What I’m Thankful For

On Thanksgiving Day, I will be thankful for adoption, and how it is made an impact on our family.

Our family is an orchard, and we are so excited to grow our orchard when our son comes home sometime in 2019.  The thing to always remember is adoptees are not lucky or rescued, but resilient during a life that starts out with great loss.  It is always tough to remember the loss our daughter and son had to go through.  Our daughter is strong-willed, and she has had to be. She is tough because she has already dealt with a lot of grief in her little life.

I have had the opportunity to visit and volunteer in orphanages in several parts of the world. During adoption month, I always think back to this little girl I met at an orphanage in Myanmar.  I bonded with her and just held her and made her smile.  To this day, I wonder how she is doing.  Is she healthy? Is she happy?  Is she getting the love a little girl needs?

Every year when Yankee has his birthday, we talk about the time the children in Myanmar celebrated with him.  These children were in an orphanage as well, and it was so fun to serve them birthday cake and see their excitement.  Their smiles are ones we won’t forget.

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During our adoption process, we learned that while living with her foster mother, Little Miss had sponsors.  Her little picture was on a board, and American families picked her to sponsor.  It helped cover expenses for her living, food, clothing, and medical.  We were not allowed to send money to cover these needs while in the middle of the adoption process.  We are forever grateful for those families helping out and making a difference.  We have been able to send them photos of her and let them know that their donations made a difference to her foster care.  Adoption is tough and not for everyone, but these families decided to make a difference in the world by sponsoring our daughter.   Learning that she was sponsored and taken care of in ways that we couldn’t  to this day touches my heart.  Right now I am sure other families are sponsoring our son and making him safe and comfortable till he is home in our arms.  I am thankful for all of these families on this day.

Many people tell me, “Oh, I would love to adopt.”  “Maybe one day I will adopt.”   It is a long, emotional, and expensive process. If you can’t adopt, consider sponsoring a child.  You probably won’t ever know how much it means to the family and the child, but it makes a HUGE difference.  Here is a link if you would like to learn more about sponsoring with our agency. 

Give your loved ones a hug this Thanksgiving, and again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being with us and part of our blog family.

Cheers,

Jordan