I am now back in the States after another fulfilling trip to Tutova. It was just over 24 hours ago that I was saying goodbye to the kids, my new friends (both human and canine) and Romania. In our last week, Spring had sprung in the countryside. Flowers and trees were budding, the days warmer. Three weeks seems so long at the beginning and so short at the end. I am already missing Andreea's twinkling eyes and smile, being charmed by the new babies, Sami's outrageous faces and walk (dead-on impression of Frankenstein) and Cristi's funny vocalizations....gung-gadong, gung-gadong, gung-gadong.
My teammate, Laura, wrote this in our daily journal.
"I would like to thank the babies of Tutova. We've talked about how sad and difficult their lives are (and this is true) but in many ways, they've already done more to impact the world than many people ever will. These babies unite strangers from all over the world with different life experiences, religions, political views. The babies have opened our hearts to love more, understand more and to do more. So thank you to all the babies of Tutova- past and present. The world is a better place because you exist."
I couldn't have said it any better.
I will see you soon, Romania!
Jane
Sunday, April 4, 2010
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1 comments:
I hope you understand the spirit in which I write. As a former volunteer and an adoptive mother to a special needs child from Tutova I know the giving spirit in which your statement is made, but must disagree. You see, I do not believe the world is made better by any child's suffering. The world should not ask nor allow that of them. The child I met in Tutova did move me to a level of advocacy, a depth of love, a selflessness that I surely couldn't have imagined before meeting him. And that is why I say I understand what you are saying. My son has changed many lives by the impact he had on numerous people. Romanian special needs children learn at a school because of him and young Romanian women's lives were forever positively changed. In the US careers were forever changed after experiencing life with him. Yet, he should not have had to suffer as he did for those things to have occurred. A few years after arriving in the US as my son, I asked him what he missed most at Tutova. His answer was, "That I didn't have a family." Think about that. Think about the fact that, abandoned at birth and unable to speak, there was no way while at Tutova he had any idea what a family was. He had never experienced one. I realized in his response to me, he wasn't telling me what he missed then, he was telling me what he loved most NOW. That should be every child's right that WE fulfill for THEM--a family that loves them. Not a foster family even. An adoptive family, or life with a birth family--because only one of those two says to a child I love you FOREVER. Anything less says, why don't you love me enough?
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