Leah’s Story

Evie Magazine: I Was 16 and Pregnant and Had No Idea What Came Next

Article appeared in Evie Magazine | By: Leah Outten | Photo credit: Evie Magazine and Leah Outten

I didn’t know what open adoption was much less that I would become a public speaker and advocate on the subject. I didn’t know that just two years later, I would meet the love of my life and experience a second unexpected pregnancy. I didn’t know that pregnancy would lead to marriage with my second child’s father and that 18 years later, everything would have worked out.

I didn’t know anything except that I was terrified.

Like most 16-year-olds, I had barely contemplated the colleges I might attend, or what I would wear to prom. I looked down the long vista of years and saw nothing but dread and bleak outcomes. Whether I aborted my daughter, chose to parent, or placed her for adoption, I thought that there was no path where I would emerge unscathed.

I could not have been more wrong.