Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Dad's 2nd post...making good on my commitment...

Dear all of you nice blog readers that could actually care what this total stranger has to write about,

I remember that I'd said if I had more time, I'd say a bit more about the whos and whens.
But frankly, how can I ?

Both of these answers (which child and the timing) are only determinable by God. Today has enough trouble of its own. I don't and won't worry about either. I trust it will happen when and with and however He writes such fate to occur.

But what I do actually know is that it will be a child rejected by not just a mom, and an immediate so-called family, but a child rejected by an entire country that had at least a full year to say, "no thanks / not interested". I think about that simple fact long enough and can get real sad. What I also know is that however undesirable he is to any society, he will be that much desirable to me. I don't want to sound high and mighty or at all self-righteous and flame me if I do.

But the fact that this will be not a puppy or a kitten but part of the human race makes me think of the famous quote "no man is an island". If you want the simplest-sounding explanation perhaps my love will be there just because no one else's is. This is impossible for even me to totally understand. I'm not saying the desire and love will come easy--may even be damn hard--I don't know because I haven't met him yet--I'll save that for a future post--but I know my love will be there.

I'm so thankful for the love that has been shown to me BY PARENTS, BY FAMILY, BY SOCIETY, and I believe, BY GOD, that this 'return' would actually be a very small token of my appreciation and not some huge thing some folks are making or will make it out to be. This child will be another Reed. Another Reed in the long line of interesting but loved Reeds. I can't wait to introduce him to you.

3 comments:

Brandi said...

What a sweet post. My hubby also can't really understand why strangers care about our journey! I love the comment about loving when no one else does. This has helped me choose to hurt for the hurting b/c no one else does (except of course our Jesus!)

Brandi

Shelley said...

Well said!

Chris and Virginia said...

Hi John,
This isn't a flame, just a different viewpoint. I feel (operative word) that many of the children in their system are there because they don't have the resources to do otherwise. We are very fortunate to live here and WE don't really understand their plight unless we've lived in their shoes.

I believe that most of the children were brought into this world with love, but love alone didn't put enough food on their table. Hence, the gov't now feeds their children. During our depression, my grandmother put my mom into an orphanage for a few years because she could not provide enough for the two of them. Unfortunately, the ramifications of that decision are becoming more apparent as her circle of life is coming near the end. All these children will have to live with that.

My response may be naive, but I still believe in the goodness of people and they do what they perceive is the best course of action. We are taking advantage of our better economic position to help their children out. This is just one reason why we picked Ukraine amongst the other possibilities.

The Internet can be such a wonderful place, where two total strangers can exchange ideas such as these. Just one of many blessings in our lives :). I only wish I could express myself with words better than I do.