Well on February 10, 1998 he finally convinced me to get a test. I made a friend of mine go get the test because I didn't think I could do it, I would freak out. She came back about fifteen minutes later and I went into the bathroom. Now they say it takes 5 minutes or what ever but my test turned pink right away. That plus sign was there instantaneously! I called for Tonya first, (I don't know why.) She looked at it and shook her head and left the bathroom. She just looked at Shawn and shook her head. Then I called him into the bathroom. He said "what does it say?' I told him to look at it. So he looked at the test looked at me looked at the directions and looked at me again, this little process went on for about a minute and then he looked at me and said "now what?" All I could say was Oh my God. I said that over and over.

I went to my Ob-GYN's office and took the test with me. I just kept looking at it not being able to believe my eyes. I had always wanted to be a mom, but I had been sick once and thought I might be sterile. Well this proved I wasn't!! I went into the doctor's office and showed them the test and asked what should I do. They sent me to go get a blood test. I went to go get a blood test, I thought the pee test are accurate but I had heard of false positives too, so I was confused and my head was spinning. While they took the blood I just kept looking at that plus sign! (I literally took it everywhere for that first hour or so!)

I was supposed to go back to school for bowling but I told my teacher I was having a crisis and he let me go. I found a couple of my other friends and told them and they tried to keep me calm while we waited for the test results to come in. We went prom dress shopping while we waited. I could call at 4:00 so I called from one of the prom dress places to find out. It took forever for them to come back and tell me the results, so here I am in a formal shop on their phone forever waiting for a result that would change my life. A nurse finally came to the phone and said the test came back positive, she wanted to know if I wanted to make an appointment, I said no I needed sometime to adjust and then said thank you and good-bye and hung up. I didn't say I word I just grabbed my shoes and put them on a left the store.

I was crying before I made it to the car. All my friends saw me leave and came out too. I told them I was pregnant. The blood test came back positive. They didn't really say anything but got in the car. I don't know why but we went to another dress shop. I cried then I laughed and then I smiled, I think I went through every emotion in that drive. When we got there everyone got out of the car except Shawn and me. I asked him if he was ok, he said "I don't know." He said, "I don't think I am ready for this, maybe you should have an abortion." I told him there is no way I would even consider that. I will keep this baby. I told him if he wanted out that is fine I would do it myself. He said no, this was his baby too and he wanted to help me, he just wasn't sure he was ready for this. I told him ready or not we are having a baby.

I am not sure what happened after that. We went to the library and I called my sister in Waterloo, about an hour from where I live. She was upset but told me she would come down that night and be there with me when I told mom and dad. We decided it was best for me to do that without Shawn there. So I met her at McDonald's at 8:30 and we went to my house. My mom was surprised to see my sister and then my sister told her I had something to tell her. I said simply "mom, I am going to have a baby." My mother cried and yelled and asked why and told me I had ruined my life and I cried because I had hurt my mom. My dad was at a meeting and my sister went up to the school to meet him and told him on the way home. He was eerily quiet, I was so scared of what would happen.

The next day I went back to school and told a couple of my teachers. In fact I told my science teacher that I was not ready for the test today because something big had happened last night. I said I bet this is an excuse you have never heard before. So I told him that I had found out I was pregnant the night before. He looked up at me and grinned!!! He said Congratulations, that is wonderful! I felt soooo much better after that. He was the first person to say congratulations to me, and one of the only! I realized then that even though the timing was not the best, I had been blessed with a miracle. Some of my friends were really supportive and even excited. Others were not supportive and almost rude!

I went to the doctors that day and found out I was 6 weeks pregnant. The nurse gave me a bunch of brochures and some prenatal vitamins. Nothing really happened much for a while. I was nauseated a lot and was so tired all the time. My friend bought me animal crackers for the nausea and they helped. She worked at Kids 'R Us and found this adorable cow outfit and cow socks for the baby. His first gift!!! I gained weight and was happy. My mom started getting used to him and I began to attend the young parents classes my town has for teenage parents. I loved that group because I met other girls who were going through the same things I was. I bought the baby some other cow socks I saw and a pair of baby cow shoes. My friend Jenny bought a little bottle friend that goes on the bottle for baby to look at, it was ...of course...a cow. :)

I had bought a pregnancy journal to write in and a calendar I had gotten kept track of the dates and weeks. Even Shawn started to come around and get excited about becoming a dad. We did baby registry at 2 stores and he scanned every baby safety item he could find!! I think he was very overprotective of baby and me too!! When we went to friends houses he would ask them not to smoke around me, even in their own house! Most of them wouldn't and everyone always wanted to touch my belly!!! Before I knew it, though it seemed like forever it was time for our twelve week check-up.