Inside the womb, the outside arguments of anger and despair were muffled. I didn’t see the pain my birthmother must have experienced while I was protected inside her. During non-violent times, I know she sang to me through the walls of flesh that separated us. In the hospital, the sounds were replaced by the shuffling of nurses preparing to release me into a new world of light with its own set of wonders and challenges. The clipboard with the contract of relinquishment may have been placed on her belly above me. “Just sign here,” they probably said. My birthmother never saw me.
Three days later I would be transported over one hundred miles away to a place I would call home. I would be given parents. I would soon call them mommy and daddy. I never heard my birthmother’s lullaby again.
I cannot imagine what my life would have been like if I were never adopted. Although my years were filled with the void of not knowing from where I came, that dark abyss was Illuminated with the greatest love I could ever imagine. I was chosen. I was wanted.
If there is anything to be learned, it is that we are all who we are because we know we have been loved. It shapes us, defines us, and creates our essence. That is why the Why Mom Deserves a Diamond contest is so important to me and my staff. It is one of the few activities in our modern world in which we must stop, think, and ponder why our moms, and all those who love us, are significant in our lives.
Please help support this writing assignment that also fulfills school requirements for figurative language by telling a teacher or a friend, and by sharing with others.