I am a "real mom" times 2

I meant to post about this earlier, but with all of the insanity of waiting for the g&r, I completely forgot about it. There was some confusion about Jake's insurance at his doctor's office, so Mike and I went over to the billing office one day last week to take them his insurance card. The woman who waited on us seemed like a nice enough girl. She looked like she was in her late 20's. Then she asked me a strange question. "Are you his real mom?" I was completely puzzled by her question and I garbled out a yes. I looked up at Mike and he was just as puzzled as I was. I laughed about it being an odd question and asked why she asked. She told me a story about another woman who had come in some time before with her adopted daughter. Essentially, she said that she couldn't help the woman because she didn't have her adoption papers with her and she wasn't the girl's "real mom." WHAT????? This is when I start getting irritated. Somehow this all seemed like a logical thing to her. I explained that we are adopting a little girl and that I would be her real mom. Her response in an 'are you stupid?' voice, "Uh, not really." She actually said that to me! She said to me that I wasn't Olivia's REAL MOM!!!! I replied, "Uh, YES - I AM." In my 'I'm fixing to knock the heck out of you' voice. Mike gave me a look that said, 'Let it go, Casey. Please just let it go.' Honestly, I was speechless. For anyone who knows me personally, that doesn't happy very often. I didn't know what to say to this ignorant woman. I'm not calling her ignorant in a mean way. I'm calling her ignorant in a factual way. If she doesn't understand that I am actually Olivia's "real mom" then she's ignorant about what it takes to be a "real mom." Don't even get me started on her need to learn proper adoption verbage. I realize that I've been running a crisis pregnany center for the last two years, so I use adoption lingo constantly, but I think the average person would at the very least believe that an adoptive mom is a real mom. Good grief. I'm still agravated about it a week later.

I'll also take this opportunity to say that I am in no way trying to say that Olivia's birth mom wasn't also her "real mom." It definitely takes a real mom to make the courageous decision to place their child for adoption. That is a parenting decision. Olivia's birth mom was incredibly brave. I owe her so much. To repay her I can give her my prayers and I can teach Olivia about the love it took for her birth mom to choose adoption. Talking about Olivia's adoption and her birth mom will be a regular occurence throughout her life. For the rest of our lives we will hold Olivia's birthparents up in prayer. I pray for their salvation most of all. I pray that one day Mike and I will be given the chance to say thank you to them in heaven.

I am blessed to be a real mom to two beautiful children both given to me by God in different ways. Different, yet perfect ways. Thank you God for the gift of motherhood.