A new mom named Lauren recently shared her adoption journey on the website Love What Matters, showing moving images of some of the first memories she has as a mother. In the most emotional photo, the birth mother of her new son is shown wiping tears from Lauren’s face as she holds the newborn baby boy. Adoption is a sacrificial gift of a birth mother to her child’s adoptive parents and the love between birth family and adoptive family is very real.
Lauren and her husband had discussed adoption even before their wedding day in March of 2010. Five years later, with no success in becoming pregnant, the couple decided to go for it and adopt a child. They set themselves up with an adoption agency and then waited… and waited. For two years, the couple eagerly anticipated the phone call that would change their lives, and then finally, it came.
Lauren holds her new adopted baby boy as his birth mother looks on. Copyright Sara Liz Photography.
A birth mother had narrowed it down to them and another family, so Lauren and her husband sent a letter to the birth mom. After a phone call between them, it was decided, and Lauren and her husband were chosen to parent her preborn baby boy.
“On August 18, 2017, a beautiful baby boy came into the world and into our lives. We were fortunate to meet and hold him the night of his birth. The wait was long, but the love was instant,” wrote Lauren. “Words can’t describe the joy and fullness of our hearts. However, we still had one more hurdle to overcome, a 30 day wait to bring him home. Of all the waiting that was the absolute hardest!”
Lauren and her son’s birth mother adore their new baby boy. Copyright Sara LIz Photography.
Each day since he came home has been an “adventure” says Lauren. The couple says they have experienced, love, joy, laughter, worry, and a new closeness that they could never have imagined.
“Well, we made it through and on a warm, bright day in September we became a family of three. Our placement ceremony was very emotional for sure. Tears of joy for our family and probably mixed for the birth family were shed that day as a precious baby boy was welcomed into his forever family’s loving arms and hearts,” she wrote.
Lauren and her husband hold their newly adopted son. Copyright Sara Liz Photography.
The family chose an open adoption and therefore, they remain in contact with their son’s birth mother. They talk via text messages and email updates complete with photos of their precious baby boy. They even get together with the birth mother and her family. The new parents say they want their son to grow up knowing his birth mother and his story so he can know how much he is loved by so many people.
“Love, not DNA, makes a family,” wrote Lauren. These photos make that clear.
Adoption is a gift from one parent to another. It changes lives. It saves lives. There are two million couples waiting to adopt, which means that for every child placed for adoption, 36 couples are waiting anxiously for a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy to choose adoption over abortion.
