Walk Humbly...: A Thank You to Birth Moms this Mother's Day

This Mother’s Day, I want to take a few moments to say thank you to the birth moms all around the world who chose life for their babies. Near the end of February, God blessed us with our fourth child, a little boy named Micah. His birth reminded me even more of how grateful I am to birth moms who endure the challenges of pregnancy and birth to give their child the gift of life. My pregnancies are mostly miserable-filled with so much sickness that the term ‘morning sickness’ is a serious under-exaggeration of what I endure well past the end of the first trimester. I know other moms who have persevered through much more serious maladies than I have to make it to that beautiful moment when their child is born. Some of these moms have gone through this knowing that they were going to make the brave choice of giving life to their child and then placing their child in another’s care.

Since Micah was born, I have thought of and prayed for Josiah’s birth mother more often. I will probably never know what her pregnancy was like. Did she have morning sickness? Was she exhausted? Did she also have another little one to take care of while enduring the demands of pregnancy? I don’t know, but I wish I did. Was Josiah’s birth an easy one or was she is labor for hours upon hours? Does her body still bear scars of pregnancy and childbirth? Did she breastfeed him for the short time he was with her? Did she name him? Was his birth father there? I don’t know, but I wish I did. What I do know, is that she loved him enough to put him down in a place where we were able to get to him, even though we were 7000 miles away at the time of his birth. This is what I will always tell Josiah when he asks me about his origins. I will tell him that God placed him in our family as a precious gift and that his birth mother loved him enough to give him that opportunity.

Now, Josiah is a proud big brother to Micah. He loves to hug and hold him and is overjoyed when Micah smiles at him. I am grateful Josiah’s birth mother has allowed us to have these moments. Of course, not all moments in a family are this sweet. Some are sad or difficult or filled with making it through a 3 year old’s frequent struggles for power. But, they are all worth it and are all part of being a family.

In closing, I want to publicly say ‘thank you’ to Josiah’s birth mom. Thank you for this beautiful, curious, strong-willed, smart, extremely energetic, and precious little boy. And thank you to all of the other birth moms out there who chose life for their precious babies. Thank you for the gift of the children you carried in your wombs. Thank you for enduring whatever you endured in pregnancy and childbirth to bring these beautiful gifts into the world. “I thank my God every time I remember you” (Philippians 1:3).