BREAST CANCER AWARENESS
Vol 20, No. 5 • October 2020
STARLING...PG 9
News You Can Use
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Finding birth parents brings more love and family to adopted woman By Lucy Weber For Janessa Hope, it truly is not about where you start, it’s about how you finish. She was abandoned as a baby on a doctor’s doorstep near Magnolia Regional Health Center, was adopted into a loving family and now 24 years later has found her birth parents. “Sometimes I cannot believe that I had such a rough start in life, and somehow made it to where I am today. I am happy to have discovered my birth family, and I am blessed to have unexpectedly landed in the hands of mother like Sara, who gave me all the love a child could ever need,” said Janessa who now lives in Nashville where she works as a speech-language pathologist and is getting her Ph.D in 2022. On July 10, 1996, her biological mother was faced with a very difficult decision when she gave birth to a baby girl in her home in Selmer. The 23-year-old mother drove to Corinth where she left the baby on the doorstep and then called police from a nearby pay phone. Nurse Sara Gibbs was called into work at Magnolia from her off-duty hours to tend to the newborn. “While Sara was taking care of me in the nursery, her boss told her that she needed to adopt me,” Janessa said. “Of course, Sara refused at first. She was a woman who found out in previous years that she was unable to have children, and she worked very often.” Gibbs called her pastor to seek guidance. “He told her that it was a matter of ‘would she take care of this child,’ not ‘could she take care of this child.’ She decided to take on the challenge. On a night of unusual circumstances where Sara was not even supposed to be at work, God found it right to give her a blessing she thought she would never receive -- a child,” her daughter said. Gibbs, who obtained temporary custody of the baby, legally adopted Janessa in April 1997. Janessa said her mother told her early on that she was adopted but she always had many questions. “I struggled with many identity issues growing up. There has not been a day that has gone by in my life where I have not thought about the events surrounding my birth, and who my birth family was. “It was a heavy burden to carry for 24 years, but I carried it well. I had a great life. My mother put me in lessons for about any activity you can think of, from cooking lessons at Viking and piano, to bowling, dance, swimming, gymnastics, and the list goes on. I can honestly say that there is nothing I ever needed or wanted that Sara did not provide me with. She may not have birthed me, but the love we Return Address: P.O. Box 1292 Corinth, MS 38835 have for each other is unconditional, and the bond we share will never break. She POSTAL PATRON not only is my mother, but she is my best friend.” see HOPE pg 4
Janessa Hope