Four year ago today -- the day I turned 23 -- I found out I was going to be a mother. It was a little birthday surprise.

For full disclosure, I'll say this first: My little "accident" was the best
thing that's happened in my life. Because of my older son, my husband
and I became a family, one that we've since expanded -- with a planned
pregnancy the second time around.

But back to my story - I had
just graduated college and was terrified, although looking back I don't
really remember of what, probably just the unknown.

It took me
about 20 minutes to leave the bathroom where I had taken the at-home
test on a whim, not really thinking that it would actually be positive.
I knew I had to call someone, as keeping it a secret wasn't an option.
(I think people would figure it out by about, uh, month nine.)

I made some calls and drove over to a good friend's house. She'd been in
my shoes just two years before, and she knew just what to say.

Nothing. She said nothing. We just sat in her living room watching her son play
in the living room. Her husband -- who had his own sense of how my
then-boyfriend must have been feeling at the time -- got me a cold
drink.

As I looked back down at those two lines I realized that
I, and in turn my unborn baby, was blessed. I had a supportive partner
and family who would be thrilled at our pending arrival, an education,
a job and the confidence to know that even though I was young I could
handle being a mom.

Many moms are not that lucky. An unplanned pregnancy can be difficult, and sometimes dangerous.

But here's what I've learned from my experience: An unplanned pregnancy
does not mean a baby is unloved, and an unexpected child is not always
unwanted.

According to the Centers for Disease Control,
nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. I
had one, and I could tell stories of other moms I know who had one ...
at 16, at 41, as first-time mom, as a mother of three, married, single.

The one thing these mothers all have in common: They love those babies and wouldn't have planned their lives any differently.

I know I wouldn't have.

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