CREATING A FAMILY

Those eyes; those beautiful brown eyes.  Those eyes that had stared at me from a handful of treasured pictures.  Those eyes that held so much grief.  So much pain.  So much fear.  Those eyes.  I was standing in a room of children listening to them play the drum and sing.  Watching little girls dance so beautifully.  The only thing I could focus on was those eyes.  I was actually looking into those eyes that had haunted my dreams for six months.  I was looking into the eyes of my son.

Once he was placed in my arms, I was lead into another room.  With  my son already in one arm, my daughter was placed in the other.  Here I was half way across the world to fulfill my dream of having a family.  Finally, my dream had come true.  In that one moment, we became a family.

It was never an easy road getting to this point.  There were so many ups and downs along the way, as well as some major bumps, but with these two beautiful little children sitting in my arms, the past just melted away.  The children were scared and nervous, as was I.  However, all my fears were relieved a few hours later as I was putting my daughter back down to sleep in the middle of the night.  I crawled into bed and this little voice said ‘Mama, I want some water’.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard more beautiful words.

Adoption is not an easy road, but it is an amazing journey.  I made the choice to adopt in January 2006.  A year and three months later, I was in Liberia, West Africa meeting my children.  Now ten months later, life is pretty normal. My children have grown physically, emotionally and developmentally.  Our family had grown in so many wonderful ways.  I am in awe as I look into the beautiful brown eyes

by Christine Peterson