In Awe of Birth Parents

This past weekend I got to attend a women's conference (Time Out For Women). It was great. My sister attended with me. During one of the talks a girl passed in front of us that I recognized. I met her 5 years ago at an adoption conference when we had just started the adoption process the first time. She sang at the conference with her son's adoptive mom. Ryan and I had the opportunity to eat lunch at the table with these two moms and their son! It was great. I loved learning what their relationship was like and how open their adoption was. I loved seeing the love that they each had for their son and the love they had for each other. It cemented for me the awesomeness of open adoption. Since then I have seen this birth mom several times. I don't know her name but we recognize each other and say hi. Anyway, as she passed in front of us I leaned over and whispered to my sister that she was a birth mom. My sister didn't really understand either what I was saying or why I would tell her that. I'm not totally sure what her confusion was about but since we were listening to someone speak I didn't really talk about it with her more. Anyway, I realized in that moment that the reason I pointed out that this lady was a birth mom was for a similar reason why you might point out someone walking by is a movie star, or a Nobel Prize winner, or a gold medalist, or something like that. I pointed her out because I think of birth parents with awe, with respect, with gratitude, with love, with admiration, with reverence. There is this person who chose to break her (or his) own heart because of so much love for another. This person did such a truly Christlike thing and I can only hope to be that amazing some day. I LOVE birth parents - they make the world a better place!