"thank you for finding me" ...your mommy

My life.

This is an email that I woke up to this morning:

"You've probably heard about the news of a kidnapped daughter reuniting with her real mom? I remeber of this when it occured back twenty some years ago. The whole country was shocked at the news because the baby was stolen from a hospital. Anyway, this girl knew something was odd as she was growing up and did research and finally found her real parents. When I heard this I thought of you instantly.
Monika, thank you for finding me. Every morning as I start to drive, I say thanks to my guardian angels for you."

What if you came home one day and you didn't find your mommy?

What if you never saw your mommy again from age four?

That's what happened to me. I didn't know where my mommy was, she was just GONE.

She was replaced by a "new" mommy, and that was it.

I wasn't allowed to talk of my "old" mommy ever again.

After about 15 long years, at age 19, I made up my mind and secretly went about looking for her and made plans to meet. As nervous as I was that she wouldn't want anything to do with me, we met.

It was a wonderful reunion.

We were then blessed with the opportunity to go back to Japan together last fall, and

THAT WAS EVEN MORE AMAZING. I finally felt like I was able to get to know my real mother for the first time.

Time was lost and although I never had the chance to be loved by her growing up, I know Heavenly Father has something special in store, like me receiving such an email from her this morning.

Life can be full of trials, but it's what we make of it, and how we look at it that makes it great.