How can the earth bear such mothers! She sent her child to an orphanage because she wouldn’t care for him, and the boy was only four years old.
I have a close friend named Emily. We’ve been best friends for thirty years now. Shes a remarkable person and would have made a wonderful mother, but she and her husband could never have children of their own. It simply didnt happen for them, but their marriage enduredperhaps because their love for each other is so strong.
As for me, I have two daughters. Emily became their godmother, of courseshes my dearest friend and lives just down the road. Why not? Ill always remember how Emily played with my girls, often looked after them when I needed help. Later, we would quietly cry together in my kitchen over the fact she never had a child of her own.
Then one day, she received a phone call from relatives. They told her that a distant cousin on her fathers side had decided to place her little boy in a childrens home. Doctors had given him a serious diagnosis, and there wasnt any money for the treatment he needed. His motherwell, she was far more interested in chasing after men than looking after a child.
Emily confided all of this to me and told me she felt compelled to go and see the little boy. As her friend later shared, the moment Emily saw him and those sad eyes, she knew she had to bring him home. Her husband agreed.
Caring for the boy was no small task. For more than a year, life revolved around appointments with specialists and hours upon hours of therapy. The boy, Jack, was autistic, yet they managed, with tenderness and determination, to draw him out of his shell.
You might find it hard to believe, but Jack is now twenty-four years olda bright, young man with a university degree and medals in sports.
Yesterday, I returned home from his wedding.
Sometimes, family isnt defined by blood or birth, but by the love we choose to give. True compassion can change the course of a lifenot only for a child but for everyone who opens their heart.
