Many people will never understand how I could place her for adoption and that's ok because this was my journey and this is my testimony. All I ask is that you read it and share if you like...

If you ask me about myself; I will tell you I am a wife, and a mama to 4 kiddos, I will say that I love Jesus and journaling, and making reclaimed wood art. At some point, I will probably mention my affinity for Dunkin Donuts and Harry Potter; and most likely I will tell you that I'm a birth mom, too. These are a few parts within the story of who I am.

"For a long time, I had no idea there was a whole world of birth mom support."

"Right after my birthday in late September I received the phone call I had prayed for. My son wanted to meet me."

We like to plan…to not feel surprised. Unfortunately things don’t always go according to how we anticipate. How do we deal with these things? How do we deal with the consequences that come with situations not turning out the way we predicted? When it comes to adoption stories, we want to foresee the outcome, but the reality is, there is no way to know fully how they will actually turn out.

After meeting Abby, there are two things we know for sure - she is a proud birth mom and loves her son with all of her heart!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I respond to people when they find out that I’m a birth mother. It’s interesting to think about my natural response because it tells me a lot about myself.

When I stepped into an adoption plan as an expectant parent I thought, “I’m going to do the very best for my baby and then, it will be over.” There is a lot of parenting on the front end. I decided who would raise him, how well I took care of him, if I would (or would not) take him to the doctor in the womb, give him prenatal vitamins, etc. Lots of parenting decisions.