I was searching for something else and I came across this message that touched me deeply from the beggining to the end. It is the story of this couple who was willing to sacrifice a lot in order to adopt a dying child. Please, read it ALL and feel free to make your comments.
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Carole W. Hankal, "Who Will Adopt a Dying Child?" Ensign, Oct. 1989, 62 A tiny, abused, and badly burned infant lay dying in a Korean orphanage-a forgotten child. He was the unwanted child of an Asian mother and an American serviceman: the product of two cultures, but accepted by neither because of the great prejudice in that country against mixed blood. Several thousand miles away in America, I drove on a warm summer's evening to join my husband at a board of directors" meeting for Heal the Children. This nonprofit organization relied upon hospitals, medical specialists, and volunteer families to help poverty-stricken children throughout the world. I remembered ten-year-old Maria from South America, whose pretty face had been disfigured forever when she toppled into a huge pot of boiling beans. Several plastic surgeons had given freely of their skill over the past two years to reconstruct her burned face. A wonderful family with ten children had selflessly taken her into their home to care for her between operations. We all hoped that Maria would be able to return to her home in South America by the time she was sixteen. My thoughts shifted to the present as I parked my car and proceeded up the office steps to attend a meeting that would change my life forever. My husband greeted me warmly, then handed me a packet of photos of needy children that we would review. "This one is adoptable," he stated with deep seriousness as he pointed to the picture of an Amerasian infant. "How wonderful for some lucky family," I replied sincerely as I gazed into the dark brown eyes staring blankly from the photo. "But there isn't time to look for a family to adopt him," my husband explained. "He is dying.".... https://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Mag...f=templates&2.0 |
A great story that in many ways reminds me of my current convictions. Of all that was said this really impacted me the most:
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To those who still question my decision to go back into the "baby business," let me share a poignant statement by Steven Grellet: "I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow-creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." (The Home Book of Quotations, sel. Burton Stevenson, New York: Dodd Mead and Co., 1935, p. 1493.) |