Upon our return home from Korea with our baby we received a packet of post-adoption information from AIAA (Americans for International Aid and Adoption). Turns out, we’ve got some more paperwork to do — including a request for another blood test, which means Ethan will have to have blood drawn again at his next doctor’s visit!

Included in the information packet, though, was a meaningful poem about adoption that we want to share with you …

“Legacy of an Adopted Child” (unknown author)

Once there were two women
Who never knew each other
One you do not remember
The other you call mother.

Two different lives
Shaped to make you one.
One became your guiding star
The other became your sun.

The first gave you life
And the second taught you to live it.
The first gave you a need for love
And the second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality
The other gave you a name.
One gave you the seed of talent
the other gave you aim.

One gave you emotions
The other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile
The other dried your tears.

One gave you up.
It was all that she could do.
The other prayed for a child
And God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me through your tears
The age-old question through the years
Heredity or environment - which are you the product of?
Neither, my darling, neither
Just two different kinds of love.

Oh, how Randy and I thank God for the marvelous gift of our son! May he grow up to know that God’s hand has always been upon him. From conception to birth and into our arms … what a journey Baby Ethan has known already in his young life!

May God continue to guide Ethan’s footsteps before him, that he might someday declare with his mommy and daddy, “How great is our God!”