For God so Loved the World

My mother was adopted as an infant - not even a year old. This fact was never hidden from her, but apart from the general knowledge that she had been adopted; my grandparents guarded any further information closely. After my grandfather died, my grandmother - not wanting to openly reveal any information - left an envelope for my mother to discover. Inside, were found my mother's adoption record and a letter written by my grandfather. The letter is dated April 24, 1947, less than a year after my mother's birth. I wanted to share that letter with you:

To my own dear sweet Linda,

As I write these few words, we (that is myself, your Mom, Richard, and yourself) are all well and happy. However we know that as time goes on, if things run normal, Mom and myself will leave this life sooner than you or Richie.

We wanted a little girl so much Linda. We lost two at birth; they now lay in Evergreen cemetery. You are those two little girls all wrapped up as one. We loved you so much from the very first day; you were eight days old then. We would have tried to get another one, only money was rather short and we wanted to give both you and Richie some advantages.

Yes, Linda, we love you as our own child. As I write this, you are 11 months and 1 day old. You are so sweet and good and I am so proud of my two children, Richie (almost 5) so manly and fine, Linda so sweet and dainty.

The ones who brought you into this world, we know very little about. No doubt as the years roll by you will ask us and we will tell you what little we know. All I can say now is that there is someone above who knows best. God in his wisdom knew that we wanted, we needed a little girl more than they did and that you would be happier and more loved with us. We must believe, we must trust his wisdom.

I will leave now, and give you these few words, We (Mom and myself) love and cherish Richie as our own dear son and we also love you Linda as our own sweet dear daughter.

Your loving Dad

I am not too sure if I can follow that up with anything meaningful, but I am going to try.

God definitely provided a loving family to adopt my mother. Whether she was more loved by her adoptive family than she would have been by her birth family could not even be guessed at. What I do know is that she was adopted and never knew anything other than complete and unconditional love.

Unconditional love is something that everyone needs to experience at least once in their lives. This is the love that says, "I will keep no record of wrongs." This is the love that provides a means to come home, no matter how sinful we are and have been.

This is the love that God has for us, His children.