THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006
Amazing Brazil Adoption
I had a great 10 day trip to Brazil. I could recount the great beauty and diversity of the sights I saw, but the most interesting part was on the flight home from Rio where I sat next to an energetic woman from New Jersey who was traveling with 9 children and her husband. She had just spent 2 months in Brazilfinalizing the adoption of 7 siblings.
<>When asked why she did this seemingly insane thing, she quoted the bible, something about helping widows and orphans. I thought that was a proofreading term, but apparently there is more to it than hanging words on a page. Since that was the first thing she said to me, I prepared to be converted to the faith, but she never came back to it, only to say that she was pleased that the one sight they got to visit in Rio was Corcovado, and to see Jesus up close. Since I also saw that sight, I paid no further heed to her potential Christian fundamentalism. Her second reason was that she was told that it was impossible to adopt children from Brazil, which made her more determined, because that is the type of woman she is. <>
The 7 children (5 boys and 2 girls) have 3 other siblings who were old enough to care for themselves, and were already settled in their mountain village with job training and getting on with adulthood. The remaining 7 being adopted range in age from 6 (a toothless cutie who was infatuated with the plane's headphones) to 14 (a boy crazy cutie swaggering around the airport).<>She was traveling with 2 of her 4 children. Which means, yes, that she now has 11 children between the ages of 6-15. Her youngest natural son, age 7, was on the plane, playing his gameboy and suffering from terrible ear pain, and not getting the attention he craved for such discomfort, both in his ears and in his new life.