Not every mother can be a mom, and not every mom gets to be a mother. It doesn't seem fair, but life can be like that. And we all just do what we can with the hand we've been dealt. But...

"I make the decision every day to fight past the fears. I do it for my boys. Because they deserve to know that they are loved and that they are wanted."

As the days passed and my time to deliver grew near, I thought frequently about this woman who would raise and love my baby. I thought more about her than I did about the baby. Of course, I did normal pregnant woman things – I nested, I patted my big belly, I picked out a name – but I also wondered about Helen. Was she also picking out names? Was she preparing a room in hopeful anticipation or was she terrified it would fall through yet again? I wanted to help her as much as I wanted to help myself with this process.

"I do not remember ever not knowing I was adopted. It was my bedtime story as a child: 'Once upon a time, there was a young mommy who loved her baby very much...' and so on." #BraveLove

"I figured out that Beth is as capable of loving two different mothers as I am of loving my two different children." #BraveLove

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to work with a birth-mom throughout her labor, subsequent C-section and the two days she spent in the hospital with her sweet baby girl. This mother was 19; this was her third child.

"She also knows that her birth family loves her just as much and that she wasn’t unwanted, that she wasn’t a mistake." #BraveLove

An adoptive mother recently introduced us to a children’s book called There’s NO Such Thing as a Dragon. “Billy Bixbee was rather surprised when he woke up one morning and found a dragon in his room. It was a small dragon, about the size of a kitten.”

I’ll start off by saying I am proud to be your birth mom. I am proud that I trusted and believed in God’s word and that was adoption. I know in my heart God had me picked out to be the special woman to carry you for 9 months for your Mommy. Sometimes it’s hard to understand what God is doing (and believe me at first this was very hard for me to understand). Though the minute I met your parents, I 100% understood God’s doings.

"Of two things I am certain 1) that my daughter loves me and 2) that I made the right choice. I am a birth father and 15 years ago I chose to place my daughter, Belle, in open adoption." - Rick