AND THE TEST SAYS YOU ARE THE FATHER!!!!

My baby didn't have her dad in her life much. His family wasn't in her life at first either. While at St. Agnes we had a DNA test done. We went into the city where a clinic took both me and DeAna's DNA to be sent for sampling. Her father was living in a home for boys at that point. Although we stayed in touch by letter, we weren't together and didn't get along that well anyway. I sent pictures constantly and updates, but I knew what they said was true, everything regarding them being in DeAna's life was pending on the DNA test.

It was a long while before the results came back. Everyday I check the mailbox file in the staff room for the envelope and everyday there was nothing. When that fat envelop of papers finally showed, my heart raced a million miles a minute. I opened it and read what I already knew..by 99.98% he was the father. I understand the rush of adrenaline that hits those Maury guests. I couldn't have been happier if it was Publisher's Sweepstakes handing me a check. I was ecstatic.

The boys home brought him to see her. He didn't come often, he didn't see her often. We got along and saw just enough with each other that I convinced my self I would never get over him and wanted him in my life no matter what. Again, I was fifteen.

His family started seeing her. They occasionally took her for a few hours on weekends. She was getting older then and a lot better about going with other people. The court ordered him to pay 10 dollars a week in child support, an ordered amount that would stay in place  until she well into grade school.

At one point I bought this beautiful card of a daddy and baby. I hung it on my bedroom door at St. Agnes. I can still remember the photo on it perfectly. What no one knew was that one the back of a card, I wrote to God my silent prayer. That she would always have a daddy in her life even if I didn't have a man in mine.

Although she didn't have him in her life much, she was blessed to have an abundance on males in her life. My father, my step father, my brother, step brother and so on. People tend to think that teenage boys don't step up to the plate often. I was lucky that I had a lot of mail friends from middle school and high school that more than stepped up to the plate to be there for her and I both. Guys that would come over just to roll a ball around on the floor with her or later play chase with her around the yard. These guys stayed in her life until I met my husband and got married to the man who would become her daddy at age four.

Men deserve more credit. I am fortunate and blessed to have an amazing dad and step dad in my life. I have two dads. They have been incrediable grandfathers to my children. I also have an amazing husband who took on children who were not biologically his and raised them as if they were.

All the guys who stepped up, my daughter to this day calls "uncle." There are good men out there, doing good things. Yes, some men are punks, they run. But for every punk, there is another good guy out there, ready to pick up where the other left off.