(Originally posted to my FB on January 30th, 2016)
This past summer, two weeks after we'd been told that the kids were officially "home" and we could begin working towards finalizing the adoption, we took a family trip to Texas. It's sort of a strange experience, road-tripping with kids you've really only known for a few months but whom you know you'll be spending the rest of forever with. I think it was sort of a "baptism by fire" - We learned about each other (the good, the bad, and the ugly stuff) pretty quickly, ha!
We knew then and we know now that we have a long, rough road ahead. But Patrick and I are blessed with an amazing opportunity to prove to five beautiful kids that the past doesn't determine your future and that there is a whole world out there, waiting to be explored and changed for the better.
I LOVE my kids and think they are incredible, but I'm very aware that their heartbreaking pasts are not unique. There are something like 108,000 kids in America, sitting in foster care and waiting for a forever family. Many will "age out" of the system this year, facing Christmas, birthdays, great joys, terrible fears -- alone, without a family to support them.
Adoption is hard. But, then again, so is life. No one should have to face it alone.
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