As the nation wrapped up its annual observation of Child Month, which this year saw a number of violent incidents against children, including murder, a 35-year-old woman has revealed her desire to meet a policewoman whose compassion saved her from possible death a day after she was born in July 1989.

According to Krystina Lawrence, she was left by the side of a road in Spanish Town, St Catherine, at just one day old, but the policewoman found her and took her to Maxfield Park Children’s Home in St Andrew, where she met her adoptive mother.

Initially told she was left at the children’s home — a tactic Lawrence said staff members used to prevent a child from being viewed negatively — the young woman said she discovered the truth at eight years old.

During a volunteer visit to Maxfield Park Children’s Home — the oldest co-ed childcare facility in Jamaica — she said employees revealed to her that she had been abandoned by the roadside and was brought there by a policewoman, who gave her last name as Davis.

“It didn’t bother me. I always tell people that the way my mom raised me it’s like a circle — there is no hole, there is no void, there is no opening. I could have been told I was left in a garbage bin, it wouldn’t make a difference, because it doesn’t affect how my life is now,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

A Wolmer’s High School for Girls alumna, Lawrence said, through the love and support of her adoptive mother, she matriculated to The University of the West Indies and later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Archaeology. She now works side by side with her adoptive mother, who is the founder and principal of a preparatory school in St Catherine.

The 35-year-old shared that the circumstances surrounding her first day in this world were unfortunate, but she cannot help but feel grateful to the policewoman who found her, and wants to personally thank the law enforcer. However, she has no desire to find her birth mother.

She also shared with the Sunday Observer that staff members at the home told her that another baby was also brought to the facility after he had been abandoned at a newspaper stand. However, it rained before the newspaper vendor got to the location and the baby boy, unfortunately, passed due to pneumonia shortly before his adoptive parents could pick him up. The baby was named Roy in honour of the man who found him and brought him to the childcare facility. So, her story could have been very different.

“I was a lucky one,” said Lawrence.

“In such a vulnerable moment, that was the first person that really showed me kindness. That’s the real beginning for me, of my story; without that police officer I don’t know what would’ve happened or could’ve happened, and I am just grateful,” she said.

Lawrence shared that she was proudly raised by a single mother who always ensured that she lacked nothing. She said she also has a sister — her adoptive mother’s biological niece who was adopted from her adoptive mother’s brother.

The young woman said her adoptive mother always poured her heart into raising the two of them, playing both the mother and father roles in their lives.

“My mom taught us how to ride a bike, how to check the oil on the car, how to change a tyre, and how to build things. My mom’s favourite thing, at every occasion where she is to get a gift, she wants a power tool. I never felt like I was missing out because I didn’t have a father, because a lot of the things that most girls are taught by their father, my mom taught me those things,” she told the Sunday Observer.

“I grew up watching my mom be an entrepreneur, so that is instilled in me as well, and a lot of people say we are alike. If we don’t tell people that I am adopted you would never guess that she is not my biological mom,” Lawrence said.

According to the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) 631 children were adopted over the period 2018 to 2022. Data from the 2023 Economic and Social Survey Jamaica also stated that the CPFSA completed 147 assessments of 214 adoption applications, which led to 91 adoption orders being granted for 51 male and 40 female children, and 28 licences issued by the court in 2023.

Lawrence shared that she is a firm believer in nurture over nature, because she has witnessed it in her own upbringing and relationship with her adoptive mother.

“We have so many things that are similar; we like the outdoors. My mom adopted me when she was in her 40s and even now we’ll take road trips randomly, we’ll go find a waterfall, we’ll travel together, and we work together. She is literally my soulmate, that one person that complements me,” she said.

While growing up, her mother never hid the fact that she was adopted or portrayed her adoption as anything negative. Instead, Lawrence said she turned it into something positive.

“I think that is what really made it possible for me to be totally okay with being adopted. Even before I could understand what being adopted meant, I was told that I was adopted. My mom would say to me, ‘You’re born of my heart and not of my womb,’ ” she said smiling.

“I remember being in preparatory school and kids would say, ‘Oh, my mommy is this,’ and ‘My mommy is that,’ and ‘I am this,’ and ‘I am that,’ but I would always feel special that I am adopted… It was told to me in a way that this is something to be proud of,” said Lawrence.

So, she shared that while her birth certificate says she was born on July 21, 1989, she mainly celebrates her birthday on August 23 — the day she was adopted — because that is when her life truly began.

Lawrence also shared that she has two tattoos that honour her adoptive mother — one of her mother’s initials in Morse code and the other of the date she was adopted.

“You usually use Morse code when you’re in danger and you need help, and for her to uproot her whole life — my mom is a registered nurse and she was supposed to be going back to Germany — and she just made a leap and adopted me and switched her life up. She rescued me in a time when I needed help, and I just wanted my tattoo to be unique,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Lawrence’s adoptive mother, who asked not to be named due to privacy concerns, shared that in 1989 she was a nurse in her 40s working with adoption officers and often visited children’s homes to give medical advice.

She shared that after she adopted her niece the little girl often asked for a sibling with whom she could share her toys and play. A friend who knew she was looking to adopt called her one day and told her that there was a little girl at the home he thought would be the perfect fit. She shared that, at the time, she had just returned home from England.

“I have a soft spot for children. I always gravitated towards kids, paediatric nursing, and so on, so I went down to see her. He said she was very ill, so I went down there and there was this little baby crying her heart out. One thing led to another and I took her home.

“There was no way I could leave her because she just needed someone. She needed hugs, she needed some touch. She was only four weeks old,” Lawrence’s adoptive mom said.

A devoted Christian, who grew up in a traditional household, the adoptive mother shared that she was always told to never have children out of wedlock. When her chances of finding love faded, she said she decided to create her own family through adoption. She shared that she grew up as a rose among thorns, having seven brothers who all taught her how to use tools and fix things. That helped her to pass these skills to her children.

“She’s my daughter and she behaves just the way you would behave with your mommy. She will get cross sometimes, and tell you off, and you have to give her a talk and just try to live so that she can emulate. I don’t just talk, I try to live it, and she lives it. I believe that she is a lot like me; I hear that she is a lot like me,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Now that her daughter has grown up, she said the roles have slightly shifted.

“Now she treats me like I’m her child, and sometimes I have to remind her that I’m the mother, but that is the case with any mother-child relationship. Once you get older they treat you like you are now the baby and tell you what to do… most times she’s correct,” she said laughing.

The adoptive mother said she has no heaviness in her heart towards Lawrence’s biological mother, because she knows that many women have at-risk pregnancies and are unable to provide for their children. She noted that a lot has been done to support these women over the years, but there is still more work to be done.

Krystina Lawrence (right) is all smiles with her adoptive mother.

Krystina Lawrence (left) shares a moment with her adoptive mom on a recent trip.