One of the most touching storybooks I had the privilege of assisting with was over a year ago. I was introduced to a young girl in her early twenties who expressed an interest in making a storybook. She indicted she had an important story she needed to tell. Several weeks after I had helped her get started she called me late at night and asked if she could come over to my home and use one of our computers. She was at the local public library using their computers and the library was closing and she was anxious to complete her book.
Firstly, I was amazed that she took on the project without owning a computer and was determined enough to use the resources of the local library. It was late at night but I am always up till late so I was happy to assist. After an hour or two in front of my computer, interrupted only by the occasional reach for a Kleenex, she completed the book and asked me to review it for her. Wow what a book!
This book was written for her 1 year old daughter whom she had placed with an adoptive family just prior to birth. She had been married at the time but the marriage fell apart and she felt strongly that the baby girl deserved to be raised by a mom and a dad. The adoptive parents had emailed her several photos taken during the first year and had agreed to allow the birth mom to attend the little girls first birthday.
This wonderful book was to be a special gift from a mom who gave birth to her and loved her enough to place her in a better environment with another mom who loved her and a father. The storybook included photos of the birth mom, her parents and siblings. It contained details of the road to the conclusion that adoption was the best path and the relationship that developed with the selected new parents. The storybook was emotional but joyful as it expressed feelings of love and gratitude and a firm belief in the power of prayer and faith at work in lives.
This wonderfully simple storybook would belong to this little girl, to let her know that she wasn’t abandoned by her birth mother but rather was lovingly and prayerfully placed in a carefully chosen home with a mom and dad who would love her as their own.
With a simple book this little girl will have a place to turn, anytime she wants to know “What did my mommy look like?” and “Why did she place me with my adoptive parents?”
What a wonderful thing for this sweet little girl to grow up not having to wonder about her birth mom but rather to know how much her birth mother loved her and cared for her so much to set aside her own heart ache to allow her to have what she couldn’t provide – a home with a loving mom and dad to raise her.
I will always be grateful for knowing this storybook was made and the goodness that it brought to all involved even a spectator like me.
A very special thank you to the birth mom and author of the book for being a wonderful human being!
My wish would be that every child placed for adoption could have the blessing of a storybook like this.
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
July 21, 2007 at 8:27 am
reunionwritings
I am getting the feeling from this post that the young mother isn’t going to have ongoing contact with her daughter? I am also thinking that such a lovely person really doesn’t deserve to lose her child.
My wish would be that every child placed for adoption could have the blessing of ongoing contact with is or her mother as well as a book of love.
The book sounds beautiful and you are lovely to have given her this support.
July 21, 2007 at 7:15 pm
barbieygc
Thanks for your comment reunionwritings. I actually don’t know the ongoing arrangement our sweet birth mom has with the adoptive parents, but I agree that a relationship would be beneficial.
What I do know of this young woman, I have to believe that there would be some regular contact between them.
One of the most striking things in the book, after seeing all of the photo’s was how much the two moms looked like sisters. They could have been blood reletives the resemblance was so striking, but they were not related.
The birth mom said this was particularly comforting to her.
She also said how healing it was for her to write her story and found the process therapeutic.
I will always cherish meeting her, and always be grateful for the small part I played in easing some of the pain she was going through in those early months after the adoption.