Changes

If you've been following Jenna's adoption blog, you know that things have taken a few turns of late. While I realize the importance of ensuring that the children in international adoption programs are indeed, orphans, the more I read, the more it seems that the barriers that are put up to catch the bad people and protect the good, are just punishing the good. I'm certainly not an adoption subject matter expert, but I don't see why having Jenna and Jon go to Ethiopia twice instead of once is going protect our little girl. So many times I have said to Jenna, "if the agencies just read your blog, they would give you 10 little girls." But, I guess that's not the way it works.

I remember when Tony and I were writing the cook book with the life lessons (you know, the one you all keep in the top drawer in your kitchen and read evey night....), I wrote so many life lessons in there that seemed to old for you. Would any of you ever buy your first major appliance or get a substantial raise where you worked? Heck, those life lessons were for you to read years down the road....and yet, here you are all changing. Those life lessons do apply to you now and I wish I had written them better.

Think of all of the changes you have been through in the past 5 years. Think where you were 5 years ago. The time is flying quickly by. Somewhere I wrote about my father's ash tray. It was a slim dark green glass ash tray that sat by his reclining chair. It had a little old man outlined in gold. He was a grumpy old man; and the caption under him said, "time marches on.....damn it." For years I never understood that ash tray. But I do now. Time does march on and bring so many changes.

Maybe the way to look at that ash tray is instead of time marches on, time marches forward. Look at time as an adventure, my children. Look forward for the good things that are to come.

I hope that Jenna and Jon come to a decision that gives them peace. I hope that the changes and the decisions all of you make in the future do the same.