My Daughter’s Birthmother Is My Real-Life Superhero
Guest Post from Francina Kahl, Founder of Be Still Tea
Our adoption journey began in the middle of 2012.
I was pregnant, and we had just found out that we were going to have a third son. My only daughter at the time looked at me and said, “That’s OK mom; when this boy gets older, we are going to adopt my little sister!”
I was stunned.
While I was still pregnant with my 4th child, my 6-year-old had the faith to believe that her little sister was coming to us through adoption. Needless to say, my husband and I were overwhelmed. We tried to put the idea of adoption out of our minds until the baby I was carrying was born. But I’ve found that when you are meant to do something it literally chases you.
And chase it did.
Following some pretty significant signs that adoption was in our future, including the confirmation of this little girl’s name, Josefina, we let go and let God take the lead. So a year after our youngest was born, we began our journey to Josie.
It was a very long and difficult journey.
But we grew so much in our understanding of adoption and, more importantly, our understanding and empathy for the very difficult journey that our baby’s birthmother was going through. We had not given very much thought to all the aspects that go into adoption, especially the agony and incredible love and courage of birthmothers who choose to place their babies for adoption.
One of the biggest misconceptions we had was that all birthmothers simply give up their babies—as if they were unwanted. But we learned that birthmothers often place their babies for adoption, not give them up. And they place them with loving families because they want them to have more than they are able to give them.
Of course, not every birthmother is hands-on in the placement of their babies. There are certainly cases where some children are abandoned.
But I choose to see the incredible courage and difficult choices birthmothers make to carry their babies to term and deliver them.
Once we finally got word that our baby girl was born, we got on a flight to Texas to meet her. We received pictures from her birthmother because she wanted to make sure that we get to see her before we arrived.
Meeting Josie’s birthmother is a moment I will never forget.
She cried and kept saying, “Please tell her that I love her. Please tell her that she is loved and that I didn’t place her with you because I didn’t want her. I love her, we all love her.”
I was so humbled by this great honor. This woman had chosen me to be the mother to her baby because she loves her.
I felt compelled to live the rest of my life sharing that this woman is my real-life superhero. In most adoptions, there is so much focus on the adoptive parents. But I want to change that.
Enter: Be Still Tea
A few years ago I founded an online tea business—Be Still Tea. We want to use it to honor birthmothers all over this world who are making the hardest decisions of their lives by carrying their babies to term and then placing them in loving adoptive homes like ours.
Because of our passion and dedication to adoption, we partnered with Lifesong for Orphans to create the Rohan Birthmother Adoption Fund. This fund exists for us to have a tangible way for us to support adoptive families with their adoption costs and allows us to invest in birthmothers by covering a portion of the costs for birthmother care.
10% of all proceeds at Be Still Tea go to the Rohan Birthmother Adoption Fund.
So every tea you purchase has a purpose! It’s helping a child get adopted and supporting birthmother care.
I’m humbly grateful for the opportunity to weave together two of my passions: birthmothers and tea!
—Francina | Founder & Owner, Be Still Tea
Passionate about adoption?
You can help orphans become sons & daughters by starting an adoption fund. It’s easier to get started than you think! We’ll help—and it’s free.