Mini Vacation

Shaune is up at a conference in Kingston. I tagged along and with no kids with us - wow - so much time to talk and talk and talk. That is something parents of 2 young kids aren't always able to find time for. Shaune and I talked the whole way up to Kingston about this journey, about the decisions we are making, about how they'll affect our family. We are geniunely excited and of course nervous at times also.
We are making big decisions and are still wavering on what child we feel is waiting for us in Vietnam. Is it a young baby? A boy or a girl or maybe it is a toddler that has been waiting for a mom and daddy way too long. The truth is I want to help them all and that is just impossible. I feel kind of helpless about all the children of the world that live without the love of a family... it really is so unfair. We can only do what we can do though, and what is right for the child we will adopt and our 2 wonderful children we are already blessed with.
My wonderful brother in law and sis-in-law gave us such a beautiful book last weekend. It is called "A treasury of Adoption Miracles" by Karen Kingsbury (adoptive mother to 3 Haiti children) and it has been beautiful to read. I stumbled across this passage in the final chapter of the book and thought I'd share:
"There's a story often told of a particularly rough storm that came up one night and left a sandy beach strewn with starfish. The next morning a child walked along the shore, stopping every few feet to pick up a starfish and fling it back into the sea. An old man watched the child and finally shouted at him "Why bother, son? There are too many starfish to make a difference." With that the boy picked up another starfish and looked at it intently before heaving it out to the sea. Then turning to the old man, he said, " It makes a difference to that one."

I know the child that we adopt will make a huge and amazingly wonderful difference in our lives and we will be there to do the same for her/him. We can't help all the children, or even 2... but we are following our hearts to a place where every ONE child matters. I know that we were pointed down this path for a reason and I feel truly honoured and lucky to be blessed with the chance to do this.