My Unique Mom

After spending most of my adult life, looking for my biological mother, I found her when I was 42, heard her voice for the second time in my life a year later and the following year she was living with me. Most unbelievable experience of my life.

The circumstances behind my birth and being given up for adoption are not important to this story. What is important is that I have had my best friend, my cohort, my inspiration and my beloved mother in my life for 10 years now.

We have compared our pasts and found that there are so many similarities that it gets eerie sometimes. We think so much alike that even after we had just met, we were finishing each other sentences. Our sense of humors are identical, we're both crafty, love to travel and the outdoors, are family oriented and Christians.

We've compared genetics with environment and both decided that the key to our relationship has to be love and a bond that only God can describe properly.

Mom's presence in my life has proven to me that unconditional love really exists. Her love, understanding and gentleness have touched every fiber of my being and that of my entire family.

My dear husband, who had not grown up in an environment of compassion and love, now has a role model to learn from and our children are benefiting from it. He now wraps his strong arms around them as he tells them he loves them. He had not been able to do that before mom came to live with us.

Our children and grandchildren have a grandmother and great-grandmother that daily touches their lives with her presence.

My mother is not just a woman who gave birth to me 54 years ago, but a gift from God that has brought my family closer together than any one thing ever could have. When God had the name mother in mind, He was thinking about Elizabeth Marie Gaines.

My unique mom!