I was reading an article in which the author was commenting on how wonderful it was for people to go overseas, spend a ton of money, and rescue an orphan. Okay, so it wasn't those exact words, but it was the gist of it. I am a bad blogger and can't seem to find the article again to link it. Sorry. Now, I try not to be one of those adoptive parents that is overly sensitive to things, but something kind of struck me. The author clearly was not an adoptive parent. I think maybe he just didn't "get it" like so many. Some people don't really understand why APs would be willing to go to the lengths they do to get their child. Yet, if their own bio child was stuck halfway across the world, they would mortgage the house and go wherever they needed to so that they could bring their child home. I guess what really struck me was the "orphan factor". As noble as it sounds, we weren't out to save an orphan. We set out to find our son. You see, in our eyes, Grant was never an orphan. When I hear that word, it conjures pictures of an unloved, dirty, shoeless, pathetic child. My son isn't any of those things. Our whole family saw him as "ours" before we even knew who he was. For example, before we ever started the adoption process, Ally used to pray every night at dinner,"Lord, please bring my baby brother home soon." For her, it was just an act of faith. "Ask and ye shall receive". She knew he was on his way, it was just a matter of when. When Eric first saw Grant sleeping in his crib, he said, "Well, there you are, Grant. We've been looking all over for you!". Once again, he was always "ours", not someone else's, and certainly not an orphan. When I saw Grant the first time, I was blessed to have the same overwhelming emotions that I had when I held Allyson the first time. He was never an orphan, always mine. There was no difference in my children, just how they came into the family.
I am in no way belittling the fact that my son did indeed have a very rough start to life, and it was without me. I'm just saying that for some reason, God allowed him to be in our family, so he just had to come a different way. I also recognize that the orphans in the world need our care and support. I have seen the pictures of the shoeless, homeless children in India mobbing cars to stick their hands out begging for money. It is heartbreaking and depressing to think that this is even happening. Yet, I do know, that it is very possible for another person to see one of those very same kids and see THEIR child, not an orphan. AP's are just creating their family in a different way than some by finding their child somewhere else.
Besides, most parents would say that they love their kids so much that they would go to the ends of the earth for their children. We just had the opportunity to prove that we would. ..........just a different perspective.
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Here's a video of Eric making a lap:
