SCRANTON – The beauty and importance of adoption once again became the focal point of the Diocese of Scranton’s annual Mother’s Day Mass – thanks to dozens of families who attended the liturgy with their adopted children.
The Mass, celebrated May 8 at the Cathedral of Saint Peter, brought together dozens of families and their adopted children.
Many, like Karen Trently of Throop, were joyful in discussing their adoption stories following Mass.
“It will almost be nine years in July that we got the call about Addison. My husband and I tried about ten years to get pregnant and unfortunately it didn’t happen for us,” Trently explained.
That is when the couple decided to adopt.
“The day that we got the call about Addison was one of the happiest days of our lives. Every day with her is a blessing and she really completed our family,” she added.
The Trently family makes it an annual tradition to attend the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass at the Cathedral.
“She didn’t grow inside me but she grew in our hearts,” Trently said. “She knows about her adoption and we thank her mother for being so brave and putting her up for adoption.”
This was the first year Dan and Sarah Wilson attended the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass. The Milford couple has an eight-year-old son, Luke, and recently adopted their two-year-old son, Jude.
“We knew our family wasn’t complete with Luke and we knew that he needed to have a sibling so we went through the adoption process and adopted Jude. He is from Atlanta, Georgia. We have a completely open adoption with his birth family and it is the most happy and joyous relationship in our life and our family is complete,” Sarah Wilson said.
“He is an absolute miracle. Our lives are so much richer, I don’t know how we existed without him,” Dan Wilson added. “Luke is amazing as well but Jude really completes our whole family.”
When asked to describe his thoughts on having a brother, Luke responded it was “probably the happiest time of my life.”
The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, was principal celebrant and homilist for the Mother’s Day Adoption Mass. During the liturgy, the bishop not only acknowledged adoptive and foster mothers, but all mothers, grandmothers and godmothers.
“For all of the commercialization and hype that can cause us at times to lose touch with the heart of its real meaning, doesn’t this day cause us to reflect upon the essence of the gospel message for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday?” the bishop asked. “Selfless love, forgiveness, unconditional acceptance and hope are all qualities that a mother seeks to impact to her child whom she knows and loves so well.”
Mothers, the bishop added, remind us that we are all given the power and responsibility to become vehicles for God’s presence in the world.
“May we especially give thanks for those women who have nurtured and cared for us, their children, and have taught us that it is possible to love as Jesus, the Good Shepherd,” Bishop Bambera noted.