For some people, getting pregnant is the easiest thing in the world. It happens to teens who are not ready, it happens for some couples just weeks after the wedding.  Pregnancy, it seems,  is one of the those things we’re supposed to be able to do.  Graduate, get married, have a baby – it’s a pretty common experience.  I think we forget that even under the most ordinary circumstances, a pregnancy is always a miracle.

November is National Adoption Awareness month,  a time to recognize a whole host of miracles.  I am amazed by, and so proud of,  the women who are willing to carry a child they cannot keep.  They tend a miracle for nine months and then do the unspeakably heroic: they let the child go.

Biology is not what makes a family, love is. A husband and wife become family by choosing to love each other forever.  Children enter families the same way, adopted or not.  It is not blood type or genetics that determine love.  Love is always a choice.

As Julie Stobbe wrote in her excellent article, “Life is Not an Accident”:

Through the years my birth mother had become my heroine.  I no longer thought of her as a loser or as an irresponsible young teenager. To me she had become an incredibly courageous young woman, a person of great strength and integrity. She had given me all the things that I never would have had if she had kept me or aborted me. I wanted to hug her and show her I had turned out all right. Every single goal I’ve ever accomplished has been a direct result of her decision to not abort me and to give me to my family. She put my needs before her own. It was not easy, but it was right. She loved me that much.

Life, love, and pregnancy, whether planned or unplanned, these are no ordinary miracles.

To hear the rest of Julie’s story, read her article “Adoption: Life is not an Accident”. If you have questions about adoption, if you’re pregnant and wish you weren’t or are not and wish you were, we’re here for you.  Send us an email and one of our mentors will respond.