[Jody M]

In this day and age when abortion statistics are mind boggling- adoptees testimonies of gratitude for life and adoption are so needed! I know I would not have been born if abortion was a legal option in the 1950's but I am so blessed that it was not. So my birth parents chose LIFE! And I am filled with gratitude for the decision of my birth parents and my adoptive parents to give me the wonderful gifts of life and family!
Babies conceived today often have a cruel fate and death sentence before they are ever given a chance. Would you share your brief adoption testimony here- in thankfulness to your birth parents and adoptive parents. I would love to share these with a friend who counsels teens on life and adoption options in the high schools!! Many girls might make a decision for LIFE instead of abortion if they hear our testimonies!

I am thankful to Lucille my birth mom for giving me the gift of life, though she never got to know me- she died before I could meet her to say thanks!
Her "gift" lives on in that I have 3 sons because of her gift to me! And I thank my adoptive parents Walter and Gladys for giving me a Christian home and family! God surely blessed me in adoption!

Thanks, Jody

[sspete]

What a great testimony you are on how great adoption can be!! I loved reading your post--you are quite an inspiration. I am a bmom who put my bdaughter up for adoption 19 years ago. She too has been raised in a wonderful christian home, by great aparents. There are many success stories out there, and it is great to here them. Many blessings to YOU!!!

[mrbeansmom]

What a wonderful testimony! May your words be an inspiration to those considering adoption and a comfort to those who placed children for adoption.

[rcschick]

I'm so grateful to have been life. I know it must've been a very difficult decision for my bmother to do what she did (give me up for adoption)but I thank her. I never had the chance to meet her she passed last Nov. 2002. Really only because of health reasons did I push my search and for me it turned out well. I always said to myself from the time that I found out I was adopted how thankful I was to have been given the chance of life. I feel so special to be in this world. To be able to share my experiences with someone else means so much to me whether they like it or not. I wish I would've had the chance to meet my bmother. No matter what I still love her and continue to still question the questions. I guesss I always had this sense of my bmother's presence in some way. It saddens me that I will never get to meet her. I do believe that she knew that I was looking for her or any bfamily and now it's too late. Don't ever wait keep on pursuing. And I thank my bmother for making that choice. I did find out that she did hold me in the hospital after I was born and gave me a name. That sometimes makes it more difficult. But I still love her. There are many choices in life and I was glad to be given a chance. Kelly

[Jody M]

How wonderful to read the adoption testimonies of gratitude for LIFE. It is easy in this life to focus on things we did not have and for adoptees who were raised in the closed adoption system of the past- many of us grieve living through our childhoods with a mystery to our past. But how wonderful to move our thoughts to the blessings we have had- even in the midst of hardships. For those who would like to leave their testimonies at a website for Adoptees Prolife- check it out- groups.yahoo.com/group/AdopteesProlife

Thanks for sharing and hope others post their pro-life testimonies! And remember to share these boldly with the world! It needs to hear testimonies of Life!

Jody Moreen
adoption@wideopenwest.com

[dl]

I share your feeling of believing that I would not have been born if abortion was a legal option in the 1950's. My bparents were married, but bmother had an affair and placed a boy for adoption 15 months prior to placing me. This boy was not her husbands child as he was mixed race. It was suspected that I was also the result of an affair, but when I was born it was obvious I was her husbands child as I was the same race as both of them. Bparents decided to continue with the plan of adoption for me as they "lacked the emotional resources that qood parenting required" (quote from my non id info). Whatever their reason for feeling this way, I give them credit for not aborting me (although illegal, it was not impossible) and for their wisdom to recognize that they were not ready to be parents.

At 13 months I was adopted by wonderful parents and raised in a loving Christian home. I always knew I was adopted and never felt it was an issue. I am very grateful for the life I have had and feel I have made a positive difference. Agree, God totally blessed me too the day my parents adopted me.

You will find more stories that you could share with your friend on the thread " “Insight for Aparents from an Adoptee”.
http://www.adoptionforums.com/showth...threadid=95993

[Jody M]

Hi! Thanks for sharing your pro-life adoption testimony. My story is similar to yours in that I was the 4th daughter born to my birth parents- my mother was 32 when I was born and my birth father was 50. The non- identif ID stated that I was the result of an affair but the social worker doubted the authenticity of the report. With all their problems and my birth mom's medical state I believe my birth father needed a "way out" of having another child. I have many of his traits and so do my children- and one of my birth sisters and I share the same blood type. Also other relatives who knew my birth father say that I definately was his daughter- interesting! Am so glad my birth father chose adoption and that the good Lord found me a lovely Christian family. I have been blessed! Jody

[CAROL IN SF]

Jody, you have indeed been blessed with the ability to write. Even tho I am new here, there is no doubt in my mind that you put much time and effort into what you do.
When I was born in 1943, I doubt that abortion was an option.
Besides the fact that my gparents were Christians, so that would have never happened.
When I was pregnent, abortion was certainly around, but it never for a minute crossed my mind. I never would have had an abortion.
After my bson and I reunited, he told me
"MOM, THANKS FOR NOT HAVING AN ABORTION"
I have to be truthful. Before I turned my life to GOD, I strongly believed in a womans right to choose. I have prayed about it and I no longer feel that way.
In such a short time, GOD is making changes in me!
ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE

[Jody M]

Thanks Carol for sharing your beautiful pro-life testimony! God lead you to adoption instead of abortion. In a poem I wrote called An Adoptee's Praise- on this website under poetry I quoted this
speaking of God:
"You heard the weeping of my birth mom knowing motherhood was not an option. You walked beside her lit a pathway to a plan you called adoption."
So glad you chose LIFE Carol and have had the joy of reunion with your son! God is awesome and brings showers of blessings to His own! Jody

[firstofsix]

Hi Jody. Thanks for putting together this meeting place for adoptees for whom the abortion debate is particularly painful. My adoption story is, to put it simply, very interesting and beautiful. I had the unique opportunity to meet my bmom 25 years after the fact and THANK HER for giving me life. She passed away in 1994. I am the oldest of six adoptees in my family (they live near Detroit). My next youngest sister is a half-sister by the same bmom. It wasn't planned that way. "Miraculous" is the only word I can think of to describe how we ended up in the same adoptive family. My adoptive parents are terrific. Back in the 1960's, after having adopted four of us, my folks became foster parents of newborns being placed for adoption through Catholic Social Services. They ended up adopting two of those babies!

[Jody M]

Thank you for taking the time to share your praise for life and adoption. I truly see it as a "miracle" that many of us adoptees are alive today and were blessed to be adopted! The laws protected many of us from being aborted. Not the same today for those precious unborn babies in the wombs of those in crisis pregnancies. I pray many adoptees will vocally share their gratitude for life so that the world will see the beauty of God's option, adoption and that more precious lives will be saved! Thanks for sharing! Jody M in Illinois

Leader of Adoptees, Birth Parents and Adoptive Parents Together- an adoption triad support group held monthly in Wheaton, IL

[lafrisch]

Many adoptees are grateful to be alive. For those born in the 50s, 60s and early 70s, their natural mothers knew they would be subjected to horrible shaming for pregnancy, looked down upon as single mothers (known derisively as "unwed" mothers) and their children would be treated as lower-class citizens ("bastards"). Many pregnant women were thrown out of their parents homes and told not to come back with their child. Even in more recent times, many pregnant women fearful of their community's and family's reactions have bravely chosen to give birth to the baby they love so much - and then still been horribly pressured by others to surrender their child. They did not get an abortion, whether legal or illegal. It is quite a tribute to these women - and to their love for their child - that they proceeded with pregnancy knowing their own son or daughter would most likely be taken from them.

Today, it's possible to provide women more options so they do not have to lose their children in such a horrendous way. Even if the child's father abandons her - or is at first a reluctant father - a mother can receive kind treatment and real help. Acknowledgement as her child's mother, baby gifts, donations of maternity clothes or baby items - basically help with whatever she considers impediments to being able to raise her child - would be welcomed by many pregnant moms.

And still, people keep suggesting "rewarding" a mother for choosing life by "guiding" her toward adoption? A mother is a mother, she is not a "birth thing" meant to be used as the source of a baby for adoption.

Please promote more humane options.

Laurie



[Edited To Remove the URL to an “Anti-Adoption” website.]

[Jensboys]

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[mrbeansmom]

In a perfect world women would be treated as you suggest. In fact, in a perfect world, women would not be getting pregnant outside of marriage, period. We do not live in a perfect world, however, and people make mistakes. While I agree that no woman should be shamed for giving her child life, your suggestion that by supporting her through clothing and gifts would encourage her to take a path other than adoption is simply not realistic. There are women who are okay with giving their child up to an adoptive home and there's nothing wrong with that. By suggesting that there are "more humane options", you liken it to something distasteful, and nothing could be further from the truth. Most ~any~ female can give birth to a child. Not all females want to parent one. In the same way that you say women should not be shamed for having babies, you should not shame them for choosing not to raise them...........

[shef]

Hi, I was only thinking today of where God says we all have options every day to either choose life or death. I thought that was a very powerful thing that he ultimately gives us the choice....
then I thought about my bmother....and I have to admit its taken me some time of healing to be able to get to this place.....but I do thank God that He helped my mother to have the courage to go through with the pregnancy.
I found out I was conceived through the act of rape.....and my mother was traumatised and had attemtped abortion.
But here I am.....with the realisation that I am not a mistake, and that my mother had guts to choose life for me. She may not have been able to keep me, but she brought me into the world and I am here for a purpose.
None of us know how hard it is for another human being to make the choices they do.....but I thank you mom for your act of courage, and I intend to use the power of choice given to me each day to choose to live and let my life be a blessing to others in some way as a legacy to you. I give thanks for my foster parents who took me in and helped to develop the life I had been given and give me a chance to be in a real family.

shefalie