15 Miles From Nowhere

I have sat down a million times to explain WHY we would specifically adopt a child with special needs & what special needs parenting means to me. But I just can't explain it without the back story. So here it is... the beginning of our journey in special needs parenting. I remember vividly when I was pregnant with our baby girl and we were choosing names.  My husband liked a lot of cutesy little girl names, and I kept saying that we need something strong.  Something suitable for a strong, fierce woman who could someday be a doctor, lawyer, or President of the United States!  She needed something that would look good on her PhD diploma.  At the time I worked for a university, and one of my tasks was printing diplomas, and my argument was that you rarely see a "cutesy" name on a doctoral diploma.  We settled on a "cutesy" name, with a long version. You know, for her PhD diploma some day.  We settled on a name that to me, spoke of kindness, gentleness, b...

I think in this case, adoption is like the longest, most annoying pregnancy ever! Haha We are still waiting. It seems like everything is one step forward, two steps back. Our homestudy needed edits, so we have to re-send it to her country. There goes another $30 in apostilles. Our medical forms were done in April for the homestudy, but have to be less than 5 months old, so need to be done again... there goes another $300. Our USCIS fingerprint appointments are the farthest out date imaginable and our local office (which is 300 miles away, so not exactly local) doesn't take walk ins. It feels like we've been hit with a lot of negative lately. Please say a prayer for us that we can move through these obstacles quickly, and maybe even cheaply. Once we get through these delays, things should move quickly (we hope). On the other side, we have experienced an awesome group of friends and family that have stepped up to help us along the way. They have prayed, encouraged us, and ...

***HUGE DISCLAIMER*** Newborn adoption, where a biological mom immediately gives the child to an adoptive family is NOT what I'm talking about here! That is a very loving, selfless act, and is beautiful for all who are involved. Older child adoption and foster care adoption, these things are a little more messy... please read on... Okay, so the title of this post is probably a little shocking. You see, I LOVE ADOPTION! I really, truly do. Our family has been blessed by a child through adoption, and I couldn't imagine my life without him. Adoption has without a doubt made my life richer, fuller, more amazing. Adoption is a beautiful way to take a child from the depths of a tragic situation, and show them a new life. Adoption quite literally saves the lives of orphans in many cases. It gives them hope. It gives them a future with possibilities that could never have happened. But this weekend, we saw the hint of scars left behind, and I was reminded of how much I hate the other ...