Adopting Intentionally – Day 1
For 31 Days we are blogging about Adopting Intentionally. You can find an overview and links to daily posts here.
I first thought about adoption when I was six or seven and read the book The Family that Nobody Wanted with my mother. I was mesmerized by the story of a family being formed through adoption. I felt deep excitement for all of those siblings as they were welcomed into one family from different ethnic backgrounds and life circumstances. The story stayed with me.
I next remember thinking about adoption when I was eight and nine. I reveled in the rags to riches story and music of Annie singing with emotion behind the couch in my living room. And my heart broke and soared watching a movie called The Orphan Train (that is now on YouTube). Stories of children who did not have parents were absolutely heart breaking to me.
As a camp counselor in college we worked with children from a local orphanage, and all I wanted to do was adopt them all. And when I would see stories of Adoption on TV I felt like I had to watch it and at the very same time as if I needed to turn away, my heart felt so tethered to other’s stories.
I did wonder if I was meant to adopt.
There are stories of adoption all around us, children who have been adopted have stories, parents who adopt have stories, siblings, grand-parents, birth families all have stories. It is a thread woven into our communities. It can be visible and it can just as easily be invisible.
Have you seen the thread? Have you thought about it?
I invite you to a month of talking about it.
I challenge us to think about it, consider it.
Bookmarking! I would love to read more.
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Love this! We have 3 kids by birth and thought we were done. Just recently, my husband and I have both felt led separately to think about adopting. I’m so interested in what you will be writing about.
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Sarah, Thanks so much for the encouragement. I would love to hear your thoughts more along the way.
Liza
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Liza, you have a beautiful 31 day series started here and I can’t wait to read all your posts in October. “The Family Nobody Wanted” was a powerful influence for me as well, I can’t help but believe it opened my heart to adoption. Bless you and your family.
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Mary Clare, I have never met anyone else who read the book. Thank you for reading and commenting. Would love to hear more of your story. Liza
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Liza, forgive this bit of self promotion, but I am doing a 31 day series called “Joseph’s Heart: A Story of Adoption” at maryclareevans.com. It is about a children’s book I wrote and illustrated, telling the story of the nativity through the eyes
of St. Joseph and how he became a father in a way he never could have imagined. Our own adoption story is there as well.
http://www.maryclareevans.com/?page_id=125
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Mary Clare, thanks for passing your site along, I look forward to checking it out. Take care!
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I also was deeply impacted by that book. I loved it and have thought often of adoption because of it. I’m looking forward to reading more about your journeys.
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Alison, so compelling to hear that the book impacted others. Wondering where you are in your own journey? Grateful that you are here.
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