In August 2000 I placed my first-born child, a daughter for adoption through The Gladney Center for Adoption.
And now, almost nine years later, she is going to grace the stage with some other adoptees in an annual event.
Gladney will host their annual Blossoms in the Dust Luncheon, Style Show, and Bazaar April 2 in Fort Worth, Texas.
The facility celebrated its 120th birthday last year, according to the agency’s website. Proceeds benefit the Tarrant Gladney Family Association.
The name of the show is based on the 1941 movie “Blossoms in the Dust,” the partly true story of the center’s founder Edna Gladney who fought for orphan rights. The role was played by Greer Garson for which she was nominated for an Oscar. The 98-minute movie is available on DVD.
“Bonus parents often ask us for alternative names for ‘Mom’ or ‘Dad’ and we always suggest that bonus families put their heads together and come up with a special name that means something to them as a family,” says Jann Blackstone-Ford and Sharyl Jupe. (Source: Dallasnews.com).
A friend of mine, Virginia, who is an adoptive grandma to two children, often praises me for my decision.
“My husband and I are always talking about how tender hearted, kind, thoughtful and all one of our grandsons is,” Virginia says. “He’d called us and told us really excitedly that he was going to buy a gift for a lil’ kid who didn’t get any presents and they were going to get food for them, too. He was just bubbling over with his enthusiasm. We were talking about the fact that his mom is encouraging this in him but I also started thinking about how some things are taught and some are inherent.
I got to thinking of what little we know…nothing about the (birth) father other than his ethnicity and the mother’s too. We also know she walked in at the last minute, deciding to give him up for adoption. I thought, you know, I believe she wanted to keep him as she’d not gone to Gladney beforehand…but when it was time to have him I believe she started thinking what was best for him, not what she wanted for herself.”
And Virginia states that she believes the birth mom placed her child for adoption to give him the best chance for a good life.
“So I believe he must have that inherited factor from her,” she writes. “I know this is all my musings but in my heart I give thanks for her blessing us with such a kind, tender hearted, loving child. He is not only the light of his mother’s life, but ours so very much.”
Virginia plans to hopefully get her grandson and bring him to Texas for another month with she and her husband this summer.
“I am looking forward to maybe getting to go to Disney World with him before I’m too old to get around. Although I cannot tell his birth mom thanks I can say thank you to you as a symbol of a birth mom I do not know,” Virginia said.
For information on the Gladney show, call Nonya Jordan at 817-922-6045 or see gladney.org online.
