“Please monkey bars,” he’s said every day for almost four months. He climbs the ladder in his Spiderman boots, stands on the platform – “Ipent do it.” “You can do it, Sambhaji. You’re very strong. You’re Spiderman!” He grabs the first yellow ring and considers swinging out alone. “Please help,… Read More
Archive Tag: parenting
Yucky
There’s a great temptation to romanticize poverty, to cast the poor as saints, especially the little ones. Look at them, we say, playing so nicely, saying “please” and “thank you”, holding our hands, sitting in our lap, sweet smiling things – always smiling. So good, so cute…not like those kids… Read More
Sambhaji To Love
“My song, Dad,” he says. I scroll through the iPod, press play. The voice of Freddie Mercury fills the van and the four-year old’s smile fills his face. The other three sing along…Can anybody find meeeee Sambhaji to love? There are more than 44 million orphans in India alone. Separated… Read More
How’s The Adoption Going?
It’s become the most frequently asked question on the road, at church, on-line. Surpassing “How did you and Becky meet?” and “Is that your real hair color?” and “What’s Ann Voskamp like in real life?” “How is the adoption going?” everyone asks. And my mind gets jammed with too-long answers.… Read More
Showing Love
After I fly him to his bed like Spiderman and wrap him in a blanket like a caterpillar cocooned, I kiss his cheek and he laughs. My beard tickles. “Again kiss,” he says. And again I kiss. “I love you. Goodnight.” Before I make it out the bedroom door he… Read More
The Puzzle I Love
He speaks sentences of five or six words. He can put on his own shoes, get his own glass of water, throw away his trash after dinner, and use the toilet (most of the time) all on his own. He can count to thirty, name animals in pictures, recite his… Read More