Connie_BrittonAs National Adoption Month comes closer to its end and the Holiday Season picks up steam, this message from Actress Connie Britton (best known for her roles on TV shows like Nashville and Friday Night Lights) is a great way to kick off Thanksgiving week!

Just last week, Connie wrote her “What I’m Thankful For,” a recurring column for TIME Magazine. The focus of her column was her experience as an adoptive mom, which she describes as:

“This child, my son, is the greatest, most hard won gift of my life. And yes, I think that even when he is screaming NO in the most impressively pitched tone which sends the dogs outside, or is fighting me with a strength that I can’t match even though I am 5 times his size. In those moments where I am so challenged by him, I am still thankful. He provides a learning curve I could never find anywhere else.”

Time with her son also reminds him of who and what brought him to her:

“These are qualities that I know any parent can recognize and connect to. But my son happens to be adopted. So what is miraculous about the parent/child relationship somehow still leaves a catch in my throat when I think about both of our journeys to find each other. I am grateful to my son for finding me. I am grateful to his birth mother for her fortitude in bearing him and her suffering in letting him go. I am grateful for my life as a mother.”

Read the rest of Connie’s column at TIME.com, and learn more about famous adoptions on our website!