I just read a review of the latest Lisa Scottoline book entitled “Most Wanted” – one of those books with a sensational storyline. This one has an infertile couple who finally gets pregnant thanks to a sperm donor but then finds out that their hand-selected, “perfect” donor might actually be a serial killer. Oh no! Now What? Will their precious baby inherit those “awful genes”? The parents to be are heartbroken. Apparently, causing therm and the reviewer in The Washington Post, Carol Memmott to ask questions such as, “What would you do – abort the baby?” and, “Could you love the baby knowing the biological father is a killer?” As I am reading the review, I am thinking to myself, “Am I really reading this?” This is their baby! They will love and raise the baby. Is there any other choice? Is this really a story for a book?

I am shocked by all of this because I adopted a baby whose “genes” were not perfect. So what?

My son’s birth mother and father were not serial killers. But they were diagnosed with mental illness. They used drugs. I knew all of this going in and of course I still loved my baby. I remember driving to the hospital to see our son after he was born. My husband and I realized we had not asked our social worker if he was healthy or not when she called. We said, “Oh well. I guess we will find out when we get there. He is our son now.” That baby is now 13 and I could not imagine not having him in my life. Bryce does have his challenges and life with Bryce has not always been easy, but there is nothing that I would change about any of the choices that we made.

When you have a baby of your own DNA, you do not know what will happen to the baby. Anything can happen. You love the baby. You raise the baby. It is no different if your baby has someone’s else’s genes. I often forget that my children were not born from my belly but from my heart. I’m just a mom like everyone else.

Thanks for reading!