Promise to Protect

It is a strange feeling to find out you're nineteen and pregnant. I went through a few weeks of shock and denial but then in one moment I realized. I realized I am not just having this baby, I'm keeping it,it is mine, part of me. Someday this little being inside me will call me mom and that scares the hell out of me.
I wonder if I will be a good mom, if my baby will like me. I wonder what it will be like to have a baby and watch it grow up. I know nothing of raising kids or teaching them about life.
I told my mom the other day that nine months is not long enough to prepare someone to be a mother, or to even comprehend what that means. She wittily responded, "Honey, twenty years is not enough!"
In that moment when I realized that this was more than just being pregnant, I was given another feeling. A strong sense of protection. Maybe it's not the perfect situation in which I wanted to find myself pregnant and though I'm not excited yet, I feel the need and desire to keep this little person safe.
I will love and care for my baby with a promise to protect both now and the years ahead.