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Archive for September, 2012
Dixie van de Flier Davis, Executive Director
He had burns on just about every inch of his little body. As if someone had systematically pressed a hot cigarette into his tender skin over and over and over again.
If an adult approached his bed in the sparsely furnished room at the city’s general hospital, James would begin to tremble in fear and turn his head to the wall.
As if the physical scars aren’t enough, James will always carry the bruises in his heart as well.
Every single minute in the United States a child is used or abused by an adult from whom he is powerless to escape. Often the abuse is repeated again and again. According to the federal government 695,000 children are abused every year. Most of their stories are too horrific to tell. They lose their innocence, and they spend the rest of their lives attempting to patch their souls together again.
It shouldn’t happen to any of them. And it certainly shouldn’t have happened to James. But the Wyandotte County child protection team kept him from returning to his abusive circumstances.
Soon the hearts of strangers were touched, and James was given a family with protective parents to keep him safe and help him heal.
It took a long time for him to trust others. It took a long time for him to begin to believe that he is loveable. In the circle of love created by his family, he learned. Step by step he grew, and he slowly discovered that he is worthy of respect.
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A Special Gift
Marcia’s birth parents loved each other and loved her as well. But circumstances were stacked against them. Perhaps in today’s society they’d be able to get married and raise their little girl as a family. But thirty-three years ago that wasn’t an option.
They made adoption plans, and they let their precious baby go.
Every year since then during the December holidays I have displayed the nativity scene that they gave me, when they said goodbye to their daughter.
As I set out the pieces of the little porcelain family I remember Marcia and her birth parents. When they gave me this gift, I appreciated it. And I was also surprised, because I understood Christmas is not celebrated in their culture.
It took some time for me to full appreciate that a nativity scene is the perfect symbol. There are all of the figures: a mother and father, welcoming a baby under impossible circumstances.
Today I boxed up the nativity scene, and I’m mailing it to Marcia. I think it belongs to her.
Dixie van de Flier Davis, Executive Director
Cherrie’s Poem
I am a foster child
I wonder if I’ll always be
I hear people talk
I see nothing change
I want to be adopted
I am a foster child.
I pretend that I am not
I feel lonely
I worry if my dreams will
ever come true
I cry when I’m hurt
I am a foster child.
I understand I am
I say my feelings
I dream of having
a family
I try to be patient
I hope to be adopted
I am a foster child.
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- Dixie van de Flier Davis, Executive Director
Look what we’ve done together!
Wayne’s parents knew the dim prognosis, but that didn’t stop them from adopting him. A few years later I felt a chill run up my spine when I saw Wayne cross a low set balance beam. He turned around and shouted, “Mom, look at me! See what I did!” The smiles of his physical therapist and his mom were about a broad as they could be.
As The Adoption Exchange nears a big celebratory milestone – counting the 7,000th adoption match – we all feel a little like Wayne when he safely reached the goal and stepped off the balance beam.
Hey, look! Seven thousand children have been given the chance to discover they are loveable.
Wayne didn’t stop growing and developing. And neither is The Adoption Exchange. But for a moment we plan to stop and cheer for what we’ve all done together.
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