2007年NPR美国国家公共电台五月-Two Women Linked by a Special Gift: a Dau

It is Friday morning which means it's time again for StoryCorps, in cities across this country the project records interviews between everyday people and today, we hear from Stacy Cooper and Karen Smith. Stacy Cooper was on her own in 1999 when she was pregnant¹. She did not feel ready to raise a child. At the time Karen Smith and her husband were looking to adopt, so the two women agreed to what's called an open adoption², Stacy Cooper remembers how that began.

I really at first didn't want to pick the parents but... I went through adoption agency that would give me information about certain families and just look them over and I kept going back to your profile if you would call it that, and I just, I knew it was something about what you had written in there, about how I think, you know, the adoption is a really selfless act and that was one thing that really stuck with me. I definitely think we made the right choice and I'm real happy that I decided³ to meet you because I don't think right now, I could have it any other way.

Well, Anna looks a lot like you, Stacy. Every time I see her eyes, in particular, and you know when she's got a lot of emotion, she has this way of kind of flushing⁴, it's just amazing, it's just so you. What is the best of you that you hope she always keeps?

I really just hope that she has a love for life that she doesn't feel held back by anything. You know that if she feels that she wants to do something, she will stop at nothing and she will do it.

And she is the spunky little thing, she has always got these things, things that she has to say, she has had the biological questions of "Did I grow in you?" So it's like no- matter- factly, no, you grew in Stacy, and I'll talk to her about I think you're gonna be tall and I'll say, "That's because both your birth parents are tall." And she has at times, said to me, "You know, you're my real mother." And I will say, "no, you know, we're both real, she is your real birth mother, I'm your real adoptive mother." Right, there you go.

I'm prepared for one day the question or may be the teen angst, you know, comment of you're not my real mother. Really you're ready? Ok. So I think the toughest questions are yet to come, so what do you hope your relationship will look like with Anna when she is an adult.

I want to see her grow up. You know I think at some point when she turns 18, if she chooses to have me come to special events in her life that would be up to you and I think she would ask you anyway.

I would like you there for special events in her life and I want you to know that every year I remember just as plainly as the first day, just how grateful I am being able to be a mother. You gave me a gift, that I could just never, never thank you enough for .

And that goes both ways, somebody is raising, you know, the baby that I had, I mean that's, that's an incredible⁵ thing, it really is.

Stacy Cooper and Karen Smith, at StoryCorps in Hartford, Connecticut. Their conversation will be archived along with all StoryCorps interviews at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and you can subscribe⁶ to the StoryCorps podcast at NPR.org.
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spunky
plucky; spirited.
angst
a feeling of dread⁷, anxiety, or anguish⁸.

1 pregnant   

adj.怀孕的，怀胎的

参考例句：

• She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
• She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。

2 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 flushing   

脸红

参考例句：

• The police succeeded in flushing the criminal from their secret meeting place. 警察成功地把这名罪犯从秘密据点赶出来。
• He turned away embarrassed, his face flushing red. 他难为情地扭过头去，羞红了脸。

5 incredible   

adj.难以置信的，不可信的，极好的，大量的

参考例句：

• Some planets run at incredible speed.某些星球以难以置信的速度运行着。
• Her answer showed the most incredible stupidity.她的回答显示出不可思议的愚蠢。

6 subscribe   

vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助

参考例句：

• I heartily subscribe to that sentiment.我十分赞同那个观点。
• The magazine is trying to get more readers to subscribe.该杂志正大力发展新订户。

7 dread   

vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧

参考例句：

• We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
• Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。

8 anguish   

n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼

参考例句：

• She cried out for anguish at parting.分手时，她由于痛苦而失声大哭。
• The unspeakable anguish wrung his heart.难言的痛苦折磨着他的心。