Dear Child - Becoming Sarah

Dear Child,

We recently learned from our adoption agency that our family is eligible to accept a foster-adoptive placement at any point after January 2013.

This is HUGE for our family.? Huge.

After discussing it, your father and I made the decision to wrap up our foster certification process in the early months of 2013 and open our home to a placement at some point during the spring.

We will need to purchase a different family vehicle because our sedan cannot fit three rear-facing car-seats.? We will need to launch a few big home-maintenance projects to bring our house in compliance with Los Angeles County foster care standards.? We will need to prepare the bedroom that you will share with your older sister.

It sounds like a lot so a few people have asked me why we would bother.

In the year since your father and I decided to pursue foster-adoption, we have heard seemingly millions of variations on this theme.? Why bother?? It?s so much work.? You?re just adopting someone else?s problems.? But you don?t know what you?ll get.? How can you put your family at risk that way?? Two is enough, you don?t need to start a collection.? Can you not have kids biologically?? It?s not like you can love them the same way you love a kid you birth.? Those kids are broken, you know, they aren?t normal.

Someone once told me that the hardest part of becoming a foster-adoptive parent for her was the realization that she was going to have to put aside the lamb she had always wanted to be and find her lion.? ?There?s a time for tact,? she said, ?and there?s a time for standing up for your child so fiercely that they can never doubt that you will protect them.?

Why bother?, someone asks.

Because you are our child, I answer.? Because you are not a problem at all, you are a gift as every child.? Because you are not a second-class citizen; you are a human being deserving of love and respect and family and community, as all human beings are.? Because you are OUR CHILD, as loved as any of my children, as yearned for and hoped for and eagerly awaited as any of my children.? Because families stand by one another, no matter what.

You are valued.? You are loved.

Your father and I crafted a space in our lives for your older sister that is all her own.? We bought cloth diapers, we laundered onesies, we read about natural childbirth, and then when she came we gave her everything we had.

Your father and I are crafting a space in our lives for your younger sibling that is all their own.? We cobbled together a postpartum care kits, we are racing to finish the big yard projects, and when your sibling comes we will give them everything we have.

And your father and I are crafting a space in our lives for you that is all your own.? We are reading about adoption, we are plugging into a support community, we are filling out paperwork, we are preparing our home, we are looking for the right vehicle for our family.? And when you come, we will give you everything we have.

We cannot wait until you arrive to claim just that.? It is your birthright.? Do not ever let anyone tell you differently.

We love you more than bears love honey (and everyone knows that?s an awful lot),
Momma and Daddy

Source: http://becomingsarah.com/index.php?/becoming_sarah/comments/dear_child_aug2012/

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