My Version...

The night I walked into that room and saw this woman was the night the triangle became complete. Penny and I held each other and sobbed. I was saying "Thank you, thank you!", and much to my amazement, she was also saying "Thank you, thank you"! The thought crossed my mind, "Why is she thanking me?" I didn't make any great sacrifice. I wasn't the one who handed the baby girl that had just come out of my body to a social worker to be given to another family, never to see her or hold her or kiss her again. Yet, here she was, thanking me!

All three of Penny's boys did the same thing! One of them even said, "Thanks for keeping her safe for us". This family has had to go through things in their lives that no one should have to experience, so if seeing that Keri had a good life and grew into the mature, confident, spiritual woman she has become, if that has helped Penny realize the scope of her great sacrifice, then I'm happy to have been a part of that. ('Course, there WERE those couple of years that I maybe could've been talked into GIVING HER BACK! She's always been an angel, but I swear, there were times when that halo was being held up by horns!) Just kidding, Ker!

We met at Penny's brother's home. He's a Stake President and has seven children and 27 grandchildren, and most of them were there! It was quite a gathering! They and Penny and her three boys and their families made for a big party! Stan and I both felt like we were not just meeting Keri's birth family, but were being adopted into a whole new family ourselves!

I'll be honest with you, I've always looked forward to this day when I could hold Keri's birth mother and tell her how much her sacrifice meant to me. But something inside me pinched a little watching this family envelope Keri and welcome her back. It's like I felt like I didn't want to have to share her with anyone. But then I kept thinking about how Penny must've felt; how she must of wondered all these years if Keri was safe and happy, and I was humbled.

Now we joke that not only did Keri find her birth mother, but Penny's three boys, Cory, Bobby, and Cameron have found their long-lost adoptive family! Tyler's excited to finally have some brothers and he hasn't even met them yet!