A letter in the mail

The Other day I received a letter from Connor's Birthmother Cheri. I was thrilled to hear from her. As I read her letter It made me think of this story I heard from Oprah Winfrey.

"You become what you believe- not what you wish or want but what you truly believe.

Wherever you are in life, look at your beliefs. They put you there.

When I was growing up in Mississippi in the 1950s, I never believed what people said about being poor or black or female. I would overhear my family taking about the dire circumstances for blacks, but I never believed that would be my life.

I believed I belonged to someone or something bigger than myself, my family, or even Mississippi. I believed I was God's child. Therefore, I could do anything.

I can still remember a cold winter day when I was 4 years old. I was helping to churn butter on the back porch watching my grandmother lift clothes from a boiling black pot and hang them on the line. Speaking through the clothespins in her mouth, she said, "Pay attention. You're going to have to learn how to do this someday."

A feeling inside me said, "No, Grandmama, I won't."

When I moved north to live with my mother, I wrote to my kindergarton teacher using the biggest words I could think of: "Dear Miss Newe, I do not belong here, because I can read and I know a lot of big words: elephant, hippopotamus." The next day, I was moved to the first grade.

What I couldn't articulate then but knew inside was that I could do better. That knowledge has been a constant in my life. When I know better, I try to do better."

Our dear Cheri knew our little Connor belonged to someone or something bigger than his fate in Wisconsin. She knows he is God's child and God loves him. She loves him.

"Adoption is not a breaking of trust but a keeping of faith...not an abandonment of a baby an abandonment of self for a baby's sake."

-Curtis young (Thanks Tarrin for the quote!)