Poem to Adoptive Parents

We recently attended an all-day educational adoption seminar with our agency, Bethany Christian Services.  I came away with my worries calmed, some useful information and an arm-load of handouts to read and probably blog about.  I also  picked up a poem  by Joyce Maguire Pavao to adoptive parents and I thought it was special and wanted to share it with you.

Poem to Adoptive Parents by Joyce Maguire Pavao

You cannot change the truth.

These are your children,

but they came from somewhere else.

And they are the children of those places,

and those people as well.

Help them to know about their past

and about their present.

Help them to know that they are from extended families,

that they have only have one set of parents,

but that they have more mothers and fathers.
They have grandmothers, godmothers, birth mothers,
mother countries and  mother earth.
They have grandfathers, godfathers, birth fathers and fatherlands.

They have family by birth and by adoption.

They have family by choice and by chance.

Childhood is short;

They are our children to raise;

They are our children to love;

and then they are citizens of the world.

What we do to them creates the world that we live in.

Give them life.  Give them truth. Give them love.

Give them all that they came with.

Give them all that they grow with.

Your children do not belong to you,

but they belong with you.

You cannot keep them from what is theirs,

but you can keep loving them.

You do not own your children,

but they are your own.

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