The Adoption Poem

There is a poem about adoption which my mother shared with me decades ago as a child.  It is a poem which has stuck with me all of my life.  It is a well known poem and is short, sweet, and to the point.  It is a love poem and one which I cherish.

It goes like this....

"Not flesh of my flesh,
Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously my own.

Never forget for a single minute
That you did not grow under my heart,
But in it!"

An adoptive parent's love for their adopted child wrapped up in these few words.  As a child, when I would often read this poem I thought about my mother's heart.  I thought about the fact that I was not part of her actual body.  There was absolutely nothing genetically in me that was a part of her.  She never carried me in her womb, I was never "under her heart".  She did not go through midnight cravings with me, aches and pains, morning sickness, nor the joyful moments of first feeling me kick in her womb.  She never went through the pain of childbirth with me.  None of those things we shared.  I really did ponder these facts.  

My mom had actually had two precious babies grow under her heart years prior to my brother's and my adoption, only to miscarry them both in her 2nd trimester both times because of Type 1 diabetes.  She did have joyful experiences of being an expectant mother.  She also felt tremendous grief and pain I would imagine.  She simply could not carry these precious ones in her womb until birth.  It just wasn't possible.  The doctors also told her if she were to continue to try to have more children with Dad that she was putting her life at substantial risk.  She must have been very ill during part of each of her pregnancies.  Mom was never able to hold her babies in her arms at birth, but she was able to hold us as babies in her arms.

There were times when thinking about my mother and my father that I so wished that I was physically part of both of them..... If I could have had one wish, it would have been that I was their natural born daughter too!  But I wasn't.  So, I would often let those thoughts go and I knew that no matter what, we had this incredibly special bond which was so strong and full of love.  This bond taught me so much over the course of my life.

What I have found out 4 and a half decades later (and even before this) is that I am so much a part of both of them, in different ways, outside of physical genes, that it is not even funny.  One of my dearest friends told me "You are your mother's daughter."  I consider that to be one of the highest of compliments.  I see a lot of my mom's compassionate, caring heart in my brother too and both of their enthusiastic, positive attitudes as well.

Just 2 nights ago I was passionately discussing and processing something I was concerned about with my husband, Michael.  He was listening intently and then he stopped and just stared at me and said, "You looked at this moment just like your mother and you sounded just like her too."  

And this type of thing happens with some (not all) families who have adoption as their story.  My brother and I are two of the blessed ones.  Not all stories turn out well.  Not all adoption stories have a happy ending.  Ours did.  Our lives were  forever changed for the better and I am constantly thankful for the blessings of the parents God brought into my life when I was a 7 week old infant.  My brother is just as thankful in regards to his adoption.

This poem must have been really special to my mother.  Why?  Well, she had typed it up on ivory stationery, not just once but twice.  Maybe more than twice.  I don't know.  

It was such a special good-bye gift....

The final weeks before Mom and Dad's condo was closing in the fall of 2012, I was cleaning out the last things in my mom's dresser.  It is a beautiful dresser, long with 12 drawers and a huge mirror over it to match.  She had that dresser as part of hers and Dad's bedroom suite for over 50 years.  It has ALWAYS been the dresser my mother had since I can remember.  I used to love her showing me her treasures in those dresser drawers.

Inside one of the drawers I found an Ivey's department store bag.  I opened it and inside were various sentimental things my mother had kept....

 .....my graduation program from Charlotte Catholic in 1985

.....the church bulletin from Myers Park UMC for graduation Sunday 1985

.....a Valentine I had given her in 1972

.....a mother's day card I had given to her which was really like an apology card 

.....little cut out photos of she and Dad

.....photos of my brother and I

.....an article from the Charlotte Observer about 2 adoptive parents and their son thanking them for being his parents

.....an Anniversary card from Dad

....and a card from my brother to both Mom and Dad.

Then there was this little ivory envelope.

I opened it up.

And there was the adoption poem.  I had not seen this poem in years!

I was sitting on the floor in my Mom and Dad's bedroom at the condo, surrounded by all of these things Mom kept all these years and held this card up to my chest and wept.  

It was the last little message from my mother to me and to my brother as we were saying goodbye to hers and Dad's home which they both loved and could not stay in due to medical struggles.  It was my mom saying to me one more time, "I love you Judith.  You are and always will be my daughter, no matter what."  And these words came to my heart from heaven, because she had died in July and this was September 19.

What a little unexpected gift from God to both my brother and I, that I should find this poem in such a timely way.

Well, just last weekend I had a similar gift....

You hear the saying, "Nothing ever happens the same way twice."  There is truth to that.  

However, my brother was not surprised as much by this as I was.  I was shaking my head in tears of thankfulness and a LOT of wonder this time.  

I found another poem....
....JUST like the one Mom had in her dresser.
It was on the same ivory stationery, same typewriter font, same everything.

She had typed up two of these poems.  (There may have been more.)

I found this one in my Dad's bureau drawer the day we moved his dresser into our house 3 weeks after he died.

My dad had had this poem in the ivory envelope in his top drawer for YEARS.... All tucked away.  It was probably there in our childhood home in Dilworth.  It was there at the condo.  It was there at the Carriage Club in Assisted Living and in Memory Care the last 3 years.  It had been there the whole time.  It was under some other items.

In the envelope with it were photos of my brother and I and an announcement in the Charlotte Observer about his mother and his mother in law making their visit to Hawaii to see he and Mom in 1954.  Mom and Dad were married in Hawaii the prior year and Dad was in the US Navy stationed at Pearl Harbor.

How could this ever be?

Again Lord?  Truly? The same little good-bye gift found in his matching dresser-bureau.  

Tom said, "Well, they did think an awful lot alike."  He is so right about that.

It's possible too that this poem was given to my Grandmother Elizabeth, (Dad's mom), by my mother.  Then she put photos she had been given by my dad and mom in the envelope along with the poem.

Grandmother Elizabeth, Tom and I  (and Dad's dresser in the background), the day I came home to live with my forever family.

It sounds completely like something my mother would have done and Grandmother would have done.   They were both sentimental especially with photos and words.  I just don't know for a fact that this is what happened with the poem.  What makes me also think of this possibility is due to one photo of my grandfather and Tom fishing on a pier at Lake Wylie, and then of course the 1954 newspaper blurb about she and my Mom's mother taking their first trans-Pacific flight to Hawaii.  

Either way, if it was given to Elizabeth from my mother or not, this poem with pictures had probably been in my dad's dresser a very long time, possibly since his Mom's passing which would have been 1974.  I know my dad loved this poem too.

So this little reminder of love is doubly appreciated and felt.  How both poems wound up in both of their dressers floors me....yet it doesn't.  God loves to surprise us with details about our loved ones.  I'm so glad I decided to look through Daddy's drawer this particular day.  

I open the drawer and it still smells like it always has since I was a little girl.  The dresser represents part of him, just like my mother's did.  Right now her grandson is using her dresser as his very own and taking very good care of it.   One day I will be able to let go of Daddy's bureau, but not just yet and I've told my brother it is just as he left it at the Carriage Club.  Anytime he wants to come over and remember a part of Dad, the bureau is here.  

Until then, I feel blessed....so very blessed once again for these fingerprints of love.

Two of the Greatest Gifts of My Life

Forty-six years ago on January 11,  I received two of the greatest gifts of my life.

My parents

Their 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration in 2003

Every January 11th that goes by I always stop and consider this day and what it has meant to my life.  

In short, January 11th has meant EVERYTHING.  It is the day love came home for a second time (love came home first when Mom and Dad adopted Tom two and a half years earlier).  It is the day I came "home" to a love I'd never known.  It is the day my life changed forever.... in the best possible way that could ever be imagined.

To me, January 11th represents God's goodness, faithfulness, and love.

Being adopted is my story of God's greatness and magnificence in my life.  He has taught me so much through being a chosen daughter of two earthly parents.

I've said it so many times to so many people, "My parents are such gifts to me."  

How do I explain to someone, how much of a gift two people are who have given you everything in life that truly matters, like hope, joy, love, security, encouragement, forgiveness, family, value, acceptance?..... and I could go on.  How can I possibly thank them adequately for everything they've been to me?  The answer is, I can't do this adequately.  I can pour out my heart to the Lord though with thanksgiving as often as I think of them and live a life of gratitude in light of His awesome gifts.  

It is so special to be loved by them and to be their daughter.  The gift of themselves TRULY saved my life from so many unfortunate things that could have been mine if I were not adopted into a loving family.  God was so gracious and merciful in providing for me the family I needed and the children Mom and Dad so desired whom they couldn't have on their own.   That gift of "Mom and Dad", of each of them is woven into me so tightly and intricately as a person.  

My biological mother's choices to give me LIFE and to LET GO of me, her newborn child, will never be forgotten by me.  Why? Because these two things to me are gifts.  (This is why my blog's title is "Life is a gift".)  I am grateful for BOTH decisions.  God took both in those moments and started helping me paint the masterpiece of my life.  

When Tom and I sat down with Pastor Shane at Myers Park UMC before Mom's memorial service in July to share with him special things about Mom, he asked what was one thing that came to our mind when we thought of Mom.  I told him right away, "LOVE".  

My mother taught me what love was.  How to love...  How to love other people...  How to love myself...  I told him that.  Tom completely reiterated that fact in his own sincere words.

I have to say the same thing about Dad too.  He did exactly the same thing.  He showed me what "loving" and "pouring your love into another human being" were from the beginning.

What could be a greater gift than that?  Anything?

In my Dad's Bible, when I was looking through it the other day, I noticed only a few places where he had highlighted Scripture passages in red.  He even had a bookmark with two passages on it.

1 Corinthians 13 and Romans 13

At the top of the page of 1 Corinthians he had this boxed in red....

Then I saw the passages....

Then he had this part double underlined...

This one about love meant so much.  What was so meaningful to me, is that in retrospect looking back at my life, I can say, my Dad has been an example of love to our family in so many ways.  No one is perfect or loves like God does, but my parents certainly always aspired towards that kind of love in their every day lives.

My favorite thing Pastor Shane said to me in his eulogy of Mom was something like this...."Ethel could not keep her love to herself.  She had to share it.  The love God poured into her, she could not keep inside, it had to be shared."  This describes both of my parents better than anything.

Finding these passages of love underlined by Dad, since Mom's passing have been such a comfort to me.  

January 11th, as a 7 week old infant, I came home in a Chevrolet Station wagon in the backseat with a pink, fuzzy blanket and my new brother holding my hand.  I came home to stay.  

What a gift.

1987

  

I miss my mom every. single. day.  I miss everything about her.
I loved everything about her.  I just want to hear her voice, sit with her and chat like we always did.  I want my "bushel and a peck and hug around the neck".  I want to see her face light up when she sees the boys.  I will have to wait for heaven....which I know is mine, but that gives me something to look forward to in SO many ways!

There are no regrets in my life when it comes to her or my dad.  I must have looked through every single card she gave me the past 6 months since she died.  Cards from decades ago (yes, I kept them all, I'm so much like her)  Her words to me comfort me SO much more than just saying "I love you."  Why?  I saw written down in a birthday card,  that her dreams for me came true.  All those things she wished and dreamed for me as that little infant daughter placed into her arms at the adoption agency came true.  No regrets.  No regrets for either of us when it came to our relationship. This can only come from God.  This peace.  This life with no regrets between us.  

I'll have THESE WORDS she shared with me,  for the rest of my life, first in my "All About Me" adoption book. 

I love that she said "Please love us too and hold our hands as we lead you...."  Also, the fact that she saw me as her chosen daughter, like my brother was her chosen son, always seeing God in the midst of it, playing a part in their dreams coming true as a family.

Lake Junaluska, NC 1968

She didn't know when she wrote me that note in my adoption book how deep this love would run for all of us, but God knew.  This is why I miss her so much.  It's the love.  When you love deeply you hurt deeply.  I am so grateful for her gift of herself.  Her last days on this earth, we held onto her hand, like she held my brother's and mine in the beginning....  When Tom and I were there with Mom that last week of June, Tom's words to her were always, "Hey, Mom....  It's your little boy here and your little girl...."  Always and forever hers and she ours... 

 

Our beautiful Moma....

Words that I cherish from Mom....

Words that I cherish from Dad....

A card given to me after I finished grad school and started teaching.

Alzheimer's prevents my daddy from remembering January 11th or even that he adopted me.  So, I just have to remember all the times he and I did go down memory lane, when he would recount that day for me and laugh and remember it with fondness.  I'd always call he and Mom on my special day to tell them "Thank you again for choosing me as your daughter."  I've also got some of his saved messages he left on our answering machine years ago.  They are recorded on my phone and I listened to one today.   

When I tell him, I'm his "little girl" these days, that smile gets so big and wide.  He knows who I am.  He still tells us "I love you."

And this day it is for me to remember what God has done in my life.  To remember the precious gifts he's given me in two loving parents and a brother whom I love so much.  

Mom awaits us in heaven, so in the meantime.....
...I will continue to look at Dad like I did on that day when I was in our backyard in Dilworth, as a toddler.  He made me smile then and he has never stopped.  I cherish him.

I'll remember ALL he's done for me.

I am his daughter.

He is my daddy, my forever hero in life.

We will keep loving through the valley of Alzheimer's.  

I will keep holding his hand, calling him "Dad" and telling him I'm his little girl, even when he forgets who I am.

Officially Theirs ~ More of my Adoption Story

It's interesting how you can learn something about your past even 45 years later.  I learned something recently about my past that I didn't know, or maybe I'd been told, but didn't remember.  Little details concerning my adoption which shed new light on how much my parents truly wanted me and my brother.

It started with a visit to the safety deposit box for Dad and Mom in search of something specific for them.  In the sorting of things I found my brother's official adoption papers.  I looked through them.  Which led me then to look through my own.

My brother knew the day he came home to live with Mom and Dad from the adoption agency, August 6, 1964.  

 

But he also knew, from just reading Mom's words in his "All About Me" book as well, that he officially became their son in September of 1965 an entire year later.

This type of information was not written in my "All About Me" book.  Mom wrote specifically about the day I came home with them, the day she first laid eyes on me, the day she loved me with all of her heart, not the day I officially became her daughter in the eyes of the state.

So it truly struck me when I carefully looked through these documents the process they went through to officially make me their daughter and to make my brother their son.

I was placed in their arms on January 11, 1967.  I was born in November of the previous year.  They started looking for a daughter when I was approximately four months old in my biological mother's womb.  They did not hear about me until right after I as born.  They waited 2 months for me to be placed with them in their home in good faith, after home visits and paperwork and other things which proved them to be fit parents to care for me and act as my guardians.  January 11 is the day my Moma wanted me to always remember.  Relatives came to visit me my first day home, both of my grandmothers fed me and I feel asleep on Grandmother Elizabeth's shoulder, (Dad's mom).  It's all written down in my baby book.  THIS was the day they celebrated me as part of their family.

When I looked at the documents I saw Mom and Dad had to petition the court for adoption for me and they did in early February of 1967.  Then the court had to give them a document which was provisional stating it was their wishes to adopt me personally and that they were going to go through this ONE YEAR period of waiting.  It was state law.  I was in their care, they were very much like foster parents, however what was different was they had every intention of me staying in their care, but I was still a ward of the court until such a day that the final court order was filed for my adoption.  

Why did I not remember this?  Mom and Dad must have told me this at some time in my life about the waiting period.  I'm sure they did, I just don't remember.  I know I had never seen my actual adoption papers until I read them recently. 

For one year, they could have changed their minds about me or my brother.  They could have not liked parenthood, or liked the way things were progressing with either of us, or anything at all about us, and changed their minds.  This waiting period was just for something like this.  People could change their minds.  Or something could surface within a year perhaps which might deem our family "not a good fit".  I don't know.  I wonder if this was also to make sure the birth mother didn't change her mind as well.  I'm not sure about that fact or if she could have intervened and disputed the adoption proceedings.  Obviously she did not, because I was always with my parents and never left their home or their presence.

What was so interesting was that the official day the provisional decree was filed in court was March 30, 1967.  My Mom's 37th birthday.... what a birthday present!  Then the waiting period commenced, that solid year of waiting for the official papers to come through.  

What is my official legal adoption day?  When I became their daughter "for life" according to the courts and the state?

March 25, 1968.  

And the court allowed the waiting period to end five days early, how about that?  A little bonus there.  My brother's waiting time period actually ended a month early.  His official day is 

September 28, 1965.

Wow.....  March 25th, 1968

When I talked to my brother about this, he and I agreed that truly the "DAY WE CAME HOME" was our adoption day.  It was the day to be remembered.  January 11 and August 6.  Those are the days joy came home.  I'm sure my parents had faith that nothing was going to change what was already in place.  I'm sure they breathed a sigh of relief as well when the official papers came through and I was officially their "daughter for life".  Same for my brother.  They waited over two years to make him officially theirs.  One year plus of looking for him, and one year of waiting to make it official. Reading those words in the official adoption decree, "child for life" was so touching......

I think in Mom and Dad's hearts we were already "truly theirs" and in our hearts as well, no matter what a court document might have said.  It's still kind of nice to have a better understanding of our actual adoption process.

And even though my mother always wanted us to know when we came to be part of the family, because it is so beautifully written about in our "All About Me" books, she never celebrated that day with us.  She wanted us to always feel "normal" like other children and chose to celebrate our birthdays only.  We were always told we were adopted, always told we were chosen by them, always affirmed in different ways how much they loved us and wanted us.  They also told everyone about our adoptions.  They told everyone our stories with pride and a sparkle in their eyes.  Mom, I think, just didn't want us to feel "different" from other children when we were small, but wanted us to grow up in as normal a way as possible.  She succeeded in her desires for us.  I think it was a way of her protecting our hearts.  There was a connection there though that was truly special and deep with her and still is there with Dad.  

Throughout our lives whether we actually "celebrated" the days we came home or not, we never forgot those dates and knew how precious they were to both of our parents. Even as an adult, I'd call my Dad and my Mom on my "adoption day" January 11 and tell them all over again how glad I was to be their daughter.  We'd reminisce about that day and Mom would tell me the story all over again.  Dad often giggled with joy.  I never EVER got tired of hearing it.  I'd give anything to hear their voices tell me our story again.  That is no longer possible, Moma has died and Daddy's Alzheimer's doesn't allow him to remember that day anymore, but I'm so thankful I can read Mom's words in my book, and close my eyes and remember those many, many times Daddy would smile and tell the story to others,"We adopted two children and they have been the most wonderful thing that ever happened to us."  Or my mom saying to a perfect stranger, "This is my daughter!" with passion and feeling.  I've never felt more loved in my life than by the two of them.  It has been such a gift. 

I Love You Moma

There are many reasons why I love my mom.  

 They spread across a lifetime for me, much too numerous to list, like many single, colorful threads all intertwined together in a beautiful tapestry.  They run deep within this heart of mine.  Her love for me is part of the very fabric of my being, so often it feels like.  I have been truly blessed by her.  

How in the world did I ever deserve this kind of mother's love, her love?  I'll never know the answer to that question fully, but my life has been forever changed by it.  

She prayed for me... a daughter of her own.... before I was born, before she even knew me, she and Dad longed for a daughter, just like they had longed for a son, (my brother) two years before.  At seven weeks of age, she stepped into my infant life, gave me the gift of herself and took hold of my heart.  She's told me I may not have "grown under her heart, but in it".  The lessons of love began in her lap.... with her arms lovingly around me.  She is still teaching me so much about love, even today in her eighties.  

Today's Mother's Day celebration reminds me that there is so much more love to be given.  More life to be lived, despite any terminal cancer diagnosis or other medical issues that complicate that life.  There is more time to be shared.  I just don't know how much time I'll have with my mom this year. We continue to live each day with joy and smiles because it is what we have always done.  It is who we are as a family. We are going to keep living, putting one foot in front of the other each day with God's help.... with love, grace, and yes, laughter along the way.  She and I will thank God for that love and many blessings along the way.  We don't want to miss a one!

 "Make sure you thank Him...." have always been her words. 

And she is right about that.... none of this would be possible with Him.

 One of my dearest girlfriends, gave me the sweetest and most meaningful compliment a couple of weeks ago after we received news about Mom's cancer re occurrence.  She said, "You are your mother's daughter." with a heart next to it. That meant the world to me....

Yes, my Moma is a gift.  A HUGE treasure given to me from God himself.  The most thoughtful, wonderful earthly gift I believe I've ever received from Him.... a Mom who loves me unconditionally.  

She is my forever Mom... always and forever.... "and ever" she would say to my brother and I.   

Happy Mother's Day!  

My Story Through Mom's Eyes ~ Adoption day 1967

January 11th is my adoption day.

Life truly began for me on this day.

Today is also a Wednesday.... and in 1967 the 11th was also on a Wednesday.  I didn't remember it was a Wednesday that I came home, until I re read my baby book today and my mother's words to me.  She wrote all of her feelings down and every detail she wanted me to remember of that day.  She wrote like she was telling me a story right there beside her in her presence.  She kept it all in this book for me called "All About You".

She told me of her dreams for me, her love for me, her love of God, and her joy in bringing me home as her daughter.  She didn't just speak of her love for me, but for my dad, my older brother and the fact that we were an entire family.  Togetherness matters so much to my mother.  Family meant everything to she and my dad, and it still does today. 

They had just seen me for the first time, the day before (January 10th) at the agency. They could have taken one look at me and said, "No, we have changed our minds."  But they didn't say no, they said, "Yes!".  I'm so glad they said yes.  That simple "yes" changed my life.

They began the adoption process in June of 1966.  They were approved for adopting a baby girl in November.  Approval granted the same month I was born, wow!  I was right there close by in the same city, waiting  for a family I could love and call my own.  The agency told my parents that they might have to wait awhile until they found a baby girl.   My mom wrote that she thought it might take up to a year.  It took at least a year for the agency to find my older brother 3 years earlier.  Thank you Lord, that we didn't have to wait long for each other.

We just had to wait 7 weeks.

A call on January 9th from the adoption agency saying they had found me led to the big questions.....

"We have located a little baby girl, would you like to come by the agency and discuss this?"

"Would you like to see her?"

I don't know how my folks must have felt to get that call and hear that the waiting had ended.  I have friends who are right now in the process of adopting overseas.  I have heard some of their stories and they are so inspiring.  Right now three of my friends have seen pictures of their soon to be children.  The love and excitement in their voices is so touching.  They cannot wait to hold these children in their arms and give them a loving family and show them God's love.  The waiting is excruciating at times, but God is walking them through the process, just like he did with my parents.

My first picture...

 It's about 11:00am.  There's Tom holding my hand.  He's 2 and a half.  There I am with the fuzzy pink blanket he gave me too.  My mom is looking at me.  Life is a gift!  It is such a gift from God!

Mom continues to write that it is a cold January day, sunny and in the 40's.  I rode home with Tom beside me in Mom's 1962 station wagon.  I'm sure Dad was driving.  And this is the house I came home to.... right there in the same city.  A house my parents would own for 42 years and would be the only home I ever knew growing up.  What a blessing!  There are days Tom and I still talk about how much we loved that house and our family there.  It was a place full of love.  I wish it still looked like it does in the picture here.  Unfortunately due to reconstruction and renovations, it doesn't look the same at all. 

My mom continues with my story in my baby book, that I had visitors my first day home!  My grand parents on both sides of the family, my aunt and first cousin and family, and some neighbors down the street...  BOTH of my grandmothers, whom I loved dearly, fed me!

I fell asleep on Grandmama Elizabeth.  Tom still has my hand.  Mom wrote he held my hand in the car on the way home too and at the adoption agency.  My Grandmama Elizabeth, (my dad's mother) would only be in my life seven short years.  When I was in first grade, she died of breast cancer at the age of 64.  I still remember her though with a special fondness and love.

Mom tells me it was a very special day.  I went to bed at 10pm she says, and slept all through the night!!

From foster care to a brand new family who loved me before they met me..... and I slept through the night in a brand new place, brand new crib, with my forever family right there with me.   God's peace filled our home that day and our hearts.

Life is a gift.  My family is a gift. All gifts from God.  His plans for me have blessed me more than I'd ever dreamed they ever could.  I am grafted in to my earthly family and into God's family as well through Christ.

Thank you Lord for this book my mom kept for me.  I bet she might not think I'd look at it 45 years later.
I am. I've looked at it so many times during my life.  It's nice to re read about where your story begins.

Psalm 139:16  "I will give thanks to you oh Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made..."

I will never be able to thank the Lord enough for what he's done for me....

This is my adoption testimony:  It was originally written last year as a blog post on this exact day.  In May of last year, I added to it for a service where I spoke on Orphan Sunday.  Click the link below to go to my blog post from May of 2010, and read  how God truly has shown me what it means to be his child, through being adopted by an earthly family.

A SIMPLE YES CHANGED MY LIFE  (Blog post from May 2010)

I'll end with a photo of a necklace my great Aunt gave me when I was 6.  It was a locket with these two pictures in it of Mom and Dad.  It was her locket at one time.  She had her initials on the back.  She had my initials engraved also and the date of my sixth birthday.  I have worn this locket with love through out my life.  I look at the photos and wish with all of my heart I could have known my folks when they were the ages they were in these photos....

I am amazed by God's faithfulness, grace and love on this day.  I remember it with my heart so full of love and gratefulness. Full to the brim and overflowing...  No other love have I seen like the love God has for me and my family.