Friday, September 24, 2010

"Saving Us"

All artwork and poems are copyrighted and may not be reused without my permission. When I first posted this painting, we had just finalized the adoption of our first child the day before. It had been a crazy ride, from years of failed fertility treatments, the long process to just get on the list to adopt, losing our first son back to his biological father five months into the process, to waiting out the fourteen months it took to finalize D's adoption from the time we took him home at seven weeks old. I began writing down the thoughts that were flooding my mind and they came out in the form of poems and images. I wanted to put together an exhibit centered on adoption, and then that got put on the back burner until D got a little older. He is two and a half now, and I'm ready to get back to putting together that exhibit and a collection of my own illustrated writings on the subject. This particular print was specifically about our adoption, and the images look like us. My little dark, curly headed boy, happily wrapped in the arms of love. People have told us how great we are to give a child a better life, but we have come to see how much he has brought to us and saved us in so many ways. I never considered that we were in it just to give him a better life. I just wanted a child. But having him has really confirmed that. He has saved me in so many ways. And the love I had for him more than a year ago when I painted this, has only grown in leaps and bounds.

2 comments:

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  2. I was browesing paintings that best represents the Impact of family structure on the adjustment of adopted children; and this painting touch my heart. I am asking for your permission to post this painting on my blog for my Behavioral Science class: Parenting Today. I do not want to change or manipulate the painting in any way. Its a perfect representation and I think that it will fit perfectly with the scholarly article that it will coincide with.

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