Our adoption journey began when I was a little girl. Growing up I lived next door to an adopted child. I always wondered what that would feel like, to be adopted. And, of course, I sometimes wondered if I was an adopted child whose parents had not told me (unfortunately, not telling a child they are adopted is and was common). Then, around the age of 10, I was introduced to Annie. Still LOVE Annie and my girls do too! In high school, I volunteered at a Special Olympics event and met a little girl around the age of six who did not have a family. I even called to find out how she could be adopted - I was a teenager and thought maybe, just maybe....and then there was college. My sophomore year in college, I walked into a local children's home. What I expected to see were little half-clean faces wearing tattered clothing and very unkept hair. Instead, I walked into a little house. On a campus. The house could sleep up to 10 children, boys and girls combined. There were bedrooms, each with three or four beds, a community closet for clothing, and enough space for each child in that bedroom to call their own, though nothing was really their own. There was a kitchen yet the children ate all three of their daily meals in a cafeteria on the campus. And there was a living room as well as a private room for the house mother. The "house mother" was actually three different people, on a good week. On a not so good week, it was whoever they could get to show up to mother the children until the next person could come in to relieve them of their duties.
And in this one house situated on the campus, there was an eight year old little girl. A little girl who had been in the children's home since the age of three. A little girl who had seen more in her eight years of life than I am yet to see in all of my 30ish years of life. She was beautiful, with the brightest brown eyes and yearning for life. For a year, I had the privilege to love this little girl with all of my being, as if she were my own and I promised her I would NOT let her grow up in that home. Now, keep in mind, I wasn't even twenty years old, I was in college, I worked for a local Senator, etc, etc....I had nothing to stand on with my promise. But, for one year, I took her to church every Sunday; I took her to as many family events as possible; I signed her up for GirlScouts, ballet and modeling; I made sure she had friends over to play with after school - in my dorm, no less; I threw a birthday party for her - her first ever! My thought was this - IF I cannot be her mother, and IF no one else will adopt her, I WILL do my best to introduce her to what life could look like for her in her future. Not too long after her 9th birthday, a miracle happened and she was adopted. There was a childless couple and they wished to adopt an older child. It was a bittersweet time in my life. Oh, how I missed her. Truth be known, I still do, but she had been given the gift of a family. She had been given back her childhood. She had been given a chance on life. She had been rescued.
Our adoptions have not been "rescue" driven. Instead, they have been totally out of desire for more children. However, as we continue in prayer, I hear a whispering in my ear and a tug at my heart to "rescue" the unwanted. One particular little girl has my heart - she is five, big, bright brown eyes and a smile that looks like the world could just take her in! She is stinkin cute. And she has no one. Yes, she is being cared for now thanks to an unfortunate series of events in her life. But she doesn't have a mommy to cheer her on or a daddy to tuck her in; she doesn't know what it feels like to be snuggled deeply into her bed and kissed goodnight; who kisses her?; has she ever heard the words, "I love you to the moon and back!"? Probably not. She needs to be given back her childhood, given a chance on life. She needs to be rescued.
Before anyone jumps to conclusions, no, we are not going to get her. But, her story, accompanied with an Orphanology class Ry and I are taking, plus our prayers, makes me desire to do more to help and I constantly struggle with what we can do. So I share all of this in hopes that it will challenge others to step up as well. The unwanted are there - in our backyard as well as all over the world. And what are we doing to help?
