Dear Sugar: Sharing Your Story

Dear Sugar,

What brought you to adoption?

What people?  What events?  What words?  What emotions?  What past?  What present?  

What has brought you to the point in which you've said "yes" to the vulnerable, the unknown, the anticipating?  

Recently, I had the honor of sharing my story with Jamie Ivey, a fellow mama by adoption who hosts a fabulous podcast called The Happy Hour.

I have always been open about why we chose to adopt, but my sharing has been, to be honest, calculated, drafted (many times), and shared on MY terms.  

The truth is that my disease is very difficult.   You wouldn't know it if you just met me or even if we've known each other for years.  Because I don't complain about it.  Because I just suck it up and keep going, and going, and going (yep, like the Energizer Bunny).   Why?  Because there really is no choice.   I can either suck it up and keep going or let my disease win.  

I refuse to let it win.

My disease is exhausting.  Daunting.  All-consuming.  It's invisible, yet it never ceases to throw itself in my face when I least expect it.  It kicks me when I'm down.   It's predictably unpredictable.

So when Jamie asked me about my disease, something I've dealt with for ten years this month, the floodgates opened.

It's not just about my disease.   Because of it, we chose to adopt.   My motherhood is interwoven with my cross to bear. 

For a few years, I couldn't figure out why every February and March, I was just off.  I felt uncomfortable in my own body.  My mind raced and then dragged.   I was unmotivated, unmoved, uninterested.  Apathetic and vulnerable.   Irritable yet tender.

Sugar, you have a story, too.  A story of love and loss and depth and uncertainty.  You have a story of hope and devastation.

I want to hear your story.  I want to know your journey, your WHY, your leading to YES.

On the day this blog post goes live (Wednesday, 3/16), we'll be on Facebook where you'll be invited to share your WHY and your YES.   Join me, will you?