Another Reading Recommendation

This just in: I don't know how I missed this, as it's almost a month old, but our friend Neola just wrote the most lovely piece about family. You can read it here. It made me happy.

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This is why I respect Melissa Faye Green so much. If you haven't read her Informal Guide to Ethiopian Adoption, I encourage you to high-tail it over there, especially if you're in the beginning stages of adopting:

"Is he or she the “right” child for you, the one destined by heaven to be yours?

Hard to say.

You’d hate to wish that anyone’s “destiny” included becoming an orphan. The child’s history is tragic; the child’s luck is about to change in a big way, beginning with your appearance on the scene."

She includes in this article an excerpt from There is No Me Without You about the first meeting between Meskerem and her new parents. I have read this several times and cry every single time.

She makes the point that not every meeting is so magical (though some certainly are) and that, "Even if the relationship doesn't feel perfect or magical or pre-destined for the first few weeks (or months), just pretend that all is unfolding according to plan, according to a higher intelligence than your own.

The child will simultaneously create in you the right mother or the right father, the one who knows where to tickle, what to cook, which bedtime story to read, and which flavor ice cream flavor is the best, the ice cream flavor ordained by heaven to be the one you both happen to love."

She also goes on to make the very true point that little boys are just as cute as little girls. True dat. Here I offer proof: