Today is national Adoption Day, a day set aside for families to finalize adoptions. Judges and court reporters and everyone else volunteers to do this job on this day.
It is a great day for families across this nation, children get their hopes of a family to belong to, parents get to become, well parents, with no fear of their children being taken away from them.
As everyone knows, I am adopted, to me this day speaks to me especially. I have an unique perspective on adoption, I was adopted and I gave a child up for adoption.
My adoption was by family, I chose strangers to give my child to, for incredibly selfish reasons. You see there was no way I could emotionally see my child at family reunions, get togethers, funerals, weddings, whatever.
There would have been no way I could have done it, it was selfish on my part. Me being adopted was the best day ever, me handing my child over, one of the worst.
And best, I knew it was the best decision I could have made for her. For her betterment, it was selfish to give her to strangers, but it was for her benefit to give her to people who could care for her financially and emotionally.
I celebrate this day, for the people who, for whatever reason, decide to adopt. You are heroes to these children, but I also celebrate the women that realize they cannot raise their own children.
If women were celebrated for recognizing their own heroism in giving children to people who can care for them the world would be a much better place. Instead we are shamed, it is shameful to talk about giving a child to adults who want to and are ready to become parents.
For decades girls and young women who became pregnant outside of marriage were shipped off to homes for girls like that. Girls that happened to had to be bad, right? So they were hidden, and after the baby was gone, it was never discussed again. It was something to be hidden and it was something to be ashamed of.
Think about it, to this day no one talks about these women, the ones that carry the children, nurture them in their bodies and then hand them over to someone else to raise.
It is an unselfish act, it is an act of complete surrender, you see, for the most part, we are not party girls. We are not reckless, we just got caught doing what everyone else was doing. Some girls were forced and the children are the result of that tragedy.
All in all, we are emotionally, financially and mentally not ready to raise a child, so we give them to people that can.
This is what we should be celebrating, in all of the talk of actresses holding parties to celebrate abortions, this is what we should really be celebrating.
Women who make the sacrifice of carrying a child they know will never be theirs. The ones that give their children to others to raise. We made the sacrifice of our bodies, they will never be the same. We made the sacrifice of our souls and hearts, because part of them will always be missing.
So on National Adoption Day, I celebrate you, the women who made it possible for people to adopt.
Any questions, comments or criticisms can be left here or sent to me at angie@angieworld.com.
Angie World 