If you've read any of my previous blog posts, you know I'm passionate about adoption and hope to always be an advocate for the miracle that made my family what it is today. November is National Adoption Month. Follow the link and learn all about it.
One of the points stressed by the Children's Bureau is that more than 104,000 children in the United States are in foster care, waiting to be adopted. I hope and pray their wait for a permanent family won't be long. I love and admire those who take children into their home as foster parents. You may not realize there are no orphanges in this country. You hear about orphaniages in the movies and books, but in the U.S., foster care is where orphaned children are these days. If a child in the foster system is not adopted before turning 18, he or she is graduated out of the system, and left to face the world alone. These are kids who need families, too.
The adoption that changed my life was, of course, that of my son. He was not an orphan, nor was he in foster care. We met him the day he was born, and two days after that, relinquishment papers were signed and we took him home from the hospital. His birth mother knew our little guy needed both a mother and a father. As an 18-year-old with little life experience beyond high school, she was in-tune enough to know that neither she, nor the abusive birth father (who is not a part of her life anymore) could be suitable parents alone, and a successful marriage between the two of them was unlikely (and unwarranted, given his actions). I'm forever grateful she found our adoption profile and blog that ultimately led her to contact us.
I recently exchanged some emails from one of my cousins. He's my mom's first cousin, so I hardly know him well at all. We got to talking about some other members of our extended family who are hoping to adopt, and he shared some beautiful thoughts with me.
"I am convinced that in the Lord's eyes and in the eternal scheme of things -- stretching back to the pre-mortal existence -- adoption makes children "belong" to their parents just as intimately, just as REAL, and just as deliberately as when it's done by biological means. It is not just putting a stamp of validation on a makeshift situation after the fact. I believe that there are families that were designed and formed before coming to this world who accept the mission of participating in the Savior's atonement by volunteering to have the children go through another biological circumstance first before arriving at their "real" family. This helps the Savior's atonement by making it possible to allow people to make "mistakes" and still have things restored to the way they should have been. Some of those "real" families are able to be restored in this life. Others will be restored later, but they will be restored.
I teared up as I read that email, and couldn't agree more. Happy National Adoption Month, everyone. I hope you are at least able to learn more about the miracle that brought this fatty, and so many other deserving kids, into their permanent familes.
This site uses Facebook comments to make it easier for you to contribute. If you see a comment you would like to flag for spam or abuse, click the "x" in the upper right of it. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use.