Sermon, revisited

Just got on my treadmill for the first time since my daughter got home. I was afraid I was going to have to oil up the belt or something, it was so dusty. Whew. But luckily I made it through a decent (albeit it short) workout.

Anyhoo, it occurred to me that I never followed up with the report on the adoption service at my church that was supposed to happen way back in January but that got cancelled due to snow. It actually did happen, on Mother's Day nonetheless, which of course I was very excited about.

I was so nervous preparing for this service that I actually started to completely re-write what I had written back in January because I was so sure that it was awful. Finally, after attempting to edit and re-edit, I decide on just a few minor changes and that I just needed to move on. I was clearly obsessing. Ha. The funny thing is that of all the audiences I've ever had, I knew that this one would be the best. My husband and I have been attending this church for 4 1/2 years, and we've felt nothing but love from all of our fellow members. They've supported and helped us through good times and bad during our time there. So it's odd that I felt so much pressure! I think I just wanted the message to be "perfect", you know? Because this was my one shot at telling the whole congregation, all at once, my story.

Well, I'll spare you any more suspense and just tell you that it went great! I went slightly (ahem) over my allotted 10-minute time frame (who can tell their life story in just 10 minutes? - - that's my defense anyway), and I went "off script" a bit when I was so moved to do so. But all in all, I felt confident that I'd shared with the group my experience and how wonderful it was. There was another speaker after me, a father of two, a son through pregnancy and a daughter through adoption from Korea, and I felt that we did a nice job of balancing each other out. He spoke from the parent's side, and since I had just started that chapter in my life, I spoke from the adoptee's side. Our minister read the story, "Over the Moon" by Karen Katz as the children's story, which made me cry. She also read some comments from women who gave birth to children and then made adoption plans for them, which also provided a different perspective for the congregation. All in all I thought it was a wonderful picture of adoption that we all painted.

I received some great comments from the congregants as well, as they went through the receiving line. After every service, any speakers that have participated line up next to our minister to shake hands and greet the folks who were in the service. There were several people who came up to me with their children who had been adopted, who thanked me profusely for my perspective. Then there were actually two people who came up to me and shared that they too, had always wanted to adopt instead of have children through pregnancy - - and here I thought I was the only one! My personal favorite, however, was a woman who came up and told me that she was so moved by how wonderful adoption was and by how I felt that it was the only way - - as opposed to the best way - - to have children, that she almost felt guilty for not having adopted her kids! Wow, I thought, that's extreme. But hey, whatever works to get the message across, right?? ;-)

Oh, and by the way, I almost forgot, if anyone is interested in reading a typewritten transcript of this adoption sermon from my church, please e-mail me and I will send you the link to my church's website, where they have all sermon transcripts.

Anyway, I just wanted to follow up on that for those of you who have been faithful readers from the beginning. Have a great Thanksgiving, and remember all that you have to be thankful for!!