Commiting to the commited!

Adoption is a far more serious topic than most will allow it to become. I mean for instance. There is a whole lot of

committing that goes on during an adoption. The parents commit to love a child they never met but somehow they

magically find a place that is perfect for the child in their heart. The child has to commit to the parents and the

siblings to be their long lost love and they have to commit to an entirely new and completely unrecognizable way of life in most cases. And in some journeys, some adoptive parents feel "commitable" (as in a special coat with very long sleeves made for consistant hugging of one's self on a daily basis)". BUT only after they have

survived the adoption journey to their sweet one do they even recognize they were that close to a new home inindated with "Teddy Rosevelt" wanna bes. I know, I jest but really darling, you have to keep your sense of

humor during adoption or you surely will wilt into a quivering ball of goo that goes by the name of "once was" and somewhere has a list of phone numbers for your imaginary "friends" which you lovingly refer to as Guido and Knuckles.
Each and every day during an adoptive journey, a family commits to their far away child again and again. Kind of

like blind faith, you leap in one day holding a dream and then soon after, find yourself madly flailing your arms and legs, water over your head and asking yourself "wasn't I holding something a second ago?
They commit to the process. To the belief that the process will bring them the referral of the child that

their heart aches for, the process that will finally get them to their child safely and allow them to hold them in

their physical arms and not just in their heart. The family commits to trying to understand their child through

small update pictures which tell only 1/100th of the story of this child and who they are and who they will be.They litterally build this child in their hearts and minds from sometimes repeat update measurements and blurry up the nose shots.
They commit to the emotions of adoption; love, fear, loneliness, sadness, happiness, euphoria, depression, anger, anxiousness, guilt, and feeling forgotten. It seems that somehow you commit to losing your mind too. You can't remember where you last parked the car. You thought you paid that bill when you should have (obviously not since you now sit in the dark singing Cumbya my Lord next to a make shift fireplace which is really a candle). You start calling your kids that are home with you the soon to be adopted child's name because your thoughts can often be found thinking somewhere else and on something else.
You commit to a roller coaster ride that you have no clue when or where it will stop. There are many ups and downs in the adoption journey and unfortunately honey, the stop watch was lost along the way somewhere (look there and you shall find the break too)! So the statement "you're in for the long hall" has taken on an entirely new and oh so personal meaning!! Though you are completely dizzy and sick to your stomach most of the ride, you still manage to stay in your seat the whole time clinging to the hope that is strapping you in.
If you are in an adoption journey such as ours, you may even have to commit some of those involved in your adoption journey such as agency personel, foster parents, family and friends because the pressures have finally gotten them stuck in a corner somewhere singing "Enry the Eigth I am I am" in a "repeat" fashion for the 100th round.
As you can see, adoption is a committment. And one that is not always pretty nor elegant. None the less, these brave families, "adoptive families" called to build their families via "adoptions" unfashionable and oftenly untimely ways, somehow make it through to the other side, not unscathed but definitely wiser through the teaching of "adoption"!
Finally, you may even learn new tricks beyond committment such as the following:

1) Time is something that only YOU and other adoptive mom's adhere to anymore because NOTHING seems to be doable in a Timely manner in an adoption journey.
2) Up is down and down is up and YOU are to pretend it is always up when in certain company.
3) Those once "taboo" questions that no one dared ask... are no longer taboo questions for your family.
4) Everything that once made sense somehow doesn't anymore.
5) That the term "no pain no gain" was evidentally coined by an adoptive family long ago that went through similar trials.
6) That the rules and regulations of adoption are really more like suggestive caveman writings on a wall that you must somehow learn to decifer and quickly, or you don't find the national treasure.
7) That you really can find a sisterhood that was once untapped by you as a resource for comfort because somehow, those other women that use all the cool abbreviations understand you!!
Hopefully, this odd but oh so true, preach it again sister post has you howling by now. If you are an adoptive parent you now see really what you are made of and are saying "Wow, been there done that."
If you are NOT an adoptive parent, you are probably in awe of what you just read and trying to make sense of it all. Don't bother unless you plan to adopt, and then I promise you will receive a one on one lesson just as most of us have.
Either way, put your jaw back up where it belongs and move onto another post. My fingers are tired and I have a whole nother day to face in THIS adoption journey and a roller coaster brake to find! "Someone PLEASE let me off this thing?"....lol!!!