Adoption Story!

So we have been told that we need to read a book before our adoption classes later this month and I read this short story and it hit really close to home for both Shaileen and I. It truely says how we feel and the tough times we have gone through but shows that there WILL BE a light at the end of the tunnel and it will be just as bright or brighter as if we went the way most others do. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

Different Trips to the Same Place

Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to Australia. You've heard it is a wonderful place, you've read many guidebooks and feel you're ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being papered on the trip.

So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding places for Australia. It seems there is no seat for you; you'll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipation a wonderful trip, you wait- and wait- and wait.

Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, "Relax. You'll get on a flight soon." Other people actually get on a place and then cancel their trip, to which you cry, "It's not fair."

After a long time the ticket agent tells you, " I'm sorry, we're not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat."

"BY BOAT!" you say. "Going by boat will take a very long time and it costs a great deal of money, I really had my heart set on going by plane." So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than by air. Buy you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide to travel by boat.

It is a long trip, many months over many rough seas. No one pampers you. You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to Australia two or three more times, marveling about each trip.

Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite than you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by tour long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with others who also traveled by sea rather than by air.

People continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are able to travel only once, perhaps twice. Some say things like, "Oh, be glad you didn't fly. My flight was horrible; traveling by sea is so easy."

You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know GOD blessed you with a special appreciateion of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not in the way you get there, but in the place itself.

by: Diane Armitage

April 21, 1995 "Dear Abby" column