I frequently encounter people who tell me that they have seriously thought about adopting a child. It usually comes up in a situation like being in the waiting room in a doctor’s office, they see one of my children, and a conversation starts. It usually ends with the person concluding that they would want to be sure that they could do it and so they never pursue it.
I want to try my best to promote adoption and to encourage people to at least think seriously about it. Because of that, I think now and then about things that I can tell people. It is also one of the reasons that I write these blogs.
To successfully adopt, particularly a special needs child, a person might want to have certain traits. I am going to start a series of blogs discussing some of those traits. As you will see when you read this, I have started with easier issues.
You must love children. I am not talking about loving just your own children. You need to be fascinated with them. I often find myself clowning for a small child or baby when no one else knows it. If a baby is looking over her mother’s shoulder in the line at Luby’s, I am actively trying to make her laugh or smile. I am not above improvising a game of “peep eye” or making my best faces, just to get a smile.
I learned to be a person that can make children laugh during the years that I assisted my wife in children’s ministry. I cannot tell you how many times an adult friend came in to children’s church and watched, later telling me that they didn’t really know me before they saw me being goofy with children. I am never embarrassed by what adults think when I am entertaining children.
Many years ago, the head pastor of our church made a remark about having seen an elder in the church (that was me) being pretty silly. He didn’t understand that being an entertainer of children was more important to me than being an elder. He eventually got used to it, I think.
You must love being a parent. I have a lot of fun changing diapers. My wife will laugh at this because I changed very few diapers when we were raising our grown children. We are now down to one child that needs to be diapered. I have several “diaper changing” songs. My favorite is sung to the tune of “Who Let the Dogs Out”, but it is “Who Gets the PooPoo Out”. It is Isaiah’s favorite song.
We would have had more natural children, but Nancy had dangerous pregnancies two out of three times. We had to quit having babies. I love to be called Dad; I love the relationship that a parent has with a child. We have again quit “having babies”. This time it is so that we can give each of them the amount of time and attention that they need and deserve.
Isaiah has just gone from calling me “DaaDee” to “DaDa”, soon he will call me Daddy. I love it.
Related Blog: