I Placed My Daughter for Adoption, But I Didn't Give Her Up

"Adoption has such a bad stigma. I cannot tell you how many people say to me, 'I could never give my child up for adoption.' To which I respond, 'I did not give my daughter up — that's what you do with a washing machine. I placed her with a loving couple that I chose who were capable of supporting her in a way I could not at that moment in my life.' I really want to kick them and say, 'Do you think this was my life plan?'"

Click here to read the entire article featuring the story of Jessalynn "Jessa" Bills Speight, was 18 when she learned she was pregnant and made the amazingly difficult and selfless decision to give her a child to another family.

And as always, reading stories like this remind me of our own Bri who took the hard road to give life to Isaac. She could have easily made a different choice -- one in which would have resulted in our Isaac not being here. I look at him so often and think how he represents so many other children who never got a chance. Bri could have made a decision that NO ONE would have ever had to know about. She could have stayed in school and gone on with only a tiny hiccup in her life.

But she didn't. 

And not only did Bri make the choice to have Isaac, but then she made the choice to give him the family she thought he deserved. This decision basically says, "I think they will do a better job." 

How easy would it be to admit that? 

But she did. She admitted it and gave him life and our souls will be forever intertwined because of the incredible love she had for one little life she had not even met yet.

I am so in love with my little boy. People can't understand how I can so easily share him with another family. But I can't help but think, "Without that other family, he wouldn't be my little boy."

As I've said before, adopted parents just recognize sooner than other parents that our children are not our own. They belong to God. We just get the privilege to raise them and then send them out on their own.

I get to raise the most awesome six-year-old little boy because of ADOPTION.

(It rocks.)

(And so does Bri.)