Adoption: Jody Cantrell Dyer

 

What follows is an excerpt from the book The Eye of Adoption.

 

Kerri and I sat, she in her wheelchair, I in the hospital’s hardwood rocker, between the single bed and the window. I had opened the blinds earlier so sunlight could warm Room 32.

 

The metal-molded window framed a mundane view. Three floors below the window, a long sloped sidewalk sat parallel to a two way street. Across the street, trucks and cars dotted a charcoal parking lot. A graveled afterthought of a parking area lay above the more formal spaces. I saw no people. The only life and movement came from a row of trees planted equidistantly along the sidewalk. The scene looked uninteresting and ordinary. But the events inside the building supported by the parking spots, street, and sidewalk were extraordinary.

 

Kerri and I faced one another in front of that bright hospital window on that beautiful May morning and talked for a long time. Isolated and insulated by the hospital, I felt secure as I observed my son and his birthmother together. I also felt compelled to witness to Kerri, remembering that Mark said I was the closest thing to Jesus that Kerri knew. I could have seized that moment to share scripture with the frail girl in front of me, but I thought, Who am I to tell this angel about sacrifice? She loves Scotty, unconditionally, infinitely, by nature’s default. She has given up a life with him, for him. She is the closest thing to Jesus I have ever known.

 

I cannot remember what we said to one another but I do remember that, as I watched Kerri hold, talk to, and kiss Scotty, I thought of the hymn lyrics, “There’s a sweet, sweet spirit in this place.” Those moments with Kerri were a sacred privilege.

Jody Cantrell Dyer is an adoptive mother, teacher, and author in East Tennessee, USA. In her novel, The Eye of Adoption: the true story of my turbulent wait for a baby, Dyer directly addresses the sorrows of infertility and the demands of adoption while consistently word-weaving a life-rope of assurance, optimism, and humor for her readers.

The Eye of Adoption is available on Amazon.com and through Jody’s website: www.jodydyer.com. Free Kindle downloads are available November 15-17!

Read Jody’s blog, Theories: Size 12, Musings from a Mountain Mama at www.jodydyer.blogspot.com. 

Email Jody at jdyer415@yahoo.com.