What I’m about to say may sound too simple for some. But I get guidance from simple truths. And it seems to me that the world of adoption is all about one simple thing – love.

When I’ve remembered that, and when I’ve worked to achieve it, things have gone the way they’re supposed to.

Our work is to help people find ways to express their love, help them discover their capacities for loving, and create opportunities for them to experience being loved.

Of course there are complications, complex situations, and nuanced decisions to be made. So I’m not saying the work is easy. I’m just saying that it’s actually quite clear.

Last week I announced my upcoming retirement. And I’ve received wonderful, loving messages from many people. I am very grateful to you. And I can’t thank you enough for helping me focus on the simple, powerful truths that have been the foundation of our work together.

Donna recently told one of our staff members what it meant to her to adopt a medically fragile child. He was too ill to survive. But he needed a family. So Donna reached across state boundaries to give it to him. She waded through the bureaucracies of the ICPC (Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children) and multiple agencies to bring him home.

Donna gave that little boy safety. She saw to it that her son received the best possible medical care. She surrounded him with music and language and hope. “I gave him my name and I gave him my love,” she said.

It’s a simple…and profound…as that.