Today I’ve been swept away in my own reflections of the events from the last two years surrounding our daughter’s adoption story just as I have been in so many moments and in so many days before.  I’ve been particularly stuck by the impact felt all because of one woman, one choice, one moment, one partnership and one amazing life. A loving, courageous, selfless, special, unique and remarkable woman I came to love who couldn’t be her baby’s mother but had all the love of every mother that I have ever known. 

She gave so much to make this mother a mom all over again. And made the happiest 8-year-old girl a sister in an instant. A family forever changed by the love that is adoption. Giving life to a precious baby to love and be loved forever, truly the gift of an eternity. I will never forget the synergy I felt with her and Heaven above as we walked together through those complex yet beautiful moments we shared. Complete sorrow and absolute joy dancing together for a time all miraculously encompassed by a peace and comfort that words would fall short to describe. I will never fully comprehend any birth mother’s struggle while faced with such an impossible choice. But I was a witness to one beautiful woman’s tremendous courage in her greatest moments of personal struggle and glimpsed a power greater than us both carrying her as she exercised her adoption choice, and I have never been the same again. It was in witnessing your vulnerability that I have glimpsed true inner strength.

Sending love out to my sweet daughter’s birth mother and to all the birth moms I know, love and wish I could know. Your stories are as unique, complex and beautiful as you are. And I am a better woman, mother, sister and friend for knowing you.

Love, An eternally grateful adoptive mother