I was recently asked if I could imagine my life differently—if adoption wasn’t a part of it. Just the thought seemed almost impossible!

If the Neimer’s weren’t a part of it? You see, the Neimer’s are my family. I’m 32 years old and they’ve been family for almost 15 years. Can you imagine your life without part of your family? Yeah, me neither.

We may have not become family in the most conventional way—whatever that means—but we are family. We are family because God hand-picked each of us to be a part of a child’s life. His plans began well before the summer of 1999, but that is when a sweet baby girl named Taylor was born and the joining of our families began.

I was 17 when I found out that I was pregnant. My first thought being, “wait a minute, this kind of thing does not happen to someone like me!” 

Not every child who is adopted was unwanted. I believe there is only love in adoption. Even if the birth mother can’t say it or see it, there is only love. Even if she can’t understand it, giving the child a life is only love. 

When I was eighteen years old, I got pregnant. The first time I had sex. I wasn’t planning on having sex. I was planning on having dinner with a guy who said he wanted to have dinner. I found myself in a situation I didn’t really know how to get myself out of. I was naive. I guess I thought that if I just gave in, got it over with, I could go home and forget the whole thing.

My journey as a mother started when I was 14 years old. I went to bed one night with not a care in the world, little did I know a dream would change my life forever.

My foster mother woke me up one morning before she went to work, and the first words out of my mouth were "I need a pregnancy test." Luckily she had one on hand. When I got the results, my heart stopped. I thought my life was over, but little did I know, it was just beginning.