Show us your Life: Show us your MinistriesI have been following Kelly's
Korner Blog for about 6 months now. I have wanted to participate in her Show us your life blogs for a while but never felt like I had much to talk about. Well, this week I felt the same way.. What could I possibly talk about with Ministries? I don't have any!! Boy was I wrong!! I started reading others and decided I do have my OWN story!! My teenage pregnancy! It hasn't always been glamorous or easy but it is part of me and my story!! ( This will prob be a long post)
It all started in June 2000 when I met Josh. I can honestly say I was head over heels when I met him the summer after 10
Th grade. We spent everyday together that summer...We didn't go very many days without seeing each other even when school started back in the fall. Josh had started Junior college and I was starting my Junior year of high school. We did normal things that teenagers do when they are dating...we went out to eat, spent time with friends, and spent time at each others house. By September of 2000 I knew I was in love with this boy... CRAZY in LOVE!!! Yeah I was only 16 but I truly knew I loved him and wanted to marry him! We had a plan...I would graduate in 2002, and transfer with him to
USM. He would graduate in 2004 and we would get married in June...4 years after we met. But God had other plans.
Fast forward to
September 6, 2001, the beginning of my Senior year of High School, I find out I am pregnant along with my mom and Josh by my side...By this time I am 35 weeks pregnant... Crazy I know, in my heart I had known since March but in my head I was in denial... SHOCK was one emotion I can think I felt at that time...all of it is such a blur from Jan 2001 till after I had Peyton. I really don't remember all that went on after I found out I was pregnant...It felt like such a world wind....
Anyways, after I found out it was on to telling Josh's parents and sister. Then to telling my Dad and grandparents. This was prob the hardest thing I had ever had to do...I couldn't tell my dad. If you know me you know that I am the biggest daddy's girl...to
disappoint my dad breaks me to pieces. Still to this day. So I told my mom to tell him, I didn't go home after my doctors appointment.. Josh and I went and told his sister and parents. They took it better than I had expected and were really supportive. I then got a call from my dad saying to come home NOW!!
haha I look back now and still remember how scared I was!! When we got to my parents house Josh and I talked with my parents...Yes, my dad was very upset but after a while I think he calmed down. Like I said before I really do not remember what all was said but it was all such a
blur....
After telling everyone we decided that we would get married...not
because of what people thought was the right thing to do. It was
because we knew before hand that we wanted to get married anyway so why not now? Josh proposed...I said yes of course...and then we where planning our wedding...We got married September 28,2001. Peyton arrived 3 1/2 weeks later on October 16. We decided early on that Josh would finish College at the Junior college and I would finish High School. I didn't want to be another statistic of teenage pregnancy drop out!
In July 2002 after I graduated we moved to
Hattiesburg for Josh to attend
USM. I enrolled in the local junior college in
Ellisville. We bought a house in
Hattiesburg. Josh and I both went to school, Josh worked and I stayed home with Peyton when I wasn't in school!! To say that we did all of this on our own would be a lie...We had tons of help from both of our families. Josh worked his butt off to provide for Peyton and I during those 2 years he finished school. I still to this day am so proud of him and the way he truly provided for us. Josh graduated from
USM in 2004 with a degree in Construction Engineering. We stayed in
Hattiesburg after that while he was the Project Manager over the construction of the new Student Union Building on
USM campus. I am so proud to say that my husband built that multi-million
dollar building from the bottom up!!
We moved to Jackson for a year or so and then moved to
Biloxi in 2007 for Josh's work. We have now made our home in
Biloxi and love it very much. I have not finished school but I plan on being done within 2 1/2 years with my degree in Elementary Education. I am so very blessed to be able to be a stay at home mom and go to school part time. I have the most amazing husband that works so hard and loves what he does. I am blessed with amazing family, the best of friends, and mostly with a GOD that is amazing. We could not have gotten through this or done nearly what we have without the grace of God. He is amazing in so many ways and has looked out over us.
Peyton is now 8 1/2. He is in 2
nd grade and as smart as a whip. He is the best thing that could of every happened to us.
People always ask would you have changed anything? Didn't you miss out on
alot? My answer is NO.. I wouldn't have changed a thing...I didn't miss out on anything!! God knew exactly what he was doing.. I NEVER questioned him of why me? It never has crossed my mind. Peyton has been such a blessing. 7 months after he was born my maternal- grandmother passed away from Lou
Gehrig's disease. Then 6 weeks after that my paternal - grandfather passed away from
lymphoma. So I know God had a plan for Peyton to be with us expect since we would lose these 2 amazing backbones of our family. He was the sunshine in the black clouds. And continues to still be.
Sorry, this is such a long post but if I can help 1 person out and let people know that you can do anything no matter if you are pregnant at 16,20, or 30. Even if it is unplanned, God has a plan and will all work out how it is supposed to. I don't want people to think that I didn't have any negative people saying things like we would never make it or that my marriage would never work.
A lot of teenage marriages don't work but we have MADE it work... Marriage isn't easy for anyone..whether you get married at 25, 35, or 17. It is constantly work but its work that is so worth working for... Josh and I are still very much in love and the love grows more and more each day... I couldn't imagine going through life with anyone else!!
Your parents may not have planned for you but God did. He was not surprised at all by your birth.
