A Most Charitable Act

Very soon I will have more fun things up about Jackson and Easter and what we've been doing during Spring Break this week. However, right now my thoughts are about Birthmothers. A week ago a friend who was preparing a church lesson to teach for her group of Young Women asked me to share my feelings on adoption that she could use in the lesson. This is what I told her:

I am a hopeful adoptive mom. Over the last three years, that statement has evolved to mean something very deep to me.

The saying that adoption is about love is absolutely true. That answer seems too simple until you realize what love really means. Love is sacrifice, selflessness, hope, faith, choice, and charity -- the pure love of Christ. I firmly believe that when an expectant mother decides that adoption is the answer, she is giving the most precious gift and making the ultimate sacrifice. Her decision epitomizes charity and emulates the Savior. She is giving adoptive parents something they could not give or do for themselves. Something they have struggled with, prayed for, hoped for, and cried many times over. Just as the Savior sacrificed that which was most dear to him for those who are most dear, an birth mother does the same as she places her child in another mother's arms. How does she do it? She is thinking selflessly -- she is thinking about her child and what is best for her child, not herself. Adoption is a gift of love - selfless, sacred, pure love. Adoption is Charity.

I do not take lightly the decisions a potential birthmother has to make. That being said, I firmly believe with all my heart that it is HER decision - not her mom's, not her grandma's, not the birthfather's mom. It is a decision she has to make, and whatever that decision is, she claims it. I only hope that she includes the Lord and prayerfully makes her decision.