Josiah loves to read for us during our nightly devotional time.
If you are looking for a children's Bible, we highly recommend this book. It is written in an easy to understand and engaging manner and maintains the integrity of the original text.
Six months. Asa has been home for six months. Wow. It really seems like he was always here. I know, I know, people say that all the time about their adopted kids. I think it is because it is true at some point. Your life just morphs to include this little person and to think of him not being here becomes unthinkable and strange.
Today is Tuesday and that means Ezra has speech at 9 am and at 3 pm. This means we can't sleep in or take a long nap! Life is rough on Tuesdays!
After getting Bethany and Judah off to school we went to speech and then I headed to Bed Bath & Beyond to look for a new silverware tray for the kitchen. I stole the one from the kitchen for this!
No more toothbrushes laying bristle down on the counter, or tangled up in hair from the hairbrushes in the drawer.
No more Mommy gagging when she walks by the kid bathroom!
When I pulled into the shopping area I saw our new TJ Maxx/Home Goods store. I had not been in there since it opened and decided to see if they had a silverware tray I liked. I found a silverware tray, and a baby gift for a friend, and some baskets for the boys' room, and some jeans and a top for myself, and a shirt for Bethany, and some pants for Josiah and some socks for Judah, two books for Asa and Ezra, some moisturizing gloves for myself and, I think that's it. Yeah, dangerous store.
Thankfully as I pulled out of the shopping center I looked down at my gas gage. I had almost forgotten to get gas! I had 22 miles to empty! A small detour to get gas and then we headed home.
Asa and Ezra were in their high quality five point harness car seats playing with their Kindle Fire tablets. We had a full tank of gas in our 2013 Toyota Sienna Mini Van. Josiah was reviewing the assignments he needed to work on for the top quality private school education he is getting. I made a mental note to swing by CVS later that day to pick up one of the kid's prescriptions. We had a pantry full of food at home to prepare lunch and I was brainstorming what I was going to prepare for supper.
I could not help but think of Asa's life just seven months ago and the sharp contrast of that life and his life now. Here, we go to therapy if you need therapy. We go to the doctor if you have a bad cold or ear infection. We have more than enough food to eat at all times. We wear clean well fitting clothes and shoes every single day and sleep in warm beds with soft clean bedding that is not shared with any other children. We have too many toys and when one breaks or gets lost, sometimes (usually) it gets replaced at the next birthday or Christmas. We have a reliable vehicle and always enough money to buy gas to take us fun places. We have a mom and a dad to hug and kiss everyone good night and greet everyone with hugs and kisses in the morning.
It is hard to forget the scene we saw played out at Asa's orphanage during one of our visits. The kids had a run down playground on the orphanage grounds and on that playground was a sandbox. It was a very popular attraction for our kids and the others. One day we arrived and waited for the kids to come out and we could not help but notice the trash that had been left overnight on the playground by the neighbors. Amidst the trash was a glass bottle. One that had not been there before. When the kids came out to play, they immediately noticed this *new* toy and the fight was on! Oh, it was heartbreaking knowing that a new piece of trash on the playground constituted a new toy for these kids. They played with that bottle the entire time we were there. Putting sand into it, pouring sand out, pretending it was a gun, using it to feed their pretend baby and on and on.
The kids generally wore the same clothes day in and day out. On bath day they got a *clean* outfit. But we did notice that on one day Asa might be wearing a particular shirt and a couple of days later, another child would be wearing the same shirt. We are not sure if the shirt had been washed before it was passed on to someone else. Shoes were often ill fitting and also community property. Blankets on the beds were all identical, so they were also community property.
The one meal we saw the kids eat was lunch. They were served soup, a plate full of what looked like barley and a large piece of bread. No protein and no calcium and no fruits or vegetables. Asa was not underweight, but he had absolutely no muscle tone and no stamina. Since he has been home, he has not gained any weight, but he has grown two inches and is noticeably thinner and healthier looking. His hair is soft and full and his eyes sparkle.
My memories of his orphanage are forever burnt into my mind. I know that the orphanage director and nannies do the best they can do. I honestly believe that about his orphanage. But they have very limited resources. There is no time or money to make sure that every child has shoes that fit perfectly. That every child goes to the doctor for every illness we might think warrants a doctor's visit. That every meal contains fresh fruits and vegetables and adequate protein and each child gets enough calcium each day. There are not enough people to wipe every nose and keep every little face clean. And living with 18 kids in one room means that some things are going to be shared or stolen or taken or broken.
And there will never be enough love and attention for
every little heart to feel precious and wanted.
Yes, we live in excess. My biological children have never known true hunger. And I hope that Asa and Ezra will never again know true hunger. Not the "I want another fruit snack" hunger our children whine about, but true "I haven't eaten anything substantive in three days" hunger.
And my children will never likely be bored or deprived enough that an empty beer bottle will be worth fighting over. And they will probably never suffer the pain of an ear infection for more than the half hour it takes for the children's ibuprofen to kick in.
My biological children have never known true abandonment or suffering.
We have never feared for their health when we hand them a glass of water. We have never been fearful that the heat would be turned off in the dead of winter. We have never anxiously watched the news dreading another uprising and fearing what that would do to supplies of medications and food and gasoline for our cars.
We live in excessive wealth in our suburban middle class America while some children live in excessive poverty. Where is the balance? And what do we do about it?
Love the toothbrush idea!!
ReplyDelete