Conception to birth.

My parents were really young. They met at their Catholic high school and fell in love. Stacy had tons of long, long curly brown hair and big sad eyes, and Andy, who was older, had jovial eyes that probably couldn't express sadness if they tried. They dated for quite a long time, and both of their pious families came to accept the relationship. The turmoil didn't start until Stacy got pregnant when she was 16 and Andy was 18.

Andy worked maintenance at an apartment complex and shared this crisis with his boss Mitch, who he had become close with. Mitch, a handyman, home remodeler and designer was almost 40 and had recently been married to a flight attendant named Lynn. Lynn had been rendered infertile by an experimental IUD. A connection clicked. Mitch and Andy started discussing adoption. Mitch took the idea home to Lynn, and Andy discussed it with Stacy. With the approval of their parents, the solution became viable.

A growing Stacy left the scornful eyes of the Catholic high school to attend a special high school for pregnant girls. She lost all of her friends, who either disapproved or couldn't seem to wrap their heads around the baby growing in her belly. Lynn became her close friend and confidant, talking hours away with her, taking her shopping, and offering a shoulder to cry on. Lynn understood, because Lynn had given a baby up for adoption herself when she was young.

The families became some awkward but caring conglomerate. When they found out I was a girl they started discussing names. Stacy wanted the name Ashley. Mitch and Lynn wanted the name Lauren. They compromised and named me Lauren, with my middle name Ashley. They decided that after the birth, the adoption would remain as open as it was during the pregnancy. Stacy and Andy were obviously both Catholic, but Lynn was Protestant, and Mitch was Jewish. To my biological parents request, Mitch and Lynn agreed to baptize me and encourage me to seek Catholicism (they never did).

I was born at night in a blinding snow storm in the presence of a huge group of people, family. They vacuumed me out so I had a misshapen cone head for a while. My dad, Mitch, was concerned that I would look like that permanently. The doctors assured him that my head would return to normal.

The legal adoption process started 2 days after I was born when my adoptive parents took me home.