Adopting Love

My cousin tells me she has some exciting news to tell me so I excitedly dial her number. She groggily answers the phone as she is awakened from a nap and says, “Eric and I found our birth mother.” Simply put… the story is amazing.

Sara and her husband, JoeEric and his wife, Leslie

Sara and Eric were adopted into our family when their mother left them in Lamesa as tiny babies. We knew nothing about her except that she couldn’t care for her children. We also knew she did keep her five year old daughter with her. Bill and Donna had just lost Lori Ann in a car accident at the age of nine. At home they already had three other children. Donna says she felt it was God’s will that she raise Sara and Eric as her own. Thus… the woman that “threw them away” gave us a treasure for life.

Bill & EricDonna with Sara's daughter, D'Layna and grandkids William & Johnathan

Sara and Eric were always a part of our family. Sara and I look alike. Eric and my Dad look alike. They molded right into us. It was never really discussed growing up as Sara didn’t like to talk about it. Eric seemed more interested. Eric found their birth father about nine years ago in Lubbock. He claimed to not know about them at the time. He did; however, loosely join their lives. It was normal to us that they were both Adams’ and did not want to pursue someone that had let them go. It deeply impacted Sara as she always thought the world owed her something and she felt abandoned even though her parents are saints and loved her with every inch of their being.

Sara and her sisters Jodi, Gena and Me

Eric with cousins Bryce & Julie in 2000

The past two years Sara has started having a big interest in her birth mother. She wanted to know where she came from and why she was left. Some don’t understand why she would even care, but it was a personal issue for her. Once Sara surrendered her life to Christ in June she felt she had to let go of the anger. One way of doing that was finding her mother. She tried background checks and was about to pay a lot of money to track the lady down… when something crazy happened. She typed the woman’s name in My Space and up she popped!!! 50 years old. Lubbock, Texas. Sara wrote her an e-mail just explaining who she was and she thought she might be her mother. Can you imagine awakening to that e-mail?!

Patricia - The Birth Mother

By yesterday afternoon Sara had connected on the phone with both her birth mother and her birth sister; and Eric was on his way over to meet the mother in Lubbock! Sara says there was a lot of crying and explaining. She says the main thing that came from the conversation was thanking her birth mother for giving her this life. The craziest thing of all is that the mother said she always thought of them and had actually been praying God would lead her closer… and then she receives an e-mail that changes her life.

We all know Sara is an Adams. I thank God for what Patricia did when she left those kids because she gave them the opportunity to be in such a blessed family. Sara is my heart and my sister. Eric is like my big brother. Thank God! We also know that Sara had always wanted deep inside to meet her roots and know some answers. That is really what she deserved. We had this awful lady in our minds as her mother… with rags and stringy hair strung out on drugs… but, her life is very different now… and she was actually normal.

A bunch of the Adams kids - 2007

Eric's family including his wife and son, Joel along with cousins - 2004

Skeptics may ask why she wanted to find her. Why My Space. Why does it even matter to them nowadays. Well, it matters to the young man and woman searching their souls for answers. No matter how happy they are with their “real” family in us and no matter how successful they are in life… it was always in the back of their minds. God is good.

I don’t think we ever forget and suddenly start inviting her to family reunions and Christmas, but I do think you forgive actions thirty years ago and let them see God through your heart. Adding love to your personal world outweighs it all.