Since we adopted, I have had the opportunity to become friends with so many people that are connected to adoption. I want to honor them today and help share their voice about how adoption has touched their lives and what adoption means to them. Here are just a few faces and voices of adoption:
Adoption completed our family. It was a walk of faith for us, and a walk of trust for our daughter’s birth mom. Together, we want what is best for one small little girl that has captured all of our hearts -Kathy, adoptive mother
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To me, adoption means creating a special family tree. Ours branches off and has another limb to it: their birth mom, sister and their extended family. And at the center are our sweet little boys, surrounded by lots of love! – Jill, adoptive mother
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Adoption is love, pain, loss, joy, heartbreak, and completely selfless. I am a Birth Mom, She may never call me Mommy, but I am a part of her and she is a part of me. Together, we are adoption. – Haley, birth mother
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To me, adoption is synonymous with abundance. Abundance of love, of miracles, and of pure joy. Our little family of three is currently complete because adoption exists. And someday, it will grow again through this selfless, wonderful, complicatedly beautiful channel. I thank God every day for the opportunity to be a parent and for the depth of love that we have experienced through the absolute miracle of adoption. -Shannon, adoptive mother
Adoption means dream come true
Adoption means love
Adoption means always
Adoption means matching hearts
Adoption means awesome family
Adoption means hearts made whole -Allison, adoptive mother
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Adoption, in our case with an older child, means to embrace a child from a complex background and help them heal and realize their potential. Some children are born into families and others take more searching to find, but all are gifts to us from God. Adoption means redemption. – Mary, hopeful adoptive mother
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We are so grateful for open adoption! We love that Carter will always know how loved he is by not only his birth mom, but his entire birth family. – Alli, adoptive mother
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The question of nature vs. nurture has been studied by science for a couple of hundred years. I don’t believe it is a contest unless you make it one. It is more of a synergy => a coupling of the gifts a person is given and the ones they experience, with the distinction of a little bit of magical individuality thrown in to the mix. Since I had no contact with the son I placed 19 years ago, it was both a delightful surprise and a bit disconcerting to note the similarities between us. The realization caused me to reflect on my own “unique” quirky style and wonder just how much of me has been handed down to me through a bloodline I don’t know. Also, how very tied together we are as a human family – woven threads in a tapestry of a grand design is right! ~Rebecca, birth mother
“For this child we prayed.” We decided to go foster to adopt. Blessed with a beautiful 8 month old baby girl. I love her to the moon and back. Our adoption was finalized 1 year ago this month! She is my everything! -Ann, adoptive mother.
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Being adopted is beautiful. I’m one of the lucky ones to have found my birth parents by myself and to be accepted with open arms. I wouldn’t change a thing about the life I’ve lived because I have a Mom and Poppa that raised me to be the woman I am today. It takes a strong unselfish woman to place their child for adoption so that he/she may have a better life. – Lea, adoptee
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Adoption means to me helping create a family, where otherwise there might be a missing opportunity, for a parent and a child. Although not all are blessed with being a able to create a child through birth, equal blessings are there for those who have the heart to raise a child. -Dawn, adoptive mother
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Adoption makes your life grow in ways you never thought possible. It expands your family, opens your heart to love like you never have before, and makes you a better, more compassionate person. Adoption creates new families, new relationships and gives both sides of it opportunities to grow, love, learn and thrive. – Terra, adoptive mother
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I was Parker’s vehicle to get to his parents. That is such an amazing responsibility. I am grateful every day for the experiences god has blessed me with. I am so thankful that Parker chose me to be his birth mother. Ill love you forever, ill like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be. “If you love someone unconditionally and with your whole heart, then you will do what is best for them and not you.” -Maddie, birth mother
Adoption was my 2nd chance. A chance to survive and succeed. A new chapter for my parents and me. – Ashlee, adoptee
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Adoption is a way for my family to expand while providing love to a child and a second set of parents. Open adoption means that my child will always know her birth parents and can love them openly for their choice of adoption. Their choice gives her a loving home to grow up in with a sister and gives her birth mom the comfort in knowing she is loved and provided for in a way she was not able at that time in her life. I find it to be a truly beautiful thing that gave me my second miracle child to call my own. – Darla, adoptive mother
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“Adoption is a new beginning. Adoption is a sacrifice in love.” – Lauren, birth mother
Adoption is family. Plain and simple. Whether it’s our older adopted children, or our youngest child, a granddaughter who became a daughter by adoption. Adoption is family.-Robin, adoptive mother
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Adoption already means a lot to my husband and I, and we haven’t even adopted yet. Through going to adoption panels and learning about birth moms, we have gained such a love and admiration for birth moms and what they sacrifice to give their children a better life. Adoption for us means love, family, sacrifice and hope. -Tiffany, hopeful adoptive mother
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Adoption means that with God all things really are possible, even finding that vital piece of my heart that was hidden oceans away in a jungle deep. -Kelli, adoptive mother
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Adoption is loving, nurturing, and caring for another member of your family that God sent another special way. It is loving and caring for His children.” – Josh, adoptive father
To me adoption means More: More Love, More Trust, More Honesty, More Sacrifice, More Joy, More Blessings, More Family, More People to love our child. Who wouldn’t want that :)? -Cyndee, adoptive mother
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Adoption means family and family means unconditional love. We love our family without judgement to the ends of the earth. I learned that love is something that can be multiplied more times than we can imagine. I won’t lie and say adoption is easy. It’s not. It’s really, really hard and emotional. But when I first laid eyes on my little boy, all the hurt, pain, and emptiness was gone. Adoption healed me. And I hope I can be the best mom for this little blessing and for the brave woman who chose me, us to be family. -Kamri, adoptive mother
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Adoption means to me personally building the family that you have always dreamed of. It means loving a child more than life itself that isn’t biologically tied to you. Having an open adoption means not only your family loving your child but their birthfamily loving them as well. Adoption rocks!! -Angel, adoptive mother
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Adoption was always a part of our plan to grow our family. We never knew how amazing it would be! Adoption has deeply impacted our lives… it has grown our family not just by the two little blessings entrusted to us by God and their birth families, but by 15 plus people that have come into our lives through the miracle of open adoption! – Ashlene, adoptive mother
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Adoption means everything to us without it we wouldn’t be were we are today with four beautiful children and I am eternally grateful to each of their birth mothers/families , and feel so blessed and happy to be a family and call these miracles my forevers 🙂 -Christal, adoptive mother
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Adoption to me means so many things. It is selfless, loving, atoning, uniting and above all amazing. Living on both sides of adoption has granted me the ability to not only see it full circle but to truly understand the love that is involved. I understand the love a birth mother has for their child to sacrifice their own happiness at the moment to ensure their child’s every need is met. I know the love an adoptive mother has for the same child. It truly is amazing. I am so blessed to be a part of it. -Katelyn, birth mother and adoptive mother
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Adoption means connecting people and families. Bonds that grow in times of trials and hardship are the strongest ever between people. Adoption is hard; but the connections made, especially between both mothers and their child, will be unbreakable and eternal. God bless mothers. – Eric, birth uncle to an adoptee
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“Adoption is one of the hardest, but one of the most amazing experiences.” -Matt, birth father
In Abrazo’s adoption community, open adoption is a lifelong covenant to define “forever family” as being a permanent kinship between not just an adoptee and adoptive family, but birthfamily, too. Openness isn’t a strategy for making adoption happen; it’s how we commit to live our lives, after the adoption is done. -Elizabeth, Abrazo Adoption Associates
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Adoption is trust and love. I trusted and came to love a family enough to love two of my babies as much as I did. And to give them a better life then I could. Now that family trusts and loves me so much they want me to be apart of their lives. I now have 2 of my own children and they get to know and love their birth siblings! So many people to love! – Jeanie, birth mother
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Since I was a little girl, my beautiful mom was always very open and honest with me about her experience as a birth mother. Before I was born, she placed her newborn son for adoption through LDS Family Services. It was the late 1970’s, so at the time, most adoptions were closed. My whole life, I wondered about my older brother. Often times, I wished he was there with me, just to talk to. As I became an adult, I decided to search for him. I joined an online registry, and did everything I could to ensure that it would be easy to find us if he Googled any details about his birth. Several years went by, and I thought about it off and on. Then in 2009, while I was at work, I received several phone calls from my Mom. When I finally had a chance to check in, she told me my older brother had CALLED HER! They talked for hours, and he was coming to visit the next month! He had found my online registry. I was over the moon with excitement. The picture attached was taken a few minutes after we met him at the airport (I am at the far right). It was a reunion overflowing with joy. I am close with my older brother now, and last summer I had the opportunity to attend his wedding and meet his beautiful adoptive mother. We plan to fly down to visit him in February. The funny thing is the way life has full circle moments. In my early thirties, I have found myself on the other end of the adoption miracle, as a hopeful adoptive parent. Yet one aspect of me and my husband’s adoption dream is drastically different from my brother’s adoption: we plan to form an open adoption. Because my own mother was a birth mom, and because I know how difficult and beautiful that decision was for her, I believe it has given me a unique perspective about what it means to be a birth parent, and how truly important it is to maintain those family ties — for everyone involved. – Amber, hopeful adoptive mother and sister to an adoptee.
My journey to motherhood has taught me more about love, faith, hope, and JoY than any other experience in my life. Though there were hardships and tears along the way, the blessings that resulted…namely, these four little miracles…were worth every moment.<3 Words can’t adequately express the gratitude and love I feel for these little faces. When I think of how each entered my life, my heart is so full and I feel forever indebted to so many people for making motherhood possible for me. We were privileged to have our first two children through the gift of adoption. Our experiences were so beautiful and centered in the love we all shared for these little babies. We’re forever connected to some amazing people who brought these beautiful little ones into our lives. We then had the opportunity to have twin baby boys through the unexpected and beautiful experience of pregnancy. Another amazing gift. What I know from my journey to motherhood is that families don’t come together by accident. I know that each of our children were meant to be in our family and meant to come exactly the way they did. I loved each one before I even met them. The bond that my husband and I feel with each of them – and that we see between them – is very real. Family is not who we look like most, it’s who we love the most.:) And I’m SO grateful for mine!! -Lisa, adoptive mother
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I didn’t give you the gift of life,
But in my heart I know.
The love I feel is deep and real,
As if it had been so.
For us to have each other
Is like a dream come true!
No, I didn’t give you
The gift of life,
Life gave me the gift of you.
–Unknown
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This is my dream since January 2013. This dream came inside my heart, without a knock on my door. Now this dream is everything. Every day I think of adoption. I feel like I am in a magical world full of joy, piece, love and happy faces. In this world there is no pain, tears, war, cruel things and ect. It´s like living in a paradise. Adoption is my life, my dream, my gift. It´s my best dream! I have reason to live, because of this dream. I want to adopt one little boy around 3 or 4 years old and to be his father. I will give him all my love. My father left me alone, when I was a baby and he never gave me love. Through adoption I will be the happiest person. This dream touched my heart and my soul and I feel like adoption is the meaning and the way of my life. -Stephan, hopeful adoptive father
I love this 🙂 perfect celebration of being loved, being wanted, and belonging forever! <3
Amazing!! What a great post sharing the many faces and thoughts on adoption. I absolutely loved this and will continue to come back and read it time and time again!
Thank you for this beautiful tribute! Thank you for taking the time to put this together♥