Daily Archives: September 15, 2003

September 15, 2003 · 10:58 pm

Tough decisions

I just came back from a meeting for soccer.  A big fund raising banquet/dance is planned for this Friday night.  It was originally planned to raise money to get the girls to nationals if they won their league.  They missed out on that but the fund raiser is going ahead anyway so that we can help other teams to go in the future if the chance arises.

I don’t mind helping out with the fund raiser – it beats being obligated to work a Bingo or finding someone else to do it for us.  I get to make a ton of coleslaw for this one.

But at the meeting I heard of a series of a new high performance training sessions.  Sara should be doing this since she plays at this level.  One of the days and times they will be training is Sunday morning from 10 till 12.  Now I do not mind if she has to miss the occaisional Sunday to attend a special tournament.  But to miss all Sundays to train for soccer just doesn’t sit well with me.  She knows she is the only girl on the team to whom it matters much.  I wrote an official e-mail of complaint but I don’t know if that will make any difference.  I hope it matters to other parents as well, but I doubt that it will. 

This is one of those really tough decisions that parents have to make for their kids and know that whatever we decide will have repurcussions for our kids that they will have to live with, not us.  Sometimes it is hard to know if this is one of those hills we should choose to die on.  Prayer would be greatly appreciated.

Update:

I came home tonight and checked my e-mail.  The soccer coordinator says – the times have not been finalized, that he understands my concerns and that he will take them into consideration.  Thanks for your prayers.  We may not have a good decision on times yet but at least we have some room to work.

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September 15, 2003 · 6:19 am

Children of Promise and Hope

World Vision has a project called Hope Child.  I think that this is the next best thing to really adopting a child from one of these countries so heavily affected by AIDS.  Aids is devastating in both the sense that, the children left behind have a bleak future being left in the care of aging grandparents and in the sense that the grandparents have also lost their old age security in a land where there is no public help when you get too old to do the hard physical labour that living in those countries requires. 

We have children adopted by both methods – a World Vision sponsored child and then the second half of my family.  I still remember the day we met the first daughter we were to adopt.  She had just awoken from a nap.  She sat on Leo’s knee still sleepy but mostly unaware of what was going on.  The next couple of days were filled with things we had to do.  There were the photos, the medical exam and then we went to Mama Yemo Hospital for the AIDs test.  We were staying with the pathologist who ran the AIDs program.  Physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, we were prepared to accept.  Adopting a child that was HIV+ would be another matter for immigration purposes.  And at 2 1/2 if she was + it would mean that she was infected – not just maternal antibodies.  Adopting a child we would have to see die was more than we thought we could handle.

Waiting

The child,

The little girl,

Was ours for the taking.

All we needed

Was a negative on the last

Little big” test.

 

We took her.

They did the puncture,

Drew a few drops of her blood

That was becoming more precious

Than our own

By the minute.

 

Waiting.

Do you know

The agony of that?

 

This little girl

Almost embedded in our hearts,

Almost embedded,

After a few short hours.

Holding her,

Not even knowing

If she liked us,

Her face still a blank slate

Eyes not allowing us to see

Too deeply.

We, not daring

To get too sharply entangled

By her innocence,

Her vulnerability,

Our love.

 

All hinges on the test.

Have you ever waited

Like that?

 

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