A good love story touches our hearts, reminds us how it feels to be in love. And it gives us courage to open our wounded hearts to love again. Adoption is a sweet love story of broken hearts having the courage to love again.
A young mother loved before she discovered she was pregnant. Most are (or were) in a relationship with someone they love and truly care for. To have this person break her heart when she tells him, “I am pregnant,” is a devastating blow. And if he doesn’t break her heart, chances are someone else she loves will during her pregnancy.
A young couple falls in love before experiencing infertility and the loss of children in their family. They date, get engaged, celebrate a wedding, maybe even buy a house together, and start dreaming of the family they will have. Their dreams are crushed as the doctor tells them their child is gone or their attempt to get pregnant wasn’t successful.
Battered and bruised in heart, the young mother feels this sweet child inside her grow and her ability to love again opens and expands. As counterintuitive as it may seem to place a child for adoption, it is out of love a young mother considers this option.
Hurt and wounded, together this couple learns to love even more as they shared this experience. They now see each other through the eyes of compassion and empathy. Contrary to their hearts’ reaction to retreat and protect, they put their trust and heart in someone else’s hands.
It is extremely scary for everyone! They come with wounded hearts. They arrive on the scene of adoption broken. Their biggest fear is they will have their heart broken all over again.
They wonder whether or not they can love again or how they will possibly recover and heal. Putting their hearts “out there” makes them vulnerable. You try selecting the “perfect” family for your child before you actually get to meet them. Or try putting your life story online, like some dating profile, hoping to attract the love of your life: a new baby! It is crazy scary! The risk of opening their wounded hearts can sometimes be the hardest part.
The initial decision to take down the walls and see what happens often begins the greatest of love stories. Once these two parties come together, they begin to fall in love. And just like any other classic love story, they talk (or write letters), maybe date (or hang out), share parts of their stories with each other, and bond over life changing events.
Love brings these two broken pieces together, binds them, and heals them. There is no greater power on earth. And without it, placing a child for adoption would be truly unbearable. Without love, a young couple would not care for a child born to another as their own. Both are acts of true love alone, but when you put them together, something magical happens. Ask anyone who has fallen in love under its spell.
