6th Grade Winner!!!! My Birth Mother

Congratulations, Bridget! Thank you for sharing your touching story on adoption. I hope one day you are able to find your birth mom, but until then, love and enjoy your adoptive parents. Kylie

Bridget
Ecker Hill Middle School
6th Grade

The Cold, Dreadful Train Bench

You look up into those deep, brown pools of eyes staring down at you. Tears stream down
the face peering at you. The cold nips at your small nose as you’re set down. Wrapped up warm, you lie on the cold metal of a train station bench and watch the miserable figure bustle away sadly.

Soon, all you see of your mother is a small speck far, far away in the distance. Now you’re all alone with the cold threatening to take your small, young life away...

If I could meet anyone in the world, from any country, during any time period, it would be my real, Chinese mother because, since I am adopted, she has rocked my world. I’ve always wanted to meet her and see what she is like! I’m not even sure if my mother is alive or well, but I would still, no matter what, want to meet her! My adopted parents are working to take me back to China for vacation with them as soon as possible. Even though it seems impossible to find her, I’m still hoping that
someday in my life I will at least get to see what my birth mother looks like.

One of the reasons that I’d like to see her is because obviously she IS my mother, but I don’t even know her! I’d like to know all the small things, like where she has traveled or maybe meet one or two of her friends...it would brighten my life so much! Knowing whether my birth monther is alive or not would surely bring lots of emotion. If I found out she was alive I would smile so big and bright you’d have to shade your eyes to stand near me! If I learned my mother was dead you would surely see a rainy storm cloud form over my head pouring sadness over my soul.

I know that my birth mother probably wanted me to be happier and safer than I was when she left me on that train bench for the police to find. What do you think your mother would want for you? Surely the best for you?

I was born in China, and moms and dads were only allowed to have one child, and I’m guessing I was the second. Even if my mother didn’t want me or was happy to get rid of me, I’d still love her no matter what!

How would you feel if you just met someone who’d dreamed of meeting you ever since
they were little, but you were in a dingy basement at the bottom of an abandoned hotel in the middle of a desert? If I ever got to see my mother in person, I would want my mother to feel comfortable, so I would insist that we meet at her house or somewhere that she is familiar and cozily snug in. If you think about it, it would probably make the person you want to meet open up and be more relaxed if they were somewhere they were already familiar with. Also, I’d want my meeting with my mother to be nice, not creepy and tense! If I were to meet my mother somewhere that was unfamiliar, frightening, and eerie she would probably be rigid and panicked, even if she were thrilled to see me. I think that meeting at my mom’s house would be a nice and significant place because almost everyone around me seems to feel jovial and safe when they are at home. Also, it would be important to my mother because (hello!) it’s her
home! After a long day of working hard, home is where you can sink into something soft
and relax, the place where you can bury your face in your pillow, the place where you go when there isn’t any other place to go. It’s home!!

The first question I’d ask my mom is if I have any siblings. I would ask this because
when I was born you could only have one child, and I always guessed that I was the second sibling because I was left behind. Of course I’m happy with the life I have now, but I would want to know the exact reason why she had to give me up the way she did. I’m not mad...but wouldn’t you want to know!? This specific question would be pretty important for me to know because it would help me fill in another gap of the puzzle of my Chinese babyhood.

Imagine, you know nothing about why you are here, you know that you like where you are but that horrible “why” gnaws at you randomly in your mind. Why was I left alone on a bench? Why is my mother so anonymous? Most importantly, why am I living the life I have right now!?

I would like my mom to know how her decision to leave me to be adopted has changed my
life so much! My whole life is the way it is because of her decision! I wonder what would have happened if she had chosen to do something else, like hide me away or lie about my birth. That would have made my life SO different, it would be nothing like it is right now. My adopted parents wouldn’t know that I even exist, another girl would have take my place. Sitting in my classes, sharing family fun times, sleeping in my bed, being with the ones that I love, my neighbors, my friends, my family...I don’t know what I’d be. I could still might have been happy, but everything would be different. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and in my opinion, I am SO
grateful for my birth mother making the decision to give me up. I am very grateful to her, and owe so much to her for letting me live the life I have now! I always wanted to thank her, and explain that it was good she made the decisions she made, and that no matter what I love her, but I don’t ever think I’ll get the chance. She IS completely anonymous to me and to my family, friends, and even the orphanage, so it would be near impossible for me to find her and explain the things I’m explaining on this page. My birth mom has done so much for me I will always be appreciative and
thankful to have such a good mother. I know that making the decision she did might have been hard for her, but she did the right thing for me! I wish I knew a way to somehow tell her that she did the right thing, sometimes when I see the moon I think of her because I know that she can probably see it too. I wouldn’t hesitate to see my mom, ever!