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“I think she [Kayla] knows everything that I went through [as a pregnant teenager] and will use that to make better decisions,” Corrie said.

At 16, most girls are worried about driving, boyfriends, and homework. Corrie’s biggest worries at 16 were getting to her doctors appointments on time, making sure she stayed healthy, and seeing people around town she knew. Running errands was her biggest problem with being pregnant along with seeing all of the people that would no longer claim to be friends with her.

“The hardest part of being pregnant at such a young age was being known as the pregnant girl,” Corrie said. “I mean just seeing people from school at the gas station or the mall and knowing none of them wanted to hang out with me because I had a child in my stomach. It was just hard.”

Corrie originally attended Francis Howell North but during her sophomore year a death in the family occurred. Corrie’s father passed away. She then made the decision to start attending home school.

Soon after her father’s death and starting at the home school is when the pregnancy happened. Even after her father passed away Corrie was up for the challenge of keeping the baby. She knew her fathers morals and knew this was the way to go.

“There wasn’t a choice of abortion or adoption,” Corrie said, “The family I was raised in didn’t believe in abortion and I knew I couldn’t have the baby and give it up for adoption, it would kill me.”

Having such a young mother didn’t hit Kayla until just this year when she entered high school. Knowing people just two years older than her now, she realized how young her mother actually was.

“I started talking to people that are 17 and I’m just like ‘Wow. My mom was their age when she had me,’” Kayla said.

Along with a personal view, Kayla knows and experiences the outcomes of teenage pregnancy and does not believe in sex before marriage. Considering her mother’s decision to keep her, she knows the decision of keeping a baby at her age would be hers.

“I don’t believe in sex before marriage,” Kayla said. “But if I did get pregnant [as a teen] I wouldn’t feel stuck with the baby because I know it’s my fault and I would have the decision [to keep the baby or not] to make by myself.”

Corrie hopes Kayla will take all the good from the experience and continue to make the right decision when it comes the time to decide to have sex before marriage

“I think because I’m so open with her and try to show her to make the right decisions,” Corrie said. “She has more self confidence and makes better choices than I did.”