Kontan.

When Mark Schultz wrote the song “Everything to Me,” the story of a young mother choosing to place her newborn baby into the care of an adoptive family, he had more than just a pro-life sentiment in mind.

He had his life in mind. Because that young mother was his mom.

The song, which appears on Schultz’s new album, Broken & Beautiful, has opened the door for the singer/songwriter to tell his own adoption story for the first time. Only within recent months has Schultz revealed the news that he was adopted.

Schultz, only two weeks old when he was adopted, didn’t fully understand it till he was in the third grade when he and his sister were looking at their baby books, and Mark noticed that hers had more information than his.

“I asked my mom about it,” Schultz remembers. “She said, ‘It’s because we didn’t get to choose your brother and your sister. They just came along, and that is who we got. With you, we went to the hospital and decided who we wanted. We chose you because we loved you the most and thought you were the most special child there.’

“That tells a kid right there that he’s got it going on! I felt great about being adopted. When my sister and I would get into a fight, instead of her saying, ‘You’re adopted’ as a way to make me feel bad, I’d say, ‘Mom didn’t have a choice when she got you, but she chose me!’”

Schultz’s adoptive parents cheered him on as he played football, basketball, baseball, ran track, sang and did theater in high school. “I’d score a touchdown or whatever, and my father would yell, ‘That’s my son!’ He loved us all the same. It was a neat, positive experience. I got the best parents in the world.”