I got asked the following question "At what point did I fee like a mom?" I sat there sort of shell shocked by the question because I didn't give birth, I didn't breast feed, I didn't get that baby pee baptism, I didn't feel a new life taking over my body from the inside out. I adopted, we adopted not one but 3! So as a I sat and thought about others responses I started to get teary eyed and asked myself how could I answer this and not be Debbie downer to others beautiful experiences? I decided to not answer because as I thought about moments where I felt I am their mom they had an undertone of sadness because we fought for so long to finally say I AM THEIR MOM!! Their birth certificates say so. It wasn't easy, it wasn't something we counted it on, it was touch and go there for a real long time! So I am grateful for milestone moments in their lives because I didn't get so many early ones. Honestly it does pain me that I missed that because they are my kids and I can't imagine that I missed all that those first.
Something lovely happened though from all my listening and being on the brink of tears. I heard other bio moms say they had missed out too due to other forces at work in their lives. That was soothing to my heart. It was soothing to hear one mom say she didn't know how to introduce herself because of circumstances in her life. I wasn't alone, the why was different but still I wasn't alone. This is community folks in the body of Christ. This is the way it's suppose to look like. Receiving each other's story and finding that you don't have to be alone anymore. There are so many facets to being a mom, a believer, a wife, a friend, a church volunteer, a whatever you want to name but these moments are the moments that are so pure and where I feel God holding my hand through someone else's flesh and saying "I get you."
