They have the before in their files.
The grainy picture we received the day we were “matched”.
They are looking for an after.
A picture that embodies the change that we see in our kids when they have a family… health and happiness.
I do wonder though…
A child can smile that is still lost. A child can laugh and giggle that is still hurting. A child can do a lot of pretending… but not fully understand.
I think that pictures don’t always tell the whole story and we need to be careful in painting a false picture.
You know what I mean?
I always feel like I do that a lot on this blog. A read through older posts and feel like it isn’t tell the whole story.
It’s just pictures. Usually happy ones.
And we don’t usually take pictures of the kids fighting. Or being mean. Or sitting around being mopey.
or Mom's and Dad's losing their cool.
You get it.
This summer we have seen things in our kids we don’t like too much. We are working on kindness and that whole “honor your father and mother” thing.
I’ve also seen things in myself that I don’t like so much that I am working on changing.
Sigh. This parenting thing. Just ain’t easy.
Wonder what the before and after pictures look like for the parents? Gray hair. Extra 10-20 lbs. I think I'll stick with the cute kid pictures.
But you can't deny that a child in a family has a new sparkle in their eye! Pictures can't lie about that one ( even if we sugar coat some of the other stuff)
ReplyDeleteGreat post...and I agree on the 10+ pounds for the Mom and Dad post adoption! It ages us!! :)
ReplyDeleteI am amazed every time I see the before and again pictures of our adopted kiddos...it puts my bad days into perspective!