[Jody M]

As Mother's Day approaches, I am reflecting on the blessings I have had in my life. The blessing of my birth mother Lucille Johnson who at 32 years of age gave me Life and made an adoption plan for me. I was never able to meet her, for she died young at 51 before I searched and found my birth family, but my love for her is still very present.My adoptive mom surprised me when we were on a trip to my birth place some years ago. We were taking an afternoon drive and she took me to my birth mother's grave for she desired to go with me to give our love and honor to this special mom. My mom had purchased a lovely bouquet of flowers for my birth mom and we placed them at her gravesite and stood in silence honoring her memory. I remember my precious birth mom Lucille this week for her life and her heart and her gift of Life to me and adoption to my family. She never knew what a gift she gave and how much gratitude is felt towards her- but I pray, God somehow let her know and gave her a glimpse of the love being sent her way, even today.

My adoptive mom, Gladys was infertile and could not have children. She invested her mothering in being a foster mom to over 18 children over the years, many with special needs and issues , before she and my dad adopted my sister and I. Today she is my spiritual mentor- who showed me Christ was first in her life everyday ( I always "caught" her reading her bible and praying first thing every morning when I was teenager!!) That meant more to me for her actions matched her words that she loved God. She is 82 and made a decision this past fall to move in with my sister Barb, age 54 who is widowed and has Lou Gehrigs disease. Though she had found peace and friendships, and meaningful activities and volunteering in a new Christian retirement home for years, she obeyed the voice of her heavenly Father, to trust Him to walk this journey with my sister. She will come to visit this month, and I am so thrilled God has given her to me to love!

May we all honor our moms and encourage those especially who have lost their moms in recent years, or are in strained relationships with their children. Our prayers are the greatest gift we can give to mothers this week- for our Heavenly Father created each mother and knows each one so intimately!

Blessings, Jody Moreen, Editor, Adoption Blessings Journal
www.adoptionblessingsnewsletter.com

Send cards this week to mothers, or those who have nutured you like a mom, or those who need a special touch this year due to challenges and heartaches, grief and loss related to their mothering or their mothers.

[shef]

Jody,

You have shown me by your example of how to honour and say honouring things about our mothers, even in very difficult situations.

In the UK Sunday is the day we recognize mothering Sunday...and this year, though I am now without my own foster and bmother...I want to also say thankyou to God for both these women who contributed to my own life.
God has brought healing into my life, to be able to say thankyou to my bmother for bringing me through the stormy waters of pregnancy and making sure I got to be born. I thank God for all the women who took the place over the first years of my life when i had no specific mother and i thank God for all he has provided in my foster mothers care. I thank Him too for helping me to know how to be a mother myself and above all else I thank Him for his promise to us all that when our mothers and fathers do forsake us, He will take us up.

shefalie

[Jody M]

Shef- How beautifully God has worked in your heart and life to give you an inner joy and gratitude for Life. Though your birth and adoption story, as mine, has difficult parts, we do not own the problems as our identity. We see that we were innocent babes, but how beautifully, God Our Father, Our perfect Father, brought us both through the storms of a crisis pregnancy and many problems in our birth famiies. He sustained our lives and allowed us to be present today, for me 51 years later to sing His praise, being the Author of Life and the Redeemer of Broken Lives and Hearts. I will forever sing His praises and speak of His heart for Life for the unborn that He designed and Has a special plan for- even if the birth parents did not plan these dears ones to be apart of their lives!
Thanks for sharing Shef- and may you continue to share your beautiful testimony of Life. Some turn bitter when they know the details of their beginnings but you have given them to God. And He has allowed you to see Him as the Redeemer, and how He desired Your Life, for You are His precious daughter. He is ever faithful, He has been with you and I each and every day of our lives- through our conception, our fragile births, our foster care and adoptions. He is everpresent and promises to never abandon us! What a reunion we will have someday when we shall behold Him face to face- Our First Father!
Blessings Shef- I hope others will share!
Jody