Someone should miss you

Yesterday we dropped off two of our children to attend a winter retreat with our church.  It was the first time we have done this and it was a strange feeling letting them go.  They are a part of Randy and I and we are used to them being here.  Even though its for a few days, it reminded us how quickly the years will pass when it will be bringing them to college and then into their first homes....  Bittersweet times of letting go and yet watching them achieve what you have always prepared them for.  After I was filling out some final paperwork for Rosie's adoption and I began to think about her life in contrast.  She has been in an orphanage as long as she can remember.  No one to wring their hands at the thought of her not being around, no one to think about how a situation is going to affect her, no one to lose sleep when she is sick or emotionally drained.  No one to cry as she went off to kindergarten, watching those tiny legs carry her up the steps to her school.  No one to shake their head as she walked into junior high wondering where the time went.  I couldn't help but think, don't we all as humans have a right to that simple thing.  To experience that kind of love as a child, to feel that special when we are young.  How many other Rosie's are there out there that don't even know what its feels like to be missed?  How many others will age out of their orphanage or foster care system and lose their chance to be missed?  I have to say filling out the paperwork, leaving the kids to travel and especially finding the money for the bills the adoption is accruing is hard, but can it even begin to compare to the idea of leaving another child who has missed 13 years of being missed in an orphanage?  I realize that the orphans will always be among us, we will never solve the problem, but how exciting it is to know this one is coming home, this one will have a mom and dad with tears on their cheeks when she graduates high school, goes off to college, shows us the engagement ring, gets her first job.  A mom and dad who holds their breath as she first drives a car, who celebrates her sweet 16 and wonder where the years are going, who shakes their head as they watch her outgrow her clothes AGAIN!  Who wonder what she will do in life and celebrate when she does it.  Yes adoption is messy and very expensive, but how much is that worth?  How much is too much when that is what is at stake?  Hopefully we are only weeks away from our Rosie coming home for good.