You Gave Life to Me

Mother's Day, I could write about so many different things for Mother's Day.  I could write about how thankful I am for my two grandmothers, my mother and my mother-in-law.  I am truly blessed with a wonderful heritage of loving, godly mothers.  I could easily write an entire post about my mom and grandmothers.

Or I could write about how blessed and thankful I am to be a mother.  The last three years I have looked forward to and enjoyed celebrating Mother's Day.  There were several years before that, that I dreaded the thought of having to put on a smile for another Mother's Day.  Another Mother's Day that was a reminder that I was still NOT a mother.  Another Mother's Day that would be an emotional roller coaster that my dear husband did not quite understand.  But now I have the two beautiful faces of my sons to look into and be eternally grateful to be called their mother.

But, there is something very different that I want to write about.  This year I am feeling a very different kind of emotion.  And I feel it is very selfish to admit that it is the first I have thought about it.  It has to do with the birth mother of my 3-year old son.  I wonder if her heart aches on mother's day thinking of the child that she is no longer holding in her arms, in fact the very child that I now hold in my arms.  I wonder if Mother's Day is even harder for her than it was for me during my days of infertility.  For I was grieving the absence of being a mother, she is a mother grieving the absence of her child.  I often pray for her as she comes to mind, but I have never truly thought of the grief she may experience on mother's day.

I stumbled across the song "Everything to Me" by Mark Schultz today.  I've heard the song on the radio but had never heard his story behind it or watched the video.  I was in tears.  He is adopted and wrote this song about what he would say to his birth mother if he ever met her and recognized the agonizing decision she made to give him a better life.

If you have a few minutes watch this video from Mark Shultz Story behind "everything to me"

Now watch the music video to the song "everything to me" music video

Do you need a tissue?  Read the lyrics to the chorus:

You gave life to me

A brand new world to see
Like playing baseball in the yard with dad at night
Mom reading Goodnight Moon
And praying in my room
So if you worry if your choice was right
You gave me up but you gave everything to me

This is a powerful song and testimony to the love and sacrifice a birth mother often makes when she gives up her child to the arms of another.  I think this song will speak to the hearts of anyone that adoption has touched.

So this year on Mother's Day I am going to say a prayer for my son's birth mother a prayer that she will experience grace and peace in her life and know that she made the best decision she could for her son.  I am also thinking of a way that my son can honor and remember his birth mother the woman who gave life to him on Mother's Day.  He may be a little young this year but it is definitely something I am going to tuck away for thought.  For I know I am eternally grateful to her for giving life to this beautiful child that is now my own!