At 19, she was forced to give her daughter up for adoption: 17 years later, she meets her again in a shopping center
Giving your child up for adoption must be a very difficult choice - one that is impossible to take lightly. Although the arrival of a child is desired and eagerly awaited by many, some young women may simply not feel ready to be a mother and can be afraid for the future. When uncertainty about the future and fears about how to raise a daughter - when one is just 19 years old - become too big, adoption might seem like the only way out. Gina Crotts must have lived through exactly this situation before deciding to entrust her first daughter to another family via adoption.
via Instagram / ginacrottswriter
At 19 years old, it can be a trauma having to manage at all costs to take care of a defenseless child; for some it is inevitable that this level of care is simply not possible and consideration of the idea of giving the child up for adoption must be made. For some, even before the birth, ending the pregnancy is one solution; while other mothers might feel almost forced to have to opt for some other solution. We absolutely cannot judge the choices of these mothers and we might (or might not) be consoled to know that these pregnant women are resorting to adoption as a feasible solution. Gina Crotts was 19 year old at the time she gave birth, she lived far from home and was alone. She knew that she could not offer a bright future to her daughter. The young woman spent 4 days in the hospital with her little girl. After giving birth to her, Gina kept repeating to baby: "Be a good girl, always remember your mother's voice and know that I love you". She knew she would never see her again and, with her heavy heart, she chose the couple that seemed most suitable to become her daughter's new family.
The separation from her little girl was not easy: Gina suddenly found herself with a void that she could not fill. However, after just a month, the young woman found love and married a man named Brandon. With him, Gina started to build a family, of which she is very proud today. Although Gina has had three other children, she has never forgot little Kalyn, her eldest daughter whom she was forced to give up for adoption. Gina always talked about Kalyn to her children, even celebrating her birthdayin absentia. Over time, Gina and her daughter had reconnected but had never seen each other in the flesh. Gina received one photo a year of Kalyn, but waited for her to ask her to see each other.
"My goal" explained Gina, "has always been to become someone my little girl could be proud of. I wanted her to have the desire to meet me, to know who I am." One day many years later, and without warning, that long-awaited meeting took place.
One day, while her 13-year-old daughter Evie was at a dance rehearsal in a mall, the teenager pointed to a girl she believed was her sister. It was Kalyn, and looked very similar to Gina's other daughter.
It had been 17 years and Gina couldn't be sure she was face to face with her daughter or just a very similar looking young woman. When she saw Kalyn's adoptive father, however, she had no doubts and she approached her after he himself nodded at her. "I reached out and grabbed her without hesitation and squeezed her to my chest," Gina recalled, "My arms wrapped tightly around her little body." Fate had let them meet up again! From that moment on, Kalyn reconnected with her biological mother, also taking part at some of Gina's dinners and communicating with her more often. Gina is very grateful to Kalyn's adoptive family, who raised her in the best possible way. Kalyn is lucky, because she now gets all the love of an extended family.
