My cousin got me pregnant

Dear Pastor,

This is the second time I am writing to you. I wrote to you when I was in high school. I was 15 at that time. I graduated and now I am attending university. I am 20 years old.

I got pregnant when I was 17, but I lost the baby. I don't regret losing the child because it was one of my cousins who got me pregnant. I did not know better. He always used to tell me how much he loved me and he used to protect me from other guys because we lived in a depressed area, and guys were always fooling around me.

When I was 16 years old I lost my virginity to one of these guys and he wanted to control me, so I told my cousin that I could not deal with this guy. So when I told this guy that I was breaking up with him, he said that couldn't happen. This guy was 19 years old at the time. My cousin told him to back off and everywhere I went my cousin shadowed me.

One evening I went out and my cousin came to meet me. We ended up at his friend's house where we had sex. He did not use a condom. A few days later, I had sex with my cousin again at my parents' home. After I got pregnant, I felt like killing myself. However, thank God something went wrong and I had a miscarriage. My cousin and I stopped having sex, but I love him more than the other guys who have had sex with me. He is caring and helpful, and he encouraged me to go to university. He is now living with his girlfriend and his girlfriend and I are good friends, but she does not know that my cousin and I had sex several times.

I listen to your programme at nights and you have helped me. You have been an inspiration to me. When I graduate I want to move and have a good job. I want to move my parents from the ghetto. They are hard-working people but they are not rich. They are still living in a board house and it is not a very convenient place for girls to live. I have a younger sister and I would love for her to have her own room. Whenever I am home, we share room.

I would like to meet with you and to tell you more about my story.

Anonymous

Dear Writer,

You are an ambitious young woman. I hope that you will not allow your past to haunt you. You have made mistakes, but I believe that you will do well. Put the past behind you. Your cousin should not have engaged in having sex with you. He took advantage of you. You were naive and you trusted him. What happened between the both of you, however, must remain between the both of you. The woman he is living with does not have to know that.

I hope that indeed you will do well at university and after graduation you will get a good job and assist your parents. Feel free to contact me again. My numbers are 876-929-1667 and 876-877-1009.

Pastor