"Hey, I just met you and this is crazy but I'm your mommy and you're my baby."
Today is National Adoption Day! Currently there are 100,000 children in the US foster care system waiting for a forever family. I recently heard that there are about 14,000 domestic adoptions in the US each year.
I will never forget the moment I saw Emily. The picture above was taken just hours after we met her. She was so tiny and it was all so surreal. Fast forward almost 4 months later, and I can hardly remember life before her. She is center of our world.
I often think about the children out there waiting to be adopted. The children floating between foster care families. The children oversees in overcrowded orphanage. I think about the people that care for them, caseworkers, foster care parents, social workers. I wonder what goes through their minds as they care for these children day in and day out. I think about the birth parents. I think about the birth moms (and dads) out there without their sons and daughters. I wonder if they think of them often or if they are a distant memory. I think about adoptive parents and how they adjust after this major life event. I wonder how they answer the many (and often noisy and prying) questions about adoption. Whoever they are and where ever they are, all of us are bound together by this one common experience. People often say that kids who are adopted are lucky. But as their parents, we truly are the lucky ones.
National Adoption Day is a time to celebrate but not forget. It truly is a time to celebrate all the families that have been made through adoption. But it is also a time to remember that there are children still waiting for placement with a loving family. Not everyone is called to adopt. But you can give your money or time to organizations and resources that help children in the foster care system. A mentoring program is a wonderful way to show a child that they are loved and cared about. Visit http://www.nationaladoptionday.org/ and http://www.davethomasfoundation.org/ to learn more and find out how you can make a difference in the life of a child.
*M