The Father's Voice--Part 2

The mother didn't shed any tears until the following day. When the busy-ness of the morning ceased, she had time to think. She began to think of the son's birth mom who had passed away when he was only 6 years old, who had missed so much of her son's life. She began to think of the biological father, who had missed every moment of his son's growing up years.

When the tears began, they seemed unending. Try as she might, she could not stop the flow. Why does life hold these heart-aches? What would her son's life have been life had the father accepted responsibility when his son was born, or later when he learned the birth mother was dying. And, then, if her son's life had been different, he never would have joined his current family. The adoptive mother loved him so.

At graduation, the tears were gone, replaced by the pride in all her son had become. There he was graduating in the top 10 percent of his class, honor student, Beta club member, on his way to the top university in the state. He sang the class song, he received his diploma, and when it was over he lifted his mother off the floor with a giant bear hug.

Then, today, her phone rang again...while walking the aisles at Wal-Mart. Again, she heard the voice of the birth father. He asked, "Is now a good time for me to talk with B?" She gave the father her son's phone number. Her last words to him were, "I'm praying for both of you." As soon as she ended the call, she stopped her grocery cart, nearly full of groceries. She bowed her head and began to pray. On a busy Saturday afternoon, many shoppers passed her by. She thought they might think her crazy, but prayer was much more important than their opinions. She called her sister and her parents and asked them to join her prayer.

Some would say that chance had it, that the father and son were not able to connect until the adoptive Mother made it home from shopping. The mother knows it was a God-incident. She would be there as he talked with his father, heard his voice for the first time.

The son was outside when his father called, and walked away from the house down the driveway. His mother kept her eye on him, watching for any signs of distress, or joy. Her son bounced a tennis ball while he talked. He paced. He circled. He talked. The conversation lasted longer than she thought it might.

What relief his mother felt, when her son came inside the house, and began to share his conversation. "It was weird," he said. His mother said, "Of course, it was. You were trying to hold a conversation with a stranger. Did he talk about your mother at all?" she asked. Her son replied, "No, and I didn't want him to. That would have made me mad. He left her. I don't want him to talk about her, as if he cared."

"I told him about myself," he said. "And he wants to meet. He said we could go to him, (hundreds of miles away) or he would come here. I told him I would talk with my family about it. He said he would discipline himself to write to me."

The son went about his day, washing his truck, going out with friends.

The mother was left at home with her thoughts. Then the phone rang again. This time a call from one of her son's previous guardians, once the best friend of her son's birth mother. She had abandoned him, too. As the previous guardian learned of her son's past 8 years of life, the mother held back the emotions she felt thinking of all of those who had abandoned her son. Near the end of the phone call, the previous guardian began to cry, "I am so sorry I left him," she said. "But I am so glad he's found your family. It seems like just the place he needed to be." As she continued to weep the mother found herself saying once again, "Our God's grace is sufficient to cover our weaknesses, and my son is a forgiving young man."

In one week, her son has two people from his past who want to meet him--the father he never met, and the birth-mom's friend who wants to catch up with him, both of whom likely need to make peace within themselves for their past failures. Please continue to pray for them all, the son, the biological father, the previous guardian, the adoptive mother, adoptive father. May there be wisdom in the home, may the son feel the love of his family so strong that he, too, is able to make peace with his past. May the LORD continue to do immeasurably more than his mother can ask or imagine in his life.