I thought I would write this during the holidays, but...you know.

Now that I’m back to work, I find myself re-immersed in the passionate world of adoption and getting to tasks that I left behind. Thus, this little blurb. Over the last few weeks, I have been haunted by a recurring theme: All children need a family. Of course, in theory, everyone knows that. But, in reality, what I most commonly hear is "We want to adopt a child under 2." It's not that I don't understand that desire. Why wouldn't you want a baby to cuddle and love? A child that you can take through all those delightful baby stages. A child that doesn't really talk yet. A child that has had less life experience that you have to work hard at undoing.  

I get it. But tell me why I have been sent messages on this theme? First, in early-mid December, the Globe and Mail directly delivered a heart warming story to me about a family in Toronto who adopted their eight year old child through the Children’s Aid Society. Then, within a couple of weeks, the Ottawa Citizen pressured me into learning about a single man in South Korea who “adopted” nine North Korean 'defectors'- children ranging in age from elementary school to high school. Finally, on January 1, www.rainbowkids.com had the audacity to send me an email that highlighted a video called What is Adoption? in which school age abandoned children in China were being interviewed about their ideas on adoption. 

Is it just me or do you see what's going on here? I don't consider myself a particularly religious person, but come on! Are these not signs that I am supposed to deliver a message? Don't tell me these are random events that I am stringing together to see what I want to see. That I am simply choosing to see something that I didn't see before. That all I had to do was "change my lenses" and this message was there all along.

That's just ridiculous!