Some are still finding their way and that’s OK, because so am I. Some are entrepreneurs, some work retail, two are in the restaurant business, one is in Big Tech, four are in health care and some are stay-at-home parents. Of our 19 living children, 18 are adults and all 18 are productive adults. Some are artistic, some athletic and some are bookworms like me. Some of our children got straight As and we cheered. Elizabeth never progressed much past a typical 3-month old level, and we were happy with the progress she did make. Having children with disabilities taught us to be flexible in our expectations for all our children. Six of our children have passed away, absolutely gut-wrenching experiences each time. Now our children range in age from 8 to 36. It was a deliberate choice and it took deliberate effort. The easy part was loving them all, but the unexpected part was that the process of growing into that love was not identical. They ranged in age from newborns to 12 years old and all were considered “hard to place” for one reason or another. In the end, we were able to adopt children from Romania, Russia, Kazakhstan, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Zambia, the United States and from birth parents who came from Australia. I came home from that trip and told my husband that orphanages were terrible places to raise children and that if we could adopt more children, I wanted to be able to do that. How 32,850 meals helped me find life’s secret sauce - gratitude.As a white mom of Black children, I’ve learned being ‘colorblind’ is problematic.Both my mother and mother-in-law helped take care of our three children while I completed the adoptions of two toddler girls. A few weeks later, I was in Romania, while Greg stayed home to work. We were also foster parents for a time, but when we watched a television special about orphans in Romania, and some parents who had been successful in adopting, we had an overwhelming and undeniable spiritual experience letting us know that adoption was in our future.
That was an unexpected twist in our journey.
Greg and I began our family with three biological children born to us in pretty quick succession, and our second child, our daughter Elizabeth, was born with severe disabilities. I never imagined that we would adopt a single child, let alone end up with a family of 25 children from eight different countries, of different races, ethnicities and abilities. I imagined white picket fences and six healthy children, all born to me. I ended up being one of the lucky ones who saw my dream fulfilled - but as it turns out, it really looked nothing like I imagined. When I was a little girl and someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was always to be a mom.
0 kommentar(er)
