Hello Jenny :)

I have also attached the only two childhood photo's that I have of my sisters and I, along with a recent photo (removed to protect the donor identity) and some photo's I have taken of the Children's home in 2012 when I took my husband there, to show him where I grew up... It was really so amazing to re-visit the home, not much has changed and I really do have such fond memories.

Hope you have a peaceful week ahead.

Kind regards and a big hug for the amazing person that you are, I read some testimonies on your blog, the people really love and appreciate the difference you help make in their life's :)

M

All adults should have the privilege to become parents, just as all children should be privileged to have parents… This is my story…

I am the eldest of 3 girls my parents had, I don’t have many memories of them as a child.  My too young parents could not make it work and decided to get divorced.  My mother, being a single mom with neither support nor financial means, could not take care of us.  Sadly my sisters and I got taken away from our mother and we were placed into government care, Andrew Murray Children’s home in Wellington (Western Cape).

I was 3 years old at the time, my sisters aged 2 years and the little one only 12 months old, because we were so young we adapted easily. Many time when I tell my story, people become sad because of how and what we had to go through, but truth is: we might not have grown up differently, but we grew up happy.

Whilst in the children home, our biological mother and father never came to visit us, they did not even make contact on birthdays or Christmas days.  The only love we knew, was the love that we had for each other… then one day it all changed…

Not sure how many people are aware of the term ‘weekend parents’ (it’s a couple who don’t have children, who decide to temporarily adopt a child for a weekend, giving that child a weekend away from the children’s home filled with love and laughter…just like a family)

My sisters and I were introduced to a middle-aged couple who wanted to be our weekend parents, they had no children of their own – it was like love at first sight for us, as well as for them!

Every weekend they would come and pick us up, they taught us what the value of a family and love is, they cared for us and provided for us as what parents should for their children…because of them, although we grew up in the children’s home, we still had love, we still had parents to call our own… we had a family.

This went on for more than 10 years, obviously the bond between us and them was unbreakable, they saw us grow up and become who they formed us to be…  After many attempts to legally adopt us 3 girls, it stilled remained unsuccessful and we could see how this broke their hearts.

My biological father finally decided he wants to take responsibility and fought for custody of us, sad to say he did win and after all the time in the children’s home, we were sent off to a different province to go and live with a man we have not heard from in years, a man we did not know.

It broke all off our hearts, we lost our ‘parents’ as they did lose their ‘children’… it’s not fair!

Now that I am an adults, wising to become a ‘weekend parent’ myself, I understand what they sacrificed for us and I’m sure if they were blessed with the gift of a child, they would have loved their own child as they loved us…there is no greater gift, than the gift of life.

It’s too late now for me to change their life’s and give them what they have always desired, but I can donate my eggs to other couples who desire the same…to have a little body to call their child. This is my way of giving some of the love back that I received, unasked for from strangers.