Crooks Family, A bakers Dozen :)

I often try to find words to describe why we choose to adopt again and again. I just read the piece below by Stefani and thought, "that's it"! Somehow she was able to a capture exactly how I feel. Stefani runs China's Waiting Child program for Children's House International and is herself an adoptive mother of 9. Stefani is a role model and inspiration to many, including me, and I am blessed to know her! When people ask me why we adopt again and again, I think I'll just send them the piece below! Thank you Stefani for putting into words what so many adoptive parents (and some non adoptive parents) feel! Luckily I have a spouse, family, and many friends who do understand :-)

Love,

Jennifer

Because We Don’t Fit in Anymore

By Stefani Ellison

There is a reason that we call this an adoption journey. It’s because it is a process and there is actually no end. Yes, the adoption is completed, but its effects last a lifetime. Your mind is changed, your heart is changed, and you are no longer the person you were when you began.

So when you come home and you feel you don’t fit in, you are right. You don’t. No longer can you sit through pointless social gatherings. You become glassy eyed at the long spirited conversations your neighbors have about whose dog upset the trash can, like it really matters. “Things”, and the chasing, collecting, and maintaining of those “things”, lose their glitter when you think of the sparkle that could be put on the face of a child for mere donated pennies or some of your time tying blankets for bitter cold toes.

You lose patience with those who cannot understand the urgency of the task before you – that children are crying, children are dying. And the world keeps on shopping. Spending billions of dollars on things – things that don’t matter.

When you look into the eyes of a child in the orphanage you visit, your own eyes never see the world the same again. Most of the world doesn’t get it. For those who do, we must stick together because otherwise it’s a lonely place. For those of us who continuously hear in the back of our minds the crying of the children left behind, we cannot rest because we cannot forget. There is no silence. Our friends, our spouses, our families may not understand, and we ourselves may not understand why we cannot make the crying stop or make the urgency end. So we do what we can. We give what we can. And often, we join in the crying.