And Baby Makes Three....

I was barely 18, and about to be a mom. This wasn't the way that I had planned it all. I was working most evenings and weekends for a catering company,and looking for a new place to ,live since TMOC and Amazon were now in Toronto.
I didn't have to break the news to my Dad because my (step)mom worked in the lab at the hospital where the test was done. My Dad actually phoned me and broke the news to me. Unconventional, I know. I nearly fainted, I had to sit down. Fast.
My parents were less than impressed but Randi's were a different story altogether.Randi was the youngest child and the only boy in a family of 5 kids. His mom and dad were German, and very old fashioned. His mother flipped. She lost her mind. I remember getting chased away from his house by his mom who was swatting me with a broom and screaming obsenities at me in German. True story.
I didn't for one minute consider adoption or abortion. Never. Some of my relatives would bring up the subject of adoption,but I didn't want to hear it. This baby was mine, my responsibility, and I was going to raise her.
That established, I had a few minor problems. Like shelter. I couldn't work at my job any more, either. There was the little matter of a curfew imposed upon me by the courts.A few weeks before my 18th birthday, I had stolen 3 bottles of beer out of the back of a truck. Long story short, 9 months of probation. This was a bit of thorn in my side. I had to have an acceptable place to live, and needed to be in by 10:00pm every night.
My parents didn't want me in our small town, and Randi's....I couldn't even go near his house for months.I had no options left, so I went to a home for pregnant girls.Oh joy. That experience is a whole other story. My room mate was a 15 year old girl ( also from my home town ) that played wedding music until she fell asleep EVERY night. I became her unofficial big sister. Lori was a sweet kid, but I didn't want a roommate, or rules, or structure of any kind. I actually got caught trying to climb out of my 2nd story window one night after lights out. Can't remember where I was going, but it must have been somewhere important.
As time went on, things got a little better with Randi's family. I was invited to Christmas that year. My parents didn't invite Randi. Everyone got me baby clothes, but no one talked about the baby. It was too weird.
By March 1988, we had our 1st place. it was the top floor of an otherwise empty house. The kitchen was nothing more than a long hallway. To open the fridge, you had to be standing beside it, and reach in just so. the only window in the bathroom was in the shower. The other 2 rooms served as a bedroom and a living room. We moved in with maybe 5 or 6 boxes and the place was packed. The summer was brutal, it was like sleeping in a sauna. The rent was $300, our price range.
We were living there less than a week when my water broke. It was about 7 in the morning, and I had been up all night watching a cheesey movie. I woke up Randi, who immeadiately FREAKED out. I was pretty calm about the whole thing. I had a shower, shaved my legs, and had a pb&j sandwich. When I was good and ready, we left for the hospital.
His parents were there, and mine, and my sister, Posh. Twelve hours later, and nothing was happening. No labour, no baby, nothing. I had a c- section and at about 10:00 that night we welcmed our baby girl into the world.
She was perfect, with a patch of black hair and brown eyes, I don't even remember her crying. Honestly though, I remember very little. I had to be sedated and was out like a light when my 1st daughter was born. Actually, I slept through all of my girls births.
I looked at my Dad as he held my new baby, and at the people around me. Randi's mom and dad, Posh, my mom, Randi. Everything seemed right. I knew that we would make it. It didn't matter that Randi was selfish, or that he sometimes called me fat and lazy. So what if I hadn't finished highschool.We were a family, and I knew that we would be forever.Against all odds.