A Different Kind of Love

On Thursday I went to the Mother's Day program at Olivia's preschool.  The kids were cute, the songs they sang were cute, everything was cute.  One song, which they signed and then signed and sang, begins like this: "Mother, I love you; mother I do.  Father in Heaven has sent me to you."  (You can read the rest of the lyrics here.)  Olivia was looking right at me while she signed and sang.  I got so choked up over the second line, "Father in Heaven has sent me to you," as Olivia was pointing to me that I thought I was going to burst out sobbing.  She was looking at me with so much love in her beautiful blue eyes, as if she understood that Father in Heaven truly did send her to me.  I've known that from the moment she was placed in my arms, and I felt such a re-confirmation of it at that moment.

She was sent here to be my daughter, but took a rather circuitous route to get to me.  And I can honestly say that I'm thankful for that.  It's not just the great story--and it is a great story--it's that I was given the opportunity to experience a different kind of love.  A love different from how I love my parents, my friends, my husband, even different from how I love my child.  I have learned so much from loving Alyssa, Olivia's birth mom.  She made a beautiful, selfless, unimaginably difficult sacrifice in placing Olivia with us.  She gave Olivia two parents who are over the moon about her; she gave me the gift of motherhood.  There are no words to adequately thank her.  So we love her and talk about her and love her even more.  I cannot imagine my life without Olivia, which means I cannot imagine my life without Alyssa.
 
Today is Birth Mother's Day.  I love that birth moms get their day before moms do.  They deserve it.  I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a mom.  And even though this is in no way enough, thank you, Alyssa.  We love you!