The Ultimate Gift

Today an 18 year old girl gave the ultimate gift. Because she chose to carry the baby inside of her, another girl -29 years old became a mother. What an amazing gift. What a heart-wrenching decision. To carry a life you created inside of you. To feel it move, hiccup, kick. To hold him in your arms moments after he's born, to spend quiet moments alone with him when no one else is there. Only to turn him over to another woman, a woman that desperately wants this tiny little being, who has fallen in love with him without ever feeling him kick.
To Kelly- who will probably never see this, thank you isn't enough. But know that there have been so many women praying for you. So many women who are feeling your agony. So many women who aren't sure they would be as strong as you. To choose to carry a life, knowing life is precious, only to give him up after holding him a few short hours in your arms. We will keep praying for you for we cannot understand even a fraction of what you are going through. May God show his face to you, may he comfort you and give you peace. May he bless you for choosing the harder way.

You see that 29 year old girl is my best friend Shawn. Tonight she holds her baby in her arms. She won't sleep very much because she will be staring at him and watching his every move. She'll be tired tomorrow because of feedings all night long. She'll realize that this new life will cause her more tears and joys than one could imagine. She will hold him close when he's teething and no one else can comfort him. She'll be there to pick him up when he falls down for the first time. She'll be there, holding his hand, as he steps into his first day of kindergarten. She became a mother because you chose life. There could be no greater gift.

Sometimes I forget just how great a gift God gave us when he sent Christ to this earth. To watch your son beaten and dying on the cross, knowing that he could have stopped it in an instant. But he chose the harder way too. He chose the path that meant life. Eternal life. Life that means someday we will all be back in his presence, no longer in a world where some women can't have babies and some women have to give them up. No more agony, no more tears. An amazing love.

Adoption is an amazing thing. Two families forever forged together. One mom that is desperate to give him the best life and one mom who will raise him up in this world.

Thank you Kelly. Thank you for giving the ultimate gift. For making Shawn and Dave parents. For carrying Alex inside of you those long months that now must seem like they passed too quickly. You have been a reminder to so many of us of our adoption in Christ. And may you too be adopted into his kingdom for all eternity.