November is Adoption Awareness Month.
And I guess you could say that I'm pretty aware of the miracle that is adoption. See, without the wonder and miracle that is adoption, the picture you see here of me with my neice and nephew would be, well, just a picture of me and my conflicting statement over which team I'm pulling for that day (Redskins or Titans...it was Redskins and yes I'm still bitter we lost).
I think it's safe to say I adore my neice and nephew and they've both pretty much had me wrapped around their little finger since the first time I laid eyes on them.
And without adoption as an option, they'd not be part of my family. And, to be honest, I can't imagine my family without them.
I was talking to my sister earlier this week about Adoption Awarness Month. Now, if you talk to me, sometimes I will get onto my rant about how insane I think it is that the process to adopt is as complicated as it is. I understand why there have to be certain requirements, but honestly it still sometimes bugs me deep down that there are homes desparate to have a child with parents who would give literally anything for that chance and then you've got families like the ones depicted in
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, where having another child isn't seen as a blessing and a miracle, but instead just another ordinary happening and yet another mouth to feed.
It takes a lot of courage to enter the adoption system on both sides of the process.
If you're entering into it to adopt a child, your life will be scrutinized in every detail. It's almost like going in for a car loan, going through all the steps to get approved and then being told, "Well, we have a nice model coming out in five or six years that might be available."
On the other side, I cannot begin to imagine the courage it takes to give up a child. The courage and faith that in doing this, you are giving this child something more than you could or would be able to give. And then to have those doubts and questions and wonder, "what if?"
My extended family is blessed in how adoption has touched our lives. We have my neice and nephew, and I've also got cousins who have adopted children. One was a little girl (well, then) from Russia who was adopted at a year old. I've got another cousin whose family adopted a boy with some serious medical issues from central America. Their church went on a mission trip and they met this child. His biological mother wanted him to come to America for a better chance at treatment. She even named him a "good American name" (her words) of Woovins.
Adoption is an amazing, wonderful and miraculous thing. It's added to my family in ways I can't even begin to describe. And for that, I am beyond grateful.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 11/17/2006 08:49:00 AM |
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