[adoptionblessings]

Hi Adoption is a life long journey for those touched by it. It is a beautiful option for those who face crisis pregnancies and have chosen not to parent, and a answer to prayer for those faced with infertility and those who are orphaned. Adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents travel this life long journey and have dreams, expectations, and emotions that extend to the full roller coaster of human emotions. Share your thoughts, dreams, journal entries, poetry (yours or others- but post source/credits please) What have you carried in your "adoption travel bag" in regards to the above mentioned list. Posts can be short and sweet , creative, a quote. Please participate and we can see a glimpse of the big picture of adoption by all who are touched by it! Thanks, Jody, adoptee, I will share a poem in the following post that I wrote in 1998 looking back at my Faith journey in adoption, called An Adoptee's Praise.
Jody Moreen, adoptee
Editor Adoption Blessings Journal www.adoptionblessingsnewsletter.com

[adoptionblessings]

An Adoptee's Praise by Jody Moreen

Sovereign Lord, My Great Creator, Maker of wind and skies and sea.
I'm filled with wonder how your loving hands created me, an adoptee.
Master Designer, Skillful Potter, you're the Life, the Truth, the Way.
Your love shaped me and formed me from some still and lifeless clay.
My First Father, One All Knowing, through your love I was conceived.
I was in your plan and in your heart, for it was in me that you believed.
There in secret, in the darkness, you were there when my life took form.
Inside my birth mom you hid and sheltered me, kept me safe from every storm.
God My Maker, Master Artist, Chosen Seed of Israel's race.
You painted colors of the brightest rainbow to reflect in me my birth mom's face.
Breathed your life in me, Oh Mighty Spirit, One the winds and waves obey.
Stilled my anxious cries, sought a family who would a sure foundation lay.
You heard the weeping of my birth mom,knowing motherhood was not an option.
You walked beside her, lit a pathway to a plan you called adoption.
Mighty Anchor, My Protector, I felt adrift in a world so dark.
Your love guided me, like baby Moses, you cradled me safe inside your 'ark'
You went before me, prepared a better way, heard the cries of a woman barren.
Filled her lifelong dreams, gave her new hope, Oh you precious Rose of Sharon!
You chose a mother,who came to love you,in whom your faith & grace did dwell
Through her guidance and caring counsel, she mirrored your love, Emmanuel.
Master Builder, Shaper of Mountains, I trace your blueprint in the sand.
My adoption shaped me through loving choices into a pattern you had planned.
Holy Spirit, Precious Heavenly Dove, you've caused my heart to cry and sing.
Your ever presence through my adoption journey has kept me safe beneath your wing!

© Jody Moreen, 1998 Copyright

Permission is needed from the author for reprinting poem in part or whole in any media or print publication, or presentation.
adoption@wideopenwest.com
Editor, Adoption Blessings Journal , www. adoptionblessingsnewsletter.com

[aura]

Hi Jody,
I am an adoptee who recently located both my birthparents. I am one of the lucky adoptees, I was raised by a wonderful family and they also supported my search for my birthparents. I have always known I was adopted and was told that adoption is a blessing, that God used my birthparents to answer the prayer of my adoptive parents for a child. While searching I came across a poem that I ended up including in the letter I sent to my birthmom, she now has it framed and on her wall. Here it is...

The Legacy of an Adopted Child

Once there were two women who never knew each other...
One I do not remember, the other I call Mother.
Two different lives, shaped to make my one...
One became my guiding star, the other became my sun.
The first gave me life, the second taught me how to live it...
The first gave me a need for love, the second was there to give it.
One gave me a nationality, the other gave me a name...
One gave me a seed of talent, the other gave me aim.
One gave me emotions, the other calmed my fears...
One saw my first sweet smile, the other dried my tears.
One gave me up, it's all that she could do...
The other prayed for a child and God led her straight to you.
And now I ask you, through my fears,
The age old question unanswered throughout the years...
Heredity or environment, which am I a product of..
Neither my darling, neither..
Just two different kinds of love.

Author Unknown

This poem said so much and is the way I was raised to look at adoption, it is a blessing and one that should be treasured. God bless! Aura
This is a wonderful thread!

[Terina777]

Two years ago my husband was finally able to speak with his birthmom for the first time in his life. He never talked about being adopted, so I didn't think it bothered him. I was so wrong. It was amazing to see the change in him after he found out his birth mom was still alive and was able to finally talk to her on the phone (she's a lovely woman). It was as though a weight was lifted off his shoulders. His family (the one who raised him) were blessed by receiving him as their child when he was a baby. Then, two years ago when they received a phone call from an adoption counselor saying the birth family was looking for him, his mom (the one who raised him), loved him enough to pass on the adoption counselor's phone number. Now, our son has three grandmothers and two grandfathers that love him so much. Some day, I want to write their stories because there is so much to tell. Such a beautiful reunion of healed emotions.
Thank you Jody for your adoption support group and for your great poetry and blog to encourage others to send in their poetry. Poetry and music can be so powerful - it is one of those needed things - not a want.
Terina

[adoptionblessings]

Thanks Terina for sharing the journey of your husband through adoption reunion. Adoptees from the closed adoption era often carry many buried feelings and questions about being adopted and their birth family. It is wonderful to hear what a positive difference it has made in your husband's life to connect with his birth mom and birth family! And it is so fortunate that He met a beautiful woman who welcomes him into her life. It is also wonderful to hear how encouraging his adoptive parents were in allowing him this priviledge of finding the missing pieces of his past. Some adoptive parents can be threatened by adoption reunions for fear of competition as parents for their child's affection and time. Some also fear the child being hurt by these new relationships. Adoption is a beautiful journey but definately has some challenges and hills and valleys along the way. I am so glad to hear your husband's story and how his reunion has brought his peace and closure and some new relationships to embrace! And you are a wonderful wife to support him in be understanding to his needs as an adoptee. Blessings to you!
Jody

[shefalie]

When i started on this journey, my bag was heavy with expecations that were too high, dreams that were formed partly by what others had told me about my bmother, and really a naievity about the whole process. I hadnt got a clue really. I had read no books, or had no help in packing for this journey. So I packed what I had to start with It seemed the bag contained scripts written by others like, my social worker, what my house mother had told me from the orphange.....after i met my mother, some of those things got emptied out, and other things added, like an actual photo of my mother...that was special, and a photo of my bsister.....more than i had dreamed of.....oh and I found that I was carrying new hopes, and also had to dump the scripts as they were not correct......ive carried a lot of negative emotions in my bag for far too long that have weighed me down, and now im finding a way to off load them as well, so i can travel lighter.....in fact Im thinking of buying a whole new bag and having a sort out on this journey....so I sat down at the crossroads of this journey when my bmother died last year and i realised my dreams were not going to come true and wrote this for her.this year on my birthday...............
In memory of my bmother:
Mother,
It is my birthday
And I think of you…..
Thank you, for my life……
In all the passing years
I still think of you.
This day…… My day……
Not much celebration going on
The day you delivered me.
But oh my mother…if you could see me now….
I would want it to bless your heart…..
To see what I have done with the gift of life given to me.
I am so sorry you could not keep me or
Watch me grow and bloom into the woman
I am becoming today.
I am sorry, it was not your hand that held me
As a child in the night ,when I was so afraid.
Nor your voice that comforted me in the darkness and challenges of
My life……
Nor your laughter, or your encouragement I heard
Throughout my youthful growing years.
You have not seen the many places, and people
Whose lives have touched me and I them and all
That has gone into making me………Me.
But still…here I am……
I am trying to do the best with my life I can.
I have loved, laughed, climbed mountains,
Walked in the valleys and…..well sometimes I have even stopped to rest in the shadows for oh so long………
Until I had almost forgotten the warmth of the sun……
I am learning to let people into my life and heart
And build a bridge to friendship……
I have known times of deep loss, .…. but also the pleasure of much gain…..
And I have known the joy of being raised with a family…..
I have been a daughter…and a sister…a wife…a mother….… and a friend to many…
Who have lost their way in life…….
I so wanted you to meet my friends…
I wanted you to meet the woman who became my “mum”…
I am learning to sing in the barren times, and the times of plenty….
I am learning to let the light shine from within…
And to let the wounds heal over…..
I am learning to sing a new song…..
And I wanted to say thankyou.
I think of you and wanted you to know
My life has gone on…..
And I am coming into full bloom…
And this day of all days……. my birthday,
I remember you and smile.
copyright: Shefalie 06

[adoptionblessings]

Shef, thanks for sharing what you carried in your bag on your adoption journey and how when you met your birth mom and discovered truths you could unload your bag of misinformation and baggage you had carried far too long. And thanks for mentioning that reunion also causes us to add new things to the bag and unload others- some good, some bad. But always growing and learning and changing and opening ourselves up to the truth and processing that- and sometimes that involves painful grieving. But through the grief there is cleansing and healing and release. I guess that is why God made tears - to have a place of release and cleansing. I once heard the quote- that the soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears. May God bless you on your continued adoption journey and thanks for sharing your beautiful poem for your birth mom. Birthdays can be days of many mixed emotions for those adopted, and I am glad you wrote this poem on your birthday. Many adoptees can identify with you regarding birthdays for they are filled with emotions and thoughts of both our adoptive and birth families.
Blessings Shef and hope you keep posting on these forums! We learn so much from one another!
Jody