She was 15 and a sophomore at Cyprus High School in Magna. He was two years older — a senior, a jock, one of eight kids and already living on his own after being pushed out of his single mom’s crowded house.

In the crazy-quilt way teenagers sometimes piece life together, Keri Poulsen had two things on her mind when she met Steve Stone.

It was 1986 and, as the Iran-Iraq war raged, the U.S. Army was actively recruiting boys at Cyprus High; who knew how many might go to war and never come home? Second, among her friends, Keri believed she alone was still a virgin.

Within a month, Keri and Steve became intimate and the first time they had sex, Keri got pregnant.

Keri knew the pregnancy would disappoint her mother, a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So she kept it secret at first, scribbling her suspicion to friends on notes discarded in the trash — which is how her mother found out.

Keri’s mother whisked her off to a doctor, who confirmed a baby was on the way. She met with her LDS Church bishop, who brought up adoption.

When Keri called Steve to tell him the news, he was excited, and brought up marriage — even though he’d been dating another girl for more than a year.

Keri said no, a rejection Steve took hard.

But by then, Keri had already visited LDS Family Services, where she said a caseworker told her that if she really loved the baby, she’d do the right thing and give her child a mother and a father, especially since guys like Steve never stuck around.

At weekly counseling sessions, the message was reinforced, Keri said: “If I loved my baby, I would give it away. ... How I wouldn’t be able to provide for this baby, finish school and go to college. They reiterate the fathers are just sperm donors and that they don’t care.”

Steve and his mother opposed adoption and offered Keri and her family other options, including one of those crazy-quilt kind of ideas: Steve and his other girlfriend would marry, adopt the baby and raise it together. Steve refused to relinquish his rights, but neither he nor his family could afford to hire an attorney to fight for custody.

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It was Keri who selected their baby’s new parents from among a stack of applications, arranged so the families’ names and hometowns remained secret. Both she and Steve were athletic, musical and creative, and that’s the kind of family she wanted for the boy she intuitively knew was coming.

Family A had a 6-year-old daughter. The mother had lost numerous other babies, unable to carry them to term.

“She was a homemaker who gave piano lessons, he was an electrician and volunteer coach,” Keri said. “That right there was why I chose them.”

As her due date neared, Keri said her caseworker at LDS Family Services suggested the father be listed as “unknown,” but she refused. Keri said the caseworker wasn’t worried, telling her “we’ll get him to sign.”