Happy Fourth Birthday, Layla!!!!

Choose life
That you might live
The life that He gives


One day, you Miss Layla are going to look into the mirror and you might wonder…Where you got those beautiful brown eyes from? Where you got your nose from? Where you got those ears from? Why you will always have to have bangs of some sort? Why your laugh sounds the way it does? Why you have certain mannerisms that you do?

(Now I say might because I do take into account that some days you remind me so much of your Oma and Oma is unfazed by stuff, that sometimes I just say to her "You are like no other human I have ever known." Which is so true.)

All I can say and will say when or if the day comes is to tell you, God gave them to you. He created you in His own image and that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. I pray that answer will be enough for you, but I know sometimes we want a “human” answer, one that is easier and more tangible for our human minds to understand.

Then know this, know that today four years ago on January 21, 2008, your birth mother chose life for you. You might hear people say that women in certain parts of the world can’t afford an abortion or don’t have access to safe places. But I say since two people ate a piece of fruit suggested to them by an animal that man has had the thought and ability to abort. Your birth mother could have done that, but she didn’t. She chose life.

For reasons, we will probably never know she made the choice for you to be found outside an orphanage, dressed for the weather, placed where you could be found. There were other places she could have left you, places you couldn’t or wouldn’t be found, but she didn’t. Once again for you she chose life.

You and your birth mother had a problem, but God had a plan. like He did for Moses, though I’m not saying you’re ever going to be leading people to the Promised Land, but you get what I mean.

The orphanage that she left you outside of worked with a wonderful agency ran by two awesome people, Dick and Cheryl, whose passion and gifts are to find families for children who need them. Based on great recommendations and my own conversations with them, I signed up with them way before you were born. God’s plan for your life, for us to be together, was in action before you were even conceived.

You weren’t the first baby I was matched with. The first baby, whom I call June Layla, was the baby I got the call about. Then when it was time for the John Hancocks, I found out I had been referred a new, older, bouncing baby girl - - you. Beautiful, wonderful, you, because your birth mother chose life.

Because she chose life, I was given the honor, the privilege, and the blessing to be your mommy. To sit on the bed in my room while you opened your first birthday presents cause Oma was in a pissy mood and it’s best to keep to yourself when she’s like that. And by opening presents, I mean your brother opened your gifts. To be present with you when you turned two and we did something that I honestly can’t remember and I’m too lazy to try and research to see if I wrote down what we did for your birthday. (FYI - sometimes it sucks being the third child.) To watch you blossom into an incredible three-year-old and share that birthday with you, just hanging out, opening presents, and spending the day together, and you blowing out the candles on your little half a cake with just the five of us. And now today to see my talkative, brilliant, knows what she wants, gorgeous baby turn the big F-O-U-R. I am truly, truly blessed. God is so good.

Once upon a time you had a problem, but God had a plan. A wonderful, amazing, fantastic plan. A plan that is still coming to life and will keep coming to life until you draw your very last breath, I pray scores upon scores from now.

So we might never know where you got your brown hair from being born in a land where the majority of people have black hair. You won’t be able to trace it back to a birth maternal grandmother or a birth paternal grandfather. But please know, please remember, if you question or wonder, please rejoice in the fact that your birth mother chose life for you. She CHOSE LIFE. God gave her the courage, the wisdom, the strength to choose life.

So today on your fourth birthday, we celebrate that you are another year older. I can’t believe you’re four. Where did the time go? I, today, like every day thank God for the awesome gift that is you. I really scored in the whole kid department. The terrific trio is terrific for a reason.

I love you, Layla! I adore you even when you drive me stark, raving mad. I’m so proud that you are my daughter and I’m your mother. I pray that as you continue to grow you will become a person who loves the Lord and lives according to His will. Happy Fourth Birthday, Layla!!!! I love you forever. I like you for always though I won't always like what you say or do. As long as I'm living my baby, you'll be.


Trust the Lord with all your heart
With all of your soul
And all of your being
Hold on
Listen and obey
Surrender your life
Into His keeping

Choose life
That you might live
The life that He gives
He gives you forever

Choose life
The way that it's true
From the One who chose you
Your Father in Heaven