The Alternate Ending

Sometimes really really sad stories can have silver linings or happy endings.

I'm going to take you back for a minute to the very first time I looked at adoption as anything other than beautiful. 

Remember this time last year?

Well it took some time for the dust to settle and hearts to heal but I have to say I gained a brand new appreciation for the ways in which God can make things whole again. 

It turns out she was never meant to be our birth mother and we were never meant to parent her son. 

Instead we were meant to be to one another what our adoptive families could not. I have a relationship with this amazingly strong woman that i think I always imagined I would have with Luke's birth mother. And she has the kind of relationship with me that she always imagined having with her sons adoptive mother. For reasons outside of our control those relationships are what they are but we have one another. 

And last night I was honored to have the opportunity to help her make a very special and meaningful gift for her sons first birthday. 

Yep you are reading this correctly. I helped make a gift for the baby that was almost ours and I didn't feel one bit weird about it. Back at Christmas I helped her with another gift for him and it felt amazing. It couldn't be more clear that her son was never meant to be ours. 

Here is the quiet book we made for him to use in church.  

Front cover

Noah's ark with a zipper pouch to hold his animals. 

A farm with working barn doors and animals!

Fish that swim across the page and shapes to match. 

The last page had his name and a large pocket to hold loose pieces. 

It is my sincere hope that he gets lots of use from this book and thinks about the amazing love his birth mom has for him when he sees it. 

Bet you didn't see that one coming did you? ;)

And if it's not too much to ask, would you say a little prayer for her today?  While she is still happy with her adoption decision the anniversary of her son's birth is emotional.