adoption

What is it about belonging to someone that is so important? I have this early memory, whether real or imagined, of laying on my belly on my mother's lap. I was facing the middle of the bench seat in a car with turquoise carpet and seats. I remember looking at the carpet area and I remember vividly the exact shade of that carpet and the feeling that I was hot.

It was July when my parents took me home - I was born the beginning of June and went from the hospital to a foster home until the paperwork was completed. My folks had waited a long time to have kids, and endured the pain of several miscarriages. Then they took me in and we made up a family.

In September, we were ripped from our family. I have had to endure comments that perhaps we left too soon or overestimated the threat. I didn't. It was a terrible and difficult time and once again I found myself without a family.

Then one stepped in - and filled that void that is so necessary - someone to talk with, somewhere to go, something to do and someone who cares. It is a beautiful thing - how easily we have assimilated. Though at times we are still an oddity - rough around the edges, overall it has been a really good fit.

What a blessing it is, when I think of all the people this Christmas who are alone and want a family - it is a blessing to belong, a blessing to be adopted into another family in deed if not in name.