I became pregnant at 17. I had no idea until one morning, a week before my senior year, I started puking my guts up. I was constantly tired. So tired I couldn’t even drag myself out of bed, I’d sleep through my alarm clock. I didn’t know what was going on, but I hadn’t noticed my period was absent for 2 months prior. I never had a regular one so I wasn’t worried. When I looked at my boyfriend and told him I was pregnant, he denied it. “You can’t be, it isn’t possible.” He said it about a million times that day. I was on birth control, and we had used condoms, but it was still true. So I went to the doctor, and she told me that I was in fact 10 weeks pregnant. Before I could get my first ultrasound, my mom sent me away to an all-girls home. I was there for 3 1/2 months with no communication to my boyfriend. He didn’t even know where I was. When I finally got my first ultrasound, I was 18 weeks…I found out the sex of my baby, and that it was twins!

Having twins didn’t hit me until they were both in my arms. It definitely has not been easy. I have no support from my family, because they think I should have given them up. But I knew I was going to be able to do this, I knew I could prove everyone wrong. But being a teenage mother has been the most difficult thing in my life. I didn’t finish high school, so I watched all my friends have an amazing senior prom, walk across stage, go to football games, do senior activities, and be a teenager after high school…

I used to have a lot of resentment towards them for not being able to have my senior year. But I’ve realized now that I wouldn’t trade anything for this experience. Because for some reason, I was blessed with two beautiful babies, because twins are nowhere in our families. Everyone always asks “Do twins run in the family?” I smile back and reply “They do now…”