How to tell her I love her and want to help raise her child?

I'm 18 years old, I like this girl, she's 17, I've liked her for about four years now, we're really close, she recently had a baby, and the father ran off in a sense, I don't know how to tell her I love her and want to be with her, I don't care that the baby aint mine, I love her too much to care and would treat the kid like it was my own, any advice?

Maybe you could start off on a smaller scale - start with just dating. If you spring the 'I love you' on her she might not be ready to love a guy she thought was just a friend. But if you date her - you can start to care for each other in a romantic way and ease into a more serious relationship rather than jumping into it.

I say kudos to you for being a gentleman. At 17 you are probably a little too young to take on a baby that belongs to someone else. But you have great potential of being a wonderful husband and father one day.