National Adoption Day Picnic

Betcha didn't know that November is National Adoption Month or that the Sunday before Thanksgiving is National Adoption Day! Well, it is and we hosted a picnic today in honor of our children adopted through various means. We had representations from Russian adoptions, China adoptions, private domestic adoption, and foster care adoption. We had a wonderful time. I had 3 games set up: a scavenger hunt, a hula-hoop contest, and a 3-legged race. We only managed to get the scavenger hunt done because the kids were having so much fun together they didn't want to stop. Yumiko hid all the items and wrote the locations on a master list that was truly cheatproof. It was all in Japanese :)

I wanted to get a group picture as well, but that would have been as easy as herding mice with a toothpick so I opted to get action shots of kids playing together.

Caroline stopped to talk with a woman at the park whose dog she wanted to pet. As we began talking, I mentioned to the woman that the picnic was for National Adoption Day and that most of the children playing were adopted. She was excited because she was interested in foster care but didn't know where to start. Why let me introduce you to my friend, Nora and her new daughter, Bethany! Nora gave her her business card and told her that the County needs more foster parents and how to go about it! This woman's heart was so beautiful and she said she had more love to give since her children are almost grown and she wanted to do something! She also wanted to know if there were any children in foster care who needed a place to go on Thanksgiving because she and her daughter have room at their table and want to open it up for those in need. As my friend Gwen said: Brick-laying. One person at a time, one life at a time. We don't necessarily have to adopt, but we are called to take care of orphans, widows, the lonely, the forgotten, the forsaken. Do you have room at your dinner table this Thanksgiving? We do. Do you have room in your schedule to mentor an at-risk child? Are you wondering what you can do? It doesn't take much and it may not be the committment to adopt, but certainly there is no shortage of ways to help.

I will be honest here and tell you that our reasons for adoption were not to rescue our children. The truth is that Rick and I talked about adopting children after we had a "few of our own" (no flames here, please) so adoption was not our "Plan B". It was just the second part of "Plan A" that ended up being the first part after we could not conceive children. However, we did not see ourselves as such great people for wanting to adopt nor did we do it because of the call of God mentioned above. We just simply wanted children.

When we explain to our children how our family came to be, we tell them that Mommy and Daddy adopted each other as family when we made the choice and committment to be family, then we adopted Peter, making that committment to him and then we all adopted Caroline, making that committment to her as well. Hence, we are a Polish, Hungarian, German, Italian, Korean, Chinese, All-American Family. That is how we came to be and God has certainly blessed it. I often think about our children's birthparents, especially on their birthdays. I know they are thinking about them and my heart hurts for them. We live in an imperfect world and we do our best to work through those things in life that we are handed. The human spirit is resilient when we trust Him and God can do mighty things through imperfect people that trust in Him. We pray blessings and healing on our children's birthparents and have nothing but admiration for them. Their "choices" could have been very different.

Ok, off my soapbox now. Here are the pictures:

Maya and Mia playing in the sand. Both from China.

Little Becky from Russia.

Justin (China) being chased by Becky's brother Matthew (Russia) and two girls in the park.

Kaitlyn (China) being pushed in the swing by her Daddy.

Kaitlyn being "helped" down the slide by her big brother, Mitchell.

Bethany (foster/adopt) cheeses for the camera.

This Thanksgiving, I am so thankful for my family, good friends, living in a country that still has religious freedom to worship God, that we can vote for our leaders. It's not perfect and we have our troubles, but still I am thankful.

What are you thankful for? I'd love to know!