Adoption Gratitude

I've been pondering this all week and then Christine posted this today.

We have a legacy of adoption in our family. My Dearest was adopted, Nana was actually abandoned in a bassinet to a family that adopted her. There is so much love in our family, and I am so grateful to both birth moms, the sacrifices they made so our family could be the one it is today.

Having just carried Blueberry in my belly for nine months, the idea is fresh in my mind that not only is it traumatic for the baby, but for the birth family too; what a loss the families might feel too, the fathers, the grandparents. I had anxiety when the nurses held her to check vitals and even though I knew they would hand her back, I felt at a loss. My God, how would I feel if I never, ever saw her again? My heart cannot even fathom it. Yet my family is what it is because two mothers made the heart wrenching decision that their babies would be better cared for by someone else and after nine months of knowing and loving their babies, handed them over to very wonderful mothers.

And those mother welcomed the sleepless nights, the poopy diapers, the vomit and fevers, the heartbreaks, the ER visits (lots of them in Dearest Husband's childhood!), and trials of childhood. Those mothers get the love of and get to love those children. Those mothers get a lifetime of motherhood which is a full palate of emotions, grief, joy, anger, fear, and lots of love. Grandchildren, great grandchildren.

So today, I am feeling especially thankful for my mother-in-law and her mother and both of the birth moms that gave Nana and Dearest to our family.