Are you willing to adopt?
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
This article was published in our local newspaper in celebration of National Adoption Day.
It was a cold afternoon in December 2002 when I boarded the airplane to meet a little two year old girl in an orphanage in Kostroma, Russia. My heart was a strange mixture of excitement and fear that day. I had read the reports again and again. She had been born weighing 1 ½ pounds and was very small. The reports mentioned her spending time in foster care and then back in the orphanage system. Why, even in the United States, that would be a child with potentially great risks.
But this was not any child. This little darling was my child.
So with that I made the leap, waded through all the lengthy adoption paperwork, traveled two times to Russia and finally adopted her. I will never forget that day five years ago when we landed at the Dulles international Airport amidst the cheers of other welcoming families. From the moment her tiny feet touched the ground she became an American citizen.
The years have gone by quickly. Too quickly. Today she is a bright, healthy eight year old with a zest for living and loving. She spreads sunshine and laughter wherever she goes as does her big sister, Noelle. Culpeper has wonderfully embraced these two girls as well as many other adopted children.
But there is more to be done. Last year there were over 8,000 children in foster care in Virginia waiting to find their permanent family. Would you be willing to consider opening your heart to a child who desperately needs a home?
November 15, 2008 is National Adoption Day. This is a day designed to raise awareness of the needs of so many children waiting for their forever family. It is also a day to celebrate the many families who have adopted or fostered a child. But the question still remains.
Would you be willing? Could it be that there are yet more families in our area that will be blessed by adopting a child.
The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis but rather the feeling of being unwanted. - Mother Teresa
Sharon Beth Brani
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