For Small Woman and Tall Man, Size Doesn't Matter

"We get in positions that people can't even think of," Ray laughed. "Trust me. There is stuff that we can do that no one else can do."

(Courtesy of Christianne Ray )

When Ray found out she was pregnant, she felt conflicted, and scared.

"I kinda was like, 'Oh, I should get an abortion, I don't know what I should do, I'm too young for this, I'm too short for this. I don't know if I can carry this baby. I don't know what Jeremy's gonna think, I don't know if Jeremy's gonna leave me.' Well, actually, I didn't think Jeremy would leave me but I didn't know what Jeremy was gonna think," she said.

She was just 19 years old, and Jeremy was 18: one unmarried teenager about to tell the other that she was pregnant.

She decided to break the news after she and her mother picked up Bowden from his job.

"I started patting his knee and I go, 'Hey. Don't freak out on me now,'" Ray remembered. "'Seriously, don't freak out, when I tell you this … I'm pregnant.' And then he goes … 'What?'"

The first obstetrician Ray visited strongly recommended an abortion, and said that carrying the baby could kill her.

Ray said she and Bowden cried for about an hour. Eventually, she decided that if there was any question as to whether or not she truly wanted an abortion she wouldn't go through with it.

Ray found a new doctor, Edith Cheng, a specialist in high-risk pregnancies at the University of Washington Medical Center.

'His Face Lit Up'

The pregnancy went well, and they planned a C-section one month early.

On April 24, Krysten Elise was born. Bowden was elated upon seeing his daughter for the first time.

"It's hard to explain, it's amazing," Bowden said.

"I've never seen his face lit up so much," Ray said.

And now these strange bedfellows move on to the greatest challenge of their young lives: Ray with the probable distinction of being the shortest mother in the world, and Bowden doing the heavy lifting.

"I got a lot more responsibility, and, it actually calmed me down quite a bit," Bowden said.