July 9, 2004
Adoptions here, adoptions there
We have been surrounded by adoptions lately. I know that tends to happen with anything. You buy a new car and all of the sudden it seems that every third car on the road is your car, in the exact same color. You choose a unique name for your new baby and all of the sudden the name is everywhere. (Trust me on this one!) You learn about something you've never heard of before (vitamins, exercise technique, heavy machinery, it doesn't really matter what), and in the next week you hear about that exact same thing 4 more times!
I know that I am much more aware and sensitized to adoption these days, but really it's just everywhere in my life. And I love it.
E. and I got to spend some good quality time with my beautiful adopted niece and nephew last week. (We were busy, so no Blogging.) It's always fun to be with them.
Then on the Fourth of July we were at a neighborly gathering next door. Our next-door neighbor said something like, "Adopted kids really have it terrible," or something like that. K. had been talking with the grownups about our adoption while I was following E. around the yard. K. just looked at him and said, "Ok," meaning, "I don't really agree with you but I'm not going to fight about it in front of all of these people." Then our neighbor said, "No they don't. I was just kidding. I'm adopted." Well, I was really surprised. We had never known that he was adopted and he hadn't chosen to tell us until that moment.
His kids are just finishing with college, and so his was an old school, closed adoption. He said that the worst thing really is that there is no medical history, which in this day and age I know is quite frustrating. He also said that he never wanted to contact his birth parents. I know every story is different. But this is a nice little story told by a very kind and generous man who lives next door to us. It was touching and made me happy deep down inside. Thanks for sharing, W. It meant a lot to us.
Posted by grrlTravels at July 9, 2004 2:20 PMI love that picture. Of the 60+ pictures that I took while on vacation, that's one of my favorites. It's wonderful to surround yourself with people whose lives have also been touched by adoption. We have several friends who under normal circumstances, we probably wouldn't keep in touch with. However, because they also have adopted children, we make the effort to stay in touch. I want my children to have friends who were also adopted. To me, it's worth the extra effort : ) Becky, are you out there?!?
Posted by: just me again at July 9, 2004 3:07 PM