As a follow-up to my adoption post, I want to be sure to shed light on two things.
First, I know it is frustrating to think of how many children need families, but in our case, birth mom relinquishing her rights was the selfless act that paved a path toward healing for both her and her baby she loved. I affirm with deep and terrible gratitude her decision which I will never fully understand.
Discussions of dependency and addiction make me think of Paul in Romans: "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."
I thank God for loving each of us in our chest-high struggle to re-align our affections. Life is hard.
Second, I know this isn't the norm, but we enjoy a miraculously gracious relationship with Asa's birth mother. It was tragic and trying in the early days, but we all stayed the course. It is one area of my life in which equal parts of bravery and boundaries have made the daunting doable.
Because of the complexities, I wrote out Asa's narrative in book form when he was an infant. He's heard/read those words a hundred times: "Aunt Samantha is my birth mom." Though His understanding continues to develop and expand, the truth of the matter seems wonderfully familiar and normal to him.
She is my sister-in-law, my son's birth mom, and she is my friend. Jesus has done powerful work in each of us and we give Him all the glory. If you'd like to know more of her/our story, you can read more here.
Photo: The rose Samantha gave me for Mother's Day a few years ago. It dies away and blooms anew . . . speaking grace and peace to my heart.
