I always get emotional when I'm on travel and today begins a week of travel for me. Instead of flying halfway around the world this time I'm just driving 3 hours north to our nations' capital. If you were somehow unaware or aren't from America, today is a federal holiday, the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (technically his birthday was yesterday but we celebrated today so everyone could have a 3 day weekend).
If you asked me what I did last year or the year before or the last 10 years on Dr. King's birthday I would not be able to recall. Not because I didn't think it was an important day, no, I very much appreciate what he has done for our country. But I know that I have taken for granted this day for many years...maybe for my whole life. And yet I feel it will never be a day I look past ever again.
As I was driving, I heard a song by The City Harmonic called I Have a Dream. As part of this song, they play excerpts of Dr. King's speech and it was everything I could do to keep my emotions at bay (I was driving, remember). I realized that this day would no longer be possible for us to forget, to look past, to take for granted. This day, a crucial piece of our nations past, is a vital piece of our family's future.
We wade through this adoption process and are ecstatic to expand our family with our little James. And yet it never hit me before that without people like Dr. King who sacrifice their lives for equality we would never be able to adopt James. It would have been not only taboo but at one point against the law for us to invite a Ugandan child into our family as our son.
Would we, as American's, have gotten here eventually? Hopefully, yes. And we're still not where we need to be when it comes to equality. But it is amazing to me that 50 years after Dr. King gave his freedom speech we will be bringing home our baby boy. And our family will not only grown in number but in culture, ethnicity, and race.
So now I must say thank you, Dr. King. Thank you for sacrificing your life for our family...for all the families like ours. You are one of the reasons why James will help complete our family. I can't wait to visit the new memorial in Washington, DC and pay my tribute!
If you asked me what I did last year or the year before or the last 10 years on Dr. King's birthday I would not be able to recall. Not because I didn't think it was an important day, no, I very much appreciate what he has done for our country. But I know that I have taken for granted this day for many years...maybe for my whole life. And yet I feel it will never be a day I look past ever again.
As I was driving, I heard a song by The City Harmonic called I Have a Dream. As part of this song, they play excerpts of Dr. King's speech and it was everything I could do to keep my emotions at bay (I was driving, remember). I realized that this day would no longer be possible for us to forget, to look past, to take for granted. This day, a crucial piece of our nations past, is a vital piece of our family's future.
We wade through this adoption process and are ecstatic to expand our family with our little James. And yet it never hit me before that without people like Dr. King who sacrifice their lives for equality we would never be able to adopt James. It would have been not only taboo but at one point against the law for us to invite a Ugandan child into our family as our son.
Would we, as American's, have gotten here eventually? Hopefully, yes. And we're still not where we need to be when it comes to equality. But it is amazing to me that 50 years after Dr. King gave his freedom speech we will be bringing home our baby boy. And our family will not only grown in number but in culture, ethnicity, and race.
So now I must say thank you, Dr. King. Thank you for sacrificing your life for our family...for all the families like ours. You are one of the reasons why James will help complete our family. I can't wait to visit the new memorial in Washington, DC and pay my tribute!
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