This week there was a picture of a 9 year old girl on facebook who was in need of an adoptive family.  It was a Second Chance Adoption site, and local friends had picked up the post and were sharing it.  I read about her and shared it too….and wondered if we could be this child’s forever home.  She was in the right age range for our family, according to her needs……and would fit in nicely right in the middle of our tribe.

 

We have not been actively discussing or preparing to adopt again.  We are out of room.  The teenagers are getting older and needing more space and privacy.  There is more talk about plans to leave home and pursue adulthood than there are plans to add to our family.  It is a weird place for me to be.  When do you know when your family is complete?  Many moms can identify the time they knew.  Many dads just shrug their shoulders……and me?  Will I be asking my husband to consider this child or that one forever?  We have been married 20 years now and just this week, I asked him again.

 

Why?

 

Because we can.  Because she needs a home.  Because right now she is nine years old and has no permancy plan for the second half of her childhood before she is 18 and considered old enough to be on her own.  I don’t want her to be on her own.  Ever.  I want her in a family that will love her and accept her for who she is and fight for her…….I don’t want her to be looking for a second chance adoption when she is 10 or 12 or 14…….or to give up.  I don’t know her story.  I do know she was in foster care first, then adopted and now 2 years later, seeking a second chance adoption.  I can only imagine.

 

I tried to email the contact info….the email was rejected as not valid.  I sent the link to my husband.  He didn’t jump up and down and say “let’s go for it!”……I hope someone is getting an email to go through for more info about her.  I hope some other daddy is looking at her photo and telling his wife, “Let’s go for it!”…..because she deserves it.

 

All of the waiting children who do not have a family today deserve one.  The Lord sets the lonely in families…..today I am praying for this child, that someone is speaking up for her, making inquiries and plans, moving kids around in their home to have a space for her to call her own.

 

I hope that when my children are old enough to be parents, they will answer the call to adoption with a resounding “yes” so that I can finally transition into a grandparent role and not wonder which child or sibling set should still come home to me…….and until then……we just never know.