer. My mom thought I had the flu because I was throwing up, couldn’t keep food down, and I couldn’t help pack up my things to move. After we settled into our new place, my sister-in-law came over with her kids and she noticed that I was having a hard time keeping a banana down. She looks at my mom and says, “Linda, she might be pregnant because I had a hard time keeping a banana down while I was pregnant”.

Once I heard that, I realized that I could not remember when I last had my period. So, we went to the store and got a pregnancy test and when I got home to take it, the results showed up as soon as I put the test down. I was absolutely crushed because I was not ready to be a mom and I did not know if I was going to be a good mom. My mom held me as I cried, and she scheduled a doctor appointment to see if I was pregnant. When the doctor came in and told me that I was nine weeks pregnant, I was pale, and I didn’t know how to feel. I got home, texted the guy I was with in that time frame and told him the news. He wanted to meet up and so I called another friend of mine to give me a ride. We talked because it has been a while since we talked, and we were laughing and joking and when he made the joke

“Let me guess, you’re pregnant.”

All I could do was nod my head. He was shocked and when I told him who the father was, he gave me advice on what to do during labor because he had that experience with his wife. It was very helpful advice and once we got to my best friend’s house to meet up with him, he seemed excited at first and he had to leave that night, so I stayed with my best friend.

After I got home, I didn’t hear a word out of him regarding anything. I sent him text messages, called him, got my best friend to try to reach out to him, and I got nothing. Once he made the realization that I was carrying his child, he vanished. I felt like I was alone even though I had my family supporting me. I didn’t have the heart to get an abortion because that is not what I stand for. I also didn’t have the heart to give it up after it was born so I had no choice but to face the consequences and keep it.

One night, I was watching TV and they were showing the premier of This Is Us. I listened to the song and I decided to contact someone that I had not spoken to in a very long time. I messaged him on Facebook, and he was very surprised. I asked him if his number was the same and when he told me yes, I dialed it and called him. He put the pieces together that I was pregnant because I started with,

“I have some news to tell you.”

I told him the whole story of what happened, how it happened, and why he left. This man that I was talking to, was the love of my life for a very long time and I was too blind to see it because I had “friends” that steered me wrong. We ended up going back to our usual routine of talking all night, even though that was not good for me considering the condition I was in. It was nice to be talking to him again because it felt like the part of me that was missing, has now come back to me.

Weeks go by and he ended up moving to Georgia where I was. He lived in Texas and Georgia was four states away. He drove all night and I talked to him from the morning he left, and his mom finally convinced him to stop for the night even though he was only thirty minutes to an hour away from me. He showed up the next morning with a U-Haul and two dogs in the back of the truck and you would not believe how excited I was when I got to see him again after years of not seeing or talking to him. He settled in the house and my parents were glad to see how happy I was because my parents loved him from the first time we met. My mom knew how happy I was, and she was glad that I was able to truly smile again regardless of the fact that I was going to be a mom.

He started working with my dad because he needed a job as soon as possible and he wanted to support me and my unborn child. He went with me to every doctor appointment and even decided that this child was both of ours regardless of who the sperm donor is. On one appointment, we had a slight scare because we had to go to a specialist in Chattanooga Tennessee. The doctor was worried about the child having autism or some sort of special need. When the doctor called and told me that I was a high risk pregnancy, I called Stephen (the man that was supporting me through all of this) and told him what the doctor told me. I ended up crying on the phone and he ended up getting one beer because he was just as affected as I was. After the appointment in Tennessee, that doctor told us that everything was going to be fine and that the baby will not have any issues. We were extremely happy about the news and months went by until it was time.

We were sitting on the floor playing a card game, and I had to go to the bathroom. When I pulled my underwear down, my mucus plug was out. I let Stephen know and he asked,

“What do you want to do? Do you want to go to the hospital or wait?”

I decided to go to the hospital to be safe. We let my parents know and we were on our way to the hospital. I was having contractions on the way and multiple nurses were asking questions that only I had to answer. I was in pain and whether I liked it or not, I had to answer every question. The nurse gave me an epidural to help with the pain and unfortunately, it had no effect on me. My body was pushing the baby out and one very rude nurse was constantly yelling at me. I ended up yelling back and they had to break my water instead of it naturally breaking. My OB/GYN did not get the call until that morning when she got up to get ready. She was disappointed in the nurse because she did not call her as soon as I got there.

I ended up delivering a healthy baby girl and Stephen saw the whole thing. He was there from the very beginning and a few months later, we got married. We made Cindy (my daughter) the flower girl even though she had to be carried in a baby carrier. We are still happily married after two years and she is a healthy and happy toddler.