• * Other kids were taking music lessons and family vacations.
• * That’s the time it takes a child to grow about 8”. Was someone there to mark
  his growth on the frame of the closet door? To take photographs?
• * In those four years a child in foster care completes grades four through
  seven without a mom or dad to attend parent child conferences.
• * Those are the years when kids need a good orthodontist.
• * That’s 1,460 days to be a child alone in the world.
• * Twenty-eight national holidays and four birthdays came and went.

When a boy is nine… ten…eleven …and twelve he needs his own family.

Count them – 48 months.

Four years!

By comparison — In the same four years I:

• * Read about 200 books;
• * Watched dozens of good movies;
• * Took vacations with my family;
• * Celebrated holidays and birthdays with people I care about;
• * Loved and felt loved back;
• * Worked 8,320 hours or more; and
• * Counted 1,496 other adoptions…..but not his.

Today I got a lump in my throat when I heard that at last a family has claimed him.

Four years is such a long time.