Brook

That reality can be heartbreaking.

The clip my friend sent me was one of the first times you spoke about your own adoption and it led me to becoming a devoted listener.

I love TMS for many reasons, from feeling seen through Brooke's ADHD quirks to feeling heard through Jordan's openness around mental health.

But Matua Mark, you're way better than both of them.

The moments you have shared about your adoption have impacted me in a way I struggle to fully express.

I remember listening to you farewell your father, not your adopted father, but your dad.

And as an adoptive mother, I hope one day to have earned that kind of love and gratitude you speak of so naturally when you talk about your parents.

I remember hearing the story of meeting your niece for the first time, and it stirred something deep in me.

It renewed my commitment to nurture open, loving relationships between my son and their birth families, so they will also know where they came from and never have to wonder.

So they are rooted in their own culture and of course their own whānau.

Recently during Human Behaviour segment, you were asked a simple question.

Would you change any of it?

Knowing all the pain, traumas, suffering and countless unanswered questions, you still answered immediately.

No hesitation, no pause.

You said you would do it all again if it meant you're having the life you have now.

I cannot fully explain what that meant to hear as an adoptive mother, to hear an adult adoptee articulate that adoption can be complicated, it can be painful and messy, yet it still holds gratitude for the life built through it.

It gives me hope.

It reminds me that healing does not come from perfection, but from love, truth, growth, and opportunity.

Those are the roots I'm trying to plant in my sons.

Man did it, man.