Who Receives the Ultimate Gift in Adoption?

Through my infertility and adoption journey, I learned that the ultimate gift of love comes not from the receiver but the giver…
 
“What exactly do you mean?” My friend interrupted me as she was sipping her mocha at the neighborhood sidewalk café. Sharing my many stories of becoming a mom through adoption is one of my very favorite subjects.
 
I explained how, at the beginning of my journey to parenthood, I started out just “wanting a baby.” I had not thought much about birth parents or extended birth families. I was rather narrow-minded in my thoughts at the start. I had babies on my mind and would have done anything to be a mommy like…“yesterday,” I shared.
 
It was an eye-opener when I began reading about adoption and speaking to others. That is when my education began, along with newfound compassion for women facing unplanned pregnancies. I came to understand how scary that time must be for them.
 
I also learned how much love women considering adoption have for their babies and how they must decide based on the right thing for their child and his/her future.
 
My own son’s birth mother did that for her son…our son. She tried to give him a good start, and for five weeks, she attempted to provide him with something she couldn’t give at that time in her life. She then made the decision – the ultimate gift she could give him – a loving and secure home for him and a future that would give him all he deserved and all she wanted for him. She found that the gift of love through open adoption was shared between us and that this little baby was the focus of this love.
 
I will never stop loving my son’s first mother for this ultimate gift; one he will carry on forever, knowing that her love was given to him for his lifetime. Now over 32 years later, she is still the ultimate in a mother’s love – she gave for the love of her child.