Dear Mom,

I opened my box tonight. The one I hide under my bed. The one that keeps the tokens of my life, important what-not and the words I hold so incredibly dear. Your letter was there. The one you wrote in 1977 that began with...

"Dear Mr. & Mrs. (adoptive parents) I would like to begin this letter by assuring you that I'm not going to disrupt your life in any way. I have a family of my own now..."

and closed with

"Before I close, I would like to thank you for giving what I couldn't. Love her for me. Thank You, (my mom)".

I cried, as I always do when I open the tattered and year worn envelope. Three years later, I found the letter, rifling through my mothers makeup stand. (12 years olds know of no ones privacy, except their own) I called my best friend Suzie and told her of what I had read. I cried then too. Tears of happiness that you had thought of me, and tears of sadness of something lost but never known. I kept the knowledge of your letter secret for another 11 years. And then I wrote my own letter.


You may not have been there for my first baby steps, but you were there for those first steps I took off the plane to begin a life, with my family, here in Oregon. You may not have been there for my first word, my first giggle, or my first bandaged knee, but you are here to now to talk, to laugh, and to comfort with your wisdom. I was Christened in the Greek Orthodox Church in 1968 without you, but you there at Westside Church when I was Baptised in 1998. You have been there in ways I had never thought possible and welcomed me into a family that I truly feel part of.

Words cannot express how thankful I am, how blessed I feel or how miraculous you are to me. I hope you know how much I do.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom and Thank You

I Love You.