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When you gave me up You gave everything to me
(lyrics from "Everything to Me" by Mark Schultz)

When Mark Schultz was in the third grade, he noticed some discrepancies between his baby book and his younger sister's. "This doesn't make any sense to me," he told his mom. It was then that Mark discovered from his mom that he was special. Gary and Ronita Schultz had adopted Mark when he was 2 weeks old.

Growing up with his older brother and younger sister, Mark never felt "adopted." If anything, he felt extra-special because his parents had chosen him specifically to be brought into their family. "[As a child] I always felt like they got stuck with my sister, but they got to pick me out special," he says. Throughout his childhood, he can't remember a time when he was scoring a touchdown or running in track when his dad wasn't there cheering him on and shouting, "That's my son!" The feeling of being part of the family and specifically chosen meant everything to him.

It wasn't until later in life that Mark began to understand the gift his birth mother had truly given him. While talking to a couple of fans after a concert, he was asked if he ever wanted to meet his birth mom. "No," he responded, "I figure if she didn't want me in the first place, there's no reason to go back now. It seems like such a selfish thing to do—to put someone up for adoption." Gently the fan explained to him that giving up a child for adoption was anything but selfish. Going through the pregnancy, birth and the surrender of a child to a family who can take better care of him showed great love. She told Mark, "It's not because of selfishness, it was out of love for you that your mother gave you up for adoption, because she was thinking of you, not herself."

At that moment Mark began to understand the sacrifice his birth mother had made to give him a happy, healthy life. "That's when I decided I needed to write a song to say thanks because I've just had a great life. And I'm so thankful to my birth mom for making that decision," shares Mark. The song he wrote, "Everything to Me," is on his new album Broken & Beautiful and offers heartfelt lyrics that characterize what it might have been like when he was taken from his mother's arm. It also gives the listener a glimpse into Mark's grateful heart.

However, as a critically acclaimed Christian singer/ songwriter, Mark didn't end his expression of gratitude with a song. He recently visited an orphanage in Mexico with his wife, Kate, and experienced the harsh realities for many orphans. The children he visited are thrown out of the orphanage when they are 12 and turn to prostitution and drugs to survive. "I was moved to tears," says Mark, "because I could have been in a similar situation."

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