Young mothers who have chosen adoption amid an unplanned pregnancy because their circumstances made raising a child seem impossible often think of their child on Mother's Day.
One common emotion on this special day is pride in choosing life.
Gina, now in her 60's, became pregnant during her senior year of high school.
Almost immediately adoption became the obvious solution for her. She couldn't consider taking the life of her child through abortion, something she viewed as, "a horrible violation of God's law.”
“I could never live with that decision,” Gina said. “I knew I would hate myself forever."
Her parents helped her navigate her adoption choice.
"I remember being kind of excited to be able to have a waiting couple finally have a baby," Gina said.
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She didn't meet the couple, who lived out-of-state, but spoke to them over the phone. It was Gina’s parents who presented her newborn son to the ecstatic couple.
Since then, Gina has sent birthday and Christmas gifts and talked on the phone to her birth son, and she has gotten regular updates and photos from his adoptive parents.
It wasn't an easy situation, especially at that young age, but today Gina feels, "mostly proud that I didn't take the easy way out, the wrong and selfish way."
And of course, her birth son's adoptive family are happy she made a decision for life too.
Shortly after turning 18, Tiffany got to meet her birth mother.
Since she was adopted at birth, there had been no contact between Tiffany and her birth mom, Tamara, who decided to have a closed adoption. However, Tamara had decided that if her daughter wanted to contact her after age 18, she'd be open to meeting.
Tamara thought of her daughter often over the years.
"I was 21, 22. I joined that party world ... and I didn't want to drag her along,” Tamara said.
Now married with other children, she says her adopted daughter has never been forgotten.
“Adoption is so much better than abortion," said Tamara.
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Mark and Debbie, who raised Tiffany from birth, joined Tiffany on the special day chosen for their daughter to meet her birth mom.
"You're beautiful!" Tamara said upon meeting her daughter again.
The two hugged, and there wasn't a dry eye among the four.
"I know you're having a great life," Tamara said.
"I am, absolutely," Tiffany said, through tears.
They all sat down.
"It was the best choice. It was just the best choice," Tamara continued.
"We couldn't believe she would do that,” adoptive mom Debbie said. “Allow us to raise her child. We can't imagine the maturity that took, how unselfish it was. We're so grateful she did!"
Tiffany is now in regular contact with her birth mother.
For the Engle family, their son's adoption anniversary each February is a time to honor his birth mother.
"We always make a point of mentioning her gift, her doing the right thing in a difficult situation,” adoptive mom Jeannie said.
“We point out to our son that it's out of love a birth mother chooses an adoptive family,” she said. “They so want a decent life for their child and realize they can't provide it, so adoption is giving the child that better life."
The Engles’ son, now 16, was adopted from a Russian orphanage. His parents have his birth mom's name and if their son ever wants to contact her, they'll provide him with her name.
Mother's Day is, "another time of gratitude for his birth mother, because without her, I wouldn't be a mom," said Jeannie. Her son, "has brought so much love and happiness into our lives, and he makes every Mother's Day special for me."
