Last week, I had a conference with a mom of one of my students. Mom doesn't speak much English so I had an interpreter help out. In our chat we found out that she was from Honduras and so was the interpreter. I mentioned that my son is Columbian and Puerto Rican and of course me not looking Hispanic, I told them about the adoption.Mom looked at me stunned and started to cry. She told me that she grew up very poor and uneducated in Honduras. She had a daughter when she was 17 and the child was adopted out. She held my hand and told me what a wonderful thing I was doing, keeping in contact with the birthmother and telling Samuel that he was adopted. She said she knows she made the best decision for a better life her child, but it hurts her that the child doesn't know of her or the adoption. She also said that in Honduras it is not something they talk about as it is shameful (her word not mine) to have put your child up for adoption or to even admit that you are adopted. I told her that this is not the case in America and certainly not in my family. I told her about my husband and niece being adopted too. This made her smile.
We did eventually talk about her other child, who is my student and she hugged me when she left, feeling happy and content.
2 comments:
I love it when I can make a personal connection with a parent and, in a sense, minister not just to the child but to the entire family.
I have been privileged to pray with parents and share faith based resources with parents all in conferences where hurts or needs were shared. The amazing thing is I also teach in the public school.
Prayer and God are still alive and well in the public school - as long as Christian teachers consider it a mission field!
That is really brave of the woman to be able to open up to you. Especially since she was telling her story to two people.
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