Dr. Zibners.com

How to know if your child's illness or injury is really an emergency

articles

Real Life Heros

Everyone needs heros. Whether it’s Elmo’s dad (a Gulf War veteran, did you know?) or a Steve Jobs (cuz the iPad is awesome), we all need someone to look up to, to admire, to make us want to work hard to become better people. I bet right now you are wondering who my heros are. Well, I’m going to tell you, from Jonas Salk to Joseph Lister to the guy who invented the Kraft marshmallow, my list is long. I’m not terribly exclusive when it comes to building a list of people I think are fabulous. So in the interest of time, let’s focus on just one member of my list: Gerald Ford.

What? Okay, I know you are thinking it’s because he not only survived childhood but became the President of the United States with “Rudolph” for a middle name. But no. It’s not even because his real given name was Leslie. Even though these facts make me a little dizzy with respect. Nope, good old Gerry is on the list because he was the President who first declared National Adoption Week. Isn’t that fabulous?

And do you know what is even better? November is National Adoption Awareness Month! Have you guys got your decorations up, because I’ve had the kids working hard all day, drawing little crayon families, smiling babies and tearful Family Court judges and the whole shebang.

Okay, so I’m exaggerating. But I do want to draw your attention to the fact that this month is dedicated to celebrating the beauty of adoption. Many of you know that at least one of our kids is adopted and our family couldn’t be more proud of that. Nor can we contain our excitement when we hear that another set of people has become a family.

Adoption can be scary, time-consuming, and emotionally exhausting. But what you get at the end makes all that paperwork and worry seem like nothing. Of course, the one obstacle I can’t argue with is the cost. With the average cost of an adoption running into the tens of thousands of dollars, it can seem out of reach for many families that would love to get out there and find their kid.

So you can imagine my joy when I was flipping through People Magazine a few weeks back and stumbled on the Heroes Among Us column. They were featuring an organization called Help Us Adopt, a financial assistance grant organization. In other words, they help families who can’t quite make the full economic sacrifice to complete the adoption process.

And because I’m me, I called them up. Spoke with Becky Fawcett herself.  I like her. I like them. I like what they do. I’ve added them to my Hero List.

And I love adoption.

So I smashed the the girls’ piggy banks and made a donation. Okay that is a lie. I picked all the pennies out of a fountain. Okay, also a lie. I actually went on PayPal and sent them a donation. But the point is, whether it’s 25 cents scraped together from under your couch cushions or the money you were planning on spending on my Christmas gift, every single donation makes a difference to the families who need help coming together.

Just go have a look and a think. www.helpusadopt.org If you know someone who would love to adopt but simply can’t afford to, share the link with them. And if you have some spare change in your pocket and want to help change the world this month, then by all means please do.

I realize I sound like I’m hosting a telethon here but I’m a passionate adoptive mother and a pediatrician who wants to see a world full of happy and healthy children. Can you blame me?

Dr. Lara Zibners, Nov 11, 2011

Find more articles like this one:

• Topic:

• Keywords:

Comments

Discuss this article.

You got to push it-this essetnial info that is!

    – Ellyanna (11/26 02:25 PM)

Page 1 of 1 pages of comments

Commenting is not available in this section entry.