A Mother's Love for Her Adopted Daughter

At the Evangelical Portal at Patheos, we continue to reflect on adoption and other ways of caring for orphans nationally and internationally.  As anyone who knows me well knows, my sister is adopted from Korea, and we are very close.  We’ve grown closer over the years, after we got past the petty competitions that arise between siblings when they are still under the parental roof.  Things improved once we got some space.  They also improved after she went through some ups and downs, and she and I were able to talk the way through them.

I don’t recall, when she arrived from Korea, that I thought about it a great deal.  I was a 6-year-old boy, and if she could not play ball with me or dig forts in the dirt, then she was not especially interesting to me.  But I do remember what extraordinary delight my parents took in Lisa when we first brought her home.  She was a real light in our family life, a source of great joy.

I thought it would be interesting–and perhaps helpful for some families going through the process of considering adoption for themselves–to hear about adoption from a variety of family positions.  The new entry, as of today, is my mother’s reflection on adopting my sister.  It’s a beautiful, heartfelt sort of piece that could only be written by a mother.

For my father’s piece, which is no less profound and moving, look here.  Enjoy.  I’m proud to have such loving parents, and grateful they were there for my sister, my brother and for me.