As I deal with the emotions of my daughter's (the one I place for adoption) 21st birthday, I am so grateful for her family! She is their daughter, and they love her as their own. Just as my parents love me!
And, how odd that I am now the one who is loving another's child. While it is not the same, because I only have them short term....while they are in my home they are MINE! I love them as I love my own. My heart breaks for them when I think of all they have gone through. When I hear the stories of how they came into the system. Their bodily injuries. Their emotional pain. As their "mom", I want to take all of their pain away.
The hardest thing to deal with is the anger towards their biological parents. How, I wonder, can anyone do this..or allow this to be done..to their child? Is there any job more important than a parent protecting their children? What goes through their minds as they watch their children being removed from them? As they see them for 1 or 2 hours each week? As they hear their child call me Mommy? (I call myself Ms. Jennifer, but every child has ended up calling me mommy) And yet, not one parent has yet to have their children returned to them. They have allowed their drugs, their lifestyles to win the battle. They have chosen this over their children.
The thing I have to pray for most, and often ask others to pray for, is forgiveness for these parents. Patience and understanding. The strength to support them. To show them WHY they have to be strong, and fight to win the battle to get their children back.
And, in the mean time.....I love another's child.
