Another time, another place

Adoption.
Interesting how this word can have some many positive and negative connotations. So much joy and so much sorrow.

These girls from Ghana, my girls from Ghana. They must have so much sadness in the loss of their first family, their birth family. How tragic that the circumstances of time and place did not allow for this family to meet the girls' basic needs.

A bit of a tangent here, but I have had a couple of people mention their "willingness" to adopt, but not feeling as though they could afford the long-term costs such as college, and marriage, etc. I may not be able to pay for all my children's' college education, by my parents didn't pay for mine either. I don't think college is a "basic need" for a child. Yes, important - very important. Food, shelter, clothing, love and safety - those are basic needs. I am not judging anyone else for their choice in how they believe is best to raise their children. In many ways this mind set of providing all you can for your children is, of course, commendable. But for me, rather than provide EVERYTHING for two, I would rather meet the basic needs of more and teach them all about the value of love, family, and humanity.

Recently I took a trip to Mexico. I struggle with the fact that I can reach a destination so meager as Mexico where I stay in the finest resort, with an abundance of food and comfort. I am taken care of in the most amazing ways, just for my luxury. While just outside this "#1 travel destination" there are families whose basic needs are either not met, or just barely met. I won't go too deep into this because I do understand a little about macro-economic and the economics of tourism. It's just about my thoughts at a personal level, it's about the guilt of privilege. I just want to acknowledge it for what I felt.

Back to the concept of adoption for two little girls in Ghana. How complicated to understand, as a child or as an adult, that somehow there is an inability to meet the basic needs of a child. I learned a lot from our Ethiopian adoption. But, I can't say I understand the complexity of a time and place where a mother is forced to find another family to care for her children, because she cannot. I don't even have the ability to think of it.


to be continued...