Buried Treasures

Tomorrow our facilitator is going to take us to the tomb of a king from the Han Dynasty. The tomb has been enclosed inside a museum that displays many of the treasures that were buried with the king. Although I am excited to see the relics and artifacts housed at the museum, I do not expect to witness anything more spectacular or precious than what I witnessed today...

This morning we took Michael to a very busy medical clinic for his medical exam for the Consulate. The clinic is different from the one that we went to last year with Jacob and is much nicer. One side of the clinic was dedicated to the processing of adoption medical exams. There were approximately 20 families there and all of them have the same Consulate appointment date as we do. When we went to the Consulate appointment last year, we were one of only a couple of special needs adoptions. This year was different.

When we walked into the clinic my breath was totally taken away. With only a couple of exceptions, the families were all holding children with special needs. There were children with cerebral palsy, limb differences, missing limbs, and corrected and non-corrected cleft palates. There were children who were missing eyes and were blind. There were children with non-obvious special needs but who suffer from internal health problems, many of them serious. And the beautiful part of that scene in the clinic was that each child was being held by their parents like the beautiful treasures that they are. I truly felt that once again, I was standing on sacred ground.

Although each adoption is unique and each process is different, there is one thing that is common among all international adoptions…they are NOT easy. They are extremely expensive, time consuming, personally invasive and emotionally draining. I do not know the specific sacrifices and struggles of each adoptive family in that clinic, but I know for certain that each family had them as they searched for their buried treasure. However, it was obvious that each family would do it all over again to be there holding their beautiful child. It was one of THE most awesome scenes that I have ever witnessed in my life and it inspired me to be a better person.