Love, Unconditionally

The path to real love isn't always by bloodline

You may not know the little person growing inside of you, but you know you love her, or him, you don't care. That feeling? It's called unconditional love, and means that no matter what, it will never end. You know you want to give your baby the world and more, but also know that right now, you are unable.

That's why you are considering adoption. You know that, while perhaps you are not able to give your baby the world and more at this time, there is a family out there who can.

Sure, maybe they have the financial ability and stable household to provide for your child, but that's not what most mothers worry about the most.

Of course you love your baby more than anything, but how could another family feel unconditional love for your baby, too?

Some people think unconditional love is only something you can feel when you are related to someone by blood. Anyone touched by adoption will tell you otherwise.

When Mary, an American Adoptions mother, was asked to explain the way she feels about her daughter, she replied, "I know I could not love my daughter any more if she were biological … every time I look at her, she simply takes my breath away at how beautiful she is and how much I love her."

The decision to adopt a child sets adoptive couples apart in a very special way, but all agree the only real way to understand the love is to experience it firsthand.

"We made the best decision we have ever made, and decided adoption was how we would grow our family," Mary says." "I thought my life had hit its pinnacle when I saw the first ultrasound of the baby and learned my lifetime dreams of motherhood and a daughter were coming true - it was then I first felt unconditional love for my daughter."

Whether born from a couple or born for them, as Mary describes, the love parents feel for their children is unconditional. There is nothing stronger. An adoptive family will love your child unconditionally, for a lifetime.

But placing your baby for adoption should not be experienced as a sacrifice of unconditional love to a stranger, but the strongest expression of it that a mother can make when she knows it is what is best. The love you feel for your baby will never cease … the love surrounding your baby will only increase exponentially, and grow with time.

"Each day that continues, from my daughter's first word 'Mama,' to her first steps taken right into my arms, I get to live moments that make me feel like it is the best moment in my life," Mary says.

"But in the end I know each new milestone will top the one before it, because each day as she grows I fall more and more in love with my daughter, and know she will forever sweep me off my feet, unconditionally."