Adopting Sentimentality

Okay, I'm a fairly emotional and sentimental person. Some might call me "high strung." When I recently watched the episode of WORKOUT where they hold a memorial for trainer Doug, I cried. When I read about a family losing all three children recently in a tragic car accident in Southern California recently, I cried. When I hear about the loss of more and more American servicepeople in Iraq each day, I cry. Now, my reaction to those things may or may not be reasonable. But that is just who I am.

They have been playing Rob Thomas' song "Little Wonders" a lot on the radio lately. This song makes me cry too and I don't know why. It is from the soundtrack of "Meet the Robinsons." My mom and I went to see the movie in 3D and although it isn't one of my favorite Disney movies, it was very sweet. And I'm glad I saw it with my mom because it is about adoption and finding your place in the world.

Way back in May 1975, a 24-year-old single Irish girl in El Paso, Texas gave birth to a little girl. Evidently, the 40-year-old Mexican birth father wasn't in the picture. The young woman decided to give up her baby for adoption through Lutheran Family Social Services.

Enter a young couple in Dallas, Texas. They had applied for adoption along with their friends and were told there was a LONG waiting list. So, they decided to head to Hawaii for a nice vacation. Guess what they heard when they got to Hawaii? (this is why a lot of my nursery was furnished in a Hawaiian theme)

After being in foster care for a brief period of time, I was adopted in August of 1975. Instead of a stork, the plane brought me. My parents met me at the airport when a social worker brought me from El Paso. And the funny thing is, I look just like my parents. Except a lot taller. My whole life people have told me I look like them. My birth mother was 5'4" and blonde. My birth father was dark and around 6' tall. I ended up fair-skinned and freckled with dark brown hair and 5'7". A taller version of my (adoptive) parents. Funny how God works, huh?

I have parents so I never really wondered about my birth parents that much. I guess I'm more curious about what they look like and their medical history than anything else. My parents' friends ending up adopting two children about my age and they have been like cousins to me. Around their 18th birthdays, both of them made contact with their birth parents and it wasn't a good experience in either case.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to tell my mom yet again that I love her and Happy Mother's Day. She always says to me, "Well, I wouldn't be a mother without you."

My birthday is rolling around again very soon and it sometimes makes me think of what it must have been like for my birth mother to give me up. But she did the right thing. She enabled me to go to the family where I was meant to be. And I guess that "Little Wonders" song makes me think of that. And I get a little weepy. But that's okay. That's just me.