Thirty plus years ago my husband and I adopted a child internationally. This child had been a foundling in an Asian country (which means this child was simply left, out in the streets, on a doorstep? Never could find out).
This child was approximated to be about six years old, and had been in an orphanage since what was guessed to be two years old. In orphanages of this type, we were told, none of these children received an education and were expected to leave these places at the age of sixteen. We wondered how this child could have slipped through the cracks for this length of time and decided to add this child to our family.
So, this child, who had already been abandoned once, was abandoned again by the only home and people known in memory. This child was put on a plane, was taken halfway around the world, and thrown, literally, into the arms of complete strangers who did not look like anything this child had ever seen.
Screaming, we held this child, feet kicking, screaming harder, as we walked through the airport to the plane that would take this child even further away, to a new “home.”
There is no possible way to explain the trauma this child endured, how this child screamed every night for a complete summer, would never sit at the dinner table with my husband, could not communicate, no English, would not talk to translators. Acted out, looked for love in wrong places, broke our hearts, over and over, as we broke this child’s heart, over and over. How still, to this day, has trouble sleeping, has trouble with relationships; has, to this day, ambiguous feelings about us, and who can blame this child? For anything. Not me.
This child, through sheer will, has become a productive member of American society, has a degree, good job. I'm telling you, sheer will.
But I will say, the trauma will never leave this child and is imprinted on every single thing this child does. So when I see these children in cages, torn away from people who love them, are given numbers, like cattle, and many are lost, never to see parents again? I know what their future will be, it will never go away. I can never fix “this child,” can only love, and those children will never be okay.
And I am ashamed for our country.
Editor's note: This blog was contributed by a Not Fake News subscriber who wishes to remain anonymous.