Coming Home

I often think about what it was like for our children to come home. I still remember our original Family Day almost five years ago. It was a difficult day for all of us. The children had already been to our house many times, and in fact had moved all their "stuff" in. However, that placement day was still painful.

I remember my youngest daughter (two at the time) and how she sat in stunned silence in the back of the van as we drove away from the only home she could remember. I can still hear the screams of my then three-year old son as he demanded "Go back! Take me back!" The echoes of his screams are still punctuated in my memory by the heart-wrenching sobs of my then eleven-year old.

I was prepared for many things as we adopted, but I was not prepared for that day. In my excitement to be a parent, I lost sight of the fact that my children would be hurt as we moved them from that home to ours.

It would be months before my son would stop saying, "Okay, I've visited long enough. Take me back now." Whenever I see pictures of that last day/first day, I still feel my heart contract for my kids and their pain.