Is unconditional love possible?
Don’t underestimate your heart…
It was seven years ago that I set out on this adoption journey, and like most hopeful moms, I truly had no idea what motherhood would be like. And the thing that I always come back to is the LOVE. I had no idea that in a single instant I would possess this immense, unwavering, die for you love. I had absolutely no clue how much my heart could hold nor how capable it was. How much it would expand, ache, leap for joy and break - all at once. My love was unconditional.
One day when my daughter was about 6 months old, as I was holding her, I suddenly knew that I needed to find a way to put how I felt into words. So, I wrote a poem about my love for her and stuck it in her baby book. You see, on that day (and still to this day), I grapple with the awareness that many children who’ve been adopted struggle with abandonment. Further, there is no way to know what that may look like for my daughter years down the road. This poem was essentially a solemn promise that my love was forever, no matter the season, NO MATTER WHAT.
Then last year, on my younger daughter’s first day of school, I was missing them both terribly and decided to pull out the poem. Before I knew it, the poem had become something else entirely - a heartwarming narrative. I wanted the girls to hear it, right away. But it wasn’t ready. Because I realized, adoption is how my children and I were united, but it does not define who they are or who they will become. They have a whole life ahead of them to figure that out.
So, while there are many stories about adoption, I decided mine would not be that. Mine would be about the love a mother has for her child - because what truly binds and defines a family is LOVE. After months of working and reworking, a book finally emerged of a child’s journey through life under the wing of a mother’s love. It introduces adoption language and was written specifically to be inclusive of all adoptions and all children.
Adoption is Love children’s picture book will be published this year by Austin Macauley Publishers. My hope is that within the complex world of adoption, this book will serve as a resource for adoptive mothers to help their children feel safe, wanted and above all loved.
*EDIT 31 Aug 2020 - Adoption is Love now available everywhere books are sold
❤️ Stephanie
*EDIT 31 Dec 2021 consider reading see my blog post on #adoptionislove