Skip to main content

My Time With the Three Year Olds

I recently had the opportunity to spend time with some foster kids. A couple at my church is doing a foster to adopt program and got three year old twins. I am super excited because this is what I'd like to do someday and because they are really, really awesome kids. The photo at the bottom are of the three year olds' rendition of my dog Solomon, on Post-it notes.

I have always wished that more people would adopt. I understand that people want their "own" kids - actually, scratch that, I don't understand at all. I don't get the biological child thing (and I know, I know, I'm the minority here). I think that kids are kids and if there are kids without homes, we should be taking care of them before having our own. I am not forcing that view on anyone, but it would be my ideal world.

Especially for Christians. When talking about Christian values, there is one message that is throughout the Old and New Testament - all over the place. Take care of the poor and the orphans. Help the fatherless. Do not oppress. Help the oppressed. Help the poor. Help those in prison. Look out for the orphans. A woman from Africa (I think Uganda but I may be wrong) spoke at my church last year and said that with Christians in the world, there is no excuse for orphanages. I think she's right. Forget fighting gay marriage, forget legislating "morals," forget what have traditionally been called "family values." I think it's pretty clear that God has caring for the kids who need caring for right up at the top of his list of family values.

Anyway, that is one reason I was excited about meeting these kids. It's hard to get people to adopt kids who are not newborns. If they can't have their own kids, they want newborns. After kids are walking and talking, they're probably not going to get a family, and that is absolutely not the way it should be. One of these days - preferably if I get married - I would really like to adopt kids who don't have a chance of having a family. Kids that are too messed up because they're already old enough to be bitter and hurt. Kids who everyone dismisses, saying it's too late for them. I wish more people were willing to take those kids.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I totally agree with you. I find it flabbergasting that people will spend unseemly amounts of money just to have children that are "theirs" while ignoring children who need homes. Now I've been told that the adoption process can be extremely difficult, but again, that's only for newborns; there are tons of foster kids who could have a chance at a real life if people weren't so selfish!
8:23 AM
Anonymous said…
I don't get why people are so set on having their "own" kids either - even leaving out the whole "do some good for an orphan" angle to it. Look at how much people love their pets (who are all "adopted"). Why would they love adopted children any less?
2:43 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Loss

  (I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why)  Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me.  He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me.  We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class....
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part Two

  Second very long part of the prison visit report.   After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk.    First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other pri...
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea...
Post a Comment
Read more