Pick me, pick me, pick me

I have been a mother for almost ten years. I've felt like a mother for fifteen years.  Five extra years of dreaming, praying, persevering and mourning.  Five years of surgical prodecures and medications, all of the time considering a child's needs above my own, but without a child to hold.  As important as my children's birthdays are to me , February 23, 2000, January 2, 2002 and July 22, 2005 are more important.  On those three days,  two mothers (the same one for two of my children) trusted me and chose me to mother their children and make them my own.  In moments that I believe could only have been directed by God, these women also considered a child's needs above their own and made the heart-wrenching decision to gift their child to Bart and I.  I do not wish to take any political stand here.  I  understand conservative and liberal viewpoints and I love that our country is based on the democratic foundation of political diversity.  But abortion, I don't understand.  I think many people voice their opinion without personal experience, but I live it daily.   I have heard from our birthmothers that their decisions to chose life allowed them the peace to live without regret.  They carry in their hearts, and see in pictures and letters, the knowledge that their birthchildren are cherished, are thriving and were very much wanted.  Their conception was no mistake.  It was predestined.  Let this sink into your soul.  Regardless of your gender, your race, your color, your country, your political affliation or your social class - we are all humans with the most basic of desires - to live and to be loved.  I have never felt more human than the moments that these two women handed me their babies and I looked them in the eye and told them thank you.  We shared their sorrow with them, they shared our happiness with us.  It felt right to all of us.  We felt like we had all been led there to that moment.  I wish them and all of the mothers in the world, whether with a child in their arms or in their hearts, a happy mother's day.  Choose to live in the fullness of the gift.