That kind of sucks, man. Sorry to hear that. It's unfortunate that some people are like that, but quite honestly if he's that inattentive when he only has to see you every once and a while, it's probably better that he wasn't around too much; imagine how much that indifference would hurt on a day-to-day basis.
@Illora: you can't adopt at 17, but you can fuck chicks without using a condom, right? 'cause I don't know what everyone is telling you, but there's this stuff that comes out of your penis when you do that, and it doesn't magically appear when your life is where you want to be to have kids.
If having kids is that important to you, then I would re prioritize your list to have them earlier. Just be prepared to be piss broke all the time; that will come whether you have a good job or not. Seriously.