My 17yr old self.....

This is my life when I started to truly live. Before this picture I was a confused teenage girl getting through high school. Making memories and not thinking of tomorrow just living in the moment. I fell for a boy and experienced what they called teenage love at its best. I had no clue that it would lead to a child. Being a teenager pregnant was the first time I truly felt isolated. I felt my young frame change while others watched, starred and talked. I get it, it was out of the norm to see a young girls belly poking out at school, but it was my new normal. With the critical comments from some of my peers I held my immediate love for my child inside me quietly, as if loving him was wrong. Overtime it was as if he gave me strength. Strength to keep going to school for him. Strength to hold me head up and walk through the halls. Strength to sit in church alongside women now and no longer with my peers. He taught me how to be ok on my own and how to love myself knowing I made a mistake and god knew he would be my biggest blessing!! My son saved me from experiences in my childhood I was running away from in my youth. He showed me what true unconditional love was. In return I loved him just as much.. maybe more! This picture shows the JOY I had and have being his mom. He is my lifesaver literally and I’m continually grateful to have stepped into my calling as a mother when I did. It saved my life. The man upstairs turned my storm into a beautiful rainbow and his name is Antonio 💕