Baby Hannah....a birth mom's perspective

I'm often interested in seeing things from another person's perspective. I think it's the 'caretaker' in me as a friend has called it. Adoption is no different. While I understand the emotions that an adopting family goes through, it's important for me to grasp the emotions of a birth parent. This morning I stumbled across this video. While there's not a whole lot of explanation that goes with the video, I do recognize that there are probably two mothers and at the end of the day, all that really matters is the love for this one little amazing girl. Thank you Lord for the courage and selfless love of this birth mother and thank you for the selfless love of this adopting mom. May they all be richly blessed for loving generously like you.


Baby Hannah from Jenni Kjerstad on Vimeo.

My Birth Mom & Me: Finally, Side-by-Side

My birth mom, Kay, and me. After 30+ years  of her death, this is my first glimpse of discovering if we looked alike. 

For the past 30+ years, September has been a really hard month for me. It's the anniversary of my birth mom's death and also her birthday. She died Labor Day September 7th and her birthday was weeks later on September 26th. As I wrote this, I thought about how awesome God is because after such a hard month, the celebration of my birthday follows on October 4th. I never thought of that...I'm so grateful.

My Uncle Adrian recently posted a photo of my mom that I had never seen before. I actually only own one photo of my mom. From what I learned, she was one of those people who didn't like to take photos. Yet, I long for more photos and a voice recording of any kind just so I can know what she sounded like. 

Today, as I pondered what to post onto this blog, I thought about the photo my Uncle Adrian had and I began to wonder if I looked anything like my mom. I don't know that anyone has ever told me if I have or not. So I decided to grab the photos and put them side-by-side. It's really hard to look at the photos together but it's necessary because it begins to put pieces together for me about who I am in relation to her. The first thing I notice are our eyes. Wow. Maybe as the weeks and months go by, I'll be able to stare at it for longer periods of time. For now, I'll savor what I glanced at and thank God for all things.

Happy Birthday Mom!