Amazing

Sometimes your comments to my posts will tell me that I am amazing. Quite frankly, these comments creep me out a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love the compliments and I am happy that my friends and family read my blog, but I am NOT the definition of amazing. 

Let me tell you what I think defines amazing:

First and foremost, God is amazing. I wish I could say I had some sort of religious epiphany that God's plan was for my husband and me to adopt. I wish I could say that I was more like my cousin and her friend. They just knew God wanted them to adopt the world's orphans and make good homes for them. They are good people. I chose adoption for selfish reasons. I wanted babies and I begrudgingly realized that adoption was my only way to make my want happen. Now comes the amazing part. God still managed to find his way into my life. It wasn't an easy thing for Him to get through to me. I do admit now that it was in His plan all along for me to be an adoptive mother. This was the first time I had ever let Him take control of things and look at what happened! God is Amazing.

Our girls are amazing. The way they can light up our faces with each movement is beyond words. The way they have Daddy wrapped around their little fingers makes Mommy smile. The way they can get up a million times throughout the night, giving Mommy and Daddy very little sleep, but then smile so sweetly in the morning melts all of that sleep-deprived irritability away. The way Kate can make a stranger at Target smile because she waves and says hi as if her cart were a float in the parade is amazing. The way Neddy can make a woman  come running from a store because she has the most beautiful red hair and blue eyes is amazing. My girls are amazing.  

My girls' birthmother is amazing. She loves her children so much that she chose a different life for them. She had to admit that she wasn't what she wanted for her kids. She knew they deserved things in life that she couldn't give them. She made an incredibly painful decision to place her children with a different family. A family that she barely knew. A family that she just had to trust would  follow through with an open adoption plan. Our girls' birthmother is amazing.

Our family and friends are amazing. They have supported us through infertility and two long adoption processes. They have celebrated with us and helped to dry our tears. They have accepted and loved our children as ours. They have hung in there by our sides even though they may not have agreed or understood some of our decisions -- especially the choice to have an open adoption. They have had to put their fears of failed adoptions to the side so that they could remain supportive of us. You people are amazing.

I am just like any other parent out there. I am trying to do the best for my children. That may mean something different in my house because adoption is a part of our lives, but it doesn't mean that I am any more amazing than any other parent out there.