When 19-year old Alaskan Kaleener Pysher got pregnant she knew giving her baby daughter up for adoption was in the child's best interest. So when a trusted family friend offered to adopt her, Kaleener agreed.
They arranged an open adoption so Kaleener could still be a part of her daughter’s life.
“I would trust her with my life,” Kaleener said about the adoptive mum to the Alaska Dispatch News. “I would trust her with my baby. She will get quality love, parental guidance and a good education. She wouldn’t be able to get that with me.”
But what Kaleener did after the adoption is as unexpected as it is incredible.
After reading about the benefits of breastfeeding the teenager decided her breastmilk would be best for her daughter’s health. And although it was emotionally as well as physically difficult she set about expressing her milk, freezing it and sending it out of state to her daughter’s adoptive parents.
In fact, one particular shipment weighed a whopping 80 pounds – and it was such a large amount of milk the adoptive parents even had to buy a new freezer!
For Kaleener, expressing the milk is her way of sharing a bond with the child she gave up.
“As long as I’m still giving them breast milk, they still need me for something,” she poignantly said. [The baby] still needs me,” she said. “But now that I’m tapering off, I feel like they’re not going to need me anymore.”
Now Kaleener looks forward to following her daughter’s progress. She will speak to her on the phone, the family will keep her updated with photos and she’ll send Christmas gifts.
And although it has been tough on Kaleener, she says she wouldn’t change her experience for the world.
“Now,” she says simply, “I know there's a stronger love.”
Wow, we are speechless. What an incredible story of love and sacrifice. We are certain Kaleener and her daughter will play an important part in each other's lives in the future. We wish them all the best.
