Where were you?

Where were you on September 23, 2006?

I can’t really tell you exactly what I was doing on September 23, 2006. I may have been celebrating my husband’s birthday. I may have been training for a race. I’m sure for some part of the day I was on a soccer field watching my 2 children at the time.

I can tell you what Marta Isabel was doing on this day. She was giving birth to my beautiful son in Guatemala City. I don’t know what time a day this happened. I don’t know if labor was difficult or easy for her. I don’t know if anyone of her family was in the room with her to support her, rub her back, or wipe the sweat from her brow. I don’t know if there were tears, cheers, or laughter in that delivery room on September 23, 2006. I didn’t know my son had been born until 10 days later.

But whatever the circumstances of my son’s conception and delivery, I have to believe at his birth, his life was celebrated. I use to worry that the doctors and nurses handled him harshly since he was going to be adopted. I use to fret Marta Isabel tried protect her heart by not touching him, kissing his sweet little forehead.

But my little boy’s eyes tell me everyday that he was loved and cherished before he was even born. I feel the light in Alex’s eyes is the blessing his birth mother gave to him before he was born. Everytime she touched her belly when he moved inside her, she was passing on the warmth of her care. Everytime she debated with herself what the right thing to do for Alex she filled his soul with her motherly concern. She had to have kissed his face, looked him in the eye upon his birth, and spoke her love into his little heart. The fierce pride that all women feel after delivery was gifted to my little boy so he would always know he was worth fighting for.

How can this child who wakes up everyday smiling before his eyes open

have known anything different on this day 6 years ago?

Later today, when we are lighting the candles on Alex’s cake we kind of light a candle for Marta Isabel, too. We are looking for her in Guatemala. We just want her to have the peace of heart to know her son is healthy, precocious, strong, beautiful, smart, happy, and cherished. He brings total joy to his mommy, daddy, brother, and sister.

I hope you celebrate the birth of my son Alex today, too. Light a little candle, celebrate all the mothers like Marta Isabel, celebrate all the babies that get to have 2 families through adoption, and praise God for gregarious little brown skin boys who fall asleep giggling and wake up smiling.