Teen Mom's stories

My name is Elizabeth, Lizzy for short. I’m currently 19 years old, and I am a Teen Mom. I found out I was pregnant in January 2009 when I was 16. Most people think girls who get pregnant at a young age sleep around, but I got pregnant with my high school sweetheart, Chris, my first and my only. We were the typical high school couple, on again - off again type thing and when I got pregnant we were off. 

My mom was out of the country at the time for plastic surgery, so I had about a week or so to think about how to tell her. I decided to wait until she was healed up and less stressed, but that decision took a turn for the worst. I’m not going to get into too much detail because you’ll be sitting here all day, but to sum it up I turned into her punching bag. It wasn’t the first time, but it was probably the worst. She beat me with a belt, kicked me out, called the cops, and since she had stitches, and she was swinging at me, she ended up bleeding and decided to tell the police I did that to her. So, since the adults are the ones to believe, I got arrested. Even though she left a bruise about six inches long across the right side of my stomach I got punished, and she got nothing. What hurt the most was when she said she was happy to see me get punished. 

Honestly I don’t think I will ever forgive her for that.

After that incident I was scared to tell anyone about my pregnancy, so we kept it a secret until I was about 5 months along. Throughout those months we thought about all of our options, both adoption and abortion. Came close to both but didn’t go through with either for one reason or another. The first person I told was my best friend, Andrea (I actually told her on her birthday, ha ha). I really needed someone to talk to about it, and she was the only one I could trust with a secret that big. After her was one of my good friends mother, Lori. She actually realized it on her own, made an appointment for me and everything. Lori told Chris’ dad, Chris told my mom, and my mom told my dad and stepdad. That’s when the word got out to pretty much everyone and my friends started dropping like flies. Found out who my true friends were.

My relationship with Chris was not healthy whatsoever. Most anything you can think of that could go wrong did, leaving me for other girls, cheating, lying, constant fighting, hurtful things were said, etc. but for some reason I stayed. I believed things would change, and I wasn’t going to give up on what could be a good thing. I moved in with him and his father at about 6 months, things just went downhill from there. 

September 27th, 2009 1:14PM; that was when my son, Michael, was born. 100% natural birth, 7lbs, 14oz. Everything went smoothly, and I had a lot of visitors that day. The entire time in the hospital Chris was distant. I had passed out in the shower because of blood loss and even then he seemed to be in his own little world. After 3 days in the hospital we got to go home. I still couldn’t walk well, but I had to fight through it because I had no help. Chris would do absolutely nothing for neither Michael nor I. About a week after we got home he told me he was in love with someone else and that he thinks I should move out. Things just kept getting worse and worse for us, and again I stayed. 

He had an accident one night, 2nd degree burns on the left side of his face, neck and arm. I think that’s when he realized what he was losing. I was the one who stood by his side and took on another person to take care of. He started to apologize and try and make up for the things he had done. We started to try and work things out. Problems continued for a while but then things slowly started to get better. Today, my son is 2 years old, he is a very healthy and hyper boy, with a slight attitude problem, which I will admit, he takes after his mother. I do not have a job or have yet to start college, but I am an Army Wife (yes, I am still with Chris) and I am also a high school graduate. I wouldn’t have made it through regular high school because I did not have a babysitter, but I did find out about the COPE program, and if it weren’t for the teachers, daycare ladies, and the new friends I made I would have never made it through that either. Took me an extra year but in March 2011 I was officially a graduate!

Being a mother is hard, but I would say being a young mother is even harder. You have to be able to juggle sleep, school, social life, a baby, and some even a relationship and/or a job. Money is always tight, and you can very rarely do things for fun, either no sitter or no money. You lose friends, family could turn their back on you, anything really. You’ll be stressed, lonely and depressed at times, and you’ll struggle with different challenges in your life, but at the end of each day, it will all be worth it. If you’re not pregnant, keep it that way, because anything I said above, plus some, could happen to you. If you are pregnant, you can’t only look at the bad things, it will only make it harder for you, look at the good. You make new lifelong friends, find people who support and believe in you, accomplish goals you would have never strived for if not pregnant, find out whom your true friends are, and most importantly, you’ll have a beautiful baby boy/girl right by your side, every step of the way. 

The last time I shared my story with you all was back in 2012, so here is a five-year update.

My son, Michael, is now 7 years old and in 1st grade! He is at the phase where he hates school because it isn’t fun like kindergarten was. His love for animals has grown stronger, and I absolutely love it because it is something that we bond over. We plan to save as many animals as we can!

Chris and I are still together and married. We are still trying to mend the wounds from our past, and it’s a work in progress, so we will see where life takes us. So far it has taken us from Florida to Tennessee, and from Tennessee all the way to the west coast up to Washington. This will be our last year as a military family, thankfully, and we plan to head back to Florida this summer.

Within these past five years, I actually graduated from a Technical school for Medical Administrative Assistant (medical office admin). I had hoped to get a career going in this field, but luck wasn’t in my favor. I graduated in 2014, and I still haven’t been able to find a job. It is really hard not having a job because it would help with bills and allow us to give Michael the things I feel he deserves. I try not to dwell on the negative though. Not being able to have a career in that field has given me time to figure out my true passion, animals!

I have been volunteering at the Humane society here in Washington and I have also got the drive to go back to school once we are back in Florida for Zoology and Marine Biology. Yes, being a mother you need to have that income to provide for your family, so you usually go for the more practical jobs. Something you need to remember though, you are setting an example for your son or daughter. At least for me, I want my son to know that his dreams and ambitions are very important, and that he should always strive to reach them, because in the end, he needs to be happy with his life which includes his career. I want him to do what he loves and not what is easy. It’s something my grandparents taught me and I want to make sure my kids know the same thing.

When it comes to family, I have always been closest to my grandparents, and I still am. My mother however, is a different story. If you read my first story, you know about the incident I had with her. Since then, she hasn’t laid a finger on me which is good, but things still got worse. To keep it short, I basically only talk to her because my little sister is still stuck under her roof and I refuse to let her abuse my sister like she did me. I have tried to keep a decent relationship with her for Michael's sake, but sometimes you just have to cut out the negative people.

As to friends, I basically only have one really close friend who I have known for 15 years. I pretty much just randomly see or talk to everyone else. They are more like acquaintances. It sounds sad, but I actually like it. Less drama! All in all, this isn’t the life I had planned for myself when I was younger, but it is a good life and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Everything happens for a reason.