a letter to Gabriel's birthmom...

One of the big steps in domestic adoption paperwork is writing your "Dear Birthmother" letter.  While there's other information for the birthmother to look at about your family, the letter you write to her is a chance for you to "talk" to her, briefly, but personally.  How do you write a letter to someone you've never met but feel such a strong connection to?  I posted our Dear Birthmother letter on our blog before (feel free to check it out here if you haven't gotten to read it before.), but of course this whole blog is kind of like a letter to our birthmother, too.  ("Dear Birthmother...")  It's a look into who we really are and what we do on a day to day basis.  I'm not sure if Gabriel's birthmother has ever stumbled upon my blog or not, but I hope if she ever does that she can sense the tremendous love and gratefulness we have towards her.  Seriously, I wish each of you could meet this amazing woman!

At any rate, the main purpose for tonight's entry was I'm getting ready to send a package to Gabriel's birthmother this week (Photos and such), and when I send pictures I usually try to send an actual handwritten letter along with them.  We text several times throughout the week, so it's not like we don't ever hear from one another, but there's just something about sitting down and writing and actual letter specifically to her.  This letter is so much different than our paperwork "Dear Birthmother" letter though...this time, I get to address it to an actual name.  And instead of telling her our hopes and dreams we have for our family, these letters now tell her about all of the ways we are getting to live out those hopes and dreams with the family she has helped us have.  I know a lot of people think open adoption is so crazy and scary, but I truly believe it's just because they haven't experienced what it really is all about.  I feel like it is such a privilege that I get to have a relationship with the woman who brought Gabriel into this world--the woman who ultimately chose me to be his mother.  I am so very, very thankful for her!

Just as a side note...I always want to make sure to respect Gabriel's birthmother's privacy, so that's why I have never posted her name or any photos of her.  You can see just a hint of her in the above picture though:)