I was 17,
I found out
I was pregnant and it was like being lost.
What do I do?
Where do I go?
What am I supposed to do?
Try to keep going to school, work, and a baby?
Or do I just try to set school aside for the time being,
and maybe I'll get back to it?
It was so much.
And I knew
I only had so much time, before I was
out of time. I didn't even know how to start
making a decision like that.
Just looking for someone to tell me what I
do next because I spent basically my whole life
being my own leader and telling myself what I did next.
And so I typed in adoption and Gladney
was the first one that came up. Reading small, itty-bitty
paragraphs and seeing just a few pictures
from prospective adoptive parents, Kevin and Joanne
caught my eye.
They had a great sense of humor
and so there was funny, goofy pictures.
It was one of the hardest times in my life.
But at the same time, I was so excited for them.
I was giving not just the baby, but this family an opportunity.
And I was going to give this baby a life that
I could never give him.
I felt like everything was OK.
Like maybe the dreams
I was ready to throw away and set aside, that all of that
didn't have to be it.
It was suddenly all there again and suddenly just up to me
to choose it.
I really was just looking for an acceptance letter.
Honestly, I knew that no matter where I went,
I was going to bust my hump to pay for it
and do whatever I had to do to make it.
I just needed them to say bring it.
I got accepted to Rice, Princeton, Harvard, Berkeley,
and the University of Texas. Berkeley offered me
a Regent's and Chancellor's Scholarship, which
essentially for me, it was a full ride.
I just love it.
Everybody is so happy and everybody just
wants to better themselves
and I love it.
It's the perfect environment for me.
This has made it
so worth it.
It's everything I wanted and everything
I worked for. This adoption process has not only
given hope to my future for me to do everything
that I want to do,
but hope for Aaron, my son, and everything he's going to do.