I know someone who wants to be adopted. He’s past the age where that is likely to happen, but when this brown-eyed waif of a seventeen-year-old dreams, he dreams of having a family who wants him. Even though I know the odds aren’t with him, I tell him to hold on to that dream. And I dream it for him, too.

He’s not cuddly and innocent. He’s seen too much, and done things he regrets. But I love him for reasons I cannot begin to explain, not the least of which is because I can.

The system does not work in his favor. The law will not save him. Only love can do that. Only love of the unlikeliest kind.

I have friends who were adopted when they were small. Today they are strong, vibrant, wonderful adults. Once upon a time, when they were most vulnerable, someone who could, loved them. It’s as simple as that.

I also have friends who’ve recently adopted children. A beautiful daughter from China. An adorable son from Russia. Their parents love them fiercely, and I’m certain they can no longer imagine life without them. They traveled a very long way to bring them home.

When I was younger, I used to wonder if I was adopted. My sister is, from a purely physical standpoint, most obviously my mother’s daughter. I am not. I don’t even look that much like my dad, although there’s a picture of his mother as a teenager that could have been me at the same age if you squinted just right.

I used to wonder if I was adopted. Now I know I am.

Someone wanted me, even though I gave Him no good reason to. Someone came from a very long way to bring me home. I didn’t even know enough to dream of the thing I needed most, and it came to me just the same.

“But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7)

I know someone who wants to be adopted.

I’ll bet you do, too.

©Leigh McLeroy 2003