| At first I didn’t want it
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| Her daddy, well, we didn’t fit
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| But I couldn’t swing it
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| I was scared to do it alone
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| Seventeen and pregnant
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| Not what I had in mind
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| Her daddy was a farmer
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| But not the wealthy kind
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| I wanted to be a dancer
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| But not the kind I did for pay
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| Who was this new person
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| That was getting in my way?
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| I could’ve walked out
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| Left her for dead
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| Cut her out with my own hands
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| But something in me
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| Was kicking and screaming to live
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| When the world’s at stake
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| There are lives to save
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| And even though I shake
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| My hands at God I pray
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| Let her have a better life
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| Than I can provide
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| Lord have mercy on my soul
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| As I try to do her right
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| It took a long, long time
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| To understand God’s plan for me
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| He threw me down the river
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| Beat my flush in Kankakee
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| By the time my water broke
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| I was deep in my own debt
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| But when I saw her face
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| It was easy to forget
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| I knew I had to
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| Get her away
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| Take her to where my debt was paid
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| A new beginning
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| A place I’d never been
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| And never seen
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| When the world’s at stake
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| All your dreams they change
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| And every step you take
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| Is for another’s sake
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| And even if she grows to hate me
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| I won’t change my course of heart
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| Lord have mercy on my soul
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| If we ever grow apart
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| You think that I resent her very being?
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| That maybe I regret her ever needing a mother
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| Is it wrong that I enjoy to right her?
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| I may be rash and overprotecting, not bitter
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| I suppose I could be softer…
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| I can do better
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| Hold you closer
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| I’m learning that
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| As I grow older
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| I’m the one to forgive
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| When the world’s at stake
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| You give your life away
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| And it feels so great
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| To watch the one you saved
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| Be the most adoring person
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| Your mom has ever known
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| Lord have mercy on my soul
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| And let my dreams be all her own
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| When my world’s at stake… |