adoption: Playing God
- 06/09/16 04:45 AM
Life is really hard. I tell my children all the time that life is God’s teachable moment with us. I am soon to be a 67-year old man, and you would think that by now I would have things sorted out. Perhaps I am a very slow learner, but when I look around…I am surrounded by other slow learners. Each day presents each of us with thousands upon thousands of choices to make. What to do? What to say? How to say it? When to speak up? When to shut up? When to make a big deal of something, and when to … (2 comments)
adoption: Active Rain Helps The Story Continue…
- 05/05/16 11:52 PM
Back in 1983, my wife and I were watching a television news program on Sunday morning, waiting for our two boys to get ready for church. Little did we know that 15 minutes in front of the television would change our lives forever. The news program dealt with the growing number of children made orphans in El Salvador as that country’s civil war continued on between the “have’s” and the “have not’s”. Having spent several unsuccessful years trying to adopt in this country, and being turned away since we already had two biological children; we both turned to each other and … (34 comments)
adoption: We Should Call Adoption Something Else
- 10/07/14 04:26 AM
We Should Call Adoption Something Else I was on a listing appointment last night and the topic of adoption came up. The couple whose home I was listing picked me as their agent because of my online profile. In my profile, I mention that that my wife and I are adoptive parents, and that I have served as a board member of an adoptive agency in Brazil for quite a few years. These kind, and wonderful people selected me because they too, are adoptive parents. There have been quite a few agent friends, whose opinion I value, who have told me … (10 comments)
adoption: My Grandson Marco: I am Proud to be an American
- 06/15/12 08:20 AM
My Grandson Marco: I am Proud to be an American And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. As I am sure you are aware, the above is the third verse to Lee Greenwood’s iconic song, Proud to be an American. We have all heard it played before, especially before sporting and patriotic events during the first few years ofAfghanistan, and Iraq wars. A few of us may have even shed a few tears as we sang, or listened to the … (14 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Twenty-one/ The Conclusion…Why Did I Write This?
- 03/26/12 10:18 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Twenty-one/ The Conclusion…Why Did I Write This? First of all, I want to thank those of you who followed along everyday on this journey you have been on. Doing this in a blog format was not easy to follow along, so thank you to those who persevered! You all have busy schedules, so having you tune in for each episode has been heartwarming, to say the least! In the first of two blogs, to sort of set up this whole saga of the adoption of our daughter Gina, I spoke of the 40 day … (9 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Twenty/ Gina Speaks
- 03/25/12 10:02 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Twenty/ Gina Speaks I was going to break Gina’s comments up and post them over several days; but, after giving it some thought, I am going to post what she had to say all at one time. So, I have been thinking for days where I should start… Hi everyone! My name is Gina, I am 33-years old, married, and have 3 children. My family and I live about a 40 minute train ride outside of New York City. I am a manager for a catering/deli family owned business in Greenwich, CT. As you … (5 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Nineteen/ Our 40th Wedding Anniversary Party
- 03/22/12 10:28 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Nineteen/ Our 40th Wedding Anniversary Party I gave each of my kids my book in May. That Christmas, all 4 of our kids threw Steph and me a surprise 40th wedding anniversary party. Gina flew back home with 2 of her 3 children, and my eldest son, Steven, and his fiancé at the time (now wife) Heather flew in from Florida. My son, David, who was adopted from Brazil and now lives in Akron, was there as well. The party was held at my son, Michael’s, home.
Just a little side story for … (6 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Eighteen/ My Book to My Children
- 03/21/12 10:05 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Eighteen/ My Book to My Children Many times throughout my blog, I made reference to me writing a “mini-book” to my children. I covered a great deal of what was in that book during last year’s Lenten season. The purpose of the book was to tell my children everything I wanted pass on to them in the event I died. Previously in my blog, I had said that I never really got to communicate meaningfully with my mother during the last days of her unsuccessful battle with cancer. I vowed that I wouldn’t leave … (7 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Seventeen/ Gina Begins to Pay it Forward
- 03/20/12 09:58 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Seventeen/ Gina Begins to Pay it Forward During the 8 months Gina stayed with us, Gina kept in touch with her mom and dad in El Salvador. One of the few good things of being married to her soon to be ex-husband at the time, was that she had regained her Spanish; and was therefore able to communicate with her family in El Salvador. During one of those conversations, Gina found out that her sister, Blanca, and Blanca’s husband, Milton, were now living outside of New York City…so she started speaking with them too. … (8 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Sixteen/ Michael the Peacemaker
- 03/19/12 10:01 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Sixteen/ Michael the Peacemaker We once again settled into a life without Gina. At this point, we had not given up on her, but we needed to redirect our attention. There were still five other people in our family, and everyone was hurting in a different way. We needed to distance ourselves from what had just happened because there was simply too much pain. At the time, I felt that God had given us a miracle. Out of over 2,000 the children who had been kidnapped…God had picked Gina to allow her to be … (6 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Fifteen/ Gina is Reunited with her Biological Parents
- 03/18/12 10:14 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Fifteen/ Gina is Reunited with her Biological Parents For those of you who used the link in Friday’s blog to watch the 60 Minutes video, you had an opportunity to see Gina be reunited with her biological family. I am going to reinsert the link again in case anyone is reading this blog for the first time and is trying to figure out what is going on. Here is the link again….60 Minutes Interview I find watching the program very difficult to sit through, even with the passage of all this time. It is … (5 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Fourteen/ Steve Kroft and the 60 Minutes Crew Pay Us a Visit
- 03/15/12 10:10 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Fourteen/ Steve Kroft and the 60 Minutes Crew Pay Us a Visit Both Dr. Kirschner, and the group headed by the priest in El Salvador explained to us early on that Gina, if the DNA test came back positive, would be the first American child found out of the 22 children already identified. Since she was able to speak English she would be a valuable asset to their effort of spreading the word of what happened. The Boston Globe had a reporter assigned to the story, and Steve Kroft, from CBS’s 60 Minutes was … (7 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Thirteen/ The DNA Results
- 03/14/12 10:11 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Thirteen/ The DNA Results Within a week or two, Dr. Kirschner called back to say that, with 99.99% certainty, the orphan girl we had adopted wasn’t an orphan at all. The entire circumstances around which we had tried to build a loving relationship, was a complete fabrication of the truth. The little girl we adopted as Imelda Betty Rubio, was really Imelda Lopez Lainez. And so it began. The tearing down of a relationship born out of lies; and this time, seeing if something meaningful and lasting could be built in its place. Over … (5 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Twelve/ The Phone Call That Changes Everything
- 03/13/12 10:09 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Twelve/ The Phone Call That Changes Everything As I said in yesterday’s blog, we Craig’s had settled into a life without Gina. Sure, we still had our meetings with her, and we still had the meetings with the foster “experts” …but each meeting just confirmed that the distance between us and Gina was increasing. Under normal circumstances, there didn’t appear to be way for us to ever bridge that gap. But that all changed one day when Stephanie received a call from a doctor in Chicago…”Hello, are you Stephanie Craig, and did you adopt … (6 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Eleven/ The Nightmare of Foster Care
- 03/12/12 10:05 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Eleven/ The Nightmare of Foster Care Gina ended up in a foster home about 40 miles away from our home. She was placed with a family supposedly trained in therapeutic foster care. Based on what we were to observe over the next couple of years, the family received more money to watch Gina as therapeutic foster parents, but there wasn’t anything remotely therapeutic about the care she received. The family had a Hispanic husband, and Gina felt an immediate connection with these people. Gina was the 104th child placed in this home, and there … (6 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Ten/ It all Starts to Go Horribly Wrong
- 03/11/12 10:22 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Ten/ It all Starts to Go Horribly Wrong For the next few years everything was going along just perfectly. In fact, things were so good; we added a 4th child to our brood…adopting a one year old boy from Brazil. So, we were now up to 4 children, and we had become a regular poster family for foreign adoptions. As Gina neared around 10 years of age, we started to notice a very troubling trend with her. About a week prior to birthdays, Christmas, or any time of celebration throughout the year, Gina … (8 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Nine/ A Christmas Eve Miracle
- 03/08/12 09:08 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Nine/ A Christmas Eve Miracle Within a week, Gina and Steph were home from the hospital, and we trying to get a normal routine going. Gina, with a cast on from her toe to her hip, was back to crawling around on the floor. She had stepped up in the world a bit this time since she was now crawling around on carpet, and not tile or dirt floors, so we were making headway. During these couple of months of recuperation; we did what every normal American parent does with their children…we stuck her … (6 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part Eight/ Momma Call The Doctor, The Doctor Say…
- 03/07/12 09:06 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part Eight/ Momma Call The Doctor, The Doctor Say… I thought it only fitting to use the above headline since comes from one of Gina’s favorite childhood rhymes. Steph and I were sitting in the orthopedic surgeon’s office as he described Gina’s wounds. The one on her buttocks, while gruesome to look at, was of no real consequence. As I said earlier, the one on her calf was the wound causing all the problems with her foot. We questioned if there was anything he could do to make it cosmetically more appealing. He informed … (4 comments)
adoption: A Journey to Save a Life: Part One The Beginning
- 02/27/12 08:40 PM
A Journey to Save a Life: Part One The Beginning In my two previous blog posts, I spoke of our Lenten Journey and how I feel that each one of us has a purpose to our existence. Perhaps you have come to feel the same as I do. I know from a personal standpoint, I spent the better part of my life debating with my inner self as to how involved God gets in our day-to-day activities. After all, there are a lot of us walking around this planet…on the surface it seems too overwhelming a task, even for God. Based … (4 comments)
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