Ramblings On Adoption

"Adoption is a miracle. I don't mean just that it's amazing, terrific, and a wonderful thing to do. I mean that it is, as the dictionary says, "a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of divine agency."  From Scott Simon's "Baby We Were Meant For Each Other"  Just finished this book and am in the process of reading "Silent Tears" by Kay Bratt.  What two different perspectives on being the mother of this beautiful daughter.  Simon's book celebrates the wonder and joy of adopting a child; Bratt's is giving me a peek into what Charis's life might have been had she not become my daughter.  Both are helpful; both bring out incredibly strong emotions.  And I think of all the other adoptive families who are part of my life - when I started thinking of each of them I was amazed how many I know.  And I wonder so much about where Charis, Anna, Hannah S., Abby, Hannah H., Annie, Keziah, Issac, Justice, Chloe, Sydney, Allison, Olivia, Riley and all the other beautiful children I haven't named would be if they had not been adopted.  And of all their parents - and extended families and friends - who love them so desperately - how much we all would have missed out on if these children were not part of our lives.  And thinking of these children and their families, I wonder again - and count my blessings - about how it is that adoption came to be so commonplace in our culture.  Charis recently went to Bible class while visiting my sister in a small rural Appalachian town.  In her Bible class were two other adopted children - all three born on different continents and all three loved and cherished not only by their parents, but by large extended families.  And again a wonder to me - both of the other children are part of families I have known for many years if not all my life.  God is so good.