Monday, April 19, 2010

Different trips to the same place…[poem]

Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to Australia. You've heard it's a wonderful place. You've read many guidebooks and feel certain you're ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip.

So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for Australia. It seems there is no seat for you: You'll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a wonderful trip, you wait - and wait - and wait.

Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, "Relax, you'll get on a flight soon." Other people actually get on a plane and then cancel their trip, to which you cry, "It's not fair!"

After a long time the ticket agent tells you, "I'm sorry, we're not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat."

"By boat!" you say, "going by boat will take a very long time and it costs a great deal of money, I really had my heart set on going by plane." So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than air. But you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide to travel by boat.

It's a long trip, many months over many rough seas. No one pampers you. You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to Australia two or three more times, marveling about each trip.

Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite than you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many fiends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with others who also traveled by sea rather than air.

People continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are able to travel only once, perhaps twice. Some say things like, "Oh, be glad you didn't fly. My flight was horrible: traveling by sea is so easy."

You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know God blessed you with a special appreciation of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not in the way you got there, but in the place itself.

credit: adoption.com

23 comments:

Summer said...

I love this post! What a great poem, I have read this before and what a great outlook on Adopting! You are going to be a wonderful mommy and the best part is you carried this baby in your HEART! How awesome is that! :0)

xoxo
Summer :0)

Jenn said...

Sooooo beautiful!!!!!!

Jemsmom said...

Wow! So thought provoking!

Lisa said...

I like this one! I think I might post it on my work blog (http://apacregion2.blogspot.com) that's all about adoption. I also love the poem that this is based on, "Welcome to Holland", which is about parenting a child with special needs. I nannied for a family who's first child was born with Down Syndrome and passed away during open heart surgery at just a few months old. The poem meant so much to them that they named one of their triplets Holland. So maybe you can name your child...Australia?? :) Or maybe not...

Stephanie said...

This sums it up perfectly. You will make a fantastic mom!

Q, La, and Gooner said...

That is a beautiful poem.

The Pifer's said...

I LOVE THIS! How amazingly true!!! Did you write this yourself? I love it!!! I would love to use this on my blog and link you of course next week; it's National Infertility Awareness Week and I think this would be an amazing post...if you don't mind please email me (tapifer@grandecom.net)... praying for you always---Tiff :)

Kara said...

I've never heard that before and I absolutely love it. It very well depicts an adoptive momma's journey through this crazy thing called infertility and then adoption. I will never say that my life is what I planned, but right now I have 2 children running around that I was blessed with "by boat" and my love knows not how they came......just that they are here and make my heart happy each and every day. Hugs to you!!! Hopefully some of your close friends will pamper you on your journey. You are in a labor of your own right now. There is no epidural, just a lot of waiting and praying and that can be the most painful of all. Thanks for sharing your heart! I may steal this and slap it on my blog too if that's o.k. Sending you a hug today from one Adoptive mommy to another (very soon). :-)

Karisa Tells All said...

Wow, that was a wonderful post! I love the extended metaphor, very sweet

Life Is Crazy Beautiful said...

What a great way to share a tiny bit of "what its like"...can be so hard to articulate to people who've never experienced infertility and adoption. I'm sharing links later today in a post and will definitely include this! :)
Lisa

Jessica said...

That is just great!Is it weird to say that I am anxiously awaiting the news that you are a new mom? cuz I am! Youll be great!

Holly said...

what a perfect and beautiful metaphor!

Hilary said...

That was beautiful!

Alphabet Soup Momma said...

Love this poem! Thank you for sharing it. Happy Monday!

Beth Herring said...

Great post - looking forward to hearing more about your journey!

"Are These Kids All Yours?" said...

I can't tell you how perfect that post was!!!! Sooo true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ewww said...

Wow. This is really powerful Amy! I feel like I have another perspective on your journey and what you're going through.
Thanks for sharing that!

Laurel said...

Beautiful! Amazing! Wow!

I've taken that trip many times ... 10 by plane and 3 by sea. Each way is different. Each way has its own challenges and its own special joy. Neither way is better than the other. Both ways get you to the same final destination. A destination filled with beauty and tears, joy and pain.

Enjoy the boat ride. See the beauty in it, that all of the air travelers will never see.

I'm so glad that you didn't decide to just not take the trip ... that you didn't so look down upon the boat ride, that you missed out on the journey. Some people won't even consider the boat ride ... and they are the ones that miss out on that final destination.

Looking forward to encouraging you as you take this journey. Looking forward to being the traveler who has "been there. done that" ... the one that knows the ropes of the destination and is ready and willing to show you around.

Blessings,

Laurel

Faith said...

Wow, what an awesome post. I just love this and thank you for sharing!!

mel @ the larson lingo said...

What a beautiful poem! I have tears in my eyes!
One of my close friends is in the process of adopting right now (after years of infertility) I am going to email this to her right now!

Abby said...

That was absolutely beautiful and so well spoken.

Traci said...

so true and wonderfully depicted. glad to know another passenger by boat. it's an amazing ride!

Unknown said...

little typo; says "you have mane many fiends" should say "friends"

this is a lovely essay I adopted my girls in 1996 I still get tearful when I read it. just shared it with a new adoptive parent.