The document discusses the story of the author's birth mother who put them up for adoption. The birth mother faced a difficult life working as a housemaid in Mexico where she had little independence. Though she considered abortion, missionaries convinced her otherwise. Giving the author up for adoption was difficult but the best choice. The author is grateful to their birth mother for making that choice which allowed them to be adopted into a loving family.

1. More than 119,000 kids are waiting to be adopted in the world. I got to be one of the lucky ones who was adopted thanks to my birth mom. Today I want to tell you how my birth mom is an amazing person. As you know I am adopted and I have watched my parents adopt my sister Becky, so I know about <br />adoption. My birth mom was an amazing because she gave me up for adoption. Even though she could have could have kept me even though she did not have the best life or either gotten an abortion. (run on sentence)<br />My birth mom had a very hard life. My birth mom worked as a live in house maid, the Mexian culture toward live in house maids is not very good, and the man of the house thinks he owns the maids and can do anything he wants to them. She also had two older kids that her parents are raising. They told her if she brought any more kids to her parents to help her raise them she would never see them again. She believed this and seemed scared of this. She did not have any independence everyone else seemed to be calling the shoots.<br />According to Guttmacher Institute in 1990 there were about 533,100 abortions in Mexico; so she could have easily had an abortion. In fact she actually talked about having an abortion, but the missionaries thankfully convinced her not to get one. <br />Instead she gave me up for adoption, which had to be hard for her to do, but was the right thing for me. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for my birth mom to put her own flesh and blood up for adoption. I know this had to be extremely hard for her, because when I was about five years old I almost got a baby brother, but the birth mom could not give up her son. <br />Michelle who works for American Adoptions.com and has put her testimony of putting her first born child up for adoption says “When they first handed Bradley to me all I could do was cry knowing that the next 48 hours would be the last that I would get to spend with him, before he would leave with his new family. Within the next few hours the adoptive parents also arrived. They lived in another state so they had to drive some distance to meet us at the hospital and meet their adoptive son. They were so excited, yet tears just filled my eyes. Tears of joy and also for pain. I was upset because here I had this little child inside of me for 8 months, we had bonded and I had grown to love him more than I had loved anything in the entire world, and I knew that I was going to have to say goodbye. I had to face reality, it was a decision I made knowing that it would be the most difficult thing I was ever going to have to do, yet it was the best thing for Bradley. “ <br />I have a great family because my birth mom put me up for adoption. I was adopted by Larry and Kathy Cash, or as I call them mom and dad. My parents went through a lot to adopt me. I have a wonderful family who has raised me the best that they can. They have given me the best they can give, which in reality is a lot.<br />I want to thank my birth mom for loving me so much that she gave me up for adoption. If it wasn’t for my birth mom, who decided giving me up for adoption was the best option. I would not be here today with you, so thank you so very much mom. <br />