I remember the day i had my first child, it was a pretty normal day for me, I went to school, had choir practice and was driven home by my boyfriend Baxter. After he made sure i was comfortable and surrounded by snacks he left and i began to do my homework, i was stuffing my face with Pringles when my water broke. I thought that i had peed the bed so I quickly rescued my homework from the mess I had made and called my mom in to help, one look at my sheets and my mother knew I was in labor. She and my dad rushed me to the hospital and got me situated, I was in active labor and definitely feeling labor pains when Baxter arrived, I pushed with all my might and out came the most gorgeous little girl I had ever seen. The nurses cleaned her up and then the adoption papers were brought in for Baxter and I to sign. We met the couple again and they reminded us that it was an open adoption hence, when she turned 18 she could contact me if she wanted to. They left my baby with me to say my goodbyes, as they left I sighed deeply and lay back, grateful that both my daughter and I had bright futures ahead of us; me at Juilliard and she with a new family….



30 YEARS LATER

A lot had happened since I had my baby all those years ago, I graduated high school, I went to Juilliard and polished my violin skills. I graduated with honors and was first chair in my school’s orchestra throughout my time in school. Baxter and I never broke up even after high school, I think besides the fact that we were crazy about each other, we were forever bonded by shared experiences. He went to accounting school after high school and became an accountant, I got a job playing violin with the country’s top orchestra, we played four times a week in the city’s opera house. Baxter asked me to marry him one night after he came to see me perform, and I said yes, I had loved him since he spilled his strawberry smoothie on me in the fourth grade.

Our wedding was beautiful and solemn, most people we invited were not surprised that we were getting married. We had Forrest after three years of marriage and Lizzie one year later. Before we had Lizzie,Baxter and I had never really spoken about our first daughter, it was too painful for both of us but when Lizzie was born we both knew that our daughter was probably 18 and wondered if she was going to contact us. We held out hope for a while but we were gravely disappointed. We just tried to focus on our lives and our children and just keep moving forward.

“Kids!! We’re going to be late!, Forrest help your sister with her shoes. Becky chose a really ,really bad day to be late. Baxter could you please get breakfast started?, Becky isn’t here...