Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011

It's been a good year. We've been incredibly blessed this year. I got a lot of painting done around the house, Alyssa's friendships have grown in her new school, Olivia's blossomed in preschool and Tom's had a great year doing what he does.

Yes, I've had my moments of grouchiness, of petulance but all in all, it's been good.

I am hoping that 2012 brings even better things.

As I've read blogs and found posts about special needs, I've realized that we're so, so lucky to live here. We're lucky to have the support of our family, friends, schools, communities and society itself.

One of my resolutions for 2012 is to give back. I want to repay the cosmos for giving me Olivia and doing so here, in the USA where she can thrive right here in the love of her family.

I've found quite a few blogs that reference Reece's Rainbow, a ministry that raises money for families wishing to adopt special needs (mostly children with Down Syndrome) from eastern European countries.

In these countries, children born with special needs are considered unworthy of life. They're placed in orphanages and at the age of five, if they're not adopted, they're sent to institutions.

Olivia is five years old. Had she been born in one of those countries and we'd received her diagnosis close to birth, we'd have been pressured to leave her in an orphanage. And now, at over five years old, she'd be deemed unadoptable and be sent to an institution where she'd fail to grow, fail to thrive, fail to live.

That any child is sentenced to a life like that breaks my heart.

So 2012 is my year for giving back. Any extra money I have is going to those kids. It's going to those families who are so generous of their homes, their love that they choose to adopt.

We're not in a position to adopt. I know myself well enough to know that my own energies are already spread too thin but there are amazing people out there who can and want to adopt and so I want to help them bring their babies home.

That's my resolution for 2012. I want to spread our blessings, I want to give back to a world that has given me so much.

I want to help these amazing kids find their way home. I want to make their 2012 as great as our 2011 was.

Sometimes the resolutions we make aren't really about us at all.

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