Just Adopt

Just put your life on hold waiting for your child to come
home.
Just pour out your entire savings to make that happen.
Just daily yearn for some type of update.
Just fall to pieces when there isn’t one.
Just wish the weekend away for the chance that Monday will
bring new news.
Just wish for ‘maybe next week’ when it’s Friday and there
was none.
Just watch as so many families seem to pass you on by.
Just wonder if anyone really cares about your child and
when they may come home.
Just beg and plead and pray to often only wonder if it does
any good.
Just live in fear of the realistic possibility someone will
still say, “We’re sorry, this adoption can’t be completed”.
Just hold your breath anytime there’s a report or even
rumor of a new law or statement by either of the two government’s involved.
Just answer questions about your child’s ‘real parents’
knowing that the people asking don’t mean you.
Just be told how ‘strong’ or ‘wonderful’ you are to be
adopting while all you really want to do is scream and
choke someone because the waiting has just become too much.
Just live at the mercy of a government employee’s whims
about what is needed to move forward.
Just live in fear of your child’s first steps rather than
celebrate them because he will likely take them
without you.
Just hope he remembers even slightly the week we were able
to spend with him.
Just feel more at home on the internet than anywhere else
because there are real friends there who really do
understand what you’re going through.
Just listen to the sincere and desperate cry of your three-
year-old as she too longs for her ‘baby brother’.
Just endure one more story about someone adopting who
suddenly became pregnant.
Just realize again how differently and second rate the
world sees adoption.
Just wonder how your son will be treated since he looks and
is Hispanic, knowing the prejudices that unfortunately
exist almost everywhere I turn.
Just hope and know that one day, this really will be worth
it all.