An Everlasting Gift!

Monday afternoon we received another adoption agency packet in the mail. As with all of the other packets, we were VERY eager to see what they had to offer. However, we were already running late to our appointment with the adoption attorney, so I placed it on our kitchen counter for us to review when we got home. When we arrived home, Chris stepped outside to take a phone call as I sat down to begin reviewing the earlier packet we received. :-) As I was reading the "Why Choose Adoption" section of the packet, I began wondering why I had never read some of the information that this agency was offering that previous agencies were not. HMMMMM!!!! I decided to continue to read in hopes of finding something familiar that I had read about in prior packets. Fortunately, that information never came! It didn't come because as I read on, I found out that the agency had "accidentally" sent us their packet for BIRTHMOTHERS, rather than ADOPTIVE MOTHERS. I'm not going to lie, at first I was not a happy camper that the agency had made this mistake. However, I stopped to think for a moment and realized that this was NOT a mistake. In fact, it was a gift! A gift from the Lord who knew that my heart needed to be opened to the feelings of a birthmother. Up until Monday, I never really thought about how hard it was for the birthmother to hand over her baby, but rather during this whole process, I always thought about me! About us! About MY family and how WE were going to deal with it. I never thought about the birthmother. About her feelings. About how SHE was going to deal with it. For the first time, I put myself in the birthmother's shoes and was able to look at adoption through their eyes and man, what a sight to see! I read stories about them grieving a loss by giving up their child, about them going through life wondering if the baby hates them, and how some of them would need counseling for their guilt. As I came to the last page of my "gift", I came across a poem that touched my heart, one that I will frame and give to my child one day, one that no matter how many times I read it this week, made me cry, yet made me smile! :-) I can't thank God enough of this "mistake". I somehow feel closer to our birthmother even though we've never met. I pray for her constantly and can't thank her enough for her selfless decision to help us become "BLESSED BY ADOPTION!"

*Legacy of an Adopted Child*

Once there were two women
Who never knew eachother
One you do not remember
The other you call mother

Two different lives
Shaped to make yours one
One became your guiding star
The other became your sun

The first gave you life
And the other taught you to live in it
The first gave you the need for love
And the second was there to give it

One gave you a nationality
The other gave you a name
One gave you the seed of talent
The other gave you an aim

One gave you emotions
The other calmed you fears
One saw your first sweet smile
The other dried your tears

One gave you up
It was all she could do
The other prayed for a child
And God led her to you

And now you ask me through your tears
The age old question through the years
Heredity or environment
Which are you the product of

Neither my darling, neither
Just two different kinds of LOVE

http://www.everlastingreasons.com/ginajohnson