A Stone's Throw

practice your aim. you never know when you'll spy 2 birds at once.

Monday, February 06, 2012

Changes and Challenges

There have been some huge things going on here with family. I’m on a short hiatus between teaching semesters in Argentina, and have been lucky to stay with my eldest sister and her family in Connecticut during this time. Great times with my niece (soccer, WII battles, storytime), nephews (pingpong, basketball, soccer, sledding, hermit crabs....), and my sister and brother-in-law. But all of that came at a time where their family is getting ready to adopt a little girl from China.

With each day that passes, there is a ratcheting up of emotion. I like to think of it as the emotion of the unknown. It can swallow you up, or it can lift you. Depends on how you allow the emotions to affect you. It’s like being at the beginning of a huge journey. There’s uncertainty, worry, fear, stress, wonder, excitement. Every day. All balled-up inside you. You can prepare. You can plot, theorize, buy stuff, seek council, whatever, but what you can’t do is move time forward and get the trip started. So there is a strange waiting that happens.

I can’t say I know what it’s like to prepare as a kid to have a sister arrive who speaks another language. I can’t know what it’s like to prepare to be a parent for a child who you’ve never met, never spoken with, and who very likely is going to be incredibly frightened when her world is turned upside-down.

But I do know that they’re incredibly brave to fly across the world to rescue a little girl who has had to overcome so much in her young life, and bring her into their family.

And I know that I’m looking forward to meeting my new niece, Violet.

3 Comments:

  • At 4:10 PM , Blogger Mark said...

    You touched my heart!

     
  • At 10:42 PM , Blogger Jessemyn said...

    Touched mine MORE. :-)

     
  • At 3:54 AM , Anonymous Jamie said...

    This little girl is lucky to be brought into such a wonderful family! Kudos to you sis et all for enduring the challenge but from what I know of parenting :) the end result is worth it! You all have such vast interests and skills, I am sure Violet will be shown thihgs and taught things and downright exposed to things she never would have had the opp to before. God bless and good luck :)

     

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