A photo of a baby.
Lydia Brown is enjoying her life now.
She is studying for a bachelor's degree in social work at the University of Memphis at Lambuth. She is getting ready for a wedding in November.
Brown, 20, has had to endure some tough times in her life as she grew up in an abusive home, became pregnant while a junior in high school and dealt with the emotional aftermath of her own reaction.
Lydia said that she wouldn't trade any of it because she has a family with the Sniders and her mom. I didn't know if I would make it or if I could.
Things are better now than they were.
Growing up.
Lydia describes her childhood as pretty rough, as infidelity was something that had a significant impact on the home she grew up in, along with emotional and physical abuse from her father.
Lydia said that it derailed her definition of what love was, and she took that thinking into middle school and high school while dealing with her own mental health issues. I was promiscuous and experimenting with different things and that made me go down the wrong path.
I was using all of those things to numb my own pain, not because I thought they were fun, but to fill a hole in my heart. I didn't know how to deal with it and didn't feel like I had anyone to reach out to.
Lydia met Tacker.
Lydia said that the first boy that ever acted like he wanted to spend time with her was her first boyfriend. I fell in love with him very quickly.
Lydia Brown and her husband, Tacker, take a picture with their son. Lydia and Tacker will marry in November.
Getting pregnant.
Lydia was working in February of 2019. She had been more emotional than usual because she and Tacker had broken up a month before, and she had to get up and go to school and work.
Lydia was asked if she wanted to come just to take a break and get out of work for a few minutes, and she did, after a friend at work said she was going to Walmart to get a pregnancy test.
I missed my cycle and thought it would come back eventually, but something said while I was there with her that maybe just to be sure I should get a pregnancy test as well. I passed the test six times after taking it home. I kept thinking that it was wrong. I am not pregnant.
Lydia didn't know where to go or what to do when she got there after she realized she was pregnant.
I was distraught and didn't know who to ask for help, and I had a friend who said I was pregnant.
Lydia said that Kaylee asked how she could help and what Lydia needed her to do.
Lydia said that she had an appointment at the Birth Choice Clinic to verify that she was pregnant.
Lydia Brown was pregnant with Atlas when she visited the Birth Choice Clinic in February of 2019.
Confirmation.
Lydia was at Birth Choice.
Lydia said that the people there were very kind to her and that they knew how to help her.
There was a positive test for pregnant women. There was an exam.
I wasn't looking at the baby'sogram, but Kaylee was able to see my hand and said, "We can see your baby." Do you want to see them? Lydia said something. I was told by the nurse that I was 13 weeks along and in the second trimester.
She didn't because she thought she'd be looking at a mistake, and that would mean the end of her life. She went ahead and looked at the embryo, even though she knew she would eventually have an abortion.
When she told her father that she was going to put the baby up for adoption, he wasn't as supportive as he should have been.
Lydia said that she was so nervous because she still wanted his approval because she was pregnant with his little girl. I told him that we had a plan to adopt, and he told me that I should have already had an abortion.
After deciding for adoption, then parenting.
Lydia said that her mother convinced her not to have an abortion.
Lydia said that she didn't have to do this because she was texting her that she was loved and supported and her baby was also. She said all the right things that made me think that we could make this work.
Her husband offered to let me stay in their bonus room upstairs to raise the child. They were willing to adopt the baby.
Lydia was going to take the Snider family up on the offer.
Birth Choice continued to support her with counseling and education, providing her with necessary supplies for her pregnancy and taking care of the baby as well.
Lydia was connected with a couple of families that were interested in adopting a baby. Lydia's family and friends gathered at her favorite restaurant, Los Portales, for the gender reveal. When she found out her bay was a boy, her plans changed.
Lydia said that she was going to have a son, but she couldn't give him up. I apologized to the family but I felt I needed to be the one to raise him.
Within a couple of days of our conversation, they found out they were pregnant.
Lydia Brown, second from the right, and her toddler son Atlas, take a picture with the Snider family, who took Lydia in when her father didn't want a baby living in his house. Brown said that the Sniders have become her family and provided a place for her and her son.
Reconnecting with someone else.
Lydia told Tacker that she was pregnant. After a month since their break-up, the conversation didn't go well, and Lydia shut Tacker out, leaving him to think at the time she would have an abortion that she was planning.
She made the difficult decision to make contact with Tacker about a month before her due date to give him the chance to be a part of her son's life.
Lydia said that she was immature and overreacted, but that she needed to spend time working on her and growing up before she could help her baby grow up. When we had a conversation with my therapist, my mother, Tacker, his mother and Miss Angela, we laid it all out and had an honest conversation.
He wanted to be a part of his life. He wanted to be a father. He and his brothers would bring over a crib or something else that would be needed for a baby after that.
Lydia Brown's friend, who helped convince her not to get an abortion when she first found out she was pregnant, holds Atlas soon after he was born.
A family is coming together.
Lydia gave birth to Atlas on August 8, 2019. The baby was well and the family was happy to have him in their home.
Lydia said that they have become her family. They have shown the love of Jesus to me and my son and provided for me with anything I needed, even though I had nothing to offer them.
I couldn't have made it through this without them.
Tacker was spending a lot of time at the house, connecting with his son and the mother of his baby. Lydia and Tacker decided to try again.
Tacker proposed to Lydia while on a family trip to the Smoky Mountains last fall.
Lydia said that that was one of the most magical moments of her life. Looking back, I can see how God has worked this out so that we can raise Atlas.
acker is getting his life together and getting to where he can support a wife and child, and the Sniders are supporting me while I go to school and prepare to be able to support a family myself.
She is learning more about being a good mother to her son by attending monthly meetings with YoungLives, a program that aims to connect young mothers with mentors to guide them through the stages of raising a family and prepare them for the next steps in parenting.
Lydia missed out on finishing high school because she was living on the opposite side of Madison County from Henderson County, where she grew up.
Lydia said that she had a lot of other kids at school bully her when they heard she was pregnant and that she might have an abortion in the beginning. The teachers and my friends at the high school were great.
It was worth it because I had a son, and I hated not being able to go to football games and homecomings.
She started her college education at Jackson State after graduating from Home Life Academy.
Lydia said that she didn't know what God had planned for her and her family. I am loving raising my boy and watching his plan unfold as he grows up, there has to be a purpose for it.
Brandon Shields can be reached at bjshields@jacksonsun.com. You can follow him on social media.
A local family's generosity changed a teen mother's outlook on her unborn child.
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