loving their children

 of the parent

I am in awe

of the love and care

with which adopting parents

can hold their children,

much of life is all about choice,

and much of that choice centers upon whim:

which food? which entertainment?

which way to follow for a vacation?

to choose adoption is not a whim,

it is a lifetime of parenting.

a lifetime of unconditional love

for a child who needs you.

I have been blessed to work at a school

with parent after parent totally invested in their children,

neither birth parents nor adopting parents

greater or lesser in their overwhelming giving of self

to these young people given into their care,

as a teacher I hear a calling and I follow it,

a calling from each child who can come near,

how glorious to be a parent

who consciously chooses to adopt a child 

who calls to them:

sometimes as mother and father,

sometimes as mothers,

sometimes as fathers,

in case after case, in situation after situation,

the child who could have been alone

becomes part of a family,

companioned by those who love them,

every soul born into every body

deserves to be loved without condition,

today I salute the parents who choose

to give their lives into the service

of the young who need them,

of the young they need, too,

the broken circle strives again to be whole.

by Henry H. Walker and Connie Toverud

May 10, ‘21