The Gift

I will never forget the first time I handed a baby to his adoptive parents. At that time, most of the adoptive parents came from abroad, and the adoption process took a long time, at least 12 months.  I still remember clearly how the adoptive parents were thanking me and Mother’s Choice with joyful tears.  That moment left a huge impact on me. These are children that I cared for in their first year of life and my feelings at that time was that it should be us thanking them – the baby had been unplanned, and his birth parents had decided that adoption was the best plan for him. 

But the adoptive parents replied that the baby was a gift from God, and they had waited for this gift for a very long time. These words completely changed my feelings and beliefs. I used to think that babies who were “given up” for adoption were lucky and blessed to have found adoptive parents, but instead, these grateful new parents looked on the child as a “gift”. The moment they said the word “gift”, my understanding of the work of Mother’s Choice changed and I saw the true meaning and purpose of my role.  I saw that I was acting as a bridge who can connect a person who was perceived as “undesirable” or “unwanted” with someone who values him or her.  My role is to help others see that every child is a gift who deserves a family.

If you had asked me in those first few months at Mother’s Choice, “Kit Ying, what is the value of the work that you do here?”, I would have said it was that I can speak Cantonese and can help translate important discussions. But after realizing the importance of my role as a bridge for children who didn’t have families and young mothers who were rejected by their communities, I had a completely new understanding of the importance of not messing things up and not underestimating myself. 

This experience – and my experiences every day even now – have allowed me see much deeper meaning in the work we do.