I don't know when it was, exactly, at least seven years ago, a woman I did not yet know and her husband were planning to adopt from foster care. She and her husband were excited about the prospect and when she was shopping one day, she saw a picture that included a little girl and this quote that we've all read many times.
One hundred years from now,
It won't matter what car I drove,
What kind of house I lived in,
How much I had in my bank account,
Nor what my clothes looked like,
But, the world may be a little better
Because I was important in the life of a child
She bought the picture and said to herself, "The day we finalize our adoption I am going to give this to our social worker." They spent three or four years trying to work with their county and never got a placement. Then they found out they were pregnant so things went on hold a bit. They switched to our agency about eighteen months later and took our training, but before they could start paperwork the dad was deployed through his National Guard unit and another year or so went by. Finally, we connected and they said they were ready. We go the homestudy done and started matching, and last March they had a child placed in their home.
On Monday he went to court and I heard about the picture. The mom said that as she was falling asleep the night before, she suddenly remembered the picture and exactly where it was. She handed it to me at court, thanking me for never giving up. So all these years later, I have this picture and quote to hang on my wall.
The picture above is posted with their permission. It is a picture of the boy placed with them and his little brother -- the "surprise" that put the adoption plan on hold several years ago.
The journey has not been an easy one, but it provides hope to me... that I should never give up on a family adopting. And I hope it gives hope to anyone stuck somewhere in the timeline of adoption -- that even though sometimes it seems to take forever, eventually, dreams do come true.
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