16 and Pregnant

So I've been watching this show since it started. It has had me thinking of my pregnancy. I was 13 years old when I found out I was pregnant. Darnell, Jaylin's father, was the first guy I had ever been with. It was pure shock finding out, it was one of those never thought it could happen to me situations. I didn't end up finding out until I was 4 1/2 months along. I remember sitting in the room and the dr trying to explain "our options" and my mom saying "we are keeping this baby". My mom was 15 when she had me. She was upset that I didnt tell her I was "sexually active". I couldn't have done things without my mom's help. I went back to school when Jaylin was 5 months old and my mom worked a 3-11 job so that she could be home with Jaylin during the day. This went on until he was almost 2 years old. I'm so thankful that she did that for us.

Tonight I sat there watching that couple and were truly amazed by them. I couldn't imagine being in that position. I don't think I could have done the same thing and love my mom for being so supportive of Jaylin.

We've had some hard times over the years but I never regret or have ever thought about not keeping Jaylin. He has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. Again, I was lucky to have a supportive mom and stability for Jaylin. That couple knew that they weren't going to have the same thing and made a mature, unselfish, extremely hard decision to give up their child. They wanted a better life for her, one that they felt they couldn't provide.

Ice Cream

Last night after baseball I decided I was in the mood for an ice cream. Jaylin doesn't eat ice cream so I always try to find a place that sells hot dogs as well so he can get a hot dog while I enjoy my ice cream (this is normally Big Dip). So I thought we are in Liverpool so let's just go to Heid's. So Jaylin gets his hot dog and I go over to Sweet Treats to get my vanilla ice cream with cherry dip. Jaylin finishes his hot dog and starts pointing at my cone. This is a common thing with him. He eats his food then wants mine lol. I let him "try" it. At first he is just eating the cherry stuff but then starts licking the actual ice cream which is huge for him. So we went back to Sweet Treats and bought him a baby twist cone. He didnt eat all of his cone but that was more for me =). I'm just excited that he is willing to try it now. One of my favorite parts of summer time is going to grab ice cream and enjoying it in the warm weather.

Molly

Molly has been working with Jaylin for one month as of Wednesday so that night we went out to dinner at "The Spaghetti Warehouse". That was Jaylin's restaurant of choice for the week. He was earning his stickers to go to dinner there. So we asked Molly to join us and treated her to dinner. I finally took a picture of the two of them together last night at baseball. He loves his Molly.

Report Card

Jaylin's last report card of the year came into the mail the other day. I'm so proud of the grades. Here they are:

Daily Living Skills 95. He had a yearly average of 93.25

English 8R 94. Yearly average of 89.75

Math 8R 96. Yearly average of 89.75

Science 8R 84. Yearly aveage of 84.

Social Studies 8R 80. Yearly average of 90.75

Spelling/Reading 100. Yearly average of 94.75

His GPA for 4th marking period is 91.50. Yearly GPA is 91.275. He made honor roll all four marking periods. I'm so proud of my boy.

New Job Adventures

Tara, I hope you don't mind that I used one of your pictures. Check out more of her fabulous pictures at http://www.tarapolcarophotography.blogspot.com/

Today was my first official day of my new job. In October I interviewed for the new program called MyChoices that Familycapped was trying to start. I was told they were interested in me being apart of this program. Well, then they went on a hire freeze. So I took the position I was offered at Enable. MyChoices is a program that gives the individual and family choices of what their child is going to do when they graduate from high school. Its goal is to give them independence and a chance to continue growing. Day Habs are not for everyone.

What you have to do is get a group of people "circle of support" is what they call it together to help make a plan of things that there interested in, ideas for volunteer opportunities, etc. I sat on Kathleen's (girl in picture) circle of support. I've known/worked with Kathleen for 5 years now, starting at the Y Kids Inc program. Chris (Kathleen's mom) approached me asking if I could sit on Kathleen's circle of support since I knew her well and also with interest in me working with her when everything fell into place. So that's where our adventure has started.

Kathleen's plan is the first approved for MyChoices. So she's the first participant and I'm the first employee. Its exciting to see how things are going to pane out because this is more than likely the approach that I will take with Jaylin when he is ready to graduate. So it's been and will continue to be a good learning experience for me.