Happy Birthmother's Day

Probably like many of you, I didn't know their was any such holiday as Birthmother's Day. That is until we began looking into adoption.  The holiday, started in Seattle in 1990, is observed on the Saturday before Mother's Day because these lovely ladies are our children's first mothers.

I was sobbing by the end of this music video "Everything to Me" by Mark Schultz, who dedicated it to his birth mother.  He has never re-met her, but he wanted to thank her for the most important gift she ever gave him... life.

This beautiful poem on Adoption Quotes about the love two mothers can share for a child spoke to me today as I was thinking about the love and sacrifice a birthmother makes either through placement or through her departure from this world.

Legacy of an Adopted Child Poem
Once there were two women, who never knew each other
One you do not remember, the other you call Mother
Two different lives shaped to make you one
One became your guiding star, the other became your sun
The first one gave you life, the other taught you to live it
The first gave you a need for love, the second was there to give it
One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name
One gave you talent, the other gave you aim
One gave you emotion, the other calmed your fears
One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears
One sought for you a home, that she could not provide
The other prayed for a child, and her hope was not denied
And now you ask me through your tears,
The age-old question unanswered through the years
Heredity or environment, which are you a product of?
Neither my darling, neither
Just two different kinds of love.
Author-Unknown

My heart yearns to meet these women who gave my children life, to thank them for their sacrifice and to show them our beautiful children.  Unfortunately, I may never get that opportunity and pray that if I don't meet them in this life that I will get to hug them and thank them when we meet in heaven.